Reportedly they'll be playing at the Padres/Mariners Peoria Sports Complex. Not the most central location to be sure... But at least its an honest to God stadium, assuming they use the main stadium which isn't really available until April. http://www.azkicksit.com/phoenix-fc-to-be-back-in-2014-under-new-ownership/
Wake me when they make some sort of actual statement about the upcoming season. I'd like to hear it from the club, not a reporter (or a quasi-journalist quoting another journalist for that matter).
I understand that you in Phoenix expect the worst from PFC. Peoria is a baseball complex, so they will need to change around the stadium. Can they do that? I mean, is it possible that whoever the owners of the Peoria complex are would allow it? And is is Peoria a central enough location? Basically, we have to hope that the new owners put up a lot of cash and get someone with some actual experience (as Kenn recommends) in charge of running the club. (That is, running the business side of it.) Goo Luck!
I doubt they'd change it around. They'll simply put the soccer pitch on the field and seat people in the existing seats.
Surely, they will at least cover the dirt infield? I mean, they wouldn't really play on dirt, would they? I didn't mean remodel the stadium, but I'd think covering the dirt would be minimum. They might want to put seats on the other side of the pitch too. Is there any baseball organization using the stadium these days?
The Padres and Mariners use it every spring (they just reupped their lease for another 2 decades) as do their AZL league teams during the summer and the Peoria Javelinas of the Arizona Fall League every October and November. So yeah it's still being used. Which is why I wonder what they actually CAN do to it. They really can't cover the dirt infield unless they want to convert it back and forth regularly but I suppose it's always possible. And putting seats in the outfield would likely be a non-starter. But that assumes Phoenix plans to use the main stadium at the Peoria Sports Complex. The place does have about a dozen fields they could be talking about when they say they're going to play there.
I hate soccer, or American football for that matter, being played on a baseball diamond, but playing on a dirt infield is the least of Phoenix FC's problems. I hope there is activity going on behind the scenes, but there have been no signs of life from the team other than the announcement from the league.
I was thinking that too. FC Tucson have taken over some of the baseball fields in Tucson and converted them to soccer uses. Maybe PFC will use one of the other diamonds at Peoria and make it into a soccer stadium? A small one? On the cheap? I hope like hell? Yack. Yes. Clearly their most important need is to get someone who actually knows how to run a soccer team in charge of running the team. As Kenn points out over and over, every team needs ticket sales experts and marketing experts. Finding a good coach and getting some better players isn't too difficult, but if they screw their revenue stream, they could fail completely. (Oh, and sponsorship sales people, and group tickets sales, and a liaison person to work with the supporter's group(s), and good concessions people, and I'm sure I'm missing half a dozen more.)
All these things you guys want are great, but clearly they're still trying to locate their facebook/twitter passwords.
Peoria is a northwest suburb. There is no one who would ever consider it central to anything, unless you live in Sun City, Surprise or Glendale. Unless they wanted to pay to re-sod it. Or convert back and forth. It cost $40,000 a game to switch back and forth when DC United and the Nationals shared RFK back in the mid-2000s. I am not sure it would be that expensive for this, today, but I am sure it would not be cheap. Covering it with what? Sod? Green paint? A big tarp? So you sod just that part of it (which creates treacherous footing on the seams) or the whole thing? And then we have this thing called summer, which is not the optimal season for growing grass here, especially grass you are trying to get to take hold over infield dirt. That would be "minimum?" Have you been following Phoenix FC? Do you know what they seem to have in terms of resources? They couldn't afford the stadium they started out with last year and they're supposed to be cutting back the budget this year. So now you're into the multiple thousands of dollars when it's highly unlikely PFC will be spending more money in 2014 than they did in 2013. You mean besides the San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, Arizona League and Arizona Fall League? If not, Peoria is spending $36M on the place for nothing. Also, from the complex's site: Peoria Sports Complex is utilized year-round by local and national youth and adult baseball tournaments and championships. The complex is also host to a variety of events such as concerts, art shows, car and RV shows, bike races, outdoor weddings/receptions, private parties, group events and charity fundraisers. City sponsored special events are also held annually for 4th of July, Easter and Halloween. Peoria realized $710,000 in non-spring training revenues from the place in FY2012. It gets used a lot. And I do not believe any of them have more than 100 seats around it. They're not meant for spectators, they're meant for workouts, extended spring training and some Arizona League games. They'd require many thousands of dollars in upgrades to make them pro soccer-feasible. Only 6 of the other 12 fields have lights. If you're going to play there and you want to be regarded as anything more than a complete joke, you're going to have to play in the main stadium. Which will be used for spring training games until Friday, March 28. First off....why do you hope like hell? You're not here, you're there. What difference does it make to you? Why would you hope at all, much less "hope like hell?" Secondly...they converted a field in Tucson because it was abandoned by the White Sox. There wasn't going to be baseball there anymore. And the White Sox paid Tucson $5M on their way out the door, which made their new stadium possible. But before that, Tucson's city council saw the value in re-purposing Kino, which helped them land MLS Spring Training as well. Good luck convincing the City of Peoria (which owns the complex and just ponied up most, if not all, of the $36M for the renovations). Thirdly....what on earth makes you think soccer stadiums are cheap? Is this part of the same rationale where you think you can just cover up infield dirt easily? What do you think "a small one" would cost, exactly? $500? A thousand bucks? What? Lastly...as mentioned above....the existing "other" fields in Peoria would require quite a bit of work and it would be work that couldn't be easily reversed when the actual tenants of the place (the Padres and Mariners) needed them. Why do you constantly put forth solutions based on pie-in-the-sky, Pollyanna ideas about how to fix things? As if you can just wave your hand and make something happen just like that?
Kenn I'd say, "duh" but I suspect you know I was just throwing that out as a possible suggestion, not a likely one. The likely scenario is that they'll simply arrange the soccer pitch somehow in the main Peoria Stadium hoping to minimize its overlap with the infield (best case) or simply deal with the dirt. That said what was PFC's attendance by the end of last year
I'm really enjoying this new ownership group. Not one post on Facebook and Twitter since October 30th, yet they are somehow recruiting and scouting players for the upcoming season. officially will be participating in the Phoenix FC preseason. Blessed for this opportunity to go on trial and give what I love another shot!— T-Rav (@tcamp06) January 8, 2014 So that means they have a coaching staff for 2014, right? Cost of a 6,000 seat stadium in AZ. (Take out the costs for The Loop, roadways, underpass, etc.)
Well I guess it can be considered a good thing they're working to actually have a team on field before they go selling tickets and what not. Though they're not leaving themselves much marketing and ticket selling time.
To be fair, they are limited in selling tickets by the schedule not being released yet, and they don't do any marketing anyways.
At the moment, if the season were to start on March 22nd, they would be giving themselves only 71 days to market themselves, season tickets, the new stadium, etc. But they don't have to start selling season tickets. They could do a simple "Place a $25 or $50 deposit for season tickets". Build up come capital. The PDL schedule was supposed to come out today (it hasn't). I'm guessing the USL-Pro schedule would be released the same week.