This is a bait and switch rendering that will mostly likely never happen. I could see "out by the Airport" happen, this has that smell all over it. That or Cedar Park up by the hockey team.
Yes, I know MLS says one thing and will do something different at times. We know many soccer supporters would like an easy to access stadium (transit) and being able to walk to restaurants/bars before or after the game. Thus, you have more chances of this happening in a downtown or urban location than a suburban location. And as for the difference between "downtown" vs. "urban", that would be subject to a lot of different definitions. The challenge is alway going to be finding a site that checks off all the boxes. Like I posted before, I think LAFC & MINN check off sone of the big boxes- transit, urban almost downtown location and MIAMI if ever, is in a close in urban location that has potential.
Or in Round Rock... or out by COTA. (Hey, MLS already has one SSS next to a race track.) Well, it occurred to me that the mental image that fits the lazy shorthand of "suburban stadium" really only applies to maybe two of its SSS: Frisco and Kansas City. It doesn't really apply to Carson or Commerce City or Chester or Harrison at all. So you're saying that MLS needs to be putting its SSS in neighborhoods that are in full blown gentrification.
I was thinking exactly about Five Points (I refuse to use the stupid made-up-by-real-estate-speculators name "RiNo.") and that tone-deaf ********ery when I was writing that. But Five Points is getting too expensive already. Maybe KSE needs to start buying out folks in Elyria-Swansea for the next Rapids stadium. And hopefully, the N Line will be done by the time that the Rapids need a new stadium, because we can't be having white millennials riding the bus, you know.
Back to the subject at hand: I predicted in one of these threads some time ago that the idea of receiving a MLS team would sound wonderful to many in Austin but once a concrete stadium proposal was laid out opposition would smite it down -- no matter where it was proposed. I can report that the Butler Shores proposal has done exactly this. My guess is that significant opposition will haunt any proposal that could possibly work. I would not be surprised if the City Council doesn't wind up saying: "PSV, you have two wonderful choices: The County Expo Center and COTA." Either would be a disaster and MLS/PSV will know it. I sure hope they have a plan to mend the fences in Columbus. As an Austinite -- I certainly don't want PSV here. I've already got one team (Houston) with sh*tty owners.
This MLS HQ/PSV relocation project is shaping up as a positive in one category at least, terrific banter over our long MLS Winter Break.
I just got an email from Austin city council member Ann Kitchen. She says she is opposed to using Butler Shores for the new stadium. If she is against it, I don't see how PSV is going to be able to build there. I think the new stadium will probably end up on the east side. It's not ideal, but that's where there is available land. Who knows? My idea of putting it in Pleasant Valley might be back in play.
Right. THAT'S the reason. Has nothing whatsoever to do with it being a totally hilarious fantasy of logistics and unicorn farts.
Austin identifies 8 sites for viable MLS stadium or practice facility http://www.statesman.com/sports/soc...ium-practice-facility/QRG3NPLBUtq6yJNHefJ87I/
The latest: Expo Center trimmed from PSV’s list of Austin MLS stadium sites http://www.statesman.com/news/local...tin-mls-stadium-sites/NeZuN2ayDqgErZKE9BLvsL/
What the hell? You came here to say something that was obvious from Day One of this whole episode, and you did it on a dead thread demonstrating the vaporware that is an Austin stadium? WTF?
I mean it is the first time I have clicked this thread so it is new to me and I thought it was interesting that he changed the colors. I have been to a game in Columbus and hope they don't move. Calm down.
I'm perfectly calm. I'm just confused that something so basic is considered news (hint: it has nothing to do with this thread in particular, nor is this thread the sum total of the news on this issue).
Welcome to Austin MLS. Next will be Guerrero Park getting nixed from the list — leaving only the private land up north of 183 kinda near the Domain (a new-urbanism mixed-use development for rich mellianials) and a train station. Not in the Urban Core at all. Not sure how PSV is going to view that option. This is playing out exactly as I predicted: Some interest when there is no specific proposal just the chance to get an MLS team, all of which evaporates under heated opposition to any specific proposal.
My take on the way it’s gone has been thusly: PSV: Hey Austin, want an MLS team? We’re looking to leave our current home in a loser college football-obsessed state capital for your hip college football-obsessed state capital. Austin: Huh? What? Soccer? Uh, sure. Why not? PSV: Great! Can you give us that park at the corner of Lamar and Riverside so that we can build our stadium there? Austin: What? No, that’s a shitty idea. PSV: OK, OK, fine. How about that park over there in east Austin? We’ve seen that part of town and you can’t tell us that a stadium wouldn’t spruce it up. Austin: ... Austin: Look, how about this parcel up in north Austin? It’s closer to Pflugerville than to downtown, but it’s just a few blocks away from a MetroRail station. PSV: ... In other words, it’s gone more or less the way I would’ve guessed. Austin, less than most cities its size, seems less interested in professional sports as a means to establish itself as a “big-league city.” And because of that, they’re not gonna give away the store to anyone who wants to bring a team to town. So if PSV brings the Crew to Austin, it’s gonna be because they really want to be in Austin, even if it makes no financial sense in the short or medium term.
Looking at the small cities with top level pro sports, you'll see some serious subsidizing. Memphis and New Orleans come to mind as particularly significant offenders, but they're far from alone. The same pattern exists in several of the slow-growing cities that cut great deals to keep teams from relocating. Austin seems uninterested in providing much free stuff. This is fine. Eventually, a pro sports team will expand or relocate there without unusually strong incentives. The city leadership seems content to wait until that happens rather than pay extra to accelerate the process.
Austin’s Guerrero Park becomes latest focus of MLS stadium search http://www.statesman.com/sports/aus...us-mls-stadium-search/QPbPHPW8M2TOpu0y5QcYLP/