Garber mentioned it in today's "State of the League" address. That investors from Cleveland are meeting with league officials. I doubt that's going to happen in the immediate future, but what a frickin' derby that would be! Add in Detroit as another possibility, and I think you'd see the number of Crew fans travelling jump up to tops in the league. The real question - can Ohio support a team in Cleveland too? My guess is a guarded "yes".
well the population and participation in soccer in northern Ohio would point to yes, however I'm not sure how serious an MLS team in Cleveland would be taken w. all the other pro sports in the city. But I guess Browns and Buckeye football are about the same...and we have hockey instead of b-ball....the biggest competition would the Indians. It sure would be a nice rivalry.
...and the indians aren't doing so well these days. (wonder how this will affect the conferences)... Chicago Columbus Possible Cleveland Possible Detroit San Jose Colorado LA Dallas NE DC NY ??? ??? At least he didn't mention Rochester or Seattle or Portland... Some new cities to keep interest..
Plenty of fans within 1 hr travel time. Maybe they can move SJ there. The Bay area market wouldn't know they were gone and the CCC rivalry would be great. They could be the Cleveland Lakers and get some extra press...
The Crunch has traditionally done well in Clevetown, despite the fact that indoor soccer is a pretty marginal sport. That aside, they do not currently have even a PDL or Pro Div 3 team, let alone A League. They do still, I think, have a W League team. I'd look it up but I don't care that much. With all the other unserved areas of the country (Pacific Northwest, Southeast) and the obviously suitable Rochester market less than 4 hours away, I'd be really surprised to see Cleveland get a "franchise" (which of course is MLSese for "letting one of the teams we collectively own play games in your city) And I can't believe that Lamar Hunt would be real thrilled either.
I doubt the Crew get much support North of Mansfield. Most Clevelanders won't admit they even come down to see the BJs. You have a good point from a media standpoint, though. Hard to believe the East or West coast markets would tune into a Crew/Lakers playoff game.
Actually the Crew get more support north of Mansfiled than you think. I work in Cleveland and make the trek to every home game. I don't think a team in Cleveland would be a good idea. The Cleveland sports market is pretty well saturated. An MLS team would be competing directly against the Indians for space in the paper and time on the airways. Those Clevelanders who do follow MLS already support Columbus. Where to play? The field at the new stadium is only 69 yards wide. Not to mention that the lease agreement grants the Browns total control of all revenue. Unless the interested investor is Al Lerner, a team in Cleveland would do nothing but put more money into the hands of the NFL.
yeah, now that i think of it, there was going to be a Crew friendly in a south cleveland suburb, but it got cancelled.
Interesting. Do the Crew scores get carried in the PDealer? Do they pickup Merz's stories? I don't remember the Crew doing much in the way of friendlies, but that was before the focus on existing fans. It could be a good market for cable etc. Do you get any telecasts ex. networks?
Personally, I think having a team in Cleveland would be a terrible idea. I agree that the sports market there is already higher than it can really support, especially if you throw in another team. This is just a bad idea. The other places mentioned included Toronto and Detriot. Forget Canada.... don't make the pathetic attempts baseball and basketball have made at essablishing teams up there. It would be a horrendous mistake, and with salaries as low as they are in MLS and with the Canadian taxes being so high on pro athletes there, nobody would want to play there. They'd all live in the slums of Toronto with a bunch of Pakis waiting for Green Cards. Detriot would be the only city of the 3 that MIGHT be a decent choice. I don't know anything about their soccer community or where they might put the team (downtown, suburb). I've only heard bad things about going into Detroit and about the city itself. It could be there perfect breeding ground for the leagues first group of TRUE soccer hooligans. The plus side of all this is that Detroit would be excellent for rivalries against the Crew & the Fire. Wasn't there talk of putting a team in NC at one point? Honestly though, I feel the league should focus for the time being on getting real places for their teams to play. I'm looking forward to LA's new home next year, and I'm anxious to hear the voting results in September as to whether or not NJ will support a new stadium for the Metroscum. These are positive steps, and can only raise the value of the league. Strength then expand, not expand then try to defend when you're resources are too spread out. Hitler never learned this lesson, and maybe Garber hasn't either.
For a non-MLS city, the PD does a decent job with MLS I suppose, given that it's usually ignored in non-MLS cities...and even in some MLS cities for that matter! The PD will usually run the AP capsules about each game and sometimes even include a photo. There's no particular emphasis on the Crew though. It's not like the Crew the first capsule, or a bigger capsule or anything. On the bright side, the Plain Dealer, unlike the Dispatch, actually gets the standings right! Instead of "NY/NJ", the standings/results actually say "MetroStars." Instead of merely "D.C.", the standings/results say "D.C. United." It's weird that the Plain Dealer has gotten this right for years while the Dispatch hasn't. As for MLS in Cleveland, I know that former Cleveland Force owner Bart Wolstein met with league officials back in 1998 because he had an interest in a team. I wonder if it's him again? Or maybe Lamar has shown Lerner that even if your soccer team draws 9,000 people in your NFL stadium, you can pay your left hand with your right hand and come out okay. But I know Lerner had purchased an option for an Arena Football League team and then declined to exercise it because of the need to "focus on the Browns." (Then again, that could have been a sports owner's version of "it's not you, it's me.") I agree that there are several places that would make more sense than Cleveland at this juncture, but if it happens, I'll be excited nonetheless. Live MLS games every weekend! Sirk
I think Detroit is a much wiser decision than Clevo. It has a massive Population and the surrounding cities in Michigan are also good soccer communities.
Detroit better get a team before Cleveland. Over 6 million in the Metro area, plus soccer communities like Troy, Rochester, Ann Arbor, Canton, Plymouth, Livonia, and Birmingham. Not to mention Dearborn and Mexican town in Detroit. I have no doubt in my mind that Detroit would better support a team than Cleveland. The only thing that is hamstringing it is a proper venue. There has been many, many, many talks about renevating Tiger Stadium. But, I feel that isn't practical. From what I understand, it would be cheaper to build a new stadium than renevate that one. Besides, there are plenty of open lots in downtown Detroit where a modular stadium could be placed until a permanent site could be secured. The idea of a Tri City War between Detroit, Chicago, and Columbus is huge. I hope I get to see that happen.
Mr Lerner has more money than God. And makes Phil Anschutz look like a piker. (And that was before Qwest stock began selling in the same range per piece as Charmin) He paid as I recall $750 million for the NFL Franchise. He just gave a $100 million dollar gift to Case Western Reserve to start a Medical Research College. He could write a check for ALL of MLS and make Garber wash his car and fetch his laundry. But he is also not well, and it's considered highly unlikely that he would engage another project of this type.
Support would be good there. But, if columbus can't get any foreign talent wanting to live here...can you imagine what they'd think of Cleveland and Detroit? Yuck cities to live in. Detroit the lesser of yuckiness.
OK, I'll bite on Detroit. It would create a great 3 way rivalry and I have to believe there could be some room to build a stadium in the western suburbs. Who would want to do it and can the league xfer SJ, and all ten of there fans, to Detroit? I have to think having an existing high quality team would make the PR MUCH simpler. How about the "Detroit Wheels" --which would immediately become "ROUNDERS"!
Where would a team in Cleveland play? After all, if the site isn't near downtown or the airport, you can forget about West Siders venturing to the East Side, and vice versa.
According to Forbes, Anshutz is the 16th richest American, and Lerner is the 34th. Of course, these things probably come down to how you count. http://www.forbes.com/2001/09/27/400.html
It would be very cool to have an MLS team so close to home, But I am already dedicated to the crew but I would still go to CLeveland games just to support the league. But as fun as this would be,, I do not think that MLS should come to cleveland, we would disgrace the leauge and although our more than crappy indoor team gets relatively descent attendance I dont think we would do that well. All sports casters and newspapers here think soccer is a joke and are fully dedicated to the BRowns Indians and to some extent the Rockers. The team would get almost no respect.
I think you'll find that Uncle Phil's net worth has deteriorated considerably. It was mostly in highly inflated telecom stocks (Qwest) and has evaporated. In fact, and very unfortunately, there are beginning to be whispers that he may not be able to continue to support MLS for much longer. Lerner, meanwhile, pretty much invented credit cards. (OK, it's an exaggeration - he just invented getting RICH off credit cards) and his wealth is, well, tangible.
From who? If it's someone within or close to AEG, then i'd probably believe it. If it's someone like Jim Rome, then you can flush those whispers down the toilet. This is another reason why MLS needs to start building stadiums and turning a profit. Cause the clock is sadly starting to tick.
You're right, he should be concerned with building some permanent homes and making a profit. He should be concerned with the BIG teams. LA has one coming, which is great, because I think they'll be able to really pull in some cash beginning next season. However, Chicago is in a bad situation and something needs to be done there, desperately. NY would greatly benefit from their own stadium, as would DC. If you can get those 4 teams into their own stadiums and start turning a profit, then the league should be able to rebound w/o too much trouble. SJ,KC,DAL,COL won't bring in as much as the others. However, I suppose they might be losing more money, so that might be seen as a priority to the investors. NE will never get a new stadium as long as their stuck in CMGI and the Pats.