A team between Milwaukee and Madison sounds good in theory, but similar ideas have been tried before in other places and its been a disaster. Putting a team in the middle of nowhere is gonna assure that only serious soccer fans will make the effort to go see them leaving no room to grow the fanbase. And if a USL does come to the Milwaukee area again, the Rampage and Wave showed us that it pretty much has to be downtown (I mentioned the MU soccer field in another thread) for people to view them as a team that represents the entire metro area. Madison having its own USL team would be kind of interesting. Madison has a bigger population than Rochester and Charleston, but both of those cities have bigger metros. Maybe Milwaukee could play in USL-1 and have a reserve team in Madison that plays in USL-2 with the goal to ultimately unify the administrators and fans in both cities when the next chance for a MLS team comes along. Just a thought...
I don't see that one working. Madison and Milwaukee have a history of NOT working together for the betterment of soccer.
Well, then, they should both come in at the USL-1 level and compete against each other for the betterment of soccer! I'm just enjoying my town having a USL-1 team next year, and am sad that y'all don't have anything up there. And am a big proponent of the 'two nearby teams' approach to making things work. I'm very impressed that Minnesota's still around, because I more than half expected them to die once the Rampage did. I'm rooting for y'all to get a team of some kind again in Milwaukee, and Madison as well.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure Madison and Milwaukee have a history of not working together for the betterment of anything...Unless that was the joke. I get jokes.
i dont mean to be a broken record, but the wave giving up indoor to move outdoor is the best choice. and as far as brewer games, even though it would best to aviod games on the same days no matter what league we'd be in, i've heard a lot of things about how baseball and soccer dont compete as much as other sports in the sense of attendance. ( so soccer fans wouldnt not go to a soccer game over a baseball game ) as far as the festivals, soccer is obviously very deep in the culture of different ethnicities in milwaukee, and the fests would be a great place to advertise for the team. especially since some of the fests are the biggest in the nation.
Can we agree that it's only a matter of time before a system of promotion and relegation is worked out on this side of the pond? Yes, I know that means clearing a lot of hurdles, but it wasn't that long ago that people were saying a stable Division 1 soccer league would "never happen" either. That said, I think it'd be a good move to get a Division 2 team in Milwaukee, keeping in mind that it's probably the most realistic route towards getting a MLS club... either by proving ourselves as a soccer-friendly city and earning an expansion slot or sustaining the team long enough that it can play its way into MLS once promotion and relegation happens. Of course that requires Milwaukee to do something that's always considered a little radical around here... planning ahead.
Although I completely agree that there should be a promotion/relegation system, I am not that confident that it will happen any time soon. With the league expanding there is no way that mls is going to tell team owners that are putting the millions up and fronting the risks that they could be subject to relegation. There are so many issues that mls already faces, I doubt they are going allow another one in anytime soon. The bottom line for us is that MKE needs to show that there is a market. Whether that is through a USL team with sufficient support, or some sort of other following... Wouldn't count on pro/rel tho.