Sure, everyone's entitled to their own opinion, but the way a bunch of people are whining about MLS supposedly forcing NY2 on them is completely irrelevant when a TON of soccer fans who actually live in NY and will benefit from this team are currently underserved by MLS.
In the long history of professional soccer in NYC, that has happened exactly once, about 40 years when the Cosmos got the most famous name in the entire sport to play for them. Lampard and Villa are nice players (or were about five years ago) but they don't have anywhere near that kind of drawing power. Add to the fact that MLS is itself kinda pedestrian, at least compared to the English Premier League and other European leagues that anybody with a cable tv connection can watch live, and, well, it's not going to capture much of anything. Or at least I would be very surprised if it did. If that were to happen (which I don't think likely for the aforementioned reasons) you would certainly have the popular will to build a SSS. But that doesn't change the fact that you don't have a parcel of land and you don't have building rights. Not even gonna discuss financing. SI is indeed one of the boroughs however this is a bit of a joke as it has more in common with suburban New Jersey or Long Island than Brooklyn or Queens or Manhattan. Besides that it just isn't accessible by public transport. Like at all. It's easier to get to Red Bull Arena from Manhattan. Hell, it's probably easier to get to Philadelphia.
MLS is indeed pedestrian, in the sense that many pedestrians living in the USA/Canada can get to the games in person, compared to the EPL (for example) in which a fan here must be either an airplane traveler (or boat passenger) to get there. I think you might end up being surprised.
yeah, it's semantics. the serious thing for me is to avoid the easy optimism of saying 'it's just temporary' as if there were a date in place for something else. once you're in a stadium for more than three years imo it becomes hard to use the 'temporary' tag if there's still no solution in sight. but that's still a good ways off... as for queens, the issue there is made harder by the fact you're talking about park land. not just public land, but green park land. (yeah, i know people point out it's only a reflecting pool, but that is still in play for becoming actual park land, as long as they don't sacrifice it for a sss).
So this is a forum and thread for discussing the business of MLS in a slightly more dispassionate way (at least in theory), so responding to someone's post by accusing them of saying a bunch of stuff they actually didn't sounds, at least to me, like you are too emotional to talk about this seriously. Just my opinion. I've been a season ticket holder since I've been in NY, but looking back I'm more inclined to think what was I thinking to stick that out then I am to blame others for not spending money on a horrible experience. If it weren't for Clint Mathis going nuts for a brief stretch and playing out of his mind, I probably would be hanging up by that racooon.[/QUOTE] The MetroStars / Red Bulls caused plenty of problems for themselves. Playing in Giants Stadium was awful. That does not mean that some percentage of discontent among soccer "fans" in the area wasn't inflamed by MLS continually promoting a team that didn't exist, a team they were so eager to unleash that they did so without a stadium deal in the most difficult market in the country to get one built. Those "fans" won't support NYCFC in any meaningful way either, but that's another story.
The South and Midwest are currently underserved. MLS isn't going out of its way to give us feeder teams that play baseball stadiums. What gives?
Name a market in the South or the Midwest that is as important as New York City and then we can discuss it. If there is no such market, the next question is whether MLS is actively keeping down a market in the South or the Midwest that has a heavyweight ownership group in place and is hankering for an MLS franchise. If the answer to that is also no, then what's the point of this discussion?
Uh, ok. So how about clarifying what I accused you of saying that was inaccurate. How did MLS continually promote a team that didn't exist? These mythical fans were going to wholeheartedly support Red Bull if it hadn't been for MLS HQ undermining their interest with the carrot of a franchise someday materializing? Your beef sounds to me like it's more with a handful of BigSoccer posters than it is with the real world.
I wish people would stop saying this unless they have evidence to back it up. Where have we been down this road before? Are there Chivas USA players developed in LA that have turned CG into a Liga Mx powerhouse? If so, please cite the case. Lastly, it's one pro soccer team in NY and the Cosmos play in the NASL. Clearly MLS shouldn't expand to a market where a D2 team is averaging 5k fans a game in a city of 8m people.
Uh-oh... I guess we're back to having out-of-towners enlighten us on what a New York team means.... Carry on...
what's preventing all those worldly, diverse New Yorkers from taking a 20 minute train ride from Manhattan to a specifically built train station to watch the Red Bulls in a gorgeous, world-class, soccer specific stadium now?
I don't know. Probably a few things. But we could also ask or consider what's different about a 17+ game domestic club full season and a "one-off" exhibition event.
It takes a half hour from WTC. Most New Yorkers don't live in Lower Manhattan. Also, the Harrison station is hardly "specifically built," that thing is a real piece of ****.
a brand new station is a piece of ****? I call bull**** on that! the station isn't good enough? right. what's the problem? lack of beluga caviar?
neither are the Dallas Cowboys in Dallas. or the Phoenix Coyotes in Phoenix or are the 49ers in San Francisco I could go on and on so basically, what you're saying is that New Yorkers aren't as sophisticated and worldly as they portray themselves to be? thank god George Washington wasn't scared to cross a river
MLS comparisons to the NFL or the NHL always make perfect sense. If you want a (somewhat reasonable) NHL analytical comparison, ask yourself how many NYC residents attend NJ Devils' home hockey games.
Perhaps not as many as you think, but probably more than someone else here thinks. But anyway, you were supposed to ask yourself.