It's not unusual, Sacramento is playing in one I believe, Charlotte as well. It's much cheaper to build, because no permanent structures, no plumbing, etc, no need to buy land, just make a short term deal with local municipality and set it up on some parking lot. But I guess it would probably be somewhere out in the suburbs in that case. General experience would probably include bleachers, portable toilets, limited technologies (wi-fi, audio, etc).
One thing that certainly mixing things up in Vegas is Jason Ader, CEO of Sands, co-investor in the new Raiders Vegas stadium, (who's funding was approved last week by state), has already stated he wants to bring an MLS club to Vegas. Ader himself has been tied to previous NASL/USL plans in Vegas.
Has he ever officially been tied or linked via reputable rumors to NASL/USL? He may have, but I don't recall anything other than perhaps idle speculation on here. He of course has been linked to a rival MLS bid in the past, as well as a potential buyer of Red Bulls.
IF the Raiders do go to Las Vegas, I have a feeling that is where Miami Beckhams land. No news out of Miami is not good news for MLS.
Then wouldn't Becks have to pay the full $200 mil expansion fee if he does that? I do believe a similar question was brought up and Don Garber said that the Becks deal is tied to Miami and its only there he'd get the discount on the expansion fee. So I'm not so sure Beckham switches cities that easily although honestly I'd rather MLS have a team in LV then Miami.
I got the same unsolitcted feedback on Twitter (are you stalking me?); and I replied that I thought Ader would own the MLS team not Becks. Ader favorited my tweet. He's definitely tied to bring pro soccer to Vegas, in fact he tried to compete or join the last MLS efforts. I'm not sure he himself has said he wanted a USL or NASL team first. Either way if I'm thinking of starting my own pro team, with the Raiders deal looming I might think twice.
No I don't believe I follow you.. maybe I should.. but I said nothing about Beckham being the sole owner. Sent from my LG-D850 using Tapatalk
Sure but it covers the league as a whole. The money the league now gets from the expansion fee is to the point were you'll likely not want to give out discounts on the level of the Becks deal ( If I remember correctly he only pays 25 mil for a new team). Especially for an iffy market like Miami.
I don't think he has much leverage in Miami. If he walked away, most politicians would probably shrug their shoulders. Part of the reason why he's having so many problems.
IMO I think this is due to the league being not as hot on the market as Becks is, I don't have any proof of that but I think the league is tiring of the back and forth down in Miami and would rather go somewhere else.
I don't know what the league thinks of Miami as a market, but heard on good authority that MLS views the ongoing process as a "shit show"
It is. The team was announced over 2 years ago and looking towards three years and there has been little movement on the stadium since the county approved using FIU as a temp venue in February 2015. Dragging on this long is never a good sign. Any other ownership group would likely have been turned away by now.
Which I think is why Becks is trying so hard to make it happen as it can only happen at a discount in Miami. Although with all this going on in LV I wouldn't be surprised if he just bailed out of Miami and focused instead on being a minority owner in LV.
I'd love to see details of that contract, what's the timeframe for Beckham, etc. Does he simply lose Miami after certain time. I think the league would be crazy to dislike Miami as a market, but yeah, they'd love to resell it no doubt.
Because if Becks gives up on Miami his discounted franchise reverts to the league which they can sell to investors in other, less challenging markets. They get $200m instead of $25m rid of a headache with Becks and his hangers-on not able to get their s&%t together more billionaire owners in the Detroit/San Antonio/Cincinatti market that gets a franchise instead Becks' celebrity is a declining asset. If he doesn't get the deal done soon, he'll offer the league nothing new going forward and they'll start looking for an out. It's his job to, well, get the job done down there. If he can't what's the point of dealing with him any further.
Exactly! The league has given Becks a lot of time to get things going but I think they're also giving themselves some cover to say sometime soon "If nothing happens soon then we're going ahead without Miami". Becks IMO is holding up Sac. Rep. and they have a stadium, owners and fanbase that the league desires.
Ding Ding! Winner winner chicken dinner! In fact, I've said all along Becks probably had to drag the league kicking and screaming back into Miami. They have SO MANY alternatives that are a slam dunk, why in God's name would they want to risk coming back to Miami?
His celebrity was no asset at all in Miami. They didn't give a flying frak about him. He certainly thought they'd all fall down and kiss his arse giving him whatever he wanted, and he found out differently.
6M population and growing (#8 in the US). That's what tv advertisers want. OTOH, the pols and the vast majority of the population do not appear to be soccer fans. Garber has to terminate this sh/t-show soon because other cities are knocking at the door.