Tampa a Contender for MLS?

Sorry.
I did not read your original post. I agree with most of it.

Either way, I hope Tampa gets a team and a soccer stadium.

 

Fox channel 13 story on possible new soccer stadium.
http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/story/20224618/mls-comeback-in-tampa

 

So I've found out that VSI is a group of exEPL players wanting to create academies around the world. They currently have a PDL team in Tampa and they are starting a USL team next year. There's a whole thread on this in the USL forum.

 

Yes, they have a USL PDL team now and are fielding a USL Pro team next year. The whole thing hinges around VSI going from USL Pro in a temporary stadium, USL Pro in a permanent stadium to hopefully MLS in a large permanent stadium.

Unfortunately the information is strewn about BS in multiple threads in the USL forum, NASL forum, and here in the MLS forum.

 

Some hesitancy about the project from at least one news columnist.

http://www2.tbo.com/news/breaking-n...thinkers-are-just-what-we-need-now-ar-579129/

FYI, apparently on Dec 11th VSI will hold a press conference formally introducing the plan. Like the columnist I expect this to turn out to be about the sports center and not the stadium. His math seems a bit off. It's $400 million total for stadium, center and academy with the sports center having the lion's share.

 

he also mentions that the December 11th event will be closed to the media, so it isn't a press conference. It looks more like a fund raiser.

So if this is right, MLS either isn't actually in their plans or, if it is, it won't be until a long time from now. So essentially, they can say "ya MLS one day" with no intention of ever actually bringing in MLS but while using that tidbit to sell tickets to the USLpro side's games.

The truth shall set you free!

 

I see a smoke machine here but no fire. VSI's main business seems to be creating academies. I just can't see this happening right now.

 

I see a smoke machine also, and the one I see isn't even turned on.

 

The difference is winning. Had the Thrashers done that, they would have been more successful in spite of an ownership that wanted to get rid of them the moment they acquired them

 

By MICHAEL SASSO | The Tampa Tribune
Updated: December 16, 2012 - 5:33 PM
A group of English and American businessmen blindsided Tampa leaders two weeks ago with a proposal for a $700 million soccer stadium, sports-medicine complex and soccer academy encompassing 20 fields.
Some local officials, understandably, are skeptical.
The Tampa Bay Mutiny soccer team failed 10 years ago, after all, and baseball's Tampa Bay Rays haven't made any headway on a new $500 million ballpark.
Christine Burdick, president of the Tampa Downtown Partnership, needs to see more details before becoming a believer.
"A lot of people have ideas," she said. "It's whose idea has traction and sticks."
However, VisionPro Sports Institute Holdings, a company based on the island of Jersey in the English Channel, insists it can pull off its megaproject.
To pay for it, the company's leaders have targeted an obscure federal program that allows charitable foundations to invest in money-making ventures.
"We see this putting Tampa on the map for soccer and sports medicine," said John Mitchell, VisionPro operations chief in North America.
VisionPro has been sizing up the Tampa region for its massive soccer and sports-medicine complex for more than a year.
But few people knew about the company's designs until The Tampa Tribune published a story about it in late November. VisionPro has not met with the city's economic development staff, which usually is involved with major projects.
Few details were known until Tuesday, when the company unveiled its plan at a meeting for business and government leaders at the Tampa Club.
Among the hosts Tuesday was Mark Hughes, a well-known manager in the top-flight English Premier League and former player for such soccer clubs as Manchester United. Hughes is an investor in VisionPro, said John Mitchell, the operations chief in North America.
The company proposes a three-pronged sports complex that would capture soccer fans and athletes from near and far. The elements are:

• Soccer stadium. The group is looking for a site, preferably downtown, for a 28,000-seat stadium designed for soccer.

VisionPro's idea: lure top-flight world soccer clubs such as Manchester United or Real Madrid to Tampa for occasional exhibition matches, or "friendlies." VisionPro would field its own professional team, VSI Tampa Bay FC, to play in a league two notches below the United States' top league, Major League Soccer.
The company would like to win an MLS franchise, but the project doesn't depend on it, said Ben Everidge, an Orlando resident partnering with VisionPro on the project's financing.
Price tag: $400 million.

• Sports-medicine institute. VisionPro envisions a world-leading sports-medicine facility that could attract top athletes as well as amateurs to Tampa for treatment.

Everidge said the stadium and the attention it would create would help showcase the sports-medicine institute, which would provide cash flow for the complex.
Price tag: $250 million.

• Soccer academy. VisionPro would operate a soccer academy with 20 fields, big enough for major tournaments. The company already operates a soccer academy in Portugal, where it grooms young athletes to play professionally. It earns money when those players are picked up by top European soccer clubs.

Price tag: $50 million.
The group's plans are displayed at www.vsi-stadium.com.
The combined cost of the project and the past failures of professional soccer in the Tampa region are bound to leave many locals skeptical. After all, two professional clubs, the Tampa Bay Rowdies and Tampa Bay Mutiny, have come and gone in Tampa over the decades. Today, a new club plays under the Rowdies name in St. Petersburg, in a league one step below Major League Soccer. On average, it draws a few thousand fans to its games.
Mitchell said Tampa never had the right infrastructure for soccer.
Its massive football stadium never was conducive for soccer, which tends to attract smaller crowds, and it left the stadium looking empty. Today, nearly a third of English Premier League clubs travel to the United States to play exhibition games, but they largely avoid the Tampa area, he said.
With the right facilities, the warm climate and the area's growing population, a soccer club could be supported, VisionPro says.
But nothing will be built without money. And the most curious element to the proposal may be its financing. The owners insist it can be built without government funding.
A program known only to the IRS, tax lawyers and charitable foundations allows charities to steer money to for-profit businesses as long as the ventures further the charity's public purpose.
Under the system, called a program-related investment, the project's backers would pool together money from wealthy individuals and charitable foundations and use it to pay for the sports complex's huge capital costs, said Everidge, whose Orlando-based firm, PRI Partners, is helping VisionPro raise money.
A soccer and sports-medicine complex might not seem like a charitable purpose eligible to receive foundation money. However, VisionPro has brought in partners to give the complex a charitable edge and, it hopes, qualify it to receive foundation money.
For example, some of the sports complex's revenue would benefit a large national charity called Good360. Good360 collects surplus consumer goods from the likes of The Home Depot and other big retailers and distributes it to other charities. VisionProalso recruited a San Diego-based biotechnology firm, Cytori Therapeutics, to conduct stem-cell research at the sports-medicine institute, and it hopes to partner with USF Health.
Bill Lane, a tax lawyer with the Holland & Knight firm, wasn't familiar with VisionPro's soccer project and couldn't comment on it. However, he confirmed that the federal government will allow charities to invest in for-profit businesses under the right circumstances.
"Apparently, there's a lot of leeway," Lane said.
Eric Hart, executive director of the Tampa Sports Authority, which runs Raymond James Stadium, couldn't say whether the project's financial model makes sense. But it might provide a model for other sports facilities, even the Rays stadium debate.
"If what they're talking about works, it opens up opportunities," Hart said.

 

Interesting article.

Other than EPL friendlies and club soccer they should be focusing on National teams. USA friendlies and World Cup qualifiers, Gold Cup matches, Mexico, other Latin American teams, England, etc.


Still seems to be a bit of a pipe dream but at least it has a tiny bit of credibility with this article.

 

I read this yesterday. My impression is that this group is not even a bit MLS ready.

 

when i hear "obscure IRS tax loophole" and "charity" i get a big whiff of "scam".

 

Would Mark Hughes be involved in a scam?

 

yes. because premier league managers are saints ... none have ever been accused of taking bungs or other such things.

"scam" doesn't mean illegal ... the corporate wold is full of "scams" that are legal but unethical. the world of "charity" is chock-a-block with "scams" including one of the biggest fraudsters called Quadriga Art ... look at some of the CNN coverage of them sometime if you want to be sickened.

 

So something sketchy albeit not necessarily illegal. Yeah, could be.

 

That is the same impression I get after reading this latest article.

 

I attended a Rowdies game last spring in St. Petersburg (I live on the east coast, in Port St. Lucie) and I was surprised to see the large crowd of fans drawn to the match that Saturday night. A good mix, too, of ages and ethnic backgrounds, all making a lot of noise for the Rowdies. Recently my friend in Tampa told me about the plans to build a stadium for the team; I read more about it in the local news on line. Both Orlando and Miami are closer to my location, both just over 100 miles, and both still too distant for me to make any but a few selected matches. After supporting NY (Metro then RB) since '96, I moved here just before RB Arena was completed. How I miss seeing the games live! I did manage to get to a few Striker matches in the past, and even Ft. Lauderdale was a long haul for me. No matter, I really hope MLS makes a return to Florida.

 

Yes, San Francisco probably would be a great market, but, lol, kind of hard not to get larger crowds away from Buck Shaw when those other events are:

A) Larger venues.
B) Marquee match-ups.
C) Much more heavily promoted.

I count 6 games away from Buck Shaw since the Quakes returned in 2008. 3 of them featured Beckham and the Galaxy. One was a double header which had Barcelona vs. Chivas Guadalajara. The other two were Red Bull and the Dynamo. The Red Bull game was an extremely heavily promoted 4th of July fireworks game, the Dynamo game was the season opener for 2012.
The game with the lowest attendance was the one that was closest to the heart of San Francisco, the season opener against Houston.
And, though not a huge statistical sample, (maybe 80 responses) but, I recall an informal poll on the Quakes forum years ago asking where fans lived, and nearly half of them were from outside of the SJ MSA.
And if you have ever been there, you would know that Buck Shaw is the main reason Buck Shaw does not sell out every game.

 

This is just ignorant/without an understanding of math. The stadium capacity of Buck Shaw is right around 10k.

Let's do some kiddie math.

13,000 is our average attendance for 2012.

21 home games x 13,000 = 273,000 tickets sold all year. Subtract the Stanford game and that's
223,000 tickets for 20 games

That returns 11,150 tickets per game at Buck Shaw.

Something must be wrong, but the point is, 90, 95, 98% attendance (which would only necessitate...well....just *over 9,000*, right?) is good.
Now you're gonna talk about a sellout or say something about SF and attendance? What on earth are you talking about while you're smoking just what exactly?

 

your math is wrong. i have the attendance for every single san jose game in buck shaw for the last 3 seasons and they were not all sell outs. even this season they were not. that is just a fact. your math is incorrect.

13,293 (2012 SJE avg) x 17 (# of home games) = 225,981 (total SJE 2012 home att)

225,981 - 21,816 (3/17 @ ATT Park) - 50,391 (6/3 @ Stanford Stadium) = 153,774 (total 2012 Buckshaw attd).

153,774 / 15 = 10,251 (2012 Buckshaw avg attnd) ... the capacity of BS is 10,525 (officially but 10,744 is the max cap the reported in 2012).

my point was when SJE plays in SF the demand is 20-40K ... if that level of demand was occurring in SJ then they would easily sell out every single game at BS to over capacity.

and they do not ... so my contention is that SJE draws mostly from SJ and Santa Clara and not SF/Oak ... they may get a few fans to come down to BS for games but not many, only when they play in SF/Oak do people from SF/Oak come to see the game. which means, if MLS wanted they could probably put a team in SF to be a rival of SJE that would outdraw them.

 

There's no such thing as "very easily," that's a ridiculous point of view by you.

 

Also, the "San Jose and San Francisco are two totally separate MSAs" argument is why the Giants have been totally on board with the A's potentially moving to the South Bay all these years.

 

My math is perfectly correct for the numbers I started with.
I just looked at the SJ website for my number of home games. Apparently the average attendance is 95%. I'm sorry I don't think that with 7 sold out games plus 7 99%+ games that you have a clue regarding attendance draws.