Hmmm... think you shoulda replaced Norman with Edmond... Anybody see any of the state HS playoff games at UCO? Just curious.
Ya. I think I was getting Edmond and Norman mixed up in my head. Either way, it was a false lead. The correct answer was A. Haha.
Boy, it's hot in Oklahoma these days, huh? Grass needs mowed almost three times a week! <crickets...>
No more likely than any of the other expansion candidates: http://www.rochesterdandc.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?ID=/20060108/NEWS01/601080316 http://www.sheriffs.org/docs/Violent_Crimes_Rising_Sharply.pdf You know, the MLS situation for Tulsa right now is not much different than it was last year at this time. The bid is still contingent on solid plans for a stadium. Unlike other cities, Tulsa already selected a site, was considering a proposal from Global Equity Partners for 60 acres of development including the stadium, and only needed a successful council vote for the tax increment financing. And, unlike other cities, Tulsa has a stadium (Skelly) that is comparable to Robertson in Houston or Rice-Eccles in SLC to use until a new stadium is constructed. If LaFortune had been re-elected, any stadium proposal would still be seen as "LaFortune's Soccer Stadium." In some ways, this could be less of a political hot potato for the new democrat mayor than it was for LaFortune. Or maybe the downtown East Village plan's completely dead and they'll just need to start completely over... So the ball is in Tulsa Mayor Taylor's court now-- ummm, she's a little busy right now but give her time... you never know. Although it would probably kill a certain Fire fan from Norman, OK if Tulsa got a team.
See, that's where you're wrong. Sure, OKC Metro gets a team, I'm buying tickets. Am I going to organize their Ultras, probably not. Tulsa gets a team, no one west of Chandler will read/hear a thing about it, but I get a second, or possibly even third crack at seeing the Fire every year within reasonable driving distance. There are only positives for me.
And the sight of "::::::" dressed in Fire garb in Tulsa would be a bigger draw than the sight of Crazy George bangin' his drums at Skelly Stadium back in the day...
While a downtown stadium would be cool, I think one right off the river, with a view of downtown would be more picturesque. Not really a whole lot down town right now.
I'm going with Tulsa on this poll. With the NBA likely heading to OKC, I would like to see Tulsa get the MLS team if the league ever decides to give OK a chance. If not an MLS team maybe Tulsa can go after an NHL club to go with the new 18,000 seat BOK Center set to open in '08.
Gee... that BOK Center sounds pretty sweet... sort of like say... THE FORD CENTER.... which already seats 19,5K for bball, 18K for hockey and AFL, and 20K for concerts way to go Tulsa... maybe you could be as good as OKC in 2008...
Why would the MLS consider any of the potential growing, yet still relatively small-market Oklahoma sites when markedly more populous SMSAs are a possibility, e.g., Philadelphia/southern NJ and San Jose/Bay Area? No offense intended, what are the motivating factors for Oklahoma to have a franchise? Other than Hurricane Katrina forcing the NBA to move the Hornets to OK City, why haven't any other major league sports franchises moved to OK? Thanks for educating me.
Until the recent potential revival of SJ with the A's ownership, no one in those SMSA's has shown any interest in being an owner of a team. Period. End of Story. The Eagles ownership would love to have an MLS team for Lincoln Field, they just don't want to fork over the expansion fee or the operating fees. The just want someone, or the league, to put a team there so that they can charge them rent. San Jose, well, we all know about them. 7,500 committed fans and an absolute rape job from SpartanShops/SJSU on the rent does not a healthly franchise make. Tony the Rug Merchant got trotted out, but never came up with the capital ot run the team and the city government had no desire to assist with any part of a stadium, nor were there anyone knocking down AEG's door to buy the team. Express Sports seriously entertained and engaged in the process of putting together a I/O group for a team. MLS and Express could not come to a financial agreement. The motivating factor was that someone was willing to take the risk and pay the expansion fee. Until recently, a lack of facilities. With the opening of the Ford Center, that changed with an 19,000 + seat modern arena, replacing the 11,000 seat Myriad Center (Now Remodeled as Cox Business Center). With the ongoing relocation of the I-40 Expressway to a path 2 miles to the south, alot of downtown land is being opened up for development. This follows on the 1.5 billion dollar redevlopment of Downtown OKC & the Brick Town district.
Based on that commentary alone, no solid reasons exist yet to establish an Oklahoma-based franchise. Oklahoma City would seem to be a good location for a USL or PDL club.
Explain please, numbnuts. There is only one reason MLS has for locating any franchise, anywhere, and that is the existence of an ownership group willing to pay the expansion fee, league cash calls and franchise operating expenses. By your criteria, any city not currently courting MLS with an I/O, does not have a reason to have a franchise. So would any other city that had an owner that could meet the much lower threshold of the USL's entry fees and operating expenses.
Well first off... many here are just pulling for a revival of the NASL Tulsa Roughnecks... and you can't blame them... one of the most kickass names ever concieved for a sports team... However... what people in OKC are counting on is a Metro-Area with about 1.3M people (more than SLC, and in the area of CLB and a few areas floated as potential MLS sites, such as Milwaukee, Rochester, etc.) surrounded by a few college towns which have a decent soccer following... Oklahoma also has a huge youth soccer program... That is only 1-2 hrs away from Dallas for a potential Rivalry... and while it's further, it's still drivable to KC (like 3-5 hrs.)... However, the benefit here in OK is the same benefit which MLS enjoyed when it moved to DC, CLB, SJ, SLC, etc. Oklahoma has no MLB franchise... which makes it the #1 sport in the area during most of the season... which has worked for the most part when MLS has done it. In short it still comes down to wether they get an I/O and Stadium just like everywhere else...
While I can't refute the claim that there are 7500 committed fans in San Jose, I will say that had AEG made any committment to San Jose, the committed fan base would likely be much greater. Plus, it's really unfair to use that particular number outside the context of the "committed" fan base of other MLS cities. The attendence numbers at Colorado, Kansas City, Dallas (at PHP), and others do not support any notion that their "committed" fan bases are much different than those in San Jose. In San Jose, even a modest public relations/advertising effort would make a difference. In the 2005 season, the San Jose average attendence was solidly in the middle of MLS figures, especially when discounting the double headers at other cities (which create artificial numbers...how many of those people actually watched the MLS contest?). As far as Spartan Shops are concerned, yes, they were a roadblock. However, AEG apparently used a heavy handed approach when trying to deal with them, so those talks never really started. Both sides took the position of "my way or no way", so those talks were a non-starter. Plus, MLS is not all that happy with dual use stadiums, although that is likely to be the solution in San Jose (as it appears today). Ulitimately, the San Jose situation has very little to do with soccer or attendence. It has everything to do with venue and venue control. That has always been the case there.
Thanks for the reasonable and mature reply with some obvious good points. DC and SJ/Bay Area clearly have significantly larger and more ethnically diverse populations than in OK City or Tulsa, but the lack of a MLB franchise may be beneficial to some degree. However, that ignores the relatively limited cross-over exists in soccer vs baseball fan bases. Consequently, it's not obvious the presence/lack of a MLB franchise entirely weighs on the success of an MLS franchise. The described "huge youth soccer program..." may be a consideration, but is it really larger than in true soccer hotbeds such as St. Louis, the Bay Area, or even Philly/southern Jersey? It may be, but that would be a bit surprising relative to more traditional soccer playing areas. Construction of a SSS stadium is a big consideration, but it hasn't made the difference for a city with a financially successful USL franchise. Rochester's 13K+ seat SSS stadium has and likely never will enable it to secure an MLS franchise, but the area population is smaller. If they build it, maybe they will come to OK City or Tulsa (pick one). Again, thanks for the mature insight and comments.
And the Roughnecks were VERY WELL SUPPORTED. http://www.kenn.com/sports/soccer/nasl/index.html (check '78-'84). Tulsa supported their NASL team better than most... better than Memphis or San Diego... or Boston or L.A. or Houston or Philly... can't compare to OKC because OKC had ZERO interest in getting a team back in the day. Pulling for a revival of the Roughnecks??? Geez. For Beantowner's information, Tulsa was very close to getting into the original MLS in '96... they only had a little over 2,000 season tickets but the stadium was astroturf and not natural grass... so the last teams admitted to MLS were KC, Denver and Dallas... Tulsa hosted a Saturday afternoon exhibition between KC and Dallas in 2002... tickets were $14 and $12 with groups of over 25 getting specially priced $6 tickets. The game drew over 14,000 fans... the season ticket drive drew 3500 ticket committments at that game alone... later that number grew to around 5,000 season ticket committments. Please name another city that drew over 14k for a one-off exhibition game-- no double-headers...??? Buehler? Buehler? The mayor of Tulsa supported it. Lamar Hunt supported it by hosting meetings to recruit an ownership group. Global Development Partners of DC were going to build the stadium in downtown Tulsa. The city commissioned a feasability study by Conventions, Sports & Leisure to confirm the interest was there... What else do you want? There's only one thing missing.... An ownership group with THIS kind of committment: "Our goal is to build the finest stadium in Major League Soccer supported by the finest staff and fill that with the finest fans in Major League Soccer watching the finest players. It's a pretty easy goal and anything less than that is not what we're interested in." - OnGoal, LLC and for now, that's the end of the story.
Wow, OKC is on the move! Now they're interested in landing the Penguins. Geez, if they get the NBA to stick around and manage to get an MLS team all of the suddden OKC will be home to 3 big league teams. Unbelievable, but this will hurt Tulsa's chances to land flippin anything if this happens.
I'm a Tulsa Native, but I'd say OKC. You'd still pull a lot of Tulsa fans down (Rapid fans routinely make an hour drive from The mountains, Pueblo, Ft. Collins). Ownership, Stadium, moderate local support. That's all you need. The question...Will the league go to 14, 16, 18, 20, and what's the time line? The expansion to 14 will be crucial, so I doubt we'd get it then. As for the Oklahoma people who really want it, I just offer this: Keep hoping, keep bugging the money men, keep showing up to exhibitions.
Why isn't there any consideration for a team in Florida? Florida has more soccer than any other state, 'weather' being the key factor. You can play year round. The US national team comes here every Jan/Feb. to train in Bradenton.