2021 is only a year away. They say he won't play because he will retire but will he pull a Drogba and play some games at 39 & 40 yeas of age? I'm sure he still could play in the USL at that age wih his experience.
"We can't get enough people to come to our soccer games to stop hemorrhaging money. I know, let's move the team to a backwater location in a metro area half the size!" I'm not sure travel is going to be their biggest problem, honestly.
Buffalo a possibility https://buffalonews.com/2019/11/19/...-could-bring-united-soccer-league-to-buffalo/
Brett Johnson of Fortuitous Partners - and co-chairman of Phoenix Rising FC - is bringing a USL Championship franchise to Pawtucket, Rhode Island in time for the 2022 season. As part of the $400 million Tidewater Landing mixed-use development, said team would play its home matches at a 7,500-seat stadium on the west bank of the Seekonk River in downtown Pawtucket. Adjacent to the stadium would be a riverwalk park, restaurant and retail outlets, and parking. Across the river, reachable by a new cable-stayed pedestrian bridge and situated north of the City of Pawtucket's Festival Pier, would be a mix of just over 200 units of housing, further restaurant and retail development, and another riverwalk park. Finally, at the so-called Apex site on Main Street, development would include an indoor sports center, a 200-room hotel, and commercial office space. The plan calls for Fortuitous Partners to invest between $310 million and $330 million of the project's total price tag, with the public sector's contribution targeted to be between $70 million and $90 million in infrastructure improvements (construction of the pedestrian bridge, streetscaping improvements, and development of the riverwalk parks). https://www.uslsoccer.com/news_article/show/1068623 http://thetidewaterlanding.com/about-tidewater-landing/
Rhode Island, Buffalo, and Queensboro, should they all materialize, will definitely help roll back the westward creep of the Eastern Conference. West: TAC, POR, RNO, LV, EB, LA, OC, SD, PHX SLC, COS, NM, ELP, RGV, SA, OKC, TUL East: HFD, QUE, NY, RI, BUF, BST, PIT, LDN, NC CHS, ATL, TB, BHM, MEM, LOU, IND, KC, DSM
I'm presuming none of the teams in MLS markets survive, at least as Championship sides. Charlotte will supposedly be announced as the 30th MLS team this month.
https://www.clevescene.com/scene-an...d-land-near-inner-belt-for-usl-soccer-stadium This was the newest article that I could find. An ownership group purchased the Cleveland Force name and has been looking into sites to build a stadium.
I've thought about this a lot and whether its viable. Detroit is clearly a MLS level market and I think the league would like to be there. While the city itselfs population has been in decline for some time, the area is still growing and is the 14th largest MSA in the country at 4.3 mil and 12th largest CSA at 5.3 mil. MLS wont enter the market unless they have all the conditions met exactly to their liking though (ownership group, stadium solution, etc.) With that said weve seen teams start out in USL with the full intention of moving up to MLS, and that could be a good play for Detroit. Show the league you can for sure be the next Cincinnati, or at least Sacramento or Nashville. The complication as I see it is Detroit City FC. They're the most successful amateur team in the country and now are going pro with NISA. As an NPSL team their attendance would've put them at 11th in the USL championship, between Tampa Bay Rowdies and newly founded El Paso Locomotive. I dont know how you could possibly introduce a USL team into Detroit without it being Detroit City. They basically have the diehard soccer fan base on lockdown and they have a decidedly anti-MLS outlook/philosophy. I think theres plenty of other people that would attend MLS games, but if you dont have the diehard core of supporters, what do you build a fanbase upon? You have no big section of fans with tifo and smoke and what not looking all raucous to market and promote gamedays with. I'm not positive and could be mistaken but I think I recall Gilbert & Gores (billionaire owners of the Cavs & Pistons) trying to buy the rights to Detroit Citys name/branding (if not the whole team in general?) and being rebuffed. USL could work in Detroit but it would seem to be a riskier endeavor. I almost think you would need to just come out of nowhere, Atlanta style, and barge right into MLS without a USL buildup so international soccer fans and casual fans see this juggernaut of hype for "major league" (read: premier) soccer and get on the bandwagon. Cleveland on the other hand has more of a blank slate to work with attempting to join USL. The last time there was professional soccer was the Cleveland City Stars a decade ago before USL really took off. Since then, Cleveland has had very successful NPSL soccer (on-field) in the form of AFC Cleveland and now Cleveland SC but neither has yet to become a big draw. I had hopes for CSC as they have a good image and branding and what not in my opinion, and alot of the same players as the NPSL championship winning AFC Cleveland team...but it seems like they still havent tapped into the soccer market which definitely exists. I know this because theres lots of European soccer fans (as there pretty much is anywhere in America now a days), a lot of Columbus Crew fans, and a considerable amount of Akron Zips fans. With Cleveland, I think you just need ownership with more money who can market the team better. The guys trying to get a team going right now, own the rights to the former pro indoor team, Cleveland Force name, who were super popular and a huge draw in their day. The thought is they will resurrect that name and brand. They're currently trying to get a stadium built downtown but there hasn't really been any real news on that front yet. I know they own Force Sports (a chain of sports training facilities) but I dont know what kind of finances they would have or if they would be bringing in other investors.
I think Detroit City FC going to the NISA is a horrible Idea, only thing worse if they went to NPSL and joined the Cosmos, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and a team in San Francisco. That would be about NPSL speed of a league.
Monterey could work out better than Fresno. I hear they are allowed to keep all the revenues from the games as long as they renovate and/or build the stadium.
That is the plan. California State University, Monterey Bay will let owner Ray Beshoff keep all the revenues as long as he builds the park.
It's a tough call: Fresno is a much bigger metro area, so while, yes, it looks like they have a pretty sweet deal on their stadium, people still have to show up and they still need to find sponsorships, etc.. And if they stay in the Championship, they still have those costs - they're going to have to figure out how to draw significantly more people than they did in Fresno, in a smaller city, at a stadium pretty far away from where people are, as I understand it.
Monterey County has a population of 400k. If they get the Latin community involved and as well as the Earthquakes, from what I hear, Frank Yallop and Ramiro Corrales, then they could draw well. If they are paying high rents without getting any revenue at Chukchansi Park in Fresno, it won’t matter much that they are drawing 4,000 fans a game. I remember going to a PDL Fresno Fuego game a few years back and ended up spending $20.00 for a hot dog and a bottle of water + $10.00 for parking across the street. I think we got the tickets for free though.