I recall reading about one in Florida. It's a decent enough facility that some of the giants of the cricket world will be playing some 20-20 there this year. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh I think, but I could be (and probably am) wrong.
yeah, i thought it would be in new york or florida. and it is florida [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ohPFFzdnaU"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ohPFFzdnaU[/ame] http://www.dreamcricket.com/dreamcricket/news.hspl?nid=7900&ntid=4
http://espn.go.com/espn3/index/_/sport/cricket# Here you go, click on "replay" to watch the first ever full ICC international cricket matches from the US. The debut international match on the 22nd had a pretty decent crowd. The match on the 23rd had multiple onscreen appearances of an Indian fan (he was at least holding an India flag) wearing last year's Crew away jersey. Massive!
I'll throw another one out there after my #1 sleeper (Sacramento) Austin Texas. Over 1.7M metro area and growing (so the same size as Columbus and bigger than Salt Lake) and it doesn't have a single major league team. Progressive, great place to live, diverse, regional rivals with Dynamo and FCD. Texas probably has the most depth of any state regarding youth soccer talent. Could be another attractive destination for latin american players. I think Austin could be a real sleeper. If someone did it right in Austin and Sacramento, I think both could be very successful markets for MLS.
not till Houston gets there stadium built, and Dallas starts attracting a crowd, because they have the worst attendance in the MLS. http://www.mls-daily.com/2010/03/2010-mls-attendance.html San Jose has such a low attendance cause there stadium can only fit 10,000, so when they open there new SSS stadium, there attendance will go up. They could just move Dallas or Chivas to Austin or Sacramento or Tucson or etc.
FCD has poor attendance but I don't think it means that Austin or San Antonio couldn't do better. Houston did it right.
The one reason Houston did it right was because there was such a controversy about them naming the club I believe it was 1836. Thats why they did so well.
Added metro population to your list for context. Granted, population isn't everything, but at 3.2 million (and nearly a million people more than the next largest metro area on your list), I'd hardly call Minneapolis/St. Paul obscure... Unfortunately, the odds of getting a soccer stadium built here any time in the forseeable future is really, really low unless an angel owner steps up and privately finances the whole thing.
what about San Francisco? I know the bay area as a whole has like 6M and includes San Jose, but if the Quakes are going to stay in SJ and build a small 15k stadium, I bet you could still have room for a team in urban SF or maybe in Oakland if it was very easy to get to. I am not from the bay area, but I have a feeling that fans in SF-Oakland probably don't feel as connected to a team in SJ as it would in SF. If we indeed expand to 30 (like other US leagues) and we wanted to focus on regional rivalries like Van-Sea-Port. I think everyone would agree that a Sacramento-San Fran-San Jose rivalry would be great. All within a short drive of each other.
If Anchorage, Halifax and Atlantic City are on that list then London should be too. It has a Metro Population of ~450,000 and is within easy driving range of places like Mississauga (~750,000), Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge (~400,000), Windsor (~250,000) and Detroit.
if you don't have a metro area over 1M there is zero chance of getting a spot. MLS needs TV viewers and little towns like this won't do it. Salt Lake is the absolute smallest they will go, Rochester is the same size and has long been turned down due to size. I think 1.5M is about as low as the league will look at this point. 2M+ is where they are looking now and I would be shocked if they looked smaller than that. Ottawa was the last small city that had a chance just because a SSS was going up and there is a desire to get canadian sponsorships and there was a time when the league really thought saputo was going to talk himself out of the league and they wanted a 3rd Canadian club. Now that Montreal is in and the stadium is not being built ottawa seems out. These little towns you mentioned really just need to focus on CSL.
If NYC, St. Louis, or A SouthEastern City doesn't work out, then it is very likely that Ottawa will get the 20th team. I hope they get the 20th team because Toronto has shown how much they love soccer, and it would get more tv coverage across Canada.
i would have to disagree with you on that one. The Ottawa bid had everything to do with getting funding for the stadium. There was 2 stadiums to choose from and the city decided against the SSS site that Melnik (spelling?) wanted. If he can't get a stadium I would doubt he still pushes for it. We haven't heard anything in a year after they came out of nowhere. Ottawa is much much smaller than Toronto and much less diverse, Ottawa would probably be a similar success at RSL (with an almost identical stadium) I don't think they would see TFC level success at the gate. If NYC/STL/ATL all don't find the right investor I think we will see another wild card. Remember cities like Salt Lake came out of nowhere as did Ottawa. I remember hearing the SA Spurs were looking into MLS, if they put together a plan for the city council tomorrow for a SSS then instantly they move up the list. As does anyone with big money, a big city, and a stadium plan. I would be surprised if Ottawa gets #20. If I were to put money on what team might come out of nowhere it would be Tampa. They seem to be doing well in NASL, and if they put together an ownership group I think they could have some success down there and MLS would like to go back to Florida after retracting 2 clubs.
I'm just assuming when alaska declares independence, they'll start their own league then anchorage will have like 5 teams
If we're sayin that present day MLS wont include any new cities under 1.5, lets talk about Providence, Sacramento, Nashville. Nashville currently supports the Predators and the Titans. Lets also keep in mind Nashville is certainly not a hockey city ( putting it on a scale with Toronto, Montreal, Detroit, Chicago etc...) but every city in America is a football city. Sacramento supports the failing franchise of the Kings Providence has never had a significant pro sports team... I think the Revs are destined to move, and if somehow some way Providence was able to put a stadium up, why not go if you're the Revs? You don't have to rebrand if you don't want to if you're them, keep your fanbase and potentially expand it, it could work. There has been a lot of discussion about Sacramento on this thread, so now I'm a believer. Never heard anything about Nashville, but if Atlanta can't give the good ole Dixie the team it so righteously deserves , maybe Nashville is their #2. I'm not a fan of Florida sports teams, fans show up ever couple years when a championship is in play, so no Tampa or Miami for me. Jacksonvile maybe, I don't know much about the people or fans there... or anything. Don't they have a river that flows north? I still love the idea of Quebec City and think USL/NASL should experiment with it
Hartford has a great American Outlaws soccer supporters chapter Hartford.TheAmericanOutlaws.com check us out on the news during the world cup
Man, I come over here from HFboards and yet I still can't escape London(and/or Hamilton) Expansion mania!
Pittsburg too, I forgot them. They support their hockey team now that they're good, but not too long ago, Mario had to save the Penguins from the mighty grips of Kansas City. No one goes to Pirates games, they don't even fill half the stadium, but to be fair, the Pirates haven't given anyone any reason to come out since GW senior was in office.... Again, everywhere is a football city, and the Steelers have fans everywhere regardless. I've never heard anything mentioned about them getting MLS
The money isn't there in Pittsburgh, as evidenced by the Pirates. They have the Riverhounds, but I'm not sure how important soccer is there. And they've just built a new arena for the Pens -- I'm not sure how that was financed, but that could have financial impacts.
At one point there was a plan to have a casino company build the stadium in return for rights to put slot machines in the city of Pittsburgh and the county that it's in. I want to say Allegheny County, but I don't know county-level geography in the U.S. very well.
Is Virginia Beach considered 'the south'. For all the talk about MLS needing a team in the south, I think VB might be a great option. why? 1. Metro Area of 1.8M people making it bigger than current MLS cities Columbus and Salt Lake, exactly the same size as San Jose, and just smaller than Kansas City. 2. No Pro Sports Teams 3. A vacant 10,780 seat stadium owned by the city that could easily be expanded to 20-22k since it is only 1 big stand. http://media.hamptonroads.com/cache/files/images/340841.jpg 4. Less than 2 hours away from Richmond Virginia (1.2M metro and bigger than Salt Lake City) where the team could draw some fans from. 5. 200 miles to DC United games (about the same from Portland to Seattle) 6. Virginia has in the past scored some of the highest TV ratings from any market for World Cup and MLS games despite not having a team. 7. The low cost of living and beach community of the area could be attractive to some designated players. There is some honest skepticism of putting teams in the deep south including Florida. But VB I think offers a lot and still allows for a regional rivalry with DC United. I think the size is less of an issue than people think, the TV ratings seem to be solid so there must be interest, and having zero pro sports in VB/Richmond I think a team could really find a solid fan base.
The problem with VB that I've always had is that it more of a collection of towns, and there isn't one central location. It is stunning that there are so many people there, though. It is in the south, but not southern enough.
what do you mean not southern enough? Couldn't the team market itself as a 'virginia team' not so much a city team. It can draw from the whole region. The region does have population, no pro sports, and high soccer TV ratings. I think it is as solid of a candidate of any of the other south eastern cities. The distance to DC also makes it attractive to MLS which is looking for regional rivals.