http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/fears-over-whether-david-beckhams-11773797 Even without more hiccups a new stadium will not be ready until 2021 – so Beckham must secure a temporary home with 2020 now his more likely first MLS season. Matheson is likely to appeal a decision against him to the Florida Supreme Court, so a ruling in June will probably further delay a decision until 2019 at the earliest. Gentlemen i hear 2021, do i hear 2022? 2022! got it, do i hear 2023? 2023! 2025! do i hear 2026??
Good point. The highest paid NFL player plays in Detroit. LeBron plays in Cleveland. Two of 5 highest paid MLB players in 2017 played in Detroit. These guys Messi, Ronaldo, etc would only be coming to the US on a parting tour, not at the highlight of their careers. So, they can choose to be picky and MLS would use them as marketing ploys. However, if MLS was a top flight league and they were in their prime, they'd go to whoever signs their paycheck.
I don't think it is the physical dimensions in terms of field size of NFL stadia that is the issue. It is, however, the enormous size that undermines atmosphere unless your Seattle or Atlanta (at least for now). And it is the artificial turf. Please, no more artificial turf! Wrong direction. It is insulting to soccer players. Just ask the USWNT players. And of course it would be insulting to have to pay rent for stadium use as well as being counter to MLS's business model, unless the ownership of the MLS club owned the stadium.
I suppose that Tampa Bay might be an adequate substitute for Miami if Beckham can't get his act together. If Beckham had considered sites near the former Joe Robbie Stadium in North Miami-Dade or in or around Fort Lauderdale, he'd probably be up and running by now. In any event, rising sea levels are going to threaten the South Florida shoreline over the next few decades and compromise any stadium that's too close to the seafront.
FYP Everyone seems to be forgetting that Toronto consistently places as one of the top 20 cities in world rankings on wealth, power, influence, and desirability to live in. New York and Los Angeles are world financial and cultural monoliths respectively. Miami makes that list because it's #6 on the list of cities with the highest concentration of Ultra High Net Worth Individuals (UHNWI - people with net assets of over $30 million) in the world and only New York is higher. Miami is where all the rich Central Americans fly into so they can shop for the day. A MLS team in Miami would have influence over the entire CA/Carribean region. That's why a franchise will be place there come hell or high water.
Thanks to climate change and melting ice caps in Greenland and Antartica, it's probably going to be high water. Poshboy's stadium plan better include total kick-ass super-duper levees.
That area has gentrified heavily, I doubt we'll need any bodily protections, outside of NYCFC-style hoonigans
*sigh*. I really want to go to an away game in Sac, it'll only be 2 hours away and I can actually hop on CC train and roll out, wouldn't have to do much planning at all--can just be grab and go kind of trip. Strolling by the river, smoking a cig, enjoying the autumn breeze. Sign me up!!! C'mon Sacramento!!!!! Do it for Bobby!!!!!
Watch Cincinnati will get their stadium financing issues ironed out at the same time that Sacramento gets its ownership issues ironed out.
Looks again at the title of the thread,, 28 sooner or later. That's where MLS is going, maybe, if there are four more viable teams. Cincinnati, Sacramento, Detroit and Miami are the current list of four to fill those four slots. All of these teams can get in, or not, sooner or later.
And, I think that all of them are going to get in - except, perhaps, Miami. The Miami option may be too screwed up for even Beckham to fix. Eventually, he's going to have to decide whether to stick with his South Miami project or move on to Fort Lauderdale, North Broward, Tampa Bay or Las Vegas.
I have always thought that they will stop at 30 and hold the 31 & 32 spots for San Diego and St Louis if they have not been included yet. Those two cities have been mentioned time and time again as desirable locations every time expansion has been brought up regardless of having anything in place. More than likely the three remaining cities will be the ones added to get to 28. After that I think it will be North Carolina FC getting the 29th spot and the 30th spot possibly going to the loser of the Crew fiasco.
Again, I don't think anyone knows for sure if Beckham can move his assigned spot. I doubt it. I also see nothing that says its totally screwed. So there's another hearing mid-summer. I don't know that it really matters if it takes 3 months or 3 more years, I don't see the league just shutting it down any time soon. Eventually? Sure. How long did it take MetroStars/NYRB to build a stadium? DC? How's the stadium in Boston going? Shit takes time. And small time shit (which MLS is) takes a really long time in major international cities (which Miami is)
Miami will take as long as it takes, and there will be a spot waiting for it. And a team in Tampa (or even Jacksonville) won't replace it. And if it takes so long that Beckham is in violation of his agreement, someone else will get the chance there. It's the last must-have city, but with coverage of all the others the league can afford to wait for it to be done right.
Why do some on here (I'm not necessarily saying you're saying this) think Detroit still gets in if we don't make it this round? The reason I ask is because the Detroit bid will not change. They aren't going to revert BACK to a SSS. So my question I guess is, why would MLS pass on Detroit this round, only to award them a slot in the next round with the EXACT same bid? Doesn't make sense to me. I hope we get a spot but I believe it to be now or never for us.
I don't know what is going to happen but here is a possible scenario. MLS thinks Detroit is the third or fourth best option right now. So they let the top two in now. Next year no other bids are introduced or none of them step up. MLS then thinks Detroit is one of two best bids remaining and they get in. MLS is doing things this way to see if the groups bidding will, in fact, do something to make their bid more attractive. But we don't know if that will actually happen. The fact that Detroit is at least 4th now means they are starting in the top 2 for the next round. Even if some other groups do up their bids Detroit is still near the top so they have a good shot to get in eventually.
I tend to feel the same way as you, that it's now or never for Detroit. Only because I feel Gilbert/Gores may pull their bid off the table if not picked this round. MLS may be playing with fire because you have willing and able owners willing to shell out $150 million right now in a critical market, and that offer may be gone. My *hope* is that MLS will pick Detroit now and what better place and time to make the announcement than at the upcoming Detroit International Auto Show which runs January 14-28?
Keep your eye on the Sterling Bay USL group building a 20,000 seat stadium within Chicago city limits. Smells like a future franchise swap in the works, or some other way to circumvent the lease in Bridgeview. Heard this move by USL was done with MLS’s blessing which has me thinking along those lines versus a Will USL challenge MLS Soccer Wars move.