Re: 4 Rumored Cities The Bizjournals studies (I thought they were updated annually) are very good snapshots, but they're not particularly good at trends. They also have a gaping hole on non-Big 4 sports. The Sounders definitely take a slice out of the Seattle market, but then UT takes a big one out of Austin, and UNC and NC State take their piece of the Raleigh-Durham pie (Duke, not as much as you would think). The big problem with reading too much into these analysis is demographic shifts. In 1997 when the Whalers moved south, Raleigh-Durham had 1.2 million people. I believe the 2012 number is over 1.8. I'm not sure 50% growth every 15 years is sustainable, but while the Triangle might not currently have the "excess income" to support an second major league team, it's only a matter of time.
Re: 4 Rumored Cities what about a minor-league team turning into a major-league team? like Seattle,Portland,Vancouver,Montreal.
Re: 4 Rumored Cities All this speculation and fan boy dreams about which markets to expand to fly in the face of reality. Go back and listen to the IMS podcast again with the commissioner. I mean really listen to him. He admits, that the USSF standards for Div II puts the NASL in much the same boat as MLS when it comes to expansion. They can't just pick empty cities and put teams there. They need qualified owners. Downs said that he is working on finding the owners that can make expansion happen. That is tough work. Most of the USL Pro clubs owners are more than likely unqualified for Div II, so don't expect to see any of those clubs poached. There are a few USL organizations that could make the jump (i.e. Ottawa), but the huge headline for the NASL this year is that they didn't have any clubs fold. Hopefully the league solidifies this year with a growth in attendance and they return every club next year. One of the clubs making a run in the Open Cup would be gravy. The USL Pro will likely be more of a churn and burn group, with PDL clubs coming up to fill holes as needed.
Re: 4 Rumored Cities Yes that is the issue with Expansion talk; we talk about what city will make sense, and this and that. But really the important part is ownership groups, the city does not matter as much as a willing owner, be it NYC, Boston or Wichita Kansas (as long as the city has more than 750K in the metro area). I see the same issue with MLS NY2, they keep talking stadium and team with the hope that some rich NY owner will appear out of the blue. (then again MLS LLC has the funds to carry a league owned team for a few years before they find an owner).
Re: 4 Rumored Cities ABSOLUTELY! NASL, like MLS, will go where the money is. The sizes of the markets the league expands to are not, in the end, more important than the long-term viability of the league. It's all about dedicated ownership groups and rabid fans.
Re: 4 Rumored Cities So (maybe) San Diego, Detroit, Indianapolis, Nashville and now NYC. Are there any other potentials, maybe ones with interested parties in the cities or at least mentioned by NASL?
Re: 4 Rumored Cities By my research there are about 50-60 cities we can speculate on. First of all some American ciites are huge and could hold a MLS team and a NASL team so I will leave on the list cities with 5+ million people. 1. New York city proper City pop: 8.274 Mil Time Zone: Eastern 2 NBA, 2 NHL, 2 MLB, 2 NFL, 1 MLS. (in the Metro area) I think only 4 in the city area (2 MLB, 1 NBA, 1 NHL). |- 2. Los Angeles- Metro. pop: 12.874 Mil Time Zone: Pacific 2 NBA, 1 NHL, 2 MLB, 2 MLS |- 3. Chicago Metro. pop: 9,461,105 Time Zone: Central 1 NBA, 1 NHL, 2 MLB, 1 NFL, 1 MLS |- 4. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metro. pop: 6.371 Mil Time Zone: Central 1 MLB, 1 NHL, 1 NBA, 1 NFL, 1 MLS |- 5. Philadelphia Metro. pop: 5.965 Mil Time Zone: Eastern 1 NFL, 1 NHL, 1 MLB, 1 NBA, 1 MLS |- 6. Houston Metro. pop: 5.946 Mil Time Zone: Central 1 NFL, 1 NHL, 1 MLB, 1 NBA, 1 MLS |- 8. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria Metro. pop: 5.582 Mil Time Zone: Eastern 1 NFL, 1 NHL, 1 MLS, 1 NBA, 1 MLB |- 10. Boston Metro. pop: 4.552 Mil Time Zone: Eastern 1 NFL, 1 NHL, 1 MLS (not really in Boston), 1 NBA, 1 MLB |- 11. San Francisco-Oakland Metro. pop: 4.335 Mil Time Zone: Eastern 2 NFL, 2 MLB, 1 NBA, |- 12. Detroit Metro. Pop.: 4.403 Mil Time Zone: Eastern 1 MLB, 1 NBA, 1 NHL, 1 NFL, bad economy. |- 13. Phoenix Metro. Pop.: 4.364 Mil Time Zone: Mountain 1 NBA, 1 NHL*, 1 NFL, 1 MLB |- 14. Riverside-San Bernardino Metro. Pop: 4,143 Mil Time Zone: Pacific Could also be considered part of great LA area |- 17. San Diego Metro. Pop.: 3.054 Mil Time Zone: Pacific 1 MLB, 1 NFL |- 18. St. Louis Metro. Pop.: 2.829 Mil Time Zone: Central 1 MLB, 1 NFL |- 20. Baltimore Metro. Pop.: 2.691 Mil Time Zone: Eastern 1 NFL, 1 MLB |- 22. Pittsburgh Metro. pop: 2.356 Mil Time Zone: Eastern 1 MLB, 1 NFL, 1 NHL |- 25. Orlando Metro. pop: 2.134 Mil Time Zone: Eastern 1 NBA, 1 USL |- 26. Cincinnati Metro. Pop.: 2.172 Mil Time Zone: Eastern 1 MLB |- 27. Sacramento Metro. Pop.: 2.127 Mil Time Zone: Pacific 1 NBA |- 28. Cleveland Metro. Pop.: 2.091 Mil Time Zone: Eastern 1 NBA, 1 MLB, 1 NFL |- 30. Las Vegas Metro. Pop.: 1.903 Mil Time Zone: Pacific |- 32. Charlotte Metro. pop: 1.758 Mil Time Zone: Eastern 1 NBA |- 34. Indianapolis Metro. Pop.: 1.774 Mil Time Zone: Eastern 1 NBA, 1 NFL |- 35. Austin Metro. Pop.: 1.705 Mil Time Zone: Central |- 36. Virginia Beach-Norfolk Metro. Pop.: 1.674 Mil Time Zone: Eastern |- 37. Providence-New Bedford (RI) Metro. pop: 1.600 Mil Time Zone: Eastern Close to Foxboro |- 38. Nashville Metro. Pop.: 1.582 Mil Time Zone: Eastern 1 NFL, 1 NHL |- 39. Milwaukee Metro. Pop.: 1.560 Mil Time Zone: Central 1 NBA, 1 MLB |- 40. Jacksonville Metro. Pop.: 1.328 Mil Time Zone: Eastern 1 NFL, |- 41. Memphis Metro. Pop.: 1.305 Mil Time Zone: Central 1 NBA |- 42. Louisville/Jefferson County Metro. Pop.: 1.259 Mil Time Zone: Eastern |- 43. Richmond, VA Metro. pop: 1.258 Mil Time Zone: Eastern |- 44. Oklahoma City, OK Metro. Pop.: 1.227 Mil Time Zone: Central 1 NBA |- 45. Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT Metro. Pop.: 1.196 Mil Time Zone: Eastern |- 46. New Orleans Metro. Pop.: 1.190 Mil Time Zone: Central 1 NFL, 1 NBA? |- 47. Buffalo-Niagara Falls Metro. Pop.: 1.124 Mil Time Zone: Eastern 1 NFL, 1 NHL |- 49. Birmingham-Hoover, (AL) Metro. Pop.: 1.131 Mil Time Zone: Eastern |- 51. Rochester NY Metro. Pop.: 1,054 Mil Time Zone: Eastern |- 52. Tucson, AZ Metro. Pop.: 1.020 Mil Time Zone: Mountain |- 53. Honolulu, HI Metro. Pop.: 953 K Time Zone: Hawaii |- 54. Tulsa, OK Metro. Pop.: 929k Time Zone: Central |- 55. Fresno, CA Metro. Pop.: 915k Time Zone: Pacific |- 56. Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT Metro. pop: 916K Time Zone: Eastern |- 57. Albuquerque, NM Metro. Pop.: 858k Time Zone: Mountain |- 58. Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY Metro. Pop.: 858k Time Zone: Eastern |- 59. Omaha NE Metro. Pop.: 850k Time Zone: Central |- 60. New Haven-Milford, CT Metro. pop: 862K Time Zone: Eastern |- 61. Dayton, OH Metro. pop: 841K Time Zone: Eastern |- 62. Bakersfield-Delano, CA Metro. Pop.: 807k Time Zone: Pacific |- 63. Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA Metro. pop: 823K Time Zone: Pacific |- 64. Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ Metro. Pop.: 816k Time Zone: Eastern “Steel” city proper is only 71K |- 65. Baton Rouge, LA Metro. Pop.: 787k Time Zone: Central |- 66. El Paso, TX Metro. Pop.: 751k Time Zone: Mountain |- 67. Worcester, MA Metro. pop: 798K Time Zone: Eastern |- 68. McAllen TX Metro. pop: 774K Time Zone: Central |- 69. Grand Rapids, MI Metro. Pop.: 778k Time Zone: Central |- 70. Columbia, SC Metro. pop: 767K Time Zone: Eastern Canada 1. Calgary AB- 1,079,000 1 NHL, 1 CFL 2. Quebeck city has less than 750K metro area.
Re: 4 Rumored Cities But have any outside the original 4 plus NYC been mentioned by NASL or been known to have potential owners? And I'm sadden that #91 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre w/ 564,000 didn't make the cut.
What about Hamilton, Ontario -- Canada. They have a population 519,949. They have also applied for an NASL bid as of last year.
I believe that Hamilton has not applied for the NASL. Tiger cats and Carolina former owner Bob Young said he wanted NASL but also put several requirements on it, such as govt $ for a new stadium. It's been over a year since we heard anything. I doubt it's coming anytime soon.
USSF D2 has a rule that only cities over 750K population can have a team in D2, a dumb rule IMO but it is a rule.
Re: 4 Rumored Cities When was NYC mentioned? Commish Downs said if the Cosmos became MLS club #20, and if they were able to get a stadium built in NYC, he would love to have them play in the NASL for a couple of years. As they waited for the stadium to be built and then joined MLS. It was a lot of hope and wishing with really nothing behind it. Right now we can forget about the Cosmos and MLS is looking into building a NYC stadium on their own.
That's not the rule. Holy cow, they write the actual rules down and publish them and you people still get them wrong. The top 70 metropolitan areas in the US are all over 750,000, but you could still have places like Charleston or Wichita or Greensboro in a D2 league as long as they didn't make up more than 25 percent of the league's teams.
I see my confusion was that the 75% was only for US cities. "At least 75 percent of the league’s teams must be based in the United States. " But I see is also for the 750K, so that means even more options for NASL expansion (if they could find willing owners). Now the rule is less dumb, but still dumb IMO. (I understand the reasoning).
The reasoning's not dumb. It forces you to put teams in markets with a big enough population base to theoretically better sustain a team than a smaller market could, while not completely ruling out a Charleston or another market that actually can sustain it. It's Big Boy Pants.
Re: 4 Rumored Cities Considering the SB Nation article was the one the mentioned San Diego, Detroit, Indianapolis, Nashville WITH NO OWNERSHIP INFO and the other articles mention the NASL Commissioner actually saying he made contact with the Cosmos, I think including NYC is just as legit as any. But are the other cities, outside of Hamilton, Canada, that have been mentioned at all in conjunction with an interested party?
Re: 4 Rumored Cities I don't think so, but then there are supposedly 20 groups on the line (according to Downs). I think that in this case, playing it close to the vest is best for the league in the early stages. That's especially the case since they don't even have ownership groups lined up for all the teams they've already got. :|
So they already signed a deal with a new franchise: After last year's back and forth with U.S. Soccer over sanctioning of the NASL, the league recently received a full sanction for second division soccer this year. How is the health of the league currently? One of the most important things is our stability at this point. We're returning all but one team, and the one team is being promoted to the MLS, so you can't exactly fault us for that. San Antonio, we feel, is going to be an incredible replacement for them. We announced a team in Canada (Ottawa) already, and we've signed another team to a deal and haven't quite announced them yet. I'm in discussion with over a dozen teams right now about potentially joining the league. I think you're going to see us prudently making the right choices along the way, expanding fairly significantly over the course of the next 5-10 years up to about 20 teams. I think we're here for a long time to stay. Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/lo...model-for-Scorpions-3432703.php#ixzz1qAibQtZ2
Last year while being interviewed on the Ultras Alive podcast Tim Robbie accidentally let slip about the Ottawa expansion team before it was officially announced. He will be on Ultras Alive again tonight talking with the guys, so maybe we can get him to slip up again and let us know who this new team is! LOL
Hamilton approved a stadium reno last year and Bob Young still hopes to get an NASL team according to this story : http://sports.nationalpost.com/2011/01/31/its-official-hamilton-council-approves-stadium-plan/ NASL mentioned at end of story.