Out of all these cities/areas below, please state FIVE areas that you would love to see in NWSL someday. We can then tally the results and then we can determine what cities/areas are in demand the most. Toronto Vancouver Ottawa Montreal Connecticut (Hartford, Bridgeport) New York City Philadelphia Pittsburgh Atlanta Carolina (Charlotte, Cary, Raleigh) Florida (Orlando, Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville) Columbus Indiana (FC Indiana - Indianapolis) St. Louis Twin Cities (Minnesota) Dallas San Antonio Denver Las Vegas Salt Lake Los Angeles San Diego Bay Area Mexico City
-Toronto -Philly -Atlanta -St. Louis -Tijuana/Monterrey/Torreon (Mexico City is too far away, among other things)
Just 5 of those? That's tough. Los Angeles San Diego (or Tijuana) Bay Area (San Jose specifically, they can play at Buck Shaw Stadium) Vancouver Dallas OK, there's my five (obvious west coast bias...), I would still like to see Toronto, Montreal, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Denver, Salt Lake though.
As of now, Vancouver, Bay Area, and Tijuana are in the lead. That could be a strong western conference. Western Conference: Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, Bay Area, Tijuana, Houston, Los Angeles? Eastern Conference: FCKC, Chicago, Boston, Sky Blue, Washington, WNY, Toronto?
Not any more than any of the other markets, though if we're postulating on what markets we want there's a lot of draws to go for Tijuana as a potential Mexican market, for those of us who want to include a Mexican market. It's about as close to the US border you can get, so the distance factor is minimized; it's essentially part of the San Diego metro area, so they can draw from there, especially as San Diego may have some people who remember WUSA; and there's also a successful men's team in Tijuana that (if they bought into NWSL) would be a pretty huge boon to the league. But, as I said, this thread is all about want, not necessarily evidence of what might be good markets. I don't think any of the cities suggested are front-runners for expansion, though there are some that are WTF suggestions. (Pittsburg? CBus? Vegas?? Really?)
I want the league to be in cities with owners that will make their teams thrive. If it weren't for that, then maybe the following: Vancouver (family, plus I miss Whitecaps having women's soccer) Pittsburgh (former home. Love it and miss it.) Carolina (Charlotte or Raleigh/Cary/Durham) Dallas (what happened to FCD women? Are they still around somewhere?) San Diego (I live here.)
Nobody else wants LA? Don't you all want a reason to take a trip to Hollywood? I mean, I know I never go there, but the tourists seem to love it.
LA (some people only have access to california ) Dallas (running mate for Houston) There are only two franchises added next season, correct? SB/Red Bull need to get it done.
The ideal 16 for the league would be: Eastern: Florida, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Washington, Sky Blue, Boston, WNY, Toronto Western: Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Houston, Tijuana, FCKC, Chicago That's a presence in all 8 original markets + Texas + California + Florida + Both ends of Canada + Mexico. Not to mention the great stadium in Atlanta, and Philadelphia's MLS stadium as well. Red Bull and Sky Blue would merge, and Sporting KC with FCKC as well. Although I would like to see Bay Area in there somewhere as well. Plus Salt Lake. Add them both to the West, and add Carolina to the East. Throw in Dallas, and that makes 20. Chicago would have to then shift to the Eastern Conference, to balance.
Maybe this is just me, but I personally would be rather surprised to see a Tijuana team rather than some form of Baja California team. I just can't see all those conservative soccer parents bringing their kids to a game in TJ. And even myself, as a liberal 21 year old just doesn't want to deal with having to cross THAT border because of the mess that it is. Unfortunately, with the current political situation as it is (yanno, literal wall and all), I don't think we'll be seeing anything in Mexico proper for a while now. Change Tijuana to San Diego and I think that's more realistic. Where in Florida would we be talking? Orlando? Miami? Boca? I find Vancouver to be a natural expansion, because then you've got the Cascadia trio: Portland, Seattle, Vancouver. You could even try to expand that to include San Francisco, but that may be pushing things. Toronto makes sense. Northeastern leg = Boston, WNY, Toronto. Middle East Coast is then Washington DC + Sky Blue + Philadelphia + Illinois.
I promise I'm not completely drunk right now, I'm just VERY tired. Stupid Sochi Olympics and their 9 hour time-difference.
I'm somewhat surprised that not too many people mentioned Atlanta. They have a great stadium, and the league could use a southeastern franchise.
Of course Kenn. No one here is stupid, no one here is dumb. We all know it takes investors, someone to pony up the money. Nothing is free. Women's pro soccer is a tough sell. We know all that. We've heard it over and over and over and over... But people on these boards who support the women's game are like other passionate fans, dreamers, vivid imaginations. Sometimes we get in la-la land about this. That's why we're on these boards 24/7. This is our passion. Yes, you can probably say some of us need to get a life. Kenn, I have spend tons of money and precious time supporting the women's game for 20 years flying out of Chicago to events all around the country, women's College Cups, USWNT games. I've even driven right after Thanksgiving dinner from Chicago to Chapel Hill, NC just to see UNC vs. Santa Clara in a NCAA tourney game spent the night and drove back. My wife thought I was crazy. Many of my Chicago Fire (of which I'm also a fan of) friends think I'm the biggest idiot and a waste of money and time for doing so. But it is what it is. It's my expensive hobby. So to remind us including WPS_Movement over and over and over and over of how women's soccer is a tough sell, you need investors, nothing is for free, blah, blah, blah is beating a dead horse and assuming we don't know this or are stupid. You're wasting your time typing this stuff. We know this. But fans here on these threads will continue to speculate, to dream to fantasize. Because we're stupid about this particular brand of soccer. WPS_Movement will continue to create fantasy threads, posters will continue to be drawn into posting on them and I will continue to spend my hard earned money and time on games, season tickets, etc. So leave the "it takes an investor, it takes money, etc," I'm going to rain on your parade, lectures alone. We know all this stuff. You're not teaching us anything we don't already know. I've met many people on these boards. They are college graduates, successful people, students, athletes themselves, not dumbasses. You're wasting your time lecturing constantly.
....well, I'm not sure WPSM falls into any of those former groups.... On a more serious note, while everything you said is true, I have to empathize with Kenn's reaction. Maybe it's just because I'm from STL, where the "history" and "youth" aspects are oft repeated and where we've been burned from failed pro teams several times now, but I also find "reasons" outside of {strong investor group, highly-successful lower-division team, active effort from the league} to be somewhat grating. If I didn't have WPSM's posts hidden I probably would've jumped on it myself; I know I've done so to others on the Equalizer. It's one thing to post a thread simply trying to take a public opinion poll, which is good; it's another to suggest "city X should be considered because it has Y", which is shortsighted and not well-thought-out - unless Y is one of those three reasons I mentioned. And this is coming from the one person in this thread who has explicitly stated a desire for Atlanta to return in their list of five "wants". It's a wish; that's it.
Look for the OSEG group from Ottawa to make a bid within the next 5 years. TD Place Arena along with the entire Landsdowne park area is just getting underway with the stadium and arena veneu along with a whole downtown retail, resturant, Pub, Condo and entertainment area. The CFL football and the NASL soccer team are just getting underwayfor their firts season. They have already organized cross ticket promotion's and have used the original 67's Junior Hockey team games as a spriingboard to promote both upcoming seasons. As both the NASL schedule came out followed quickly by the CFL schedule OSEG worked both with the CFL and NASL to have several double header weekends (including the first one for both opening games at the stadium) with a friday night CFL football game, saturday to turn TD Place from Football to soccer and a 3:00 summer sunday afternoon Fury game. Once they get that down I can see adding a sunday soccer double header of the Fury women and men after a friday night CFL game The Fury organization also have a unique set up of both boys and girls youth development starting at U10 and up. The Fury organization both men and women as well as the OSEG owned 67's already have a TV partner in Rogers TV Ottawa and that had started with the Fury PDL club and with th W-League club.
Here are my 'wants' in order of preference: Philadelphia, San Diego, Dallas, Los Angeles, St. Louis. My next two are Atlanta and Vancouver.
Vancouver (Can play Canadians without limitation, PacNW is soccer country, potential MLS backing, other teams in region) Austin (hipster culture like Portland, Houston is nearby, no competing pro sports) Monterrey (Can play Mexicans without limitation, close to Austin and Houston, Mexico's strong soccer culture, relatively upscale for Mexico) Raleigh-Durham (the UNC tradition of women's soccer, little in the way of competing pro sports, close to DC) New York City/Newark (some kind of deal with the Red Bulls is what I'm thinking; we all wanted it to happen. I can't see Sky Blue surviving this, at least not without moving to Philadelphia, so "expansion" might not be the right word)