A political entity that is empowered by 12 million people, has shitty weather, watches a lot of tv. It's bordered by a political entity empowered by 6-7 million people to it's west (no team), a political entity to it's south empowered by 5 million (no team), a political entity to it's north empowered by 10 million people (no team) and a political entity to it's east empowered by 13 million (which you have to travel 330 miles east in to get to another team) That quite a hole for a league trying to fill holes in the map.
Atlanta filled a hole in the Southeast. I promise you, it means jackshit to me as someone in that hole. It means jackshit to everyone I know.
Idk, the full NFL stadium seemed to enjoy them and building an mls stadium probably meant jack shit to everyone you know which is why North Carolina got knocked out of the expansion race.
No, that's not why. Your problem is that you don't understand what a market is. Well, that, and also being the most obnoxious fan since Seattle's early days.
It's all fun and games until someone points out North Carolina is not going to get considered for a team unless they build a stadium for soccer and make a competent bid.
It's really awesome when two people get into a heated exchange, and both of them are completely wrong.
If you look at the expansion threads, you’ll see me say Raleigh isn’t a good market for MLS unless the Hurricanes leave, which with the new owner, won’t happen. I’m OK with that. My penis size won’t change if we get an MLS team and it won’t we don’t.
The top rated market for mls cup drew a 7 (Seattle) rating. Fc cincy did an 8 for their open cup semi final against Nyrb...in two markets (Dayton & Cincy which is really one market anymore, much like Cleveland-Akron). The game was only broadcast in those two markets, there is a lot of noise about ticket prices (which is dumb, they're a second division team with a 35 k seat stadium, their prices are market rate) but you can't fake tv numbers. Fc cincy, much like Sacramento-who I respect as an organization- has achieved something none of the other expansion candidates have...market penetration.
So superdave is talking about penis size and Cincy Liverpool fan is talking about penetration. I can see where this thread is going,...
There are a fair number of AUFC fans in the SC Upstate (Greenville/Spartanburg area), as well as the Chattanooga area. So, although it doesn't reach people 6 hours away in the heart of NC, it's certainly relevant to more than just the city of ATL. Plus, one team can't "deliver" an entire region all by itself. But when you add several teams, the sport starts to get attention. Orlando and Atlanta already have teams, Nashville is likely to get one, Miami won their lawsuit and could still come online eventually, and North Carolina FC could emerge as a major contender for one of the final slots. If the southeast had 5 teams it would become relevant to the majority of the region.
It's a total unknown. On one hand, Miami has shown huge support for international matches. They have a very large, Hispanic, soccer-loving population there. That said, the city's support for other sports teams has been spotty at best and the Miami Fusion had lousy support and MLS contracted the team (along with Tampa). So, I honestly have no idea what to expect. The market is so big and the potential is so high, I can understand why MLS wants to give it another shot. But it's dragging on forever. Garber mentioned the political landscape, as well as the rapidly rising cost of real-estate in the city, as major barriers to getting the deal done. At this point, it may indeed be best to see what kind of terms they could negotiate to use Hard Rock stadium.
Yep. MLS is awfully deliberate about sharing only what they want you to know. It's disappointing for fans who hunger for clues, but it's actually good business to keep this very private until they are ready to announce the expansion teams. Rumors & speculation might help generate publicity, but it also creates false hope, resentment, and even public questioning of criteria. Better to control the timing and messaging.
MLS has told me there will be no formal expansion announcement after today's expected board of governors vote, but the names of the cities are expected to leak as soon as today. Formal announcements in the winning cities next week.— Bill Shea (@Bill_Shea19) December 14, 2017
I will be especially interested to see if they award 3 teams instead of 2, and move Miami back in the timeline, as Garber insinuated during his State of the League address.
So help me out here. What's the point of not making a "formal announcement" now while almost winking at the thought "but the names of the cities are expected to leak as soon as today"?
They want to be able to hold a big awesome news conference for each team in their home city, so they cannot officially announce it now... but by word getting out, the big awesome news conference will have more than a few journalists show up?
This: Major League Soccer Statement Regarding Expansion pic.twitter.com/X3lBT43DGE— Dan Courtemanche (@courtemancheMLS) December 14, 2017 Plus this: Looks like some things are brewing in the #Nashville v. Save our Fairgrounds case. Seems SoF have filed an amended complaint at the last minute, and requested that the hearing be continued. (1) pic.twitter.com/462RAaSw8M— Miki Turner (@turneresq) December 14, 2017 Looks like the Court has given #Nashville the option of continuing the case until 12/22, or proceeding on their motion to dismiss and accepting the amended complaint filed by SoF. Obviously both options are suboptimal for #Nashville. (2) pic.twitter.com/32lyL96fVR— Miki Turner (@turneresq) December 14, 2017 Make me wonder.
I wish this was not in fact the most sensible comment on this whole topic. The real problem here is the way this whole application thing has been setup, ending with 2 winners and two more later. Or possibly three now and one later. Plus Miami. Or not. And we may admit one of the teams in 2019. Or not. Plus Austin, which is the league's pet project even though they have exactly none of the requirements the others were told they HAD to have - local deep pocket owner, stadium solution in place and history of support for minor league soccer - they're nonetheless at the head of the line, with everybody pretending they're not part of this. And by the way, we had a super-secret agreement - this is after all how we do business here at MLS - with San Antonio that they would not be part of this round, even though it was clearly not true. Still, it's different from the super-secret "Austin out" clause in the Columbus deal which, well, we're not going to confirm or deny but, gee, we don't recall any such thing. And then: "We'll be voting on the 14th. Or not. Well, we had a meeting. Talked about a lot of stuff. More stuff to talk about. May have an announcement soon. Or not. Like it or lump it, losers." Reportedly MLS wants to make any actual announcements in the winning cities themselves. Put another way, Don Garber wants to be the star of several local TV shows. I see him popping out of a cake or appearing in a cloud of smoke like a cheap Vegas lounge act. The upside being that he'll have four more opportunities to badmouth Columbus. "Hey, wow, thanks for the warm welcome. What a crowd. So I just flew in from New York and boy does Columbus Ohio stink. Amiright?" And MLS can't understand why nobody thinks of them as a big time outfit. Maybe it's because Don Garber runs it like a toothless backwoods moron running a muffler shop.
Possible benefit for Detroit and Sacramento is the new GOP tax plan. In question is the tax-free municipal bonds that sports owners use to build stadiums. "The House version of the tax plan eliminated the break; the Senate version leaves it intact. As congressional leaders are reconciling the plans for a final bill to present to President Donald Trump, some tax experts speculate some changes to the financing provision." And more from the article... "Two other finalist cities — Cincinnati and Nashville, Tennessee — are relying on tax-free municipal bonds to provide millions to their plans to build new soccer stadiums. The other finalist, Sacramento, California, is not using the bonds. The theory — and it’s just theory — is that the league may lean toward the two cities where the plans don’t depend on these bonds." This gives more weight to the already solid bid for Sacramento, but does Detroit benefit much from this?