Okay, First off I'm from New Orleans, transplanted to Connecticut. The Negatives: 1) The New Orleans Saints: Sure they suck, sure they drain nearly every penny in town. But they suck, and it will catch up to them. 2) The Hornets: This won't matter much. Tickets too expensive for average joe to attend. 3) Heat - its so damn hot and will melt most people. The Positives: 1) Tad Gormley Stadium: 26,500 seats - but it lacks suites and the like, and it has a track surrounding the field. The field is spectacular. 2) Huge Honduran and Latin population.Send them Pineda-Chacon and Milton Nunez and the crowds will be all over the place. 3) Soccer community isn't great, but will support if given another opportunity What needs to happen? Powerball
Re: Re: Panic FC says New Orleans for expansion From the good ole' days with stern john. They changed the surface to grass a few years ago. Another positive about New Orleans: Road trips for all the away fans will be the best drunken stupor events in the away teams history. Food: Best food in the country, and despite the heat, selling boiled crawfish in the stands could bring new meaning to the cheer "Hey goalie - YOU SUCK HEADS!"
Re: Re: Panic FC says New Orleans for expansion "yatcom." That's good. what happened to the "Riverboat Gamblers?" What kind of attendance did they get? Oh, yeah: The heat actually isn't bad, it's the humidity that would make for some terrible soccer. And mosquitos that would make for some terrible watching of soccer. But the thought of fans pelting Tony Meola with sucked crawfish heads is helping to bring me around to the idea.
Re: Re: Re: Panic FC says New Orleans for expansion Attendance topped out around 2,000 but they spent NO MONEY on advertising. Heat is bad - 95 is still 95, humidity - ugly. Mosquitos and don't forget the termites. One night game we were infested with termites - scary, like a Hitchcock movie. Even better, throw the unsucked heads at Meola and yell "Near-post, SUCK THIS HEAD!"
That 2000 figure is more than I would've thought. I never lived in NOLA, but I have an MA from LSU. While I was there in the mid-80s, Red Stick hosted the National Olympic Sports Festival, and I recall watching about 35 minutes of really solid soccer. Alas, that was over 3 nights. So my lasting impression is that the heat really kills off games. How did the Gambler's matches look? the one good thing about South Louisiana heat(and humidity) is that it is VERY predictable. I had an easy time acclimating to summers in Baton Rouge, whereas Chicago was, in many ways, a lot tougher on me. So I'm thinking a New Orleans MLS team would have one bitchin' home field advantage.
Is there a lot of disposable income in New Orleans? The heat would be a bitch but night games would not be too bad. What sort of towns are within a two hour drive of NO? Anything of decent size?
Heat can kill - simple as that. If the New Orleans Party signed the right players, they would draw well. Plus Jason Kreis played for New Orleans one year. Bring back Sterno add Chacon - 15K should be easy. Home field advantage: Like playing the Bears in the Winter, playing the Party in the Summer would be like signing your own death wish.
Disposable income: The suburbs are loaded, and the stadium is in a good part of New Orleans. I think 1.5 million within 50 miles, Baton Rouge is 70 miles, Golden Gulf Coast is 50 miles away, Lafayette - 90 mins.
Didn't the Gamblers share a stadium with the Zephyrs for a while? Or maybe I'm thinking of the N.O. Storm...
Loaded is a relative term, I imagine. My (admittedly somewhat out-of-date) Places Rated Almanac puts the New Orleans median income at or below that of other metro regions its size.
Who owned the A-League team? Interesting stadium. Gotta love the WPA. Were the Zyphyrs owners also the owners of the A-League team (R'boat Gamblers? Storm?) that played in Nawlins?
Gamblers played a US Open Cup match at Zephyr Field. Crowd was over 6,500 on a rainy Wednesday night. the Jacknut baseball guy then bought the team, and when everything seemed to be going well - fired the soccer staff. A year later the team was gone.
Okay you have to remember that inner city New Orleans is incredibly poor. The suburbs are where the money is - and lots of it. Most of the money is in East Jefferson and Mandeville. Lots of hospitals with rich doctors, lawyers, indian chiefs, gambling money, and lots of good ol' boys. -------- The local youth programs in New Orleans have about 15,000 registered players, plus two good size men's league (20 teams) a womens league (8) and coed (24). The Gamblers had a great volunteer staff, and in fact turned out Mike Jeffries (Dallas Burn), Daryl Shore (Fire) and a decent D3 GM
I did mention POWERBALL in my first post. Potential investors: Al Copeland? - Copelands Restaurants - formerly of Popeyes Fried Chicken Money Some lawyers - always have lawyers with money. Doctors - have money.
If Al Copeland is involved, you know the food in the stadium is gonna be yummy though the decor will be hella-tacky. And if NOLA gets an MLS team, I'd seriously consider moving back there. But damn, Panic, it's awfully freakin' hot. Isn't Tad Gormley where the Beatles played in the early 60's?
It's like Africa hot - but that's home field cookin' literally. Beatles did play Tad Gormley - I was but a wee lad. Copeland's Onion Mum...yummy. Popeyes chicken, fried Shrimp, crawfish pies, jambalaya, biscuits, sno-balls, smoothies, daiquiris, and people paint their faces in New Orleans for funerals so soccer games should be easy. Jason Kreis scores a goal, and then runs over to the crowd and throws beads to the lucky ladies who are willing to show their talents... Doubloons in the crowd .... this could be huge.