Found this interesting article today on the sell of the Pontiac Silverdome in Detroit. "The winning bidder, one of four and whose identity has not yet been released, plans to use the facility for a men's Major League Soccer team and women's professional soccer teams, Fred Leeb, Pontiac’s emergency financial manager, told the Free Press in an exclusive interview." http://www.freep.com/article/200911...-submits-winning-bid-of-583000-for-Silverdome
Never gonna happen. They need an ownership group and fans. I don't see either of those happening in Detroit
The instant rivalry with Chicago and Toronto would be nice. Doubt it'll happen...but it could be an interesting option to look at for a team like DC United, if for no other reason than to force D.C.'s hand.
London Bridge was moved from London to Havasu, AZ. An impressive feat. Maybe someone's going to move the stadium piece by piece. I suppose it could be done
http://www.freep.com/article/20091117/NEWS05/911170324/1322/Silverdome-fetches-583000 I think the fan base is there, soccer(or football) is a pretty popular sport in SE Michigan. However, I don't think there is an ownership group with the upfront money that the MLS requests. And the Silverdome??? Yikes, that place had been a jinx for the Lions until they headed downtown(Well, they're still shite). And with 80,311 seats, talk about a lack of atmosphere. It has RFK written all over it but even worse. Taking a quote from the article, I think this best sums up the possibility of an MLS franchise in Detroit along with the general finanical climate of the city and region: "A number of people talked about plans, but no one came up with the money" It's still soooooooo cold in the D [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aktLRiWXfqg&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aktLRiWXfqg&feature=related[/ame]
So BS is too small for a thread on a team coming to Detroit and another for the Silverdome as a MLS venue, but it's plenty big for 75% of it's thread turning into Sounders discussions?
Both threads are about a MLS team coming to Detroit and the selling of the Silverdome. No sense having the same discussion in two different locations. Seattle saved MLS, of course 75% of the discussions are about them.
Detroit is broke with half the population unemployed and the other half moving out. But hey if they have an owner somewhere with the 40 million franchise fee i'm sure Garber would listen.
It took me a little while to warm over to the fact that Seattle and Philly got expansion nods during the offseasons. I love Montreal getting a franchise. I never did like Salt Lake or Chivas LA and still don't. Detroit would be the worst though. Investor or not Garber has to use common sense on this call.
I'm curious what you don't like about Salt Lake. The fact that it's a small market or more than that? Any of the same concerns you'd have about Detroit? Though I'm an RSL fan, I'm not upset by the comment, just curious.
Pardon the ambiguity, the hate was for the latter part of the sentence. RSL was only with the expansion announcement at the time. The only expansion team I still don't like is Chivas LA, they need to move to San Diego or somewhere. I cannot hate a team that got a stadium deal done. I'd love to see Detroit's take on soccer, but that is a short coming with the franchise system...
nope. not gonna happen. after these next 3 expansion teams, the next teams will be montreal, than someplace in the southeast. that'll be it for expansion for quite a while imo.
So is the rest of the country. Outside of Montreal, there really isn't much out there from what I've seen.
What about Blank in Atlanta? IIRC, he pulled out of the last round because he thought he'd need a few more years to be ready. Maybe this next round would be better for him?
Blank's interest was quite serious, but he pulled out when the economy tanked. Nevertheless, Don Garber has met with Blank on several occassions and you better believe that not only does Don Garber want to expand the MLS "footprint" into the Southeast, he would also love to have someone like Blank invested in this league.
I'd really love to see him in the league. He's always on the sidelines keeping up morale on the Falcons, even when they were going through those tough times with Vick. Blank is lightyears better than Kraft IMO.