Could Northwest Arkansas Support a MLS team?

fact is we have the money,the stadium, the supporters, and the biggest lcd tv screen in any sports stadium in the United States...heck we could have a professional football team...

i mean seriously what else do we need wal mart already has a team in denver thats great that only gives them more influence with the MLS and God knows they invest over half a billion dollars a year in this area..we have a airport with flights to 16 places in the usa and they practically built that themselves we have around 1 million people living in our area and another 200-500 thousand in fort smith 45 minutes away and 2 million or so in tulsa a hour a way

did I forget to mention...THE STADIUM FITS 75,000!!!

I lived in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia for close to five years from 98-03. It has grown very fast for the last twenty years and the six cities in the area total over 1.5 million people. The area has become very diverse ethnicly and being from New England, I was very surprised of the lack of "southern drawl" in the area. The point being its a very "progressive" area much like the NW Arkansas being described.

Demographics like these, though look good on paper, don't neccessarily make it a hotbed for soccer. The Virginia Beach Mariners of the A-League operate out of the Hampton Roads area and they struggle to average 2000 fans per game. By comparison, Rochester has averaged around 10,000 for the past few years.

MLS would never go into an area without a history of fans supporting pro teams. That is why SLC got a team. Their population has been known to support their teams in force. Well, that and a wheelbarrel full of hundreds from Dave Checketts.

If anyone can list examples of NW Arkansas supporting a team who plays more than ten home games a year, I'd be all for it. Maybe it'd be a great place for an A-League team. Show good support for pro soccer and in a decade or so, MLS may come knocking.

P.S. Even though I'm all for local companies sponsoring MLS teams as opposed to the evil people at Sierra Mist destoying my NE Revs' color scheme, a team with Walmart written across its kits would be wack.

P.S.S. 90% of the clothes I'm wearing was purchased at Walmart.

P.S.S.S. I realize Pepsi makes Sierra Mist and I'm drinking a Pepsi right now.

I'd love for soccer to make gains in the rural south (one remaining part of the country I think might still REALLY look down on playing soccer) but putting a MLS team there just isn't the answer. I played against a team from "rural" Florida once that I swear thought full body tackling was legal.

The fact that the thread is 2 pages deep, and not a single
person has shown up who lists NW Arkansas as their location,
says a lot.

Second, would a Curling team thrive in Tegucigalpa or Tiahuanaco?

Not only no, but H-E-L-L no.

Northwest Arkansas + MLS = Sulphur + Water

Lethal and toxic to one another.

-bs

they just havent come to the light side


the fact is the opertunity has never been given but Ill find a couple of local smaller league sizes who have good followings

Seeing as how Wal-Mart has IN NO WAY committed to MLS, please tell me where this money is coming from? Oh, and what team in Denver does Wal-Mart own?? And what does a big TV screen have to do with expansion?

Dude, I am beginning to think you know little to nothing about the way soccer works, the way MLS works, and the way expansion works.

Oh, and having a 75,000 seat stadium means nothing. The Chicago Fire play in a 60,000 seat stadium, and it NEVER has been filled (for a Fire game), and this is from the THIRD largest city in the nation.... NW Arkansas has how many people?

GIVE IT UP ALREADY!

and the south does need a team so far the most southernpoint team beside the one in florida is in kansas city and thats a 8 hour drive and were straight under it this could provide a soccer outlet for oklahoma,loiusianna,alabama, tennesee, kentucky and georgia and while you might think these are all small states they really arent all that small

chicago is a town full of black people not a hotbed for soccer fans there are around 100 thousand latinos in this area those are americanized one chained latinos now if we talk about descendants of latinos we get even bigger numbers

somebody said walmart supported a team in denver i never said it!!! i only built on it

Dude

STOP
I beg of you
STOP!!!!

It won't happen.

never heard lcd tv screen as a selling point

stadium? not the kind of stadium MLS wants. 75,000 isn't a selling point. that just means more empty seats and less atmosphere. a quality 20-30,000 stadium would actually be a better selling point

fans hours away doens't work in MLS. SJ can barely get SF folks 50 miles away. How many St. Louis fans make KC games? Baltimore for DC games? It's just a fraction of the total crowd.

to clarify, WalMart directly doesn't own the Colorado Rapids. Stan Kroenke's KSE does (he's married to a Walton daughter but is fairly wealthy himself). He owns several Denver teams and none elsewhere. Has a sports network based on his Denver teams now. Doubt he's interested in AR. MLS owner groups are usually headed by an interested individual, not a corporation. Doubt WalMart shareholders would approve so you'd have to find an owner from within the company to spend HIS money.

Don't think you're going to get many if any here to agree its a credible expansion site.

There's small market, then there's small market. There may be new money but there's a reason Missisissippi, Arkansas, and Alabama, etc don't have pro sports teams and I don't mean to offend (being half southern myself).

half of the places you have listed on this forum wont happen but it doesnt hurt to dream and it aint hurting you to discuss it so far all youve brought against the idea is your misconception of southern arkansas and your idea that there all hillbillies if youll please drop those regional misconceptions and talk realistically about how arkansas could support a mls team I would be much obliged

Actually, I take that back.
It could happen. When New York City is hit by a meteor, Los Angeles is permanently flooded, the entire population of Chicago is abducted by aliens, the entire state of Texas is electrocuted, and Alaska is taken over by the Inuit Eskimos.... THEN Northwest Arkansas WILL get a team!!!!

YAY FOR NW ARKANSAS IN MLS!!!!

the reason is there mostly poor hillbillies the only region in those areas rolling in enought cash to make something like this is northwest arkansas and like ive said you dont kno how much latinos would give to watch a soccer game now and then live

You're going too far here. One could say Chicago is full of Eastern European descendants too. There's more latinos in Chicago than NW Arkansas I would bet.

You seem on many levels not to understand how MLS works or US pro sports. The deep south isn't going to travel to NW AR for games anytime soon. Atlanta, Nasheville, Memphis, Birmingham, New Orleans, OKC, more TX teams, probably Charleson, SC, Raleigh-Durham, Charlotte, Louisville, FL teams, etc all rank way above if a southern team is wanted bad enough to force the fit.

Fixed your post.

and the schools here actaully took a trip with kids from there teams schools etc. to watch a mls game in dallas they turned up about 10,000 kids that could afford the trip just from springdale now imagine if those kids had games in there own city and alll that could afford could go plus half of the latino population


there alone we can calculate around 50,000 then lets give for some of the latino population in fort smith which is also of the chart we can count maybe 10 thousand from there

well that 60,000 thousand now...lets cut that in half hey that still leaves us with 30 thousand and thats still way over the norm for most mls games...

Good thing MLS has had such tremendous Latino turnout in Dallas, Chicago, SJ, and LA (also before TB and MIA). If you can't tell, it's sarcasm. Why would the fewer # of Latinos there be any more likely to accept MLS than the others across the nation that MLS has had such a hard time selling MLS to. Not at all a credible fan base for a expansion MLS team right now. No proven track record. Hopefully it'll turn around now with Chivas USA but most here won't be convinced by that argument.

ah lets just make america, cruz azul or , pumas usa and put it in arkansas then

I heard boca was looking for a venue to put in a MLS team too

anyway i must fly adult swim is on in 10 minutes and i cant miss a second of that

When was this cause in total Dallas hovers around 10,000 attendance per game?

Your #'s don't seem realistic to most here. You'll hear the word delusional. I appreciate your hope for MLS but investigate the struggles of other markets a little more.

I do appreciate your wanting a new MLS team for a new market, but I think "hope" and "dreams" would better center on teams in PDL and A-League. But I doubt many would think it's a credible A-League market either (tough to travel except by plane for the other teams). Start pushing for that and maybe you can make a difference.

Personally, I think Wichita would make a better market for the MLS, built in rivalry with Dallas and Kansas City, and a future rivalry with the Oklahoma City and Tulsa Teams....

If MLS becomes an 80 team league, NW Arkansas MIGHT be considered.

his name has "columbia" in it... what do you think?

springdale has a population of 45,798 and their latino % is 19.66% so that means 9003 are latino i dont think that is anywhere clost to 25,000. arkansas has a total population of 2.7 million with a latino %tage of 3.2% which would be 87222.8 latinos in the entire state so i highly doubt your number of 25,000 latinos is a city of only 45,798 people. maybe you should check your facts before you speak.

At least this thread is a refreshing change from pro/rel and single table.