i think they need to make the case for MLS by moving up to NASL, since that, i have no doubt, would increase attendance to 11 or 12k.
It is still hilarious to go back and read that he thought MLS would adjust their expansion fee so he could get paid. The guy is something. But the point is that I am surprised that Downs would even consider using something from the failed Marcos playbook. I was also shocked how he thought travel costs for minor league soccer are a red herring and believes in a national league rather than a regional one. But that is a topic for a NASL thread. Um, what? Orlando drew 5,265 during the regular season before the playoffs. How on earth would joining the NASL double their attendance? Not counting MLS bound Montreal, the NASL drew around 2,600 a game. So why do you think playing in that league would lead to a huge attendance boost? Please explain that. It wouldn't. And Orlando doesn't need to move up to join MLS. They just need an expansion fee and a SSS or at least the building of one. They can stay in USL-Pro and easily accomplish that if ownership is willing.
I have to be honest, I'm NOT surprised. What has NASL done differently from United Soccer Leagues? And "no team churn" doesn't count; the night's still young, and Traffic still owns half the league. I thought the same thing on this one. Orlando's development will be no different whether it is in USL Pro or NASL. They are already the highest-attended minor-league team not named Montreal Impact. Right now, going to NASL will not be a big boost over staying in USL Pro. However, I am of the opinion that staying in USL Pro too long may be a depressing factor to attendance. If we don't get an MLS team relatively quickly, I think we do need to move up to NASL to keep interest. If we can't get to the majors, we should at least be as high as we can be, and I see no reason why we shouldn't be in NASL once its stability is certain.
Agree. When casual fans here the phrase "Move up to Division 2" they will at least associate that with forward progress towards the goal of MLS.
That's the only positive that would come out of a move to NASL at this time, in-state and more regional rivals with Atlanta and Carolina thrown in. Hopefully the team can keep winning and playing entertaining games on the field at whatever level/league they're in; I'm sure that will help keep casual fans interested as well.
Orlando City has confirmed that they are the "group from Florida" interested in MLS that Don Garber talked about during his press conference today.
Hope Orlando City are team 20. Great fan support. And frankly the talk of a special committee dealing with a stadium in NYC and not for DC United disgusts me.
Considering the Citrus Bowl is about 20 minutes from my house I think Orlando City joining MLS is a great idea. I can watch Orlando playing the big boys live instead of on my tele. Orlando has very decent minor league teams (Predators, Orlando City and the Solar Bears when IHL still existed) Unfortunately all Orlando has is the order of first division sports is the Magic. Central Florida is a major market and is virtually untapped in professional sports. With UCF jumping to the Big East in 2013 lot's of attention is going to start coming our way. Now is the perfect time to tap into the soccer market and jump up in divisions. And keeping with the promotion/relegation spirit of world soccer leagues, I think we at least deserve a call up to NASL.
In a worst-case scenario there's a chance Orlando could get DC United. Also, the move to NASL would be irrelevant but for the fact that would open up a couple local rivalries. From a minor league point of view, Orlando should be in whatever league makes them the most money. Most people won't care what league a minor league soccer team is in as long as going to the game is a fun experience.
Without a change in the Citrus Bowl's remodel schedule or a new venue, I seriously doubt we get DC United. And that's for the same reason I said the Citrus Bowl was the only viable venue when it first came down that the Aztex were moving here.
Anyone have insight on the meeting between ocs and garber yesterday? Why is Mls slobbering over 2nd ny team? Why the southeast discrimination??
Southeast is a huge untapped MLS market. Garber has already said too many times he wants a 2nd NY team. I think it's a combo of what MLS wants and what ownership group has made the most noise. So A FL ownership group (OCS) get mentioned but NY2 get the spotlight. I don't think Barca/Miami did FL any favors by making noise and running away.
Television. All the league's tv deals expire after the 2014 season. The next tv contract very much plays into Garber's belief that this will be a top league by 2022. Having a second NY team makes the league more attractive to networks.
New York is the largest media market in the country. Networks want you to be exposed in big markets. There really isn't much more to explain. Garber wants the expansion fee and being able to have two teams in the NYC area when the tv contracts are up. Garber certainly has an idea what network executives what. The NYC area has two baseball teams, three hockey teams, two basketball teams, and two football teams. And it will probably soon have two soccer teams because it is the largest media market in the county. I am not saying it is right. But look at the value of the NY Mets. The Wilpons have run that franchise into the ground, but there would still be people lining up to buy it if they sold. Probably for over a billion.
Get Garber down here for a weekend game next season. If he's not impressed by the fans, I'll hire a photographer and a hot-looking transvestite prostitute. We'll have a team by summer...
Well it's not just any team it's the return of Cosmos and they want rivalries. Also look at this: The problem is the stadium. While the majority of Major League Soccer teams now play in soccer-specific stadiums, or at least in a stadium that suits their financial needs, D.C. United plays in the 50-year-old, creaky, concrete monstrosity that is RFK Stadium. Not only is the 45,000 capacity RFK too big, it’s also a baseball stadium, poorly suited to hosting soccer matches. Worst of all, RFK costs D.C. United a fortune to rent every season. So the team has to move out to survive. http://www2.richmond.com/lifestyles...3/?referer=None&shorturl=http://bit.ly/tv2UX4 Citrus Bowl has 65k.
What Jossed said: unto itself, it doesn't. But for now, New York City is still the epicenter of most of what goes on in this country, from the mainline media to the other obvious aspects that undergird daily life such as finance and law. Lots of those decisions about what happens when, happen in NYC. For a growing entity like MLS, it's where they have to be for now, and doing so with an NYC Derby will help MLS continue to plant its flag in the US sports and sports/business landscape. There again, not that any of that is distinctly right or good, it just is what it is. Actually, all of this could have been said in a whole lot fewer syllables: it's where the money lives.
here is the deal as i see it: Orlando is the best potential MLS market in Florida. 1. it is demographically superiour to both Miami MSA and Tampa MSA. it has a younger populous, a more affluent populous and a better educated populous. and those are the core MLS demographics. it is however not as demographically desirable as Atlanta on these factors. 2. it's population to pro-team ratio (with a hypothetical MLS team) is Orlando (2.1M/2 = 1.05) which better than Tampa (2.8M/4 = .7); about the same as Miami (5.6M/5 = 1.12); but not quiet as good as Atlanta (5.3M/4 = 1.33). however the "market" share in terms of media attention and local significance has a far higher ceiling in Orlando with only two teams. Portland and Seattle and Vancouver are a good model that being a bigger fish with fewer other fish in a smaller pond is probably better than being the smallest fish in a big pond. 3. Miami and Tampa are very poor in their pro-sports attendance. I did a comprehensive study where i took every MSA in North America with pro-sports teams (NFL/CFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, MLS) and analyzed their teams attendance over the past 4 seasons. NYC, LA and CHICAGO each had two "markets" (eg LA1 and LA2) with the "top" teams in the #1 market and the "bottom" teams in the #2. That is 55 MSAs. Basically I looked at every team in the MSA and how that team's average att and % capacity compared to the median for each team's league (so how the Dolphins average att and % capacity compared to the median of those measures for all NFL teams and so on and so forth) as a percentage (so a 100% score would mean the team is exactly median for that measure and above 100% would mean it is better and below 100% would mean it is worse). Then averaged the teams scores for each of the two factors and added the two averages together (so a 200 score is exactly median, above 200 is better, below 200 is worse). Miami (176) and Tampa (180) were in the bottom 10 and Atlanta (188) wasn't much better. Orlando has a 205 score but that is obviously only from the one team (Magic). 4. not to start a political debate but it is not a coincidence that soccer tends to thrive in more liberal areas and tends to suffer in more conservative areas. that is not to say that a conservative person cannot like soccer but overall and in general this is definitely a true trend. this is one of the biggest hurdles to any market in the south becoming a huge hit like in Seattle. but having said that I think that Orlando comes out ahead of Atlanta, Miami and Tampa on this tentative but subtly important factor. again, this is not to say that a conservative person cannot like soccer (many do) and that a liberal person cannot be a soccer hater (i am sure there are some) but in general you are going to find many more "soccer is a gawd durn communist ungodly sissy sport played by atheists" in "red" areas than you are going to in "blue" areas. and Orlando is sort of a semi-liberal oasis like Austin is in TX (only probably to a lesser extent). 5. the minor league soccer team in Orlando proved last season that it was better supported than similar teams in ATL, MIA or TB. of course one year does not a trend make but if OCSC can sustain and build on that strong attendance and get into the 8-10K range ... well that is something that would put them far ahead of ATL/MIA/TB unless some drastic changes happen for those minor league clubs. now minor league attendance does not guarantee or preclude good attendance in MLS but having very strong attendance at the lower level is a good sign for good support in MLS. so on many many key factors Orlando is easily the best potential MLS market in FL and in my mind equal to Atlanta. BUT there are still two overriding factors that need to be addressed or none of the above matters. A stadium and an ownership group with the financial muscle needed for MLS. and right now Orlando doesn't have either one of those. an MLS team cannot play in the Citrus Bowl. maybe if this were 1998. but we are talking about expansion sometime in 2014/15. a SSS is going to be a MUST. no SSS = no team. period. the league doesn't want anymore DCUs or SJEs or NERs. and a SSS in Orlando is going to cost an ownership group $100M-150M minimum. which brings us to the second point. the current OCSC ownership does NOT have the muscle or finances to get/own an MLS team. so just like in Seattle and Vancouver they are going to have to bring in other(s) and create a financially viable MLS ownership group that can foot the stadium (100M-150M), start-up (5M-10M) and expansion fee (50M-75M) ... so between $155M-$235M .... Rawlins doesn't have that kind of cash. so a larger, richer ownership group is going to need to be created. and unfortunately those two things are completely out of fans hands. unless one of your OCSC fans are multi-millionaires or have some free land and political connections. all you guys can do is keep growing the fan base for OCSC to the 10K range and building the supporter culture there towards the Sons of Ben, ECS and Timbers Army level.
have you ever heard of Orlando Sharks? Florida Tuskers? BTW Rays might move to Orlando. So St. Pete will not have a team, and we are talking St. Pete here different than Tampa, we are bringing it Portland-style here, the owners are in touch with Portland ownership and they are planning to do exactly what the Timbers did in their community and their stadium. Read article at bottom: http://www.examiner.com/sports-in-t...doomed-to-fail-the-tampa-bay-orlando-corridor