Philly area MLS fans needed

[SoccerPrime]

A town in the Philadelphia area is interested in talking to soccer fans about building a soccer stadium and fan support for a potential MLS team.

The meeting is set for next week.

Please PM/email me ASAP if you would like to participate.

Thank you

[SoccerPrime]

Not that we got much support from this board, but I would like to thank those that are helping out.

The meeting is today.

[Brian Gockley]

Good luck and keep us informed. We would be psyched to get a Philly team. We're in cnetral PA, 3 hours away, but if we can get to DC and NY, we will surely make Philly! ;)

I bet it's suburbs, huh?

[Eddie26]

Not that we got much support from this board, but I would like to thank those that are helping out.

The meeting is today.

I had sent a PM/email back when you first posted this and never got a reply.

[CyphaPSU]

Any news from this? Did anyone go?

[D-Wall]

Where was this meeing. I have been away on business and meetings for the past 2 weeks. Give up some info.

[D-Wall]

Where was this meeting? I have been away on business and meetings for the past 2 weeks. Give up some info.

[SoccerPrime]

Sorry guys, been busy trying to catch up with other things. The meeting was interesting but nothing earth-shattering. We had a few people go to the meeting, it wasn't a rally (I doubt the town hall building can hold much). The town in question is Bristol Township, located near the Interstate 95 and 276 Turnpike intersection. The land in question is south of that interchange, near the Delaware River, off SR 413.
Bristol has some good land that they could use on a soccer stadium but they need some major cash infusion to make it happen. I would venture to say that if a good investor came in with MLS to work with the town, this could really happen. They are debating on using it for a mixed-use commercial/residential development or maybe a more recreational use (which a stadium could be involved with). There are plans to rebuild the Turnpike/I95 interchange nearby which would help traffic flow from the City, so the area looks even more promising. But like I said, Bristol is a small town and its not going to be able to give a MLS investor a $50 million dollar bond or something.

This whole adventure was good for galvanizing our efforts to get a more grassroots organization out there to promote MLS in the Philly area.
Although it would have been nice for Bristol to say "we're building a soccer stadium, how many season tickets can we write down for you?"; I still think there is a great potential here.

For now we will work off our website, http://members.tripod.com/phillymls and continue to work with Bristol and other towns to see where a stadium may go.

Unofficially we have actually made contact with a few potential investors and things look promising.

I encourage anyone on this board that wants to see a MLS team in the Philly area to help us.

Any questions?

[CyphaPSU]

Thank you SoccerPrime! Sounds encouraging even if nothing will come of this in Bristol. At least there are serious discussions about MLS here! Perhaps we have the beginning of a movement.

If there is anything I can do to help, let me know.

[DaMunk]

Unofficially we have actually made contact with a few potential investors and things look promising.



To revive this thread, do we know if these potential investors have any interest in placing their team in Glassboro? In reading the summary of the press conference, nothing is set to happen. There are a lot of conditional ifs...most notebaly regarding an I/O. Honestly, I'm not holding my breath about anything...there is a lot of time and a lot of variables. IF there is an investor or investors who are interested, Rowan's plans would be a lot more credible.

Any word from the local fans involved?

Hopefully, this thread will remain troll-less.

[celt1997]

In addition I was wondering how this leaves things in terms of Bristol, etc? They made it very clear that they were not going to look elsewhere while this Rowan proposal is ongoing.

[SoccerPrime]

The potential investors who were interested in Bristol know about Glassboro. However, I believe that potential I/Os were actually looking at sites closer to downtown than Bristol and probably aren't initially thrilled with a site "across the river (dread)", it's a Philly thing.

That being said, these people are businessmen so if Glassboro will work out for them, I am sure that they will take a serious look at it at least.

I know for a fact that Rowan University has already had some high level talks with several potential Investor/Operators for the possible Glassboro team.

[SoccerPrime]

In addition I was wondering how this leaves things in terms of Bristol, etc? They made it very clear that they were not going to look elsewhere while this Rowan proposal is ongoing.

For now, our group of fans (phillysoccer.com) will continue to work with Bristol and other towns/communities that might offer interest in MLS. However, you are correct, officially MLS will not talk to anyone until July 1, 2006 or, if Rowan works out, not for long, long time.