I came across this article on the Willamette Week online, primarily discussing Portland's owners and the plans to deal with their stadium situation. Toward the end of the article, the following comment was made: "Garber said that MLS will trim its list of six applicants down to four cities in December. The finalists must then come up with firm stadium proposals by March 31." Has anybody else heard this and did he really say this? This is the first that I have heard of it. Here is the link to the article: http://wweek.com/columns/coverstory
I have serious doubts that Portland would pony up $85 million for sports at a time like this, especially if they had just spent $30 million just 7 years ago. I wonder if any Timber's fans can give us the likelihood of the funding going through. Now if there is supposed to be only 4 teams by Dec. 31st I'm guessing that it will be St Louis, Miami, Vancouver and Portland.
I have serious doubts about this. In his State of the Union, he said they will be definitely chosen before the next MLS season. A March 31 deadline seems a little late for that.
31 March sounds awful late to announce the next two clubs to join MLS for 2011. Given that, it would be hard for St. Louis to get a stadium built in roughly 18 months, given the winter's there. I'm hoping to see MIA/STL
this is the first i've heard of this. the narrowing down to 4 would be cool, but like others said: 31 march seems a bit late for the final decision.
That's what I was thinking. I remember that the announcement was supposed to be during the MLS Championship weekend but was pushed back to the spring. I'm guessing the only reason for that was for the Portland situation to be firmed up. I'm pretty sure the vote for the $85 million was to be in the spring. Now unless St. Louis is building their stadium no matter if they get a team or not for 2011, the only stadiums that will be ready for sure by 2011 are Miami and Vancouver.
Cooper (STL) said he'll build a stadium regardless if he's awarded a team or not correct? I hope he starts building before March 31st in that case. The first chance he gets I hope he starts building. March 31st is ridiculous, if they're waiting for the economy to turn it'll be well after March 31st before that happens.
?? 18 months? Why does the stadium need to be built in 18 months? They would have roughly two years (and could conceivably have an extra few weeks, if they opened the season on the road). Unless you're trying to calculate 18 months by assuming that construction would simply shut down during the winter months....in which case, you're mistaken. Construction is possible during winter months. Especially on "major" projects, which this would be. I have never seen a construction site here in St Louis shut down for an entire winter due to weather. FWIW, Busch Stadium, a $350 million baseball stadium, was constructed in two years, through two winters, and that was slightly delayed due to the fact that part of the footprint of the stadium overlapped with the previous stadium, which was still in use. If Busch Stadium, which was a much bigger project, can get built in that time frame, getting the soccer stadium done will not be a problem.
Even if they start as late as April, that would still give them almost two years. Remember also that weather doesn't affect some of the final stages of building such as putting seats in and finishing the interior of luxury boxes, etc. Even if the stadium were delayed beyond that, the league could always schedule St. Louis on the road the first couple of weeks, but I don't think there is any way getting the stadium done in time is a problem. The St. Louis stadium situation is pretty firm. There really isn't a good reason to delay the decision until March 31, unless the league is intentionally trying to give teams extra time to get their bid in order.
The Coop has stated that STL will have a team no matter what, but the Collinsville stadium project as it stands now has always hinged on the award of an MLS expansion franchise for a greenlight.
If they can build through winter here, they can do it anywhere. Wouldn't be a problem. Any St. Louis guys want to confirm you build right through winter.
Yes, my old roommate was a construction worker and he worked right through the winter. Work on Busch Stadium went on all winter long, too.
So what's the status on these cities? -Atlanta (Blank) -Miami (FC Barcelona partnership w/ Claure) -Montreal (Saputo & Gilett)OUT -Ottawa (Melnyk) -Portland (Paulson) -St. Louis (Cooper) -Vancouver (Kerfoot, Nash & Mallet)
I can give you the status on St. Louis. They have approved funding to build a SSS on which construction can start immediately upon notification that they have been awarded a team. The stadium will be located in Collinsville, Illinois which is less than 10 miles from downtown St. Louis and will be ready by 2011. Cooper has put together an ownership group which includes himself, Albert Pujols, and least two other investors, one of which is domestic and one international. At this point, they are anonymous. The only thing that has ever been in doubt with the St. Louis bid was the financial side of it and Cooper seems confident that this issue has been satisfied and they are committed to the $40 million expansion fee. Other St. Louis followers, please feel free to add or correct me where I am wrong.
SLSU has more investors than just Cooper, Pujols and the two investors that have yet to be named, there are additional investors that have been apart of SLSU since 07. Michael Huyghue, a former NFL executive is also an investor here is his bio http://www.michaelhuyghue.com/site/biography
Vancouver added Steve Luczo to the ownership group last month. He's chairman of Seagate Technologies, which is the world's largest manufacturer of hard drives. He and Kerfoot go waaaay back. BC Place is presently undergoing a $65 million interior & exterior renovation as we speak, completion to occur before the 2010 Olympics. The retractable roof, estimated at $200 million, will be put out to tender at the end of January. That's confirmed today by David Podmore, chairman of PavCo (the gov't agency that owns / operates BC Place on behalf of hte gov't). PavCo is just wrapping up a structural examination of the building to determine where the new roof supports have to go, how many are needed, etc. Roof replacement commences immediately after the 2010 Olympics, with a guaranteed completion date of spring 2011, well in advance of the USL / MLS seasons. PavCo also announced preliminary renderings of a "sub roof" which will be erected during soccer games immediately overhead of the lower bowl seating areas. This effectively reduces the 60,000 capacity down to 30,000, and completely blocks off views of the empty upper deck. Much better than draping IMHO, plus it will keep the lower bowl nice and noisy. All money related to the renos and roof replacement are covered by PavCo. No tax dollars are needed, and there's no more bureaucratic hurdles to overcome. It has the backing of city hall, and the provincial government. Vancouver is ready for 2011. All lights are GO.
to me protland just seems more of a stable team then vancouver. this is what i really hope what happens. st. louis gets the team finally. then portland. so there the conf.'s are balance. then the next expansion miami gets the the team. and then finaly vancouver. the mls needs to keep there expanisons even so they dont have to constantly switch the play off system. after the 2011 expansions. they shouldnt expand till 2013 season that way they give them new teams time to stablize. then they do miami. and vancouver the following year. and then the samething no expansion for a season or so. and then do the two team expansiononce more. so youll get new york2 and thenmontreal.
Thanks, I had forgotten that Cooper had a group from the last expansion bid. Since Coop is the one you always see, it's easy to forget that others were involved. The guy you mention (Michael Huyghue) has an excellent resume'. That is the other thing about the St. Louis bid, not that it's going to be a big difference maker. St. Louis and Cooper has been in line a long time for a team. He originally started this process what seems like several years ago including a lot of hard work getting the stadium financing lined up and working with the City of Collinsville on that.
If this it's true, my money's on MIA, VAN, STL and ATL (I see more logic in a 2nd SE team than in a second NW team, hence no POR). If it narrows down to two, MIA and VAN.
I'm not having a go but I wonder how you come to a conclusion that Portland seems more stable? I definitely hope both are getting the two spots but I would think Vancouver is the one that is more stable. Vancouver has all it's private financial investors in place and have as of last week still said that their expansion bid is built around the $40m fee. They will pay that. Their temp stadium is practically already built and the rest of the refurb will be done by 2011. The Provincial gov't owns the stadium and is paying for it. Done deal. Portland, though it's looking good with their process for their stadium situations from what I've read recently, still are not sorted out. Their bid will rely on granting of some sort of public funds, which is fine. But at the very least, surely Vancouver's situation would be more stable knowing all this.
The word in the parallel universe of the Arena Football League is that the league may fold and even if it doesn't all the NFL owned teams (and maybe a few others) will close shop. The Georgia Force is owned by Arthur Blank and is one of the teams expected to fold no matter what happens to the rest of the league. I've thought that neither Atlanta or Ottawa were serious candidates for the next round (4 by 12?). That would leave St Louis, Miami/Barca, Vancouver and Portland (if they get their 2 stadium plan funded) as the likely 4. Could this AFL development (if it comes to pass) indicate that Blank is ready to roll?
I hope so. I also hope if there is any truth to this, that it doesn't cause him to give pause in investing a much greater amount of money than he ever did with the Force. Blank has always seemed to be a guy who does his homework tho, so I hope he sticks with it.
Arthur Blank spent $550 million on the Falcons about 7 or 8 years ago. I'm doubting that he was spending all but a couple of bucks of his fortune, so I don't think the depth of his pockets will be an issue for either the Georgia Force or MLS.