Okay, what city do you think will be the next USA expansion team for NASL? Baltimore is excluded because it there is a chance they will come back next year.
Re: Who's next? I have a suspicion the league will NOT fold this season. I voted for Cleveland only because it would be cool if Drew Carey decided it was time to show some love to his home town. If there is more credible speculation floating around I'd love to hear it.
Re: Who's next? Selfrelegation worked out really well for the Charleston Battery, I bet Rob Clark hopes the same for his Rhinos
Re: Who's next? Yeah but now in addition to the bus trips to Richmond, Harrisburg, Charlotte, etc., they have to fly to Los Angeles, Puerto Rico and Antigua. D3 got a lot more expensive this season.
Re: Who's next? I think it would be funny if NASL in 2 or 3 years started to be successful and the Rhinos are begging to come back. I know Probably dreaming but i do like to dream.
Re: Who's next? You are right, and this unstability can only be really bad for US soccer. One year you have only a few bus trips and before you know the very next year you have to fly to LA, Puerto Rico and Antigua
Re: Who's next? I for one would love to see Syracuse. Last we heard (a few years ago) there was an ownership group that had to resolve two issues from the Salty Dogs failure, the issues being the cost prohibitive stadium lease and territorial rights. The stadium lease issue was resolved with the city pushing the baseball team in to offering use of their stadium without rent (IIRC). The territorial rights were being held for ransom by the Rochester Rhinos organization; however, that is now a moot point as they obviously chose to self-relegate.
Re: Who's next? What kind of attendance figures were the Dogs getting? Would it be reasonable to assume a new ownership group could pull in more? What's the local soccer scene like in Syracuse?
Re: Who's next? If I remember well the Salty Dogs had 4,5,6 K crowds The group that wanted to bring Pro Soccer back in Syracuse was named Monolith I believe and I also believe these guys filed for bankrupcy not that much later
Re: Who's next? That's very respectable. What is it about our sport that attracts these kinds of investors? Are there any new groups there looking to resurrect pro soccer?
Re: Who's next? How do people in Syracuse feel about Buffalonians? Perhaps this "Rich" guy could invest in a local minor league team instead of a down-and-out English team? http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/u-s-patron-lines-up-behind-lowly-english-club/?ref=soccer
Re: Who's next? some usa map links http://www.census.gov/dmd/www/pdf/512popdn.pdf Biggest metro area with out MLS/NASL teams http://www.citypopulation.de/USA-Metro.html San Francisco, CA Riverdale, CA (how far from LA?) San Diego, CA St Louis, MO Baltimore MD Pittsburgh PA Cincinnati, OH Sacramento CA Cleveland OH Orlando (USL) FL
Re: Who's next? It looks like Ottawa is already in and they are canadian, that's why i put US cities. But yea it looks like Ottawa is join in 2013. They havent annouced it yet because of that thing they got going on with the CSA.
Re: Who's next? Three out of these top 5 areas are part of CSAs (Combined Statistical Areas) that have MLS teams. As for an area that a team draws from, CSA's may be more realistic. That may eliminate some of the above as being candidates for teams.
Re: Who's next? Riverdale yes, but San Fran, how close are they to San Jose? would you say San Diego is too close to LA? Also Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati are they really that close to each other? They are followed by Las Vegas NV San Antonio (already expansion to NASL and USL) Charlotte, NC Indy, IN Austin, TX Virginia beach, VA Providence, RI (far from foxborogh?) Nashville, TN Milwaukee WI
Re: Who's next? San Diego I don't believe is in the LA CSA. Obviously someone from the Bay Area could shed more light on this but I'm sure there are at least parts of the San Francisco MSA which are close enough to San Jose for the Earthquakes to draw from. Of course at one time San Francisco did have as USL or A-League team.
Re: Who's next? Remember having a large population isn't enough. Thought the US Population web site was nice. Orlando will do well in any league as far as travel expenses go because the MCO has cheap flight to get people to the Big Mouse. Check travelocity to see how expensive it is to fly from your potential expansion city to other existing teams. If Orlando can draw in the USL and cover their expensis, I think they can do well in NASL. Some big cities, Cleveland, Buffalo, Oklahoma City etc, do not have direct flight or cheap flight to other NASL/MSL cities (not knocking anyone, don't be offended, just saying we need Southwest, Jet blue and Vision airlines to reroute a little to conect our cities). This has killed teams in these towns in soccer and other sports. That said, I think Jacksonville and St Louis sre ready for a go (or another go) at NASL soccer.