Can we bring MLS to Va. Beach?

Officially, the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News area has a population of about 1.7 million, the 33rd-largest metropolitan area in the United States and one of the largest with no professional sports team. I enthusiastically support your efforts and am willing to provide as much support as is needed.

 

Don't you mean one of the largest without a Major League sports team?

Big difference.

The problem is, being 33rd, there are quite a few larger cities ahead of you on the wish list. I'm sure you know the list -- Miami, NY2, and Atlanta are all much larger in terms of media market.

St. Louis, at #18, is having a hard time convincing MLS that they're worthy.

Worse yet, if you look at media market size, Hampton Roads is at 42, below Salt Lake City. I think it'll be a long time before anyone the size of Salt Lake City is ever let in the league again. In fact, it may never happen. (Which is why Las Vegas needs to give up trying, IMHO).

Austin is also one of the largest metropolitan areas without a Major League team. But I'm happy to be a solid minor league city. I'm hoping that the USL-1 team will work here. Seems to me that you have a perfect size city for a solid USL-1 team. Too bad the Mariners aren't still around. The USL-1 needs more teams.

 

Correction, we ARE the largest metro area without at a major professional team.
I don't know why MLS dosent look at areas like ours. No NFL team, no MLB team, no NHL team, nor an NBA team to compete with a large population. An MLS team would be the flagship pro team of this area if it was to come. David Stern said this would be a great place for an NBA team but they just wanted to go in another direction. I'm sure the MLS feels the same way. Oh well.

 

One thing I think that has hindered us from getting a major sports team is the 7 cities just can't come to an agreement on where the stadiums will be and how it will be financed. I remember when the NHL wanted to expand here and were looking at Hampton or NN and Virginia Beach wouldn't go along with the stadium financing.

Honestly If we were to get a stadium it should be in Norfolk. Its smack dab in the center of Hampton Roads and downtown Norfolk has greatly improved since the mid 90s and a really nice place with a vintage downtown feeling now. I think the sportsplex is too far southeast of Hampton Roads. I go to school right across the street from it and it takes me a good 10 minutes at best to get there and I only live 3 or 4 miles away. I can only imagine the commute from Norfolk or Chesapeake yet alone the Peninsula. Plus that area isn't really designed well for high volume of traffic. The few times I've gone to the Amphitheater for warped tour the traffic and congestionhas been ridiculous,

 

Actually, based upon the U.S. Census Bureau's 2006 projected population estimates, the Las Vegas-Paradise-Pahrump Consolidated/Metropolitan Statistical area is the largest in the United States without a major professional sports franchise. It is ranked #31, with a population of 1,820,232 people. According to the same statistical analysis, the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News CMSA is the second-largest U.S. Metroa Area without a major professional team. It is ranked #33, with a population of 1,649,457.

Frankly speaking, until you can get a deep-pocketed investor-operator interested in paying an expansion fee of $40-million-plus, any discussion of lobbying MLS for membership is a moot point. The problem is, before an interested investor is likely to step-up, he/she is going to want to see a combination of the Commonwealth of Virginia and a Hampton Roads municipality commit to at least partially funding construction of a soccer-specific stadium for the franchise to play in. Which, of course, is going to be complicated by the fact that state and local governments are going to want to see an investor step-up before they commit money to building a new facility or refurbishing the SportsPlex. It is, in a nutshell, a classic "Catch-22".

 

Anyone have a picture of the Sportsplex?

 

We can.

It's not simple, but not impossible. It's the people and the interest level that will bring a team here, not just the size of the city. Quality vs. quantity. Despite the negativity and pessimism Hampton Roads may have after STILL not having a major sports team, the expansion will look at more than the "bigger" cities. They will look at the market.

Hampton Roads is perfect. 1. No competition as previously stated. 2. And if the Sportsplex is not in the best locale, at least we can boast that we have a stadium. Plenty of fans drive a lot more than hour to support their teams. 3. And the fact is, Hampton Roads DOES have the "quantity" to support. So what if there are bigger cities out there lobbying. There are plenty of smaller that have major teams. It's not worth discussing the size. It's all about gathering the support and proving we are indeed worthy, that we have the quality of people they are looking for and the only way to do that is make our voices heard.

This is the way to start and it might be a perfect time. Gain support, and get the league's attention now, so when they are ready to expand again after '09, which won't be too long, we might be first on the list rather than absent from it.

Thanks for starting this thread. It's a step in the right direction.

 

If you do get a team....it will be way into the next round
of MLS teams, maybe after they split into 2 divisions, or some sort of Relegation/promotion system (ya right!).
There are too many sites ahead of you that would most likely be better for the league.

 

Is soccer a big Army sport then?

 

Hmm, I notice that the few negative posts thus far are from folks from other cities looking to get a team.

 

If you will join me in this improbable quest, if you feel destiny calling, and see as I see, a future of endless possibility stretching before us; if you sense, as I sense, that the time is now to shake off our slumber, and slough off our fear, and make good on the debt we owe past and future soccer generations, then we're ready to take up the cause, and march together, and work together. Starting today, let us finish the work that needs to be done, and usher in a new birth of soccer in Virginia Beach!

 

You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory. Victory at all costs - Victory in spite of all terrors - Victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival.
Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the Virginia Beach soccer and the MLS last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'

 

?

I saw three negative posts. Me (Austin), one from Santa Monica and one from NYC. As far as I know, only one of those three are looking to get a(nother) team. Everyone I know in Austin is excited to have their USL-1 team coming.

As for me, I was just trying to be realistic.

However, who am I to piss on your parade.

It sounds like there's several folks up there that are excited about the concept. Bryan76 has given y'all a template. Go for it!

 

I'm not being negative...i'm only stating that this final round
of expansion might be a little to late for a team in Va Beach.
There are only 2 spots left.
St.Louis and either NYC2 or Miami...(MAYBE las vegas -- i doubt it)
So....if you guys get an MLS team...it will be when the league forms
a second division.
I think other markets have a more in place right now as far as what the league desires and tv markets and what not.

 

I was just being "realistic", as well. I'm not saying that the Hampton Roads region can't land a Major League Soccer expansion team; rather, I'm saying that it is going to take far more than a fan-based lobbying effort of MLS to get it done. Ultimately, any successful bid is going to require a deep-pocketed investor/operator and a soccer-specific stadium that accomodates between 18,500 and 27,000 fans. Bottom line? You need a wealthy patron and a public-private partnership that is willing - assuming construction of a brand new facility isn't in the cards - to incur the costs necessary to roughly double the size of the Sportsplex.

Frankly, I'd be pulling for the Hampton Roads region to land a Major League Soccer team, just as I was a booster of the area's efforts to land a Major League Baseball franchise. My sister-in-law, brother-in-law, nephew and two nieces live in Chesapeake... and to say that they're a soccer-loving family would be an UNDERSTATEMENT.

 

Thanks for the advice. We'll need it. And a reality check won't hurt, but I don't think anyone here is fooling themselves that there won't be obsticles. To know what they are ahead of time will be most useful and constructive methods of overcoming them invaluable. The out-of-towner observation was a bit of a joke, although an important observation to point out to those here in Hampton Roads. Positivity and proactiveness is what the locals need.

Agreed, this couldn't come to fruition for the '09 expansion, but as I stated, it won't be long before the next round. That's what we need to be aiming for. Getting the support basis is the first step and that's why such a simple task as starting a forum is so important. Thanks, Mitchul!

No one in their right mind is going to invest millions into the idea unless we can prove it will be successful, which can only be done by a show of support. No officials will back it unless they have heard the demands. Hell, I don't even know if the support is really out there. I have a feeling it is, though. Listen to the radio and all you hear is ODU football news. They don't start for another year and football season is over, but everyone is talking about ODU football. We're drooling for a major professional team.

Most people I know have never even been to a pro soccer game. Little do they know, although I will tell them, it is the most fun at a sporting event they will ever experience. Everyone I know who has gone can testify, once you have experienced it, you can't wait for the next game.

 

Supporting the HR Piranhas would be a good place to start as well.

 

How is supporting a smeipro womens team going to help us get an MLS team? If anything it would should we'd be a good canidate for athat future womens league, but not MLS.