I have to do this, I belive that Baltimore could support at Least an A league team. And with a Proper set up and Plan we could be a great MLS city. What are you thoughts and please refrain from the DC United being to close threory, or that there isnt enough soccer fans for both cities because Baltimore is BOOMING.
Well, I would resond with the obvious answer about an MLS team but you said we couldn't. You should at least have an A-League team but you can always fall back on your MLL Baltimore Bayhawks.
Yeah I can be silly, I just think we would not dilute anything, there arent as many people driving to DC as we think. But Expand on your reply anyway you want, Bayhawks are great, but the transition from college and High School support to MLL is slow right now. We have so many new people who are soccer people moving in and we have a history here.
I think Baltimore could be a good city for an MLS team. There isn't an owner or anyone who I could think of to pony up the dollars. The Orioles aren't packing the stadium. If a soccer team would come to Baltimore, I would like to see how an A-League team could do and then maybe ala Rochester come into the league later.
Baltimore / DC doesn't seem to be any bigger of a deal than Cleveland / Columbus. And LA's getting the second team in the same stadium. But the general consensus on the Expansion boards is: GET AN INVESTOR GET A STADIUM. I mean, Salt Lake City went from Zero to 100 in one day thanks to a confirmed rumor, so don't rule it out.
I think its hard to compare the two cities. Baltimore/DC only 35 miles seperate the two cities. Cleveland and Columbus are a 125 miles apart. There is big reason Baltimore doesn't want D.C. or Northern Va to get a baseball team 25-40% of their fan base travels from Virginia and the D.C. metro area. Now as far as soccer goes not many fans come from Baltimore to support DC united as far as I have seen, having gone to games for three years. The majority of United fans come from Virginia. Baltimore would have to rely on their soccer fan base only. I hope they could support a team but its hard to tell. Right now I would say A-league at best.
Oh I just want to puke, mostly because it makes me think of baeball. <BARF> OK I couldn't hold it in. Someone talking of LA getting a 2nd team, uhhh yeah well when you have nearly 18 million people living within a 50 mile radius and nearly half of them being latino I think you could support 2 teams. Not saying I'm opposed to Baltimore getting a team, but I definitely think A-League is where you all need to start. If they can prove that there is a fan base and MLS goes to a promotion/relegation strategy, yeah I could see Baltimore as an MLS city.
HA! That'll happen! ;-) DC United is here to stay my friend, especially when we open up cans of whoop arse on the Metrotards!
Now I will not stand for that hatin' on the soon-to-be Senators. Washington is our fricking Nation's Capital and it doesn't have a baseball team? Pfft. That is not acceptable.
San Jose is looking for a new site. I don't think a Baltimore team is a bad idea. If the 2 teams, DC and Blatimore, played each other 4 times a season, 2 at each site, the attendance for those games would go up for those times. I don't know if the Baltimore newspapers cover DCU, but, the WPost would, probably, offer up some time to cover a Baltimore team. The more soccer news there is the better it is for generating interest in the teams.
Besides,I always thought that DC United meant that it was the team for the entire UNITED metro area, which includes both Baltimore and DC.
Uhhhh... nope, at least last time I checked about 99.99% of the people in the Metro DC area don't include Baltimore as part of the DC area. Baltimore has its own suburbs, TV stations etc. The Metro DC area consists mostly of: The District of Columbia Loundon Co., VA Fairfax Co. VA Arlington Co., VA Prince William Co., VA Prince George Co., MD Montgomery Co., MD There are some other outlying areas but Baltimore is a stretch.
That's why they are UNITING these areas. I could be wrong, of course; I don't live there. I live in Philadelphia. That was always my impression though.
Believe me, Baltimore and DC consider themselves separate. The Washington Bullets, AKA Wizards, once known as the Baltimore Bullets, attempted to "unite" these areas. It failed miserably. The Cap Center was built to help draw fans from DC and Baltimore. I don't know if fans from Baltimore ever came to the games, but a year later the Capital Bullets officially changed their name to the Washington Bullets. Eventually, the Bullets decided to end the farce of trying to be representative of both areas and moved completely into DC. And now, as hard we might try, can't give the team back to Baltimore.
And, of course, this will happen after Baltimore has lined up a stadium deal, and the expansion goes to Jacksonville, instead. Or they could steal DCU and ship them back for a couple of games a year to RFK, to avenge the Bullets thing. Most likely, Baltimore will get a team, fall in love with it, give it a marching band, have guys make their fiances pass a prenuptial soccer quiz, then suffer terrible mismanagement and lose the team to Indianapolis. All seriousness aside, I love Charm City, except for the weather and the crime (though it was grist for a great cop drama), and I love rivalries. I am a Galaxy fan, and I already love to hate those Goat putos. So, I think a Baltimore/D.C. derby would be great.
Yeah, I don't think DC United is going anywhere! Baltimore getting a team would be cool, but the league would have to grow to 20 or so teams before I think Baltimore would get a team. There are too many other cities that should get one first to promote geographic diversity of the sport. Somewhere in Florida, Atlanta, St. Louis, Portland, SLC, Phoenix, etc.