USL General News thread

So if that stadium gets built they could move back to the Championship.

 

Have you seen this anywhere? My reading of the tea leaves made me think that the stadium is probably not getting built now.

 

The city approved the land rezoning and Malik recently purchased the final piece to make it official. Now, all that leaves is the financing.

https://www.heraldsun.com/news/local/article247866685.html

 

It's included in the announcement that they are moving down to League One.

https://www.northcarolinafc.com/news_article/show/1140102

 

Well, that's kind of what I was getting at. If the impetus to self-relegate to L1 was because the finances of USL-C don't add up, how does adding the expense of a fancy, big, downtown stadium help that?

I'm fully aware that the stadium is part of a larger, downtown real estate development and that that might be their plan for making the books add up.

Or, it might mean that the whole plan was a moonshot to land an MLS spot, and with Charlotte effectively sinking that possibility, the whole stadium development plan is now unlikely.

I don't know the answer there - hence why I was wondering if anything had been said about the future of the stadium, given the abrupt - and, to most observers, unexpected - change in the status of the club.

 

Ah, thanks! Although I guess that doesn't address if it changes the scale of the stadium plans.

 

e.g.

https://soccerstadiumdigest.com/2020/03/new-raleigh-stadium-could-attract-tourists-study/
That's a lot of cheddar for a vanity project (which any sports team ultimately is) that already apparently loses an uncomfortable amount of money annually.

 

The pandemic really cause everything to accelerate. NCFC was particularly unprofitable in recent years and their NWSL team overshadowed them in their success. NCFC needed to drop down to manage the losses and additional expenses experienced in D2.

I mean, the project moving forward even without MLS. They still have the NWSL team. Perhaps their men's side can come up to D2 in the future when it makes financial sense to do so.

 

It will be interesting to see how Lousville shakes out with Men's & Women's set up. might foreshadow what Raleigh can/will do with stadium and teams. Coincidentally I was on plane last night with one of Louisville's youth directors. Sounds like they have things really aligned and charging full steam ahead. Every sounds like they are marching to same drum and have structure built for success on all fronts.

 

The NBA/NHL-ready Sprint Center is the busiest and most profitable (pre-Covid) arena in the United States.

Part of the reason is the lack of an NBA and/or NHL team and all the blacked out dates that can't be booked for other events well in advance.

Raleigh-Durham (over 2.25 million and growing at a rate only matched by Vegas and Austin) can definitely use another venue of that size for concerts and other sporting events.

Frankly the stadium as designed for MLS is overkill for both a USL1 and NWSL level team. It's only a "vanity" project if you project that's only use will be on Saturdays (and some Wednesdays) during soccer season.

 

To be fair, being a regional hub helps. It's not uncommon for people from mid to Eastern Nebraska, Kansas, Central Iowa, Missouri, and Arkansas to travel to KC for events. I've done it normal time.

 

An arena has way many more potential uses than a stadium does, though (despite stadiums getting sold to the public this way). I'm not sure this is a really good comparison.

I only meant "vanity project" in the terms of neither team bringing much possibility of a profit potential. They basically exist as long as Malik is willing to lose money on them in exchange for the ability to say he owns 2 pro soccer teams.

But I think we're kind of getting at the same thing here: it's one thing to pitch a $150-$250 million stadium when the door to MLS wasn't completely shut, but compare that to Segra Field, which also hosts USL (albeit reserve), NSWL, and MLR teams, which cost 1/10th of that.

 

IIRC, the Raleigh stadium complex will house shops, housing, entertainment and office buildings. That increases the valuation compared to Segra Field, where its just the stadium + training center itself, surrounded by little league baseball fields and other sports amenities.

 

The development will, I doubt the stadium would. It would be like how the Red Wolves’ stadium development is being designed: billed as part of a $200 million development or whatever, but the stadium is just a tiny part of the total cost, doesn’t actually house any commercial frontage, and coming in far less impressive than hyped.

That stuff on the right in the image above is where the money is. The stadium is not (with the MLS ship having sailed) going to make them more money by going top shelf, so why bother?

I used Loudon as a point of reference to where the opposite extreme (which also hosts similar teams) would be. My point is that the end result is very possible to end up more like that (or CRW’s) than the proposal. It’s too hard to square that investment anymore.

 

I don't know enough about the Chattanooga situation, but there's a reason why these type of downtown projects exists now in all aspects of soccer. Colorado Springs, Columbus, Cincinnati, St Louis are all taking a dip on it and in contingent of other entertainment/housing amenities surrounding their new stadiums.

Might go the other way. I mean, the Washington Spirit had good attendance outside in the suburbs. I don't follow rugby that much, might even go to a rugby match for the heck of it. I think more entertainment options would help there.

 

Colorado Springs is probably the most relevant example there (since the others are MLS) and that stadium is running about $35 million. Not peanuts, obviously, but a far cry from the $125-$250 million that was proposed for Raleigh. But also probably a lot more realistic.

 

Nestled into Northern Colorado FC expansion announcement, looks like Charlotte Independence will drop to USL1.

USL and to a greater extent MLS has most of the southeast covered.

 

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#USOC2021 report. The 8 #USL Championship teams taking part in the tourney are:
Sacramento #ItTakesARepublic
Phoenix #RisingAsOne
El Paso #VamosLocos
San Antonio #Defend210
Louisville #LouCity
Hartford #FortressHartford
Charlotte #WeAreCLT
Tampa #TogetherRowdies

 

There'll be two NCFC's in League One.

Also having Greenville Triumph, Richmond Kickers, South Georgia and North Carolina in the same league should create some local rivalry.

 

And you thought Norwich City FC was pissed before...

 

Notts County had been around for 40 years before Norwich were formed and 50 years before the original Newport County.

 

USL is exactly where Independence belongs and I surely hope they are the reserve team of the MLS team in town. With Raleigh/NC dropping to USL1, their natural rival goes with them and Greenville will be another. I also somehow feel Charleston should drop to USL-1 also and with all these teams nearby, it would make sense.

 

Roanoke is aiming for USL1.

 

Well that would put them on the map.