Carolina Railhawks, potential investors, and MLS officials to meet to discuss expansion to Carolinas

According to MLSSoccer.com and Independent Weekly, the Carolina Railhawks NASL team, a group of potential investors, and high-ranking MLS officials will meet on April 12 to discuss making the Railhawks an MLS franchise.

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...nes-montreal-first-mls-bow?module=from_footer

http://www.indyweek.com/triangleoff...ccer-executives-to-visit-triangle-on-april-12

Re: Carolina Railhawks, potential investors, and MLS officials to meet to discuss expansion to Carol

interesting. i know Wake med is being expanded. What will it's final capacity be?

Re: Carolina Railhawks, potential investors, and MLS officials to meet to discuss expansion to Carol

10K. From a November press release:

"In 2009, the Town began an update to the facility’s master plan that ultimately identified the need for stadium improvements, field enhancements and an increase in seating. The resulting $6.3 million project will add 3,000 permanent seats to the 7,000-seat stadium, 1,500 of the seats going to the north end zone and the other 1,500 to the east side of the stadium."

http://www.townofcary.org/Departmen...s/Soccer_Park_Expansion_Kicks_Off_in_Cary.htm

Re: Carolina Railhawks, potential investors, and MLS officials to meet to discuss expansion to Carol

I am saying my prayers that a wealthy benefactor will prop up an MLS team in the Carolinas. Be it Charlotte or Raleigh, I would go all in if MLS came to NC. Speaking from experience, Raleigh would be the best fit for the Carolinas because the soccer community is significantly well established with CASL running the show in NC. Not to mention, Carolina Railhawks have a great following. Charlotte doesn't have deep enough soccer roots to make it work like Raleigh would. Huge advantage is WakeMed. They can easily expand it another 10k without having to do a whole lot. Similar to Impact and Timbers did with their respective stadium. This is all coming from someone who lives in Charlotte so no one can accuse me of being a Raleigh honk.

Re: Carolina Railhawks, potential investors, and MLS officials to meet to discuss expansion to Carol

NICE!!

Carolina MLS Expansion subforum now!?!?

Re: Carolina Railhawks, potential investors, and MLS officials to meet to discuss expansion to Carol

15K, by fall of 2015 (hopefully).

The current round of expansion goes to 10K (by this fall), but there exist plans for a next round. (The money will have to be approved separately for the second round of expansion, though.)

Re: Carolina Railhawks, potential investors, and MLS officials to meet to discuss expansion to Carol

Based on the master plan it is much more likely that a new stadium is built rather than continuing to expand the current one. A lot of retrofitting would need to be done in order to bring it up to modern MLS stadium standards. You would need more suites, better locker rooms (I assume), and probably would need to do what they are doing with the east side of the stadium (building a new building that houses concessions, restrooms, etc). You can see the recommendations for said stadium starting on page 39.

Re: Carolina Railhawks, potential investors, and MLS officials to meet to discuss expansion to Carol

I was restraining my own "irrational exuberance" by sticking to the immediate project for 10K. If we really want to get carried away, there exists a proposal for a separate 20k-ish stadium to sit on the land currently housing the barn(?), just south of the retaining pond. I doubt that will happen in my lifetime, but it's fun to dream.

Re: Carolina Railhawks, potential investors, and MLS officials to meet to discuss expansion to Carol

An MLS team in the Carolinas???

Hey, I'm down with that.

Re: Carolina Railhawks, potential investors, and MLS officials to meet to discuss expansion to Carol

No, not until Minnesota get's it's own sub-forum.

Re: Carolina Railhawks, potential investors, and MLS officials to meet to discuss expansion to Carol

seems like the final capacity will be 15,100

Re: Carolina Railhawks, potential investors, and MLS officials to meet to discuss expansion to Carol

This would be incredible. Although I'd prefer Charlotte for selfish reasons, Raleigh is a better choice in regards to soccer friendly demographics. Plus with only 1 other major league sports team in the area, a MLS team would get a lot of attention from media, etc. It is only a 3 hour drive from Charlotte, so I would definitely get a partial season ticket plan.

Probably not a realistic option for team #20, but maybe next 3-5 years?

Re: Carolina Railhawks, potential investors, and MLS officials to meet to discuss expansion to Carol

North carolina would be brilliant, raleigh or charlotte it doesnt matter. Its one of the 8 or so states thats going to grow substantially in the next 20 years. Raleigh metro is 1,700,000, so while its smaller than some of the mooted markets, its more than capable of supporting the league average.

In even better news, raleigh durham is the 23th biggest tv market, while charlotte is 24th. In hispanic households, raleigh is 33rd, charlotte 38th.

With ownership and stadium in place, raleigh would be a success story no doubt.

Re: Carolina Railhawks, potential investors, and MLS officials to meet to discuss expansion to Carol

Either Raleigh or Charlotte could do well as a future MLS expansion city. Neither one really has much summer competition, only AAA baseball.

Re: Carolina Railhawks, potential investors, and MLS officials to meet to discuss expansion to Carol

In Charlotte, I feel like a winner would be a good draw. Compare the optimistic Panthers with the horrible Bobcats. Selfishly, I would love for MLS to come to the triangle. It likely wouldn't be at Wakemed though. They could probably make parking work, but it would require more expansion in the concession area than they could do, along with better access to the stadium.

Re: Carolina Railhawks, potential investors, and MLS officials to meet to discuss expansion to Carol

http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?p=25356223

Forum request. Have at it.

Re: Carolina Railhawks, potential investors, and MLS officials to meet to discuss expansion to Carol

This is really exciting news! Although I think MLS team would be successful in Cary, I think it would be exponentially more successful in a downtown Raleigh stadium. (1. more exposure = bigger fanbase and more corporate investment, 2. ability for fans to make a night out of the game experience with dinner, drinks, etc within walking distance)

Re: Carolina Railhawks, potential investors, and MLS officials to meet to discuss expansion to Carol

And since Don and MLS are all about the potential ratings, Raleigh-Durham is a bigger TV market than Charlotte.

You live in Raleigh, so it makes sense for you to back it. Though really you could flip a coin between the two, either will do the trick with the right investor and stadium in place.

Re: Carolina Railhawks, potential investors, and MLS officials to meet to discuss expansion to Carol

Don't get me wrong; I would still support a team in Cary (I mean its pretty much a suburb of Raleigh), but the difference to me would be maybe partial season tickets for a Cary team and full season tickets for downtown Raleigh location. Its also a matter of demographics: Cary is much more family-oriented, whereas I think the team would get the young professional and more 'rowdy' fanbase with a Raleigh stadium next to bars and such.

Either way, I'd be happy. Best case scenario would be Cary for next 5-7 years to build the team up. Then make the big step up to Raleigh!!

Re: Carolina Railhawks, potential investors, and MLS officials to meet to discuss expansion to Carol

Actually, they're about the same size, though Raleigh just overtook Charlotte.

Re: Carolina Railhawks, potential investors, and MLS officials to meet to discuss expansion to Carol

Ok, am I missing something in Strikers North, err, I mean Cary? Did Traffic suddenly back out and a new investor is in town and actively soliciting the attentions of MLS? I don't mean to rain on anyone's parade, but didn't the Strikers draw more than the Railhawks last year? Traffic's rseponse to the fanbase down here in regards to MLS was always, well, we wouldn't be opposed to trying for MLS, but we need to see a whole lot more fan support before we become proactive about it.

For me this story raises many more questions than it answers. Still nothing official or anyone that will go on record about it, but is anyone believing anything other than Traffic has pulled up stakes from South Florida and repositioned itself in Cary as homebase? Did the knew Traffic management decide that the youth system of the triangle offer far more future potential for their main line of business which is player procurement and selling? Are they going to be out of Atlanta next too? Would being down to one team in D2 mark a change for them philosophy wise? Do the new head honchos at Traffic think MLS is the only way to make money in US Soccer, so they're paring the operation down to one club, the one with the best youth system in the area to be involved in, and now see if they can somehow take the next step up to MLS?

Like I said, lots questions, and lots of scenarios you could come up with. At the end of the day though, remember this, because Miami FC/Strikers fans can tell you this from experience - don't count on anything, especially if attendance doesn't really start booming in Cary. Good for you guys if Traffic somehow decided they wanted to try for MLS after all, but waited until they were centralized up there. Seems like a very odd situation based on past experience if you ask me though regarding Traffic....

Re: Carolina Railhawks, potential investors, and MLS officials to meet to discuss expansion to Carol

I don't see either happening right away, but they are both good choices down the line. Obviously I have a certain preference between them, but neither one is a bad pick.

Re: Carolina Railhawks, potential investors, and MLS officials to meet to discuss expansion to Carol

No, you didn't miss a thing. This is, so far as I can tell, a case of MLS scouting out the entire southeast (consider also their recent stop in Florida) for something in the future. MLS is clearly hoping to have some credible organization agree to help put team number twenty in New York City (unlikely, since I don't think anyone wants to compete with the guys who have the Cosmos marks but I don't think said guys are likely to make a credible go of it), and I don't foresee them expanding anywhere but there until they're satisfied that isn't on the table right now. There is not to my knowledge an investor anywhere in this region ready to make it happen, and while I'm sure the Town of Cary would be ecstatic for it to happen here I don't see Traffic trying to make a go of it without any outside money involved.

Curt Johnson (team president, put in place by Traffic) has been quoted as saying he thinks this is an area that could become an MLS market if somebody wanted to invest in it, which sure as hell sounds like "We're not" to me.

They're going to be basing themselves either here or Atlanta, I think. Not obvious which yet, but I'd guess here.

They're required to be moving toward that, and I expect them to sell whichever team they get a realistic new owner for lined up first.

I hope not - I wouldn't want to see this area rush into MLS before it's really ready. But as the Triangle grows, we will be ready at some point not too far in the future, and then it might be cool to see.

Re: Carolina Railhawks, potential investors, and MLS officials to meet to discuss expansion to Carol

Why would it be Traffic? What makes you think MLS would take Traffic seriously? And if it's not Traffic, then why not invest in the RailHawks first and really build what ought to be a great soccer fan base?

Re: Carolina Railhawks, potential investors, and MLS officials to meet to discuss expansion to Carol

In other words, exactly what I said.