Well, we have another new professional soccer club of unclear league allegiance: http://www.azkicksit.com/official-press-release-new-soccer-club-in-phoenix-announced/ That will hopefully lead to the team joining the Professional Developmental League and other professional programs in 2013. If they mean the PDL, that's the Premier Development League. Also, pro futsal, yay.
By calling themselves a pro club, it makes me think this could be the next NASL or USL club in the western U.S. The PDL club would be their U-23's.
We'll see if this new group understands the new need of money and can provide said money, otherwise it's destined for failure. Cost of NPSL in Phoenix is realistic. PDL is about 10x league fees of NPSL and about 2x travel costs. PDL also requires 1,000 capacity stadiums with lighting, locker rooms with showers (separate for home and visitors and officials) press box and a working scoreboard that can count up. USL PRO needs a 5,000 person stadium with the same amenities (not sure where this would be in phoenix honestly) GCU stadium holds 5,000 people, after that you're looking at ridiculously oversized venues (Sun Devil, Cardinal Stadium) that would bankrupt a team in no time. I don't know the NASL stadium requirements, but the league fees and travel costs would be astronomical for a team that is unlikely to draw around 100 people a game. I wouldn't mind seeing these guys start in NPSL, but actually try to develop a fan base and hold up their commitments and grow into a pro team. And yeah it's discouraging that they haven't done enough homework to know that the PDL is an amateur league. It's embarrassing how much Tucson has their shit together over Phoenix.
That's really the issue with all of this: we gots no place to play. A PDL team, surely, could play at a high school or at Phoenix College or something, but unless you're going to present matches in a proper venue and atmosphere, you're not going to dissuade anyone of the notion that this is just another fly-by-night deal not worth their time or money.
Even ASU Soccer Stadium only holds a little over 1K people. It's pretty pathetic how many people play soccer out here and we don't have an actual field with bleachers even aside from at schools. I will say this though, financially this guy is much more viable than the Monsoon owners (past and present) so that does count for a leg up.
Yep. West Side Complex has potential, but it's not there yet, either. (I like ASU's Soccer Stadium, though, for what it is, it just has no parking and its on-campus location brings those challenges with it.) I think I'm more financially viable than the Monsoon's ownership history.
On the plus side however it is very close to a light rail stop. IMO that's a big plus. As are we all my friend.
Oh, ASU's stadium? Yes, you can get to ASU's campus pretty easily. Greyhound Park, which I've thought would be a stellar location to build something, is right at a light rail stop.
That was the original owner's intent (Stuart Starky) http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/JoseGarciaSoccer/125657 Of course money issues QED. While agree that location and amenity wise it's just about perfect, I think it's going to be very spendy. Hohokam stadium could be vacant after the new stadium gets built and the lightrail will extend there over the next few years. Of course that would be mimicking the Tucson model and while it works on a number of levels, it's not optimal.
Mesa wants to lure the A's from Phoenix Muni when HoHoKam is vacated, but Phoenix will be fighting them on that one (as the A's and Brewers are the only teams actually within the city limits). May result in improvements to Muni, I don't know. Muni's not a bad location, either - most people know where it is, lots of (zoo) parking, and also right off the light rail. But it's a baseball stadium. You'd have to do some serious convincing to get the City of Phoenix to revamp Muni (or its site) or allow it to be revamped into a soccer complex for a lower-level team rather than just try to keep the A's or attract another MLB team. And the Greyhound Park site presents more City problems as the land is basically earmarked for future Sky Harbor expansion (which may not happen for decades). There are no easy answers here. People keep putting Phoenix forth as a candidate for expansion for this league or that league, but...there's no place to play. And that's the first problem.
Muni is another good option. Tucson's big advantage right now over Phoenix is government assistance since they lost all that spring training revenue, there is the political will to do anything they can to get some of those tourist dollars back. Metro Phoenix of course doesn't have that issue. Converting a baseball field in the short term isn't that big of a deal, just add bleachers over where right field is and convert the pitch, long term much more work would need to be done of course. We need some kinda Colangello (sp.?) that can just get a stadium built.
Problem is...you won't get to the long term if you do that in the short term. While 700 people in Tucson will go see a PDL team play at Kino, I don't think 700 people in Phoenix will go see a PDL team play at Muni with bleachers over right field and a sodded infield. I just don't.
I agree with that. I've been to all of the Monsoon home games and I really don't think more than 30 people outside of players family/friends show up. PDL is not a viable option in Phoenix at all right now. The only point I was making was that getting the stadium converted to be usable as a soccer field is really not that big of a deal, you don't have to make any structural changes except the pitch itself. The idea behind this being if Muni or Hohokam are vacant and not gaining revenue at all there may be an opening to do it. Another critical point in this is that converting it back to a baseball configuration is also easy. As to people showing up, I don't think you will attract more people based on the quality of seats, it's more of a case of can they buy beer. If alcohol is available at the games I guarantee more people will show up regardless of seat/pitch quality.
Which isn't cheap to do well. And in our climate, the sodding and re-sodding can be an issue. I guess one of the two is going to be, unless one city or the other is successful in luring someone from Florida (as has been talked about, since there are 15 in each spring league now). No one's going to do it without city support, though, and I just don't think either of those cities is going to see the value in a PDL team that won't come close to replacing the revenue from one day's worth of baseball in March. And also expensive. You can sit at home and drink beer, especially during the summer. PDL soccer isn't going to drag them away from their pools when they can stay home and drink beer.
Getting back to Real Phoenix. Let's look beyond the stadium problem for now and see what their travel would be like based on league. NPSL (D4) Agoura Hills, CA (x1) Fullerton, CA (x1) Lancaster, CA (x1) San Diego, CA (x2) Bay Area (x3) USL PDL (D4) Tucson, AZ (x1) Ventura, CA (x1) Irvine, CA (x1) Fresno, CA (x1) La Mirada, CA (x1) Pacific Palisades, CA (x1) LA, CA (x1) Ogden, UT (x1) Provo, UT (x1) USL PRO (D3) St. George, Antigua (x1) Charleston, SC (x1) Charlotte, NC (x1) Bellbrook, OH (x1) Harrisburg, PA (x1) Fullerton, CA (x1) Orlando, FL (x1) Pittsburgh, PA (x1) Richmond, VA (x1) Rochester, NY (x1) Wilmington, NC (x1) NASL (D2) Atlanta, GA (x2) Cary, NC (x2) Edmonton, AB (x2) Ft. Lauderdale, FL (x2) Blaine, MN (x2) Bayamon, PR (x2) San Antonio, TX (x2) St. Petersburg, FL (x2)
Expensive is all relative here of course. In terms of sports stadiums, that can hold that many people this is as cheap as you can get. I would like for you to state how this would get done cheaper. Beer will bring many more people than nice seats. As much as you don't believe lots of people do want to go out even when it's hot. We're not talking about a lot of people after all, we're talking about 700 people, in a metropolis of 1.4M+ people that really shouldn't be too much to ask. Tucson is having success this exact way and getting more that 700 people out in the heat, in a coverted baseball stadium, with a sodded field and cheap bleachers.
How what could get done cheaper? I'm not saying it could get done cheaper. I'm saying go ahead and do it, it's just not cheap to re-sod a baseball field to make it into a soccer field. It's helpful that - unlike DC United between the time the Expos moved to DC and when they moved into their own yard - you wouldn't have to go between baseball and soccer three or four times a month because baseball isn't regularly played here during the summer at those venues. Bet me. People will go outside when it's hot here, they're not going to go outside to watch college kids play soccer in a baseball stadium. People always say "If we can just get some small percentage of the total population to do this, we'll be fine." Only they can't get some small percentage of the total population to do it. There are very real reasons why we haven't had outdoor soccer here very often or for very long, or very successfully. I'm going to guess that this group - however well-intentioned, and I'm sure they are - isn't going to be able to get a major league sports market to turn out for a PDL team in a baseball stadium in the summer, beer or no beer. But I'm more than willing to bet you $100 on that one. That's Tucson. Ain't nothin' else to do in Tucson. And they've got people behind them with money, patience and experience in professional soccer in this country. I don't see that here.
IF it ends up being the case that this group goes the baseball conversion route PDL or NPSL, you sir have a bet. Let's say average home attendance of 700+ over the entirety of the first season.
That's about all I know, more recent updates are that he is looking to work with an indoor team and an outdoor team is a possibility in the future. A much different impression from the initial article.
Let me jump in on this. To rent the PHX College Stadium or ASU Soccer Stadium is about $1,500 per event. Very expensive. Rosario has a goal where he will establish a Futsal team first. The he will build a youth program and eventually make a NPSL or PDL team. There are many other issues as to why PHX can not support a team. Media, fans, location. That is why our website AzKicksIt is trying to bring a face to PHX soccer and get everyone and everything organized so its not just hear say. Rosario is legit, I like his business plan and model. Soccer in this city can succeed. We need a established name and someone with some money. If anyone knows anyone have them email me garrett.cleverly@gmail.com
Sounds like there 'could' be a reason why they have Real in there name. http://www.mindingthe.net/?p=2902