Las Vegas is viable

... with zero mention of MLS or soccer in general

 

Random note on the Mobsters

 

Still wild speculation

 

Showing once again that you read what you want to read, see what you want to see, and believe what you want to believe, regardless of what it actually says.

So they're between $30 and $100M away from being able to pay for something that's just a plan, and which can't happen until and unless the on-campus stadium project comes to fruition. And even then, it's not likely to just happen the next day.

 

It makes a ton of sense as long as you're not the one paying for it.

In the real world, "makes sense" means there has to be a realistic way to recoup the $100 million cost. Putting an MLS team in what would be the smallest media market in MLS by far isn't exactly a foolproof money-printing license.

 

Amen.

 

Mmm that red herring is delicious.

Sorry for being realistic.

And as it's been said before away supporters will not fund the club.

 

I think MLS in Vegas would work, as long as they had a good ownership and decent branding. That sort of thing isn't even a big worry these days, though. The main concern is, what kind of stadium design would allow for playing/watching soccer games when it's hot as f***?

Wait, religious based, really? As in religious people opposed to a den of gambling and sin getting a team? Because I don't think soccer fans are very religious. Or anti-religious because there are Mormons in Nevada? Because SLC has a team and people loves those guys.

 

I have no religious objection to anything that happens in Las Vegas (or anywhere else). But I have to take issue with your first assertion.

Remember that, for practical purposes, what matters to people who own sports teams is not the city population or the metro area population or the population listed in Wikipedia. What matters is the size of the media market, and the most common way to define that market size is the Nielsen market ratings, because that's what advertisers use, and advertisers pay teams' bills.

In the 2013/2014 Nielsen ratings, Las Vegas is the 42nd largest television market in the country, with just over 730,000 TV households.

Markets larger (in terms of Nielsen TV households) than Las Vegas that do not have any major-league teams include Austin, Texas; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Hartford, Connecticut; and Greenville, North Carolina.

The Las Vegas TV market is almost exactly the same size as Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. By Nielsen's standards, Harrisburg is a city of Las Vegas' size with no first division sports teams. The only cities with lower Nielsen populations than Las Vegas to have any major sports team are:

Jacksonville (48)
Memphis (50)
New Orleans (51)
Buffalo (52)
Green Bay (70, with a big asterisk since the team used to split time between Green Bay and #34 Milwaukee)

Now, does this mean Las Vegas couldn't be a successful MLS market? Of course not. Salt Lake, MLS's current smallest market at #33, has been a reasonable success off the field, and there are at least a handful of smaller markets than Vegas that have been able to support major league teams.

What it does mean is that Vegas isn't as much of a lock for a team, or for success, as some here seem to assume. Las Vegas, in much the same way as New Orleans, "feels" like a much more important American city than Harrisburg or Grand Rapids--but the people who write the checks care more about the Nielsen numbers than your or my gut feelings.

For the record, here are the U.S. markets MLS is in as of right now, including the two announced Florida expansions:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 13, 16, 17, 18, 22, 31, 32, 33.

MLS expansion candidates that have been seriously discussed, or at least repeatedly rumored, in the past few years, are:

Atlanta (9)
Detroit (11)
Minneapolis (15)
Sacramento (20)
St. Louis (21)
Baltimore (27)
San Diego (28)
San Antonio (36)
Austin (40)
Las Vegas (42)

Again: This does not disqualify Las Vegas. If Las Vegas produces a great, interested owner who is able to come up with a good business plan, which probably would have to include a stadium plan, Las Vegas could easily get an MLS team, especially if (or when) the league pushes past 24 teams.

But if you're working from the assumption that Vegas "deserves" a team, or that all things being equal MLS would pick Vegas over Atlanta or St. Louis or Detroit, then you're working from a false premise. Las Vegas is a high-profile city, but it's a high-profile small city, at the lower limit of what could reasonably support major league sports.

For those interested, the current Nielsen DMA listings are here.

 

There's a pretty large Mormon population in Las Vegas, especially North Las Vegas. Not only that but the Catholic diocese is on the strip.

 

Link?

 

link please.

congrats to LV if true

 

USL PDL team playing this year, Las Vegas Mobsters. Haven't seen anything about a USL PRO team though.

Quick search revealed nothing.

 

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...cer-pyramid-cash-king-aspiring-usl-pro-squads

Your source is Warren Smith, the Republic's owner. He is not the commissioner.

"And the USL’s expansion push will certainly help. Smith says San Diego and Las Vegas have been discussed as possible locations for new franchises, and in the proposed regional model where teams would play around 80 percent of their games in-conference, having more teams in the Pacific strip would significantly cut down the Republic’s travel costs."

Do you have any info on your "group trying to get it started?"

 

Ugh...

ಠ_ಠ