$400 Million Stadium & Expansion Plan For Tampa

The writer of that article seems to really need to do his research.

He seems to be under the impression that "most MLS teams play in sprawling football stadiums that are less than a third full."

Wake me up when these guys realize its not 2002 anymore.

 

Outside of college football, Florida is terrible in attendance for pro sports

 

Was this post meant to be sarcastic?

 

'Sprawling football arenas where many MLS teams now play aren't suitable for soccer, Garber said in his state-of-the-league report.' Did he really say the -where many MLS teams now play' part?
Its not true. Two teams play in large football arenas in fact most play in their own dedicated soccer specific stadiums.

 

Four, not two.

DC, Vancouver, NE and Seattle all play in football stadiums. Seattle is obviously not a concern.

 

You're right but Seattle doesn't count for me because its the perfect spot in Seattle to pull in an average of 43K per game. Can't wait for the day that Seattle does get the mecca of soccer specific stadiums. How big should it be? 50-55K? I think they're waiting for technology or turf science to catch up to getting some sort of better grass rather than build a new stadium.

 

I get so confused! Canada has football? Point being Garber did not say that most MLS teams play in football stadiums.

 

are you nuts? Tampa sucks for sports, at least Orlando is nuts for its Magic, Bucs were a joke, rays and lightning are not far behind.

 

We do have an expansion forum right?

https://www.bigsoccer.com/community/threads/tampa-a-contender-for-mls.1978829/#post-26838621

 

You might be waiting a long time for that when you think of how little would be gained from shelling out $500m or so.

 

Waiting for a soccer specific stadium or waiting on turf technology to improve? I mentioned both in my posts as possibilities.

 

Isn't there a bigger chance of Seattle filling the stadium they have than getting a new one of their own?

 

Neither is Vancouver. Their stadium situation is fine.

 

Neither is DC. Aside from the fact that their stadium is falling apart.

(I'm joking of course.)

 

Waiting for a team to spend close to $500m for a 50k stadium when they already control most of the revenues where they play now. While it sounds wonderful, it makes no sense financially unless they don't pay for it themselves.

 

I agree that's why in my post I said that Seattle won't be doing that and said they are waiting for turf science to catch up so they then could put grass or a better sythnthetic grass in. I would love to see a huge sss in Seattle but its not going to happen any time soon.

 

I don't want to take this too far off topic, but assuming a future where the sounders average 50k+(or for arguments sake 60k+) wouldn't the current arrangement be workable indefinitely? other than ownership the situation seems pretty perfect.

 

The only real scenario in which Seattle getting an SSS really makes sense is if the current ownership group decides to sell, and the new ownership group for some reason no longer gets the benefit of controlling ancillary revenues at Qwest.

 

Not sure you guys saw this tweet from Wahl, but a source in MLS seems to think this is vaporware.


Grant Wahl (@GrantWahl)
11/29/12, 1:13 PM
High-ranking MLS official very skeptical of proposed $400M Tampa soccer stadium. Says reminiscent of pie-in-the-sky Las Vegas proposals.

 

Ok, I lived in central florida, half the attendance cheering for the other team, been to chicago vs tampa games, when the Hawks scored that place went wild, saw Yankees vs Rays same thing after a Jeter Homerun, went to a Bucs vs Giants game, I saw a lot of blue.
The transplants that live in the Tampa area are not Soccer fans, so the attendance for a tampaMLS team wouldn't wouldn't have the same success, remember the Mutiny?

Not a genius, just know what I'm talking about because I saw it.