Except that not what she said.... https://www.stltoday.com/news/local...e_dda8b616-db88-5abb-b716-bc0b04731fef.html#8 From the article: “We’re going to do it now,” Kindle Betz said. “We will probably not be here in a year.” Not quite the 28 or else ultimatum you are implying
Fair enough, I must have you mistaken then. To your Cincy/Ral/CLT point, I disagree mainly because Raleigh and Charlotte don't blend the way any of those other places you named can be blended, the closest comparison was Colorado and CS is usually considered to be in the same market as Denver and does not even break 1 million ppl. And we all know Cincy jumped the line due to attendance (as well as getting the other moving parts lined up along the way) but what about Nashville or Atlanta? Two examples of markets that got in based on having the investors and stadium deal in place without the insane fan support at the lower level. Wow, yea I had not seen that until now. I like the hardball approach, they see how Sacramento has been treated and the city just got spurned by NFL so I can understand this statement (even if it was only a hollow statement and not her true feelings).
It was the pics for me. Never paid attention to the actual pic just know the profile pic had a person(people) in it.
=================== IF MLS comes to NC, it needs to be Raleigh. Only other professional league team is the NHL and basically on opposite parts of the year. NFL and NBA will never come to Raleigh as they are in Charlotte. And not sure if MLB is even looking at the state of NC. I see it as filling a big geographical gap between ATL and DC, a growing area, and plenty of colleges that play soccer in the area. Whether you get that big corporate money type of franchise or do you run it more like a mid major... is the current owner of NCFC deep pockets enough or would MLS as him to add a deep pocket owner like Sacramento did?
My other issue with the NCFC brand was that it MLB has named Charlotte as a possible expansion location recently. Why Raleigh over Charlotte when Charlotte has more resources at it's disposal and a larger city & metro population to boot? Because Raleigh doesn't have NBA? MLS would run Charlotte from Feb through Football season, what about all the college sports going on in the triangle? Those are their pro teams that way. You never heard relocation rumors, that had actual footing, regarding the Hornets or Panthers but we have gotten plenty about the Canes based on their struggle to draw crowds for a long period of time. There is no advantage for Raleigh aside from more youth players and a minor league team (with aabetter structure) that averages about 2k more per game.
https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis...uis-mls-dream-team-came-together-and-why.html Carolyn Kindle Betz of Enterprise Holdings says she doesn't know how Major League Soccer would say no to the #MLS4THELOU ownership group's bid for a team. If they do? "It might be one of those things where it's just kind of time to say, 'You know what? I don't think this is a good partnership.'" Maybe this makes it sound more like an ultimatum.
I'm very interested to see how the league handles their current expansion timeline; add just STL or Sac or nnounce 29 with plans for 30 later (PHX most likely). Sac vs STL is interesting but PHX is right there. https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/nfl/carolina-panthers/article228388019.html Tepper stated that he believes major renovations to the stadium are a more likely the path to be taken to bring the stadium up to speed. I know there is a crowd who feels it will have to be brand new but, if the renovations are along the lines of what we're done at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami then, I could see this being acceptable for MLS (considering all other influences). Hard Rock has attracted numerous events since it's renovations; reducing capacity to add more seats, an open air canopy was also added, newer video boards/lighting, and a canopy over the seats (Tepper has talked about adding a roof). Adding team specific locker rooms would not be impossible and the new Gateway Center will make getting to games easy on fans (the current practice fields will also be redeveloped into something for fans to do before and after games. After StL and/or Sac, I feel like CLT could be right with (or under) PHX in the pecking order (depending on how the stadium situation plays out).
I understand completely. But I never say anything in a negotiation that I am not willing to do. Carolyn Kindle Betz better be prepared to walk away if Saint Louis isn't picked. Otherwise she has zero credibility. My concern for Saint Louis is the requirement to get certain sponsorships set before the franchise is awarded to Saint Louis. Why does MLS care who sponsors the stadium or the jersey? If WWT (Kavanaugh's company) or Enterprise (Kindle Betz's company) want to sponsor the jersey of stadium why does it make a difference?
And if they use language and posturing like this before they're in the club, how are they going to act if you give them a team? The BoG isn't looking for "rock the boat" or "demanding" ownership groups. They're looking for partners who are ready to get on board with the way things are currently going. I'm sure the quote is more for public and local government consumption and not aimed at MLS, in fact I suspect there was plenty of back-channel communication with the MLS expansion committee at least after the fact, if not prior to the statement.
It really doesn't appear that you do understand. Why don't you provide some examples of when you were in a negotiation, how much money was involved, what you said during the meeting and the result. Then we can judge your credibility.
I'm going to go on a limb here and say that MLS has concerns about how supportive the rest of the business community is going to be of a MLS team. And there's a pretty big difference between having an owner's company sponsor the team vs. other businesses sponsor the team. You aren't sure they even bid out the sponsorship, whether the bid was competitive, and, most importantly, even if the sponsorship was bid out and the owner's company's bid was the top offer, it gives the impression of favoritism and may result in sponsorships that aren't competitive in the future. Local sponsorships are a big part of an MLS teams revenue stream. If that part of the stream is lacking, then that is going to either mean the team isn't competitive, or additional money out of the ownership's pockets, which can mean the owners end up cutting corners in other areas.
You will break that limb. They recently had a luncheon in STL and more than expected showed up to hear how they can become corporate sponsors.
Just going off how Lothar was claiming that it was unfair that St. Louis had to line-up sponsorships before their bid would be accepted. That being said, getting business leaders to show up for a free lunch isn't that hard. What is hard is getting them to put their signatures on the dotted line. Particularly for the high dollar ones that MLS is really concerned about.