Re: Tearing down Lockhart?! I'm not sure. You can easily play 15 games of soccer + friendly games and import some Dutch foreign teams to Florida on their winter breaks for training + some High School or JC American football games there in the fall. You could actually start using the stadium a lot more than only 15 baseball games and use it say 25-30 times if not more. Now if you mean a longer baseball season I.E. MLB or even AA or AAA that has maybe 80 home games, you may have a point.
Re: Tearing down Lockhart?! As we have stated several times, FAU is planning on building their own stadium, now those plans are just being excelerated. FAU doesn't care that much about Lockhart.
Re: Tearing down Lockhart?! What's the timetable? I get the sense that Lockhart will be down by 2008... right or wrong sense? What FAU proposes darn well isn't getting done by the start of the fall 2008 pointyball season. They're not close to achieving the 1-A attendance requirements they're trying to achieve. Will football even survive there?
Re: Tearing down Lockhart?! FAU has stated that if they can't get the dome done by 2008 (or when Lockhart is gone) they will build a temporary, small, open air on campus stadium. Or just move back to Pro Player http://www.palmbeachpost.com/sports/content/sports/epaper/2006/09/28/a6c_stateru_928.html
Re: Tearing down Lockhart?! And judging by the attendence at the FAU game on ESPN2 last night...it won't ever have to be a big stadium.
Re: Tearing down Lockhart?! Am I the only one who hates domed stadiums in the south? I can understand up north where they get assloads of snow in the winter months. But in the south, especially florida, the weather is often very nice at game time (other than in late july-early aug).
Re: Tearing down Lockhart?! You do realize that the summer is when the USL is in the middle of its season, right? I'm all for AC friendly soccer stadiums in Florida. Here, here!
Re: Tearing down Lockhart?! I like em because IF you have decent fans making noise, then the roof reflects the sound and it makes for a better atmosphere...
Re: Tearing down Lockhart?! You can play a night and get rid of that problem (mostly). It's not worth a dome, in my opinion.
Sorry if this is a dumb question, Ive only closely followed MLS since the 2006 season. What ever happened to Lockhart stadium? Why isn't anybody using that?
simple...theres no team in the area to use it (although i believe the ft.lauderdale strikers will be using the facility next year when they enter the USL) they do however use it for some international matches
florida international university's football team uses it however they aint doing so hot in terms of getting attendance, they may have a stadium on campus soon, and its highly likely lockhart will be torn down in the not so distant future
Florida Atlantic University uses it, not FIU... FAU has in mind an on-campus football stadium and Lockhart is probably going to be torn down. To answer a previous question on Lockhart, The Fusion, not the Mutiny, used it...
It's not being used, because the MLS management forced the owner of the Miami - Fusion expansion team out of the league. He was fed up with having to pay a shared debt which amounted to $18M per year, all because there was not an owner of the SJ, DAL, and TB franchises. The league chose to contract, and close down the TB and MIA franchises, and blame FL, Glazer, and Horowitz for not being better investors... That Lockhart Stadium could still be being used by the Miami Fusion if MLS had done the right thing, and let Glazer in at $5M, sold the Dallas franchise to Tim Krause and allowed them to move the team to Milwaukee. This likely would have kept Horowitz and the Miami Fusion in the league, and it also might have kept MetroMedia partners Kluge and Subotnik in the league as well... That would have left the 1 team in SJ, who had just won MLS Cup, and would win it again, with Landon Donovan on the team, as the remaining unowned franchise... and with the wealth in Silicon Valley, and the fact that there would not be any unowned franchises, there likely would have been an investment group to get involved (I heard rumors that the two guys who owned the Sacremento Kings wanted to buy them but didn't want to pay sum MLS was asking, and a collective share of debt. Instead, MLS contracted the miami team... and the 'SSS' stadium which Ken Horowitz spent $5M rennovating/expanding... sits idle, without a team (other than local high school and FIU football). The stadium is going to be torn down to build either a newer football stadium for FIU, or a shopping center.
Also I believe the Orioles convinced the city to tear it down so they could build a new complex there for spring training.
I have a feeling that Lockhart will not end up being torn down. Something tells me that the people of South Florida will not like tearing down the stadium to build a stadium for a month-a-year tenant.
And, one must realize, that while the major league club may only be there for a month, most Grapefruit League teams have minor league clubs in the Florida State and/or Gulf Coast Leagues that use the buildings throughout the summer. Shame, though, as Lockhart _is_ a soccer specific stadium in a major media market that is large enough to host an MLS team. I know little about getting there, being that I live in Jersey, but if memory serves correctly, that was one of the shortcoming about the site cited in folding the Fusion. Maybe some South Floridians can enlighten me. p.s., I've finally achieved my dream of using site and cite in the same sentence. Still can't die in peace, though. RedBulls still need to win a title.
Well done... I do remember a bunch of smack talked about how the location hurt attendance... but when they tried to move them to the orange bowl... attendance didn't jump up significantly... the trouble is, Miami's immigrant communty are either poor, or baseball fans... There was certainly a lot of negative views in the hispanic community towards MLS... However, again, Miami Fusion would have become profitable... it was the the $18M from the collective debt which he had qaulms with...
I agree. If the Fusion were still around, they'd be doing fine (i.e. profitability). All they need is to finish renovating the skyboxes, and this stadium would be great for MLS.
Completely wrong about the San Jose Earthquakes, as the team already had an owner in 2001 (Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment, or SVS&E), 2001 was Landon Donovan's first season with SJ, and the Maloof brothers (who own the Sacramento Kings) never even inquired about owning the Quakes. As a matter of fact, San Jose hadn't been ownerless since the end of the 1998 season except for a brief few weeks between December 2000 (when the Krafts left) and January 2001 (when SVS&E took over), a full year before the contractions happened. Dallas, on the other hand, remained ownerless until Hunt Sports Group became that franchise's owner in 2003. -G
Lockhart will be torn down in 2008 for the Orioles Spring training park. The City, County and School Board have already approved it. Thus the Ft Lauderdale Strikers USL plans have been thrown for a loop and any future S. Florida int'l matches will have to play at the Orange Bowl, Dolphins Stadium or Tropical Field(ha!). Oh and Ken Horowitz was a baby.
Interesting how history can be spinned.... Not saying you don't have some points, but it was more complicated than you portray (where was Milwaukee going to play? Also, if this Krause was any sort of player, he coulda still got a team + built an SSS), etc. Your best point is recognizing what a shame that essentially one of the first SSS (the first?) is getting torn down.....for spring training baseball? (yikes)