Re: Help Bring Pro Soccer Back to Tampa! Any updates on how many have signed up so far? Keep up the great work.
Re: Help Bring Pro Soccer Back to Tampa! I get the feeling that having lots of local backsides on seats for the Ecuador game will have a much greater effect than filling in forms.
Re: Help Bring Pro Soccer Back to Tampa! Thanks boss, thats what the plan is. No one is kidding themselves by thinking that the 2 events are not related. Everyone in Florida knows that if the Tampa game next month isn't well attended, the status of a MLS team is in doubt.
Just got back from the USA-Equador game.... 31,600 soccer fans a new record for Tampa.. The game kicked ass.. U.S. won 3-1, It just proves Tampa is ready for a soccer team.
what gets me is that there was a turnout of 30K with absolutely ZERO advertising at all. I saw people driving down from Orlando on I-4 wearing Ecuador or USA jerseys... but none of the people I work with knew there was a game today. One wonders what the turnout would have been with it.
i guess word of mouth is more powerful...i saw people from other countries waving their flags or club names..that's why i don't understand why their isn't a team in tampa? I mean Glazer owns Manchester United..If they had problems with renting Raymond James because of expenses, they should build new stadium
I wouldn't call little corner ads in the St. Pete Times ZERO advertising, but it's probably as close as you could get. Great crowd, great game, great weather overall a great day for US soccer in Tampa
31,547, a record for a U.S. friendly in Florida U.S. Head Coach Bob Bradley On the atmosphere at Raymond James Stadium, with the largest attendance ever for a friendly game in the state of Florida: "The atmosphere today was great. I was part of MLS when the Mutiny was here, so I have been here before. It's a great stadium. The crowd today was excellent. The opportunity to play in a great stadium where the crowd is into the game, where you look into the stands and see red, white and blue, you see yellow and blue - that kind of passion and atmosphere is what all the players and coaches want all the time." So I guess it proves Soccer is alive and kicking in Tampa! We need a professional team
Everything Tampa Related I agree ! Bring back the Rowdies & Rodney Marsh! Were there any former Tampa Bay Rowdies there? Geoff , Roy & Steve Wegerle....Frank Worthington......Derek Smethhurst......Winston Dubose, Wes McCleod, Oscar Fabbiani, Mike Connel etc etc...
Re: A stadium and MLS team in Tampa Bay? Didn't the MLS already want him to buy a team in Tampa and he refused?
Re: A stadium and MLS team in Tampa Bay? That is not a very accurate summary of events. Essentially, MLS tried to get the Glazers to buy the Mutiny, to which the Glazers, led by the eldest son Joel, were all ready to do. But when MLS raised the purchase price to $10 million, the Glazers said no thank you. So ask yourself, would you have been happy if MLS would have lowered the franchise fee to save the Mutiny or are you glad things ran the way they did?
Re: A stadium and MLS team in Tampa Bay? Why didn't they lower the price? They should have......They are stupid....They were too greedy. I know that Ken Horowitz paid $20million for the Miami Fusion and supposedly stuck around as an "investor" but basically he had to pay that becuase he already committed but in reality he pulled out. Am I correct? I think it would have been better to invest that money over a certain period for the long term instead of upfront.
This is needed http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=172977693 Please add us as a friend and show your support!!! Also send any old pictures you want put up to bringsoccerbacktoflorida@yahoo.com
For those Rowdies fans who didn't see these posts in the NASL thread....here you go! Forza Florida Canadian NASL legends Wes McLeod of the Tampa Bay Rowdies (left) and Vancouver Whitecaps Carl Valentine battle for the ball before a sellout crowd during Soccer Bowl '79 at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. McLeod will be one of several NASL alumni participating in next month's NASL reunion game in Dallas. Tampa Bay Rowdies Tampa Bay Rowdies 4-2 New York ...
Look at the guy standing up at the side railing just past the lower right hand corner of the US flag. Is it me or is he sporting an old Mutiny jersey? Here's hoping a Florida team comes in the next wave of expansion.
Current "rumor" is that one team, most likely San Jose, "may" return in 2008 and then 2 more (leading contenders are Philly, Cleveland, St Louis, Atlanta, Milwaukee, Phoenix and now Portland) in 2009 or 2010. Of course there is no set timetable so it could be only Tulsa and Fargo joining in 2012 for all we know.
Probably won't be a "wave". Toronto starts this year. I would bet 20$ that San Jose starts next year. Then a year wait. Then in 2010, we get two more teams and that will be it for a little while.
Today in the paper it said Glazer's Man U are worth $1.4 billion dollars, it's sad that a city with a owner like Glazer can't support a team for Tampa, especially since the USL was founded in Tampa and the IMG academy is based in Bradenton, and i don't have to explain how many soccer stars came out of that school....
Tampa needs a stadium like Toronto FC........ http://toronto.fc.mlsnet.com/t280/stadium/construction/