I did a Q&A with the Atlanta Vibe Marketing Director. Here it is: http://socceratl.com/2015/02/19/atlanta-vibe-qa-the-push-for-a-nwsl-team-continues/
RSL's owner gave an interview today and touched on the Monarch's stadium situation. He mentioned if everything goes to plan they would have an NWSL team starting in 2017. He called it a Women's national team, but he is referring to RSL Women. http://espn700sports.com/espn700-interviews/dell-loy-hansen-rsl-owner-2-18-15/
would love to see Atlanta join in 2016, then add in Salt Lake City & Indianapolis in 2017 and then possibly Toronto & a Southern California team in 2018.
I think Atlanta is currently third in line, with RSL first and Indy probably second. RSL has the best infrastructure and proven support, not to mention has been on the expansion radar the longest. The Indy group is relatively new, but everyone involved there is still miles ahead of what we've seen from Atlanta.
Maybe. I'm iffy on Pittsburgh, though - they're a struggling DIII team as opposed to a stable DII or DI team, so that might be a con instead of a pro, and they're not apparently making nearly as much noise as Atlanta is.
I agree. Like I said earlier, Pittsburgh has already filed for bankruptcy... That's not exactly a ringing endorsement for the ownership there. If I were the NWSL, I would also tell Atlanta that they need to run a WPSL or W-League team for a year before they are granted a NWSL franchise. Make sure they are serious about their commitment and let them work out their mistakes and learn how to run a team first.
http://t.co/aHGeEoYFpI - In As The Stadium Turns news, the new RSL minor league stadium proposal is dead for the time being.— Chris Henderson (@chris_awk) February 26, 2015
Proposed Atlanta team would play at Silverbacks Park Jeff Kassouf February 27, 2015 1 Comment http://equalizersoccer.com/2015/02/27/atlanta-nwsl-expansion-team-play-silverbacks-park/
Considering that RSL's USL team has to play somewhere next year, I bet that not having their first-choice stadium for a potential NWSL team doesn't outweigh the fact that it's a strong, established organization versus one with still many unknowns. The more NWSL ties in with MLS, the happier I'm sure they'd be. That said, I'd agree it's definitely a closer race now, even as skeptical as I am of ATL's probability of happening. "Closer" is of course relative - I still think IND is more probable than ATL, though instead of being RSL----IND----ATL, it's more like RSL-IND--ATL now. I get the sense that a lot of longtime WoSo fans really, really want ATL to happen, which I think is only because of the history there, since ATL right now still kinda sounds like STL's past WPS/DII ambitions - hype and an unknown owner talking big, without an existing support structure or evidence that things will work out.
I would think RSL is still #1. The league has no problem with NWSL teams playing in their MLS owner's stadiums. Rather for RSL, NWSL would seem to be no longer as high a priority as they only seem to want the team if they get the new small stadium. So for now getting that stadium is back to priority #1.
RSL is holding a press conference with West Valley City today regarding the Monarchs stadium. The best guess over on the RSL forum is that the stadium will be in the same area as the Maverik Center (hockey arena). Here's an arial view of the area. The area just north of the Maverik Center would be ideal due to the Trax (lightrail) station. West Valley City owns the Maverik Center, so RSL would be able to share parking with them. There are also lots of dining and shopping places within walking distance. We'll know more this afternoon.
RSL president Bill Manning said he and Hansen met with NWSL president yesterday regarding potential future NWSL team.— Chris Kamrani (@chriskamrani) March 3, 2015
You beat me to it! Here's the announcement regarding the stadium. RSL and West Valley City signed a 60 day letter of intent to negotiate a stadium location. They also mentioned a women's pro soccer team as a tenant of the stadium. http://realmonarchs.com/news/2015/03/dell-loy-hansen-announces-west-valley-city-as-stadium-location/
Interesting that they didn't announce the actual location. I wonder if that's because there are still multiple options or if they are just waiting until they have purchased all of the needed land. The area around the Maverick Center seems like a good choice. The spot just north of it might be a little bit too small though (there would have to be some on site parking for handicap spots) and would impact the ingress point for the hotel off of W 3100 S, though it still would have the entrance off of Upper Lake Dr so they might not fight it too much. I'm wondering about that large paved area just east of there. It looks empty on Google Maps, has anything been built there? I expect part of it (that you can see the lines on) is in current use as parking for the light rail? But the other part with no lines that goes back to W 3100 S seems like it would be an adequate size for the stadium.
Good points. Dell Loy Hansen had an interview on ESPN 700 today and he indicated that they will be in the Maverik Center area and they would be implementing more noise protection systems in the stadium due to there being a hotel directly south of them. There was also a tweet quoting a West Valley City employee indicating that they've always planned on eliminating part of the Maverik Center parking lot for another venue. This makes it seem like the stadium will be located in the parking area south of the Maverik Center. It also makes me wonder how they will displace the lost parking spaces.
Hmm... interesting. There is certainly enough room there for it. Looks like the Maverik Center only seats 10,000. So it's not the biggest of arenas. How full does the parking get?
Depends. I've been to concerts there where the parking lot is full and they use the lot across the street as overflow. But I suspect this hasn't been the case since the Trax line opened up that runs in front of the stadium. People can now park for free at the mall on the other side of the freeway and catch the train to the stadium.
Interesting tidbit from the latest e-mail I got from the Spirit: Although we've already seen quite a bit from our vantage point here, it's nice to hear that all these groups we hear talking are, in fact, on the league's radar. Also very interesting to hear that the league actively decided against expansion this year, as if one of the interested groups might've been ready to jump in already (I have to guess that would've been RSL of anyone, as they were the only one talking as of November). Now the only question is how many (above one) of these interested groups will be granted a team, and how soon!
The commissioner discusses expansion http://equalizersoccer.com/2015/03/19/nwsl-expansion-six-cities-exclusive-commissioner-jeff-plush/
He only named SLC and ATL, probably because they've been the loudest ones so far, and probably the further along in their expansion bids. Considering it's "six" cities, I'm sure Indy is implied in there. Actually, I'm now quite curious as to what the last two interested groups are... (RSL, IND, ATL, PIT, ???, ???) (Even though ATL seemed to come out of nowhere in January, they had been working for well over a year on their plan, apparently - so even though I trust Indy more, I would not be surprised if ATL has more ducks in a row at this point. They certainly have publicity and stadium issues on their side.)
The line in the story I found interesting was that Plush thought the franchise needed to be awarded soon after the April meeting.
Yeah, that was interesting to see. I'm honestly glad they want to avoid the rush job that was Houston for 2014 - not that I think there have been lingering bad effects from the Dash coming in quickly, but I'm guessing everyone involved said "never again". X-D We definitely don't want to see issues with the draft popping up again.