Has Savannah ever been mentioned as a possible expansion site? I've been there several times and there is a soccer culture there. The historic district has a couple soccer pubs that are packed on weekends. I think they could make good natural rivals with coastal southern cities like Charleston and Wilmington. Here are possible stadiums they could play in: Home of the Minor League Baseball team, the Sand Gnats: Grayson Stadium http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grayson_Stadium Memorial Stadium: 15,000 capacity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Stadium,_Savannah Ted Wright Stadium: 7,500 on campus of Savannah State http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Wright_Stadium
Interesting idea. Expand USL Pro to Savannah and Jacksonville, and run a bunch of teams down I-95. Richmond, Wilmington, Charleston, Savannah, Jacksonville, Orlando (incl. I-4).
Just need a investor. Someone needs to convince a local youth soccer club to go for it. Or convince a rich soccer nut in the area.
I'm dubious that Savannah would support USL well. It has about the same population as Wilmington, but the demographics aren't as favorable. Savannah has much more economic disparity and poverty. Also, despite a lot of youth talent, soccer is not very well organized in the Savannah area. Savannah has a faily large youth tournament but the tournament often has age brackets without any Savannah teams in them. I'd like to see it work though...especially if they had some affiliated youth teams. Maybe that would get some college recruiters down in the area.
