<Insert Name Here> Sucks! - Our Very Own 'Other Teams' Thread [R]

Tannenwald reporting that Atlanta is getting the next expansion team.

I mean, my god, can you imagine the Union Army tifo?!?

 

So Orlando/NYCFC in 2015. Atlanta 2016?

 

What about the Miami Goldenballs?

 

It's a Developing situation.........

 

Another effing team. Unbelievable. I really hope the league isn't overreaching and winds up undoing all the good decisions they've made in the last decade. Seems that the idea of playing a balanced schedule is hearing its death knell as well.

 

MLS had exactly two seasons in its history where it played a balanced schedule. I don't think that was ever part of the league's long term plans

 

I don't really watch a lot of hockey, so maybe I'm off in this analogy, but this has the feel of when the NHL decided to expand everywhere. It seemed to water down the league.

 

you mean like putting a team in atlanta

 

Agreed, I really don't care if we ever have a balanced schedule.

 

Yeah, I don't get the Atlanta team at all. We're talking about a place that when their baseball team was successful barely drew any crowd even though they're the only team around for several hours. Atlanta fans are terribly fickle, they all say they care but none of them go to the games (I have plenty of FB Atlanta fans, and they're all very vocal about things but only one of them makes the rare appearance at Falcons games). Further, they'll be playing in a football stadium with artificial turf. The atmosphere will be exceptionally dead.

Further, this is the south, where no one cares about soccer.

Essentially, the only way this team does well (imo) is if they can convince the college students that this team is worth supporting and provide free transportation from the colleges in the area to the stadium (Georgia Tech and Georgia State are both really, really close to the stadium and Emory isn't too much of a trek (except in Atlanta traffic!)).

Oh well, if I'm still here when the team premiers, at least I'll be able to get to see the Union in person without driving exceptionally far

 

Atlanta is a city of transplants. Their fans usually retain loyalty to their home cities. MLS hasn't been around long enough to really effect the transplants. I think MLS may have more luck tapping into the market than the major sports.

I am all for expanding into new markets and regions. I want a Carolina team to compete with Atlanta.

I know some people are afraid of overexpanding, but let's look at some of the major markets still withou an MLS team: Detroit, New Orleans, San Fran, Sacremento, Indy, Minnesota, San Antonio, Baltimore, St. Louis. We need some of these markets.

Eventually, I'd like to see either a split into MLS East and West or an MLS 1 and 2 with relegation. Both could have balanced schedules.

 

When you refer to "we" I assume you mean US soccer fans as a whole. In that case, I don't think adding these markets is a good thing. Overexpansion dilutes the talent pool and there isn't really enough money to import quality foreign players to bridge the gap. The quality of play in MLS already isn't great outside of about half a dozen of the better teams. MLS already failed in the south and having yet another team playing on turf in an empty throwball stadium is not sending the correct message to the target audience that the league would like to convert to the sport. Garber needs to slow down and wait a few years to see if the two new teams pan out before committing to more expansions.

 

I can't imagine the MLS being the top league with a team in Detroit, New Orleans, or San Fran.

This won't happen overnight. I think it's a gradual process.

Also, MLS failed in the South because of bad ownership. Miami had shitty, uninterested ownership. Tampa Bay was contracted after losing a coin flip with KC. The whole league, not just Florida, had these problems.

Besides, TB was run by the Glazers, the same ones hated today bn y Man Utd fans.

The whole "MLS failed in the a South" argument is cliched and disingenuous since it ignores the actual history.

 

Except for Sean Johnson, Jack McInerney, Aron Johannson, Bill Hamid, Clay Goodson, Kyle Beckerman, Michael Harrington, Corey Ashe...plus the 300,000 or so USYS youth soccer players in the South, about the same number as in all of California.

I'm betting St. Louis wouldn't be getting this kind of criticism if they were the team with the rumors. But Georgia has more youth soccer players than Missouri, and one of the most successful teams in the NASL, on and off the field.

I think this attitude has more to do with northerners' perceptions of Atlanta than it does with the actual soccer market there.

 

And how many of those families will make more than, say, 3 trips to Atlanta to watch an MLS game in Atlanta?

The reality is, this is a city that can't even sell out playoff baseball games, what's this team's pull going to be during the season? Especially when the fall comes around and college football starts to conflict with MLS games?

I know that there will exist some form of a fan base that will attend the vast majority of the games in Atlanta, and hopefully it will be bigger than I'm projecting. It's just... there isn't a lot of evidence that the team will draw well based off other pro teams in Atlanta and my general knowledge of "hardcore" Atlanta fans' sports priorities (that being said, the differences between

Added into the fact that the team will play in the new Falcon's stadium... and yeah, you get my negative thoughts about this team.

Maybe it's just my Negladelphian showing, though.

And sorry that this has started to ramble, but maybe there's room for optimism that the younger crowd who live inside the perimeter to go to games as the type of support shown at soccer games is a LOT different than at other types of sports (who stands up and sings for the full game at a football game!?!). This combined with the wealthier folks in the suburbs outside the perimeter bringing their kids leads to a healthy fan base that also splashes some cash. But, eh. Just not seeing it, personally...

 

Did you just ignore my post man?

The major sports are long established in this country, and Atlanta is a city of transplants. Say someone moves there from Philly. They are more likely to be an Eagles and Phillies fan than a Falcons or Braves fan. Again, it's a city of transplants, unlike Philly.

Now, MLS is still not established. People moving to Atlanta or who have moved to Atlanta likely don't have an MLS team to support. It's a differeny sports market for MLS in Atlanta than it is for the more estabilished sports.

The stadium argument is stupid. Is Seattle a joke of an organization for playing in Century Link? Ownership matters more than the stadium.

 

They may not always sell out the playoffs, but the Atlanta Braves sold 2.5 million tickets last year. It's not that long ago that the Phillies were selling about 1.5 million tickets a year in a half-empty Vet. And the Hawks are actually outdrawing the Sixers this year...in a market with half a million fewer households.

I just don't think baseball attendance has that much predictive power. A successful MLS team needs to sell between 300,000 and 400,000 tickets a year. I don't see any reason why Atlanta wouldn't be able to muster that.

 

Except that the Phillies stunk and the Braves were winning division titles... And the Sixers are actively trying to tank for lottery balls.

I hope you're right and ATL does well ticket wise. I think the expansion there is driven by a desire to add a large market for the purposes of bringing in more money via TV contracts and a wealthy owner that is looking to add another tenant to a new stadium. I don't think MLS views selling out a 25k(?) venue on a regular basis as the main barometer of success.

 

No, I didn't ignore your post, I just didn't address it (which I guess is ignoring it, so sorry!)

But maybe I'm misunderstanding how you're thinking the transplant people will go as far as cheering for teams. For the sake of argument, I'll consider myself a transplant as even though I've been living in Georgia the vast majority of my life, I'm going to remain a Union fan since my parents taught me to root for Philly teams from a young age.

So, how many major markets have other more established sports teams that don't currently have MLS teams? St. Louis, Northern California, some more spots midwest and the like. I'm sure there are more, but it's not exactly too long a list. So people who have moved to Atlanta from those areas would probably default to rooting for Atlanta.

Now, for the people who have moved here from a market that has an MLS team and root for the more traditional sports teams from their home town. People, under my above assumption, like me. First, why weren't they fans of the original MLS team from their home town? Did they not like MLS? In which case, they wouldn't root for the Atlanta team as the appeal just isn't there. Did they move here after the MLS team was established? What's to stop them from rooting for the team from their home town? It's why I support the Union. I'll grant that I'm not everyone, and I might not even be half of the people who are "like me."

So, essentially, you're arguing for transplants to root for the MLS team that are either from markets that don't have a current MLS team or from markets that have an MLS team but will favor the Atlanta team. And, of course, these transplants will want to actively go to an MLS game.

Sorry for the rambling (again), but it just seems to me that the number of these people isn't quite as large as you may think. Of course, it could be a lot larger than I think (and I certainly hope that is the case).

And regarding the stadium: since I've stated I think the attendances will be more akin to New England than Seattle, I'm more worried about the atmosphere of the support than anything regarding attendances. The "meh" attitude of the Kraft ownership and the apparent deadness of the Revolution stadium on game day is what I'm most afraid of. Maybe Blank will care a lot more than the Krafts and he'll have a plan to help the stadium provide an atmosphere that is conducive to soccer.

 

I've been dreaming about this for years. Never going to happen while teams are paying $100M expansion fees though. We definately need a better conference/division system than what we had in the early days at least.

 

I think the east west league is where the league is going.