Could there be another Canadian entry in the NASL on the way? Possibly. Check this: http://www.24thminute.com/2010/07/golden-horseshoe-derby-coming-your-way.html
Sounds like they are dependent on the stadium deal. Hope they can get a team. It would be great if they get a team and also one in Ottawa. And would be great if they could keep a team in Quebec City.
No suprise there. Bob Young's been talking about adding a D2 team to a proposed stadium for the Tiger-Cats for a while now.
Purchasing and establishing a new professional team in Hamilton will require an investment of greater than $5,000,000.00 over its first few years of operations. … So at least we know the budget of NASL teams.
10,000 would be too big for most D-2 teams. Not everybody's Montreal, Portland Rochester, or Vancouver.
Carolina Railhawks (NASL) and Hamilton Tiger-Cats (CFL) owner Bob Young will announce his formal application to bring an NASL franchise to Hamilton. They will be targeting entry for the 2013 season. While this move has been in the works for a while, the tipping point appears to have occurred yesterday when the fight, in a long running civic battle, boiled over. How this will affect Young's plans for stadium funding remains unclear at this point but several sources within the NASL confirmed Young's commitment to fresh facilities. NASL has made it a mandate to have soccer-specific facilities for any new franchises joining the league. And while there will be no announcement made, the NASL confirmed that two competing groups in Ottawa have formalized their applications to bring a franchise to the capital city. John Pugh, owner of the Ottawa Fury (USL Premier Development League) and local developer Neil Malhotra have both tabled bids. The targeted launch date there is 2012.
Interesting story about Bob Young's NASL bid. It looks like a potentially great deal for soccer in Hamilton. Pertinent quotes about soccer from the story... Hamilton has lost the 2015 Pan Am Games track and field events, and it could also lose its football team from the West Harbour. Ian Troop, chief operating officer of the Toronto 2015 organizing committee, confirmed today in a telephone conference that track and field events scheduled for Hamilton’s Pan Am Stadium will be relocated to a yet-to-be determined venue in Toronto. He said the track events “are going to be in Toronto. We’re looking at a couple of options, finalizing some details there but that’s probably where it’s going to end up.” In return, Troop said Hamilton will host over 30 soccer games at both the new Pan Am stadium, and the David Braley Stadium at McMaster University. “We are still sorting it out,” said Troop. “(But) there will be a lot of soccer games.” He said BMO field in Toronto is unable to handle the number of soccer games required, and alternative locations are needed. Meanwhile, Young stated earlier that he had reached a partnership with the Canadian Soccer Association, Ontario Soccer Association, and the Hamilton and District Soccer Association to apply for a professional soccer franchise. They will also construct a regional soccer academy that would compliment the stadium.
And more expansion talk about Hamilton, Phoenix, Edmonton and Atlanta.... http://acstlfanatic.wordpress.com/
I wonder if the fact that Bob Young doesn't like the proposed location of the new stadium and is threatening to move the Hamilton Tiger-Cats would effect the idea of a Hamilton USSF-2 team?
Not really. Federal Funding for the new stadium is contingent on there being an anchor tenant at the new facility, so the city has a tremendous incentive to make sure there is a team in the new stadium, or else they'd have to pay for the entire cost of construction by themselves. Perhaps the city could maybe buy an operate a team by itself. Hamilton is also home to Canada's two largest Steel companies (Stelco and Dofasco) and might offer tax incentives for one of them to operate a soccer team out of the new stadium.
As far as anyone has heard (that I know of), Young is the only person interested in putting a D2 team in Hamilton. If he's not interested in the stadium as planned by Hamilton for the Tiger-Cats, I think the odds are pretty good that he's not interested in it for a D2 team. But there's plenty of differences between D2 and CFL, and plenty of extenuating circumstances around what the stadium is being built for. So who knows. I could be wrong.
Hamilton basically gave the finger to Young and the Ti-Cats when they picked the one spot that Young (and several independent evaluators) said was not suitable for the team. They may work something out, but if they don't, Young will likely move the Ti-Cats and set up his D2 team somewhere else, or he might just stay on with the RailHawks.
I've heard that he might move the Ti-Cats to Milton. That would be an interesting location. Rather close to Hamilton, the GTA and Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge-Brantford.
Looks like Bob Young and the Ti-Cats won this game of chicken. Hamilton City Council were forced to their senses after the Pan-Am Games committee nixed the West Harbour location. Hamilton still might be in NASL for 2014. Despite voting earlier this month to build a new Pan Am stadium in the West Harbour, Hamilton council reversed course Tuesday and passed a motion calling for the city to look into building at the Longwood and Aberdeen location. Council’s change in direction came after Pan Am representatives met last week with city officials to tell them that without a legacy tenant taking over the city’s West Harbour site, Pan Am organizers would only fund a stadium of about 5,000 seats. On Monday, Tiger-Cats owner Bob Young released a statement saying the Aberdeen/Longwood site presents “essential sports stadium requirements’’ such as its proximity to Highway 403. http://www.thestar.com/sports/footb...lton-changes-course-on-pan-am-stadium-project
Bob Young is a millionaire who owns the CFL's Hamilton Tigercats and is a part owner of NASL Carolina Railhawks. Importantly, he is looking to bring an NASL team to Hamilton but only if the city of Hamilton builds a stadium where he wants them to. The stadium is going to happen because its for the Pan Am games, just an issue of where it'll be placed in the city.
Say the city build the stadium where Young wants, and he put up the money for a NASL team. Will the soccer team play in the stadium with the football lines? like the NE Revs do when the patriots are playing?.... i hope they figure something out.....nothing is worse than watch a soccer game with American football lines.