Miami Franchise news thread

The corner is definitely covered in Florida, but there is still a gap of nothingness for most of the southeast (as south Florida is an unreasonably long drive for anyone not already in Florida.

I know the rest of the southeast is composed mostly of smaller markets, but it would help fill in MLS's pull to the region.

One of these markets really needs to get a team for MLS to have a better national pull, two would just be icing on the cake: Atlanta, New Orleans, Nashville, Charlotte (Raleigh, Birmingham, Knoxville, and Memphis very very peripherally).

While not filling in the "soccer gap" in the southeastern US, St. Louis, Louisville, Cincy, & Austin could also be added to help fill the periphery of the region.

Either way, nothing will happen without the ownership and drive from the city.

 

So what is the end timeline? What if there is no stadium deal by 2016? 2018? Does the team start in a different stadium (giving MLS two potentially distraous expansion teams playing in rented stadiums)? Never happen? Continue as "TBD" in perpetuity?

 

Certainly. But if Beckham/MLS can make it seem like they are not seeking "public subsidies" then it very well could just be the city/county who is willing to provide that "room" and the associated and very real public subsidies because they (the mayor and commissioners) recognize (or hope for) the benefits to the overall re-development of the downtown area that would include a new stadium project.

It is all about controlling the message. Facts aren't always the most important thing.

 

I'm guessing they're not focused on the potential "negative" outcomes (or setting a timeline for those).

They're fine with a TBD expansion/launch date -- as MLS is apparently comfortable playing with an odd number of teams as needed for however many seasons, it would seem.

Certainly there's no guarantee, at this point, that Miami will be the next team to start playing after Orlando and NYCFC being in 2015.

 

I swear if Arthur Blank doesn't get this Atlanta team I will flip my shit....but in good news we finally have a Nats team coming to Atlanta

 

Which makes it odd to make an announcement. I guess you might think it puts on people standing in the way of a deal, but it really just concedes leverage.

 

Not at all sure how it "just concedes leverage."

This type of press event could very astutely be a positive and worthwhile step in MLS's negotiations with Miami-Dade County for a stadium for the team. If the message is, "all this area needs is a stadium, and Beckham's team can start playing here" -- that seems like a fairly useful announcement for MLS's business needs.

 

And it may be a better or more-successful approach relative to what the league is (and teams are) seeing or attempting (or has attempted) for NYCFC or DC United, as the case may be with those stadium projects/needs.

 

They prefer "the sunshine state".

 

I'm pretty sure it was the same lady that interpreted the Spanish language questions. She did a bad job. Sounded nervous. There's a lesson for you, kiddies. Live interpretation is not for amateurs.

 

Welcome to Miami.

 

Because bright colors are working so well for the Marlins...

 

Let me be the first to say Ray Hudson should be the first coach for the team.

 

You're not the first to say that.

(And, it's probably not a great idea anyway. At this point, Ray Hudson would likely make a better unofficial mascot or capo rather than a coach for this new team.)

 

Atlanta is the 9th largest TV market in the US.
That's why it is on the radar, well that and Arthur Blank has some interest in it.
http://www.tvb.org/media/file/TVB_Market_Profiles_Nielsen_TVHH_DMA_Ranks_2013-2014.pdf

And speaking as someone in Austin, I have no idea how we made it onto your list. But if you think Austin is worthy you might pay attention to all the recent chatter about San Antonio as team 24.

 

Well, Atlanta certainly. Charlotte maybe. But few other places in the south are soccer hot spots.
Take a look at this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_American_soccer_players_by_US_state
Georgia is a true soccer hot spot that has produced many important players. Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky and S. Carolina are not.

 

[quote="ArsenalMetro, post: 29506524, member: 131112"
Miami is a garbage sports city[/quote]

Answer honestly: do you think other NBA team's wouldn't have fans leaving in that same situation? The comeback was nothing short of a miracle. Not saying it's fine some people left, but you're kidding yourself if you think that situation was unique to Miami.

The Miami HEAT have been above 90% capacity in the last DECADE, with the majority of those years above 99%. They averaged 99% capacity the year they went 15-67 and still above 93% the year after. The "garbage sports city" argument fails when you take the HEAT into account, who's only shortcomings are replayed over and over again until the average sports fan believes they actually are a terrible fanbase (which is simply not true when you actually look at the data).

 

True, Miami is just an average sports city. They'll attend well when you have a decently run team.

 

This is how you judge who should get a professional sports franchise, by what state people were born in?

 

Well, Beckham's expansion fee discount is probably what is allowing them to so easily forgo any public subsidies for the stadium construction.

 

Well, it might be in large part how Chivas USA selected LA/Carson.

And we see how well that seems to be going for that franchise.

 

Sport aside, no, I don't think other fans would leave in that situation. I was at Game 4 of the 2001 World Series. No one left that game early.

Also, 3 out of 4 teams having horrible attendance makes a city a bad sports city. The Heat are the outlier. You mention that they've had great attendance for a decade - that's true: the attendance jumped significantly when they traded for Shaq, and they've made the playoffs all but one year since then. Before that, they were at roughly 79% capacity annually. What happens to their attendance when they lose their stars, LeBron leaves/gets old, and they're bad? Probably something along the lines of what happened in the years preceding the LeBron signing:

2007-08: 19,463
2008-09: 18,268
2009-10: 17,730
LeBron signs
2010-11: 19,778

Miami is a sports city that's in it for the glamour. If they don't have huge star power in front of them, they don't give a damn. It's likely that Beckham will be able to bring in big-name soccer players for his club, but will they be big-name players to the general public? Unless it's Messi or Ronaldo, probably not. That's concerning for a city with a bad tradition of supporting the majority of its professional sports teams and had a poorly-supported, even for the early days, MLS club.

 

We can talk about the city of Miami and its fanbase all we want, but its not going to change that its where Beckham has decided.

Might as well hope for the best if your an MLS fan in general.

 

I think the reason MLS and Chivas decided to be in LA had everything to do with the fact there are 8 million Latinos in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.