Yeah, same thread, different team (but the last was good info).... What, from the locals perspective was the reason they folded? MLS?, lack of local I/O or supporter interest, Local area and economy? or the fans themselves? I'm curious.
I'd like to know. There always seemed to be a lot of kids at games, but from what I know the adult population didn't care about them much. I don't even know what our average attendance was. I'm guessing 9.5 thousand. I was naive because I still thought that we wouldn't lose the team, Saturday nights were cool but other times there did seem to be too many empty seats. I don't understand people, we did have some exciting games, but I'm not American and grew up around soccer alll the time so what would I really know about the US market.
average attendance was better than in Miami and dallas, at that time 14k or 13.8k dallas was around 13k fussion was not even 8k they consider something else! guess: operating costs were a bit higher that in dallas or miami, dallas had an Investor on sigh and a possible community tax stadia on the works. Tampa did not!
Mr. Garber, DID YOU ACTUALLY SAY THAT MLS NEEDS MORE TEAMS? I COULDN'T BELIEVE I HEARD YOU SAY THAT ON ESPN2 TONIGHT!!!! Just thought you'd like to know that you have greatly insulted the few Floridians that can still stomach seeing an MLS game. Ron Collins MUTINY FAN Clearwater, FL -----Original Message----- From: Garber, Don [mailto:don.garber@mlsnet.com] Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2002 11:06 PM To: 'Distance Matters ' Subject: RE: MORE TEAMS??? Ron - MLS needed more teams when we had teams in Florida. It's been the goal of the League since inception to be a 16-20 team League. Bottom line, we could not find an owner in Tampa. Though we got very close to finalizing a deal, the group that had exclusive rights in the stadium (Glazers) did not want to own the Mutiny at any cost. Even with preferential stadium rights, they looked at the 6 year history of the team and did not think they could make it work financially (even over a 5-10 year period). We were not able to find even one other potential investor over a 3 year period. There were many very passionate Mutiny and Fusion fans. But unfortunately, not enough to make the teams financially viable to the current or to to any potential future investors. Though my comments will likely not provide solice, we did everything possible to save the team and I do appreciate your continued interest in the League. Sincerely, Don Garber Commissioner Major League Soccer - - - - - - - To: dgarber@mlsnet.com 10.18.02 Mr. Garber, IT MAKES ME SICK to read your comment that you believe that MLS "did everything possible to save the team." Not once did MLS or Mutiny management even give our community a breakeven number for attendance!!! Tampa Bay and Miami are soccer-rabid regions that have produced significant attendance numbers that go back to the 70's. To blame our lack of attendance or ownership just illustrates your lack of competence and understanding. What other explanation could there be, especially considering the fact the MLS DIDN'T EVEN PUT TAMPA BAY AND MIAMI IN THE SAME CONFERENCE? Your friend, Ron
Of course we shouldn't have lost our team but I guess the were many things done wrong fan wise. I mean I have had people tell me they watched the Rowdies but never got into the Mutiny. Why? I only became a Mutiny fan in the last couple of years and I'm sure more people than me might know the answer to that. I guess the important thing is to focus on getting another team some day.
I lived in the Bay area during the Rowdie days and they had absolutely brilliant marketing and an entertaining product including Rodney Marsh, who was a one man marketing dervish.Think Ray Hudson's gift of gab, along with a lot of on field ability.They also won the league their first year which gave them quite a kick(in the grass) start..... I don't know what the Mutiny had to compare, but I'd expect the oldtimers found them wanting in comparision.
I'll be honest in that I don't know much about the business side of things concerning the Mutiny, but I do remember near the end that Bill Manning was saying that we had better sponsorship than ever, and that one of the opening games of the season was higher than ever. I don't have the statistics at hand, but I asked my wife, a non-sports fan, who went to games with me if she thought at the time that we would lose the team and she didn't think so. I guess the impression of things wasn't all doom and gloom. But we weren't that up on all the business, money and crap side of things. I'm glad that the Rowdies had better marketing. I have only lived in the US a short while, and I didn't initially think anything about US Soccer when I moved here. I did remember seeing the bat logo on t-shirts but didn't know it was a soccer team, especially as I was not living in Tampa. Maybe I could have caught onto MLS earlier with better marketing. I found it later after getting into Nats games.
I honestly do miss the Mutiny and the fun I had at the games. I could settle with an A-League Franchise in Tampa and go to every match. Eventhough I'm now a full-blown Metrostars supporter, I'll always have the Mutiny in a very special place in my Heart. God Bless you guys!
if that is what you want, support my USF bulls (the team that saw Mark chung prosper in futebol) does any one has news from the Bulls?
What insults you? I understand your general agony from losing a hometown team. However, there were no investors in Tampa like they thought, and that seemed pretty clear, and the message explained it. What did you really want them to do? I hope they bring back the Mutiny one day, but I think their decision was for the most part thought out. MLS NEEDS MORE TEAMS (with a I/O and SSS).... I think that is more along what he was "saying"... And I'm pretty sure you understand that... MLS is now correcting their mistakes of starting teams without them...