The point that several of us were trying to make was that there is interest in more then just college basketball in the area. Your the one that made the blanket statement about college basketball.
Not just college, even though I did insert college with brackets. Their high school basketball or AAU is ridiculous too. I was also showing/refuting comments about the other sports and locations. It doesn't matter what Orlando does in sports. It also doesn't matter what University of Louisville athletics does. This is a completely different animal. Lexington used to have a team, it lasted 7 years (one of those was a hiatus year). We could talk about the success, or lack thereof, of that team...but it's a completely different time and place now.
For link impaired: Two of Orlando City's new MLS owners are coming to meet with The Coopers to discuss relocating their USL franchise to Louisville. Yes, you read that right. We're moving to Molly Malone's in the Highlands to accommodate a larger crowd. We need a huge turnout to make an impression on the Orlando City officials: Phil Rawlins (also a director for the EPL's Stoke City) and John Bonner. Find out more about them at http://www.orlandocitysoccer.com/club/owners/ How can you help? Share this event with every soccer fan you know. A big turnout could fast track Louisville to the land of pro soccer as early as 2015. We'll have scarves on sale that night for $30, plus free food and drink specials, and we'll practice our first Coopers chants! And don't worry -- we'll make it back to Zanzabar in February. BOOM!
Good find. I think it'll be a hard sell...but I hope it happens. I know my brother-in-law will probably be a huge supporter, or even try to work with them.
That's interesting, when the league changed ownership, I seemed to remember that the new owners having the rights to franchises in both Atlanta and Birmingham. I think Brimingham would be a great location geographically.
Here's an article about it from the Louisville papaer. The biggest thing that is new to me in the article is that there is already a supporters group similar to the Sons of Ben model in Louisvill called the Coopers. They have 600 memembers. That's promising news. http://www.courier-journal.com/arti...-Orlando-s-USL-Pro-soccer-club?nclick_check=1
Biggest thing is they said that the USL has ALREADY approved Orlando City's USL franchise move to Louisville if Rawlins & friends are happy. Great news.
I'd imagine they count their membership by those who sign up as a member through their website http://louisvillecoopers.com/
http://orlandocitysoccer.com/news/?article_id=1703 They are meeting today. They say "Members" and ticket pledges (again that doesn't mean much other than they are ahead of any other suitor for the team. Here in Orlando this is considered a done deal, and I imagine OCSC staff are being ask if they will move to Louisville.
Rawlins met with the Louisville supporters club the Coopers tonight. Basically confirming what fsufiji said, Orlando is planning to move it's USL pro team to Louisville next year. Pretty cool.
From the Cooper's Twitter it sounds like they think the U of L stadium will be too small and are looking at Slugger Field (baseball stadium) instead.
Ugh, what a horrendous blunder that would be if the OCSC brass decide to move into a baseball stadium. Not only the crap sight lines but they would have to work around the Bat's playing schedule too. Use the brand new soccer specific stadium, sell it out, and then talk about expanding. Until they can prove they can sell out 5,800 seats a game, in Louisville, they should not even toy with the idea of shoehorning a pitch in a baseball stadium just because it has more seats. Again, it would be a huge blunder I thought OCSC would be smart enough to avoid.
Whats odd is that the Louisville local (Estopinal) who is a part-owner of Orlando City and pushing this move is also the guy building the new Unv of Louisville soccer stadium. Rawlins is saying its too small, but even Estopinal was agreeing with him. Still fun times.
I wonder if concessions play a role in it. Doubt there's beer sales at a university facility. I don't want to poo poo it too much cause I am happy they're getting a team, and it's just close enough to us for road trips, but yeah a baseball stadium is a bit of a bummer. On the bright side nothing is official yet so it could change.
At this point, it should be worth noting that exactly two D3 teams have ever averaged an announced 5,800 a night. (That said, yes, a baseball stadium would be an inferior choice to a soccer stadium.)
But in fairness ... the ownership group that is making the decision IS one of those D3 teams ... and have averaged that attendance the last 2 years (and narrowly missing it for 3 straight years). While I'd rather see them in the U of L stadium ... I'm just a fan, they're paid to make the right decision and this group has been right more than wrong lately. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Even if you do not agree with their "announced" attendance figures of the past couple of years ... they are arguably one of the most successful groups to own and operate a D3 team.
I'm pretty sure that there's beer sales at Louisville's basketball venue, the YUM Center. Is it the University's facility 100%, don't know...but I am almost certain they sell alcohol at the UL basketball games. Surely they'll have to have alcohol for Petrino at football games...ooops.