Jacksonville

I can see a D2 or D3 team potentially doing well in Jacksonville. Good sized city with decent demographics and an unsaturated pro sports market.

Plus another close road trip for Atlanta, Railhawks, Tampa Bay and Ft. Lauderdale.

 

Bring back the Tea Men!!!

 

I must of missed out on the outbreak of stadium fever that is going around Florida as of late. First VSI, then the Strikers, now the mayor of Jacksonville being all coy. What gives?

First off mayor, just stop with the delusions that Jacksonville is a thriving soccer market because a friendly involving Scotland drew well. Nevermind that Scotland has one of the best traveling supporters groups and a huge expat population in the States. A USA-Scotland match would have drawn 40,000 plus in any midsize city in America.

It is interesting that he would make public musings about soccer in Jax. The specific mention of minor league options, means maybe he isn't just blowing smoke. If you are going to make stuff up, why not talk up MLS specifically? Maybe USL Pro or NASL has something in the works.

 

Not only the travelling Scotland supporters, which reportedly numbered well into the thousands, but the travelling USA supporters from all over the South East. Jacksonville was an easy drive for anyone from Atlanta to Miami who wanted to see a decently big friendly.

Not knocking them at all, and of course Tampa Bay benefits from some of the same, but between the time frame between friendlies in Jacksonville and the other factors listed here it shouldn't have been a HUGE surprise that the game drew so well.

 

Right. You had a dream matchup. I will give Jacksonville credit to being well located to draw fans across the southeast. It is an easy destination on 95 and 10 to come from the whole southeast.

You put USA vs Finland there and it will be a whole different story.

 

I'm guessing he either 1.) has a group lined up and the mayor wants to gauge public opinion, 2.) after the game inquired about the soccer thing and got excited when he saw what other cities have done/are doing, or 3.) he's a dude that likes sports and wants more sports teams for his city to help it progress and is putting out feelers.

He could also want a stadium for concerts in those empty blocks north of that convention center. Anyone from the area know what's up with that place?

 

Jacksonville would probably be a great fit for either NASL or USLPro. For either league it could probably be the kind of "big" city that would be a long term market, with no realistic threat of MLS coming in any time soon.

 

correct, though a tough pill to swallow for their PDL and their NPSL franchises, they will probably lose their fanbase

 

Of what? 50 or 100 people? Not a huge tragedy.

 

Or get acquired by the pro team (see also, Orlando and Atlanta).

 

without these ''50 or 100 people'' as you call them, it will be even harder to survive

 

that is also an option, or they can just fold, what the Utah Blizz did when Real SL came to town

 

50 or 100 fans ?

Top 5 PDL Attendance 2011 season*
1.Fresno Fuego4,765
2.Des Moines Menace3,263
3.W. Texas United Sockers1,918
4.Carolina Dyname1,885
5.FC Jax Destroyers1,066

 

Actual 2011 numbers:
1 - Fresno............4,511
2 - Des Moines........3,372
3 - Carolina..........1,703
4 - Portland..........1,531
5 - New Orleans.......1,500
6 - West Texas........1,355
7 - Ventura County....1,100
8 - El Paso...........1,067
9 - Jacksonville......1,029

And in 2012....

FC Jax Destroyers averaged 181 fans per game.

 

from 1029 to 181 ? That is a huge drop, something must have happened, any idea what ?

 

No idea. Usually when you see that big a drop, one of two things has happened:
1 - Despite what would look like healthy numbers, they still lost money and the owners panicked and slashed the budget for sales & marketing (easy targets), with a resulting drop in attendance.
2 - The original numbers were widely inflated and didn't reflect the true level of paying interest in the club.

Like I said, I have no idea if that's the case in Jacksonville, but that usually is what happens.

 

I know NPSL numbers are hard to come by, but I wonder how Jacksonville United did as well... (I can't imagine much better, but it would be interesting to see)

 

I remember that despete having a good team (they ended up as NPSL champion) they drew a lot less fans than the PDL franchise during the 2011 season

How things went during the 2012 season, I have no idea

 

FC Jax Destroyers (The PDL Team) are not defunct. Not sure what happened to their support but I believe they may have changed home venues from JU to UNF or vice versa. Jacksonville United (2011 NPSL champions) are still in existence. Maybe United making the Open Cup last year and hosting hte Rowdies upped their support? I'm not sure, but the Union-Impact game is this Friday night at EverBank field, but I just feel they planned this exhibition rather poorly. Firstly, they put it six days after the Women's National Team played there so that event garnered most of the attention. Secondly, the Disney Pro Classic is going on right down the road in Orlando with six MLS teams and two local sides so most serious Soccer fans have already made plans to go there (such as myself). Since both of these two teams are playing early games the following afternoon I'm not sure what kind of lineup they are going to put forth either. I like that Jax inked a deal with the Union to play there three years in a row, but I wish they'd of planned this time around a little better. Jax drew 45k plus for the MNT game last year, and over 18k for the women this past weekend (a stand alone record for a woman's game in the Southeast) so I'd love to see them get a decent draw Friday night . . . just not sure it's going to happen given the circumstances I explained above. Every good showing is another step closer to professional soccer for the First Coast though.

PS Sorry if some of this posting sounds familiar given that their is also a Jax thread in the MLS expansion part of the site that I replied to. I think the goal is much more realistic for D2 and D3.

PPS The Teamen were awesome haha

 

Sorry for the typo there . . . it should open with "FC Jax Destroyers (The PDL Team) are NOW defunct"