Thanks to the MCS for letting me sit in on their meeting yesterday. Again, I still don't get all of the structure(s) and purpose(s) of the supporters group(s) in the area. (MCS? AO? NG? Etc? A guy can strangle himself on all those scarves.) Not really sure why there can't be one group to support all of the soccer in the region. I did try to start up the early Bucks supporters group, with the idea to make it a general-soccer support group, but didn't turn out that way; a Bucks-only group came about for a couple years, then died out. And as I said, I'm not a big bar guy, so I don't have any opinion on what bar(s) the MCS should rotate at during Detroit City matchdays, and don't track the "whatevertown supporters meet at this bar" for TV matches. My main focus is to support the live spectator game. I did create the calendar (my signature), and try to keep it up to date [and can be embedded into web sites, etc.]. We briefly mentioned on how fractured the support is for the Bucks and Waza and different colleges and such, and how the Bucks don't seem to be too interested in a direct support group. (And the Waza never got back to Mlive for articles.) Still think this striation can be overcome with the proper promotion. (But I'll also say that I'm not a huge social-media guy, either. For a guy who works on large-scale systems for a living, I'm a total nubie concerning the 1-to-1 digital world.) I would try a little more promotion at the Bucks matches, but since I act as their video guy, there was little chance for that. (Last year, the Open Cup and Playoff matches were required to be taped. Other matches I taped if I felt.) I had wanted the Bucks to do that themselves, but their Dir-Ops (back for this year!) doesn't seem to want to do anything beyond the absolute minimum to put a match on. Otherwise, I am interested in the community-volunteer activities that are in discussion. (I'll let the MCS distribute the specifics themselves.) But they do recognize that any activity will be "local" for some people and a cross-town drive for others. Same for the podcast plans. Also.... Bus-trip!!! (even if we are waiting for the final schedule to come out).
Best of luck Detriot on getting an MLS stadium in downtown Detriot. I hope Detriot gets an MLS team over Miami.
potential MLS expansion cities: san antonio miami st. louis minneapolis atlanta according to the map used in the State of the League address: https://www.bigsoccer.com/community/...league-address-r.1997540/page-2#post-29149847
The only city on that list which will almost assuredly happen for MLS (and probably soon) is San Antonio. It's a very good bet that the Scorpions will be MLS team number 22. Minneapolis and Atlanta are not at all certainties, but they are miles ahead of Detroit in the running to get an MLS team. They will each have a kind of stadium that MLS wants, and they each have tested their respective markets with tier II and tier III soccer teams. I think you can probably take St. Louis off the list for at least the short term. And while getting back into Miami might be desirable for MLS in that it would be symbolic victory to be back in the areas where they had previously failed, I don't believe it's more than wishful thinking, not at all something that is in development. That does not mean that I would put Detroit ahead of Miami or even directly after, in the race to get an MLS team. Besides Miami, which is attractive, there is Pittsburgh, which has a new soccer-specific stadium expandable up to almost 19k seats, and they are already fielding a tier III team in it. After Pittsburgh, there would still be competition for Detroit from places like Ottawa and Cleveland. What's more, I don't know if MLS can or should expand up to or beyond say 26 teams. It seems like in basketball and hockey that 30 teams is possibly too many. Talent is stretched too thin and some teams struggle to stay afloat. I don't think I would try having that many pro soccer teams in the US and Canada any time soon. Additionally, if you really want to talk about places with their stuff together as far as making serious bids to be one of what are possibly the last two to four MLS teams after San Antonio, assuming MLS reachs 24-26 teams, then you have to mention Atlanta, Minneapolis, and Pittsburgh. After those three, Detroit would really face some stiff competition fighting for what might be the final MLS franchise. And if you think about it, prospects aren't very good for MLS in Detroit, because land prices in Detroit tend to be inexpensive lately, yet nobody has made the necessary purchase. If there isn't interest in buying enough of that inexpensive Detroit land to build an soccer-specific stadium and start a tier II to tier III team in Detroit, then there might not be enough interest in soccer in Detroit at all. For one thing, the party interested in bringing MLS to Detroit is a Canadian investor group led by a man from Greece, not Detroiters, not even Michiganians. Plus, the investment group in question isn't very bright; they bought the Silverdome before even talking to MLS and as a result, their proposal nearly got laughed out of the room, and then they lost a bid on a chunk of land to Dan Gilbert who had a smaller proposal. You might even see MLS go back and put another team in New York, either around the Rochester-Buffalo region, or in New York City, for that final MLS franchise. I'm sorry to say it, but Detroit may have missed the boat.
I dunno.. I would actually put San Antonio as 23 or 24. If you believe the rumors, Atlanta is all but sewn up at this point, while San Antonio is still in the courting phase. Granted, this could all change if San Antonio is able to get a big money investor to join their ownership group, but Atlanta has pretty much everything lined up.
Okay, well, we probably know MLS teams 22-24, even if I got the order wrong. And while it's questionable that MLS will even expand beyond 22 teams, assuming it expands to 24 teams and beyond, Detroit would still have to compete with places like Ottawa, Miami, and Pittsburgh for a franchise, and yet Detroit doesn't have the infrastructure for it let alone a tier two or three team in place to grow support and test the market. I think it's time for Detroit soccer fans and investors to get a bit more realistic, and that means starting to get serious about just establishing a tier three or tier two team, before it's too late to even have that in Detroit. It seems that Detroit's investors want to cut every corner possible and just have an MLS team "miracled" into their laps. I wonder if that's the direction Detroit FC "Le Rouge" is hoping to head into. They are certainly an interesting team. And there are tier three teams who play at small colleges or at large high school stadiums; so I suppose you could have a tier three team in Detroit just as-is, no changes necessary. If Detroit wants a tier two team, even that could be done with minimal effort. However, if Detroit's soccer investors are "all or nothing," Detroit could very well end up with the latter.
I don't think there is any question that MLS will be expanding beyond 24. The only real question is which markets will be chosen. Miami is supposedly going to be announced on Wednesday. So they already lost that one. Not that it is overly important to have a lower division team prior to expansion, Detroit City FC says hello! At this point in soccer's development, I wouldn't put any market out of reach for getting a MLS club. The number of markets that are suddenly finding themselves with "successful" is just crazy, IMHO. I'm not sure anyone would have predicted that Orlando, Indianapolis, Sacramento, San Antonio, etc would be as successful off-field as they currently are/looking to be, or that Atlanta, Miami, or Minnesota would be on the verge of getting teams. Just because Detroit isn't currently on the radar, it doesn't mean that they won't be in the next 5 years.
Maybe not completely "out of reach" in five year's time, but can we agree that there seems to be a pattern to the teams being selected for MLS franchises lately? The pattern I see is that all the recent MLS teams have s soccer specific stadium or retractable roof grid iron stadium, in a desirable location, and they've already established themselves at division two or three play. What we see from Detroit's investors is not that, but instead, more reminiscent of what Saint Louis's would be MLS investors did, and we know from Saint Louis what direction teams go in when you opt to cut corners while trying to establish a soccer team in the United States. If for example Detroit FC moved up to tier three from tier four, and eventually up to tier two, that would be a step toward Detroit getting an MLS team. To me, Detroit's only chance to ever have an MLS team at this point is to develop a team in this way, to come up through the ranks, and to be so successful at the lower levels that MLS cannot deny Detroit a franchise. That's the way the other cities are doing it, and there's no reason why Detroit wont have to follow suit...and some good reasons why Detroit should have to follow that path. Moreover, while Detroit's soccer investors are hoping for MLS to just gift them with a franchise, the tier two and three divisions are filling with teams, and pretty soon, if they keep up, Detroit's fans will have the investors to thank when the highest level play left available to Detroit is tier four.
I couldn't disagree more. Have the Sounders, Timbers, Whitecaps, and Montreal been successful? Sure, but so have Real Salt Lake, Toronto, and Philadelphia. I think the presence of established teams post Toronto making the jump is more a factor of convenience rather than a pattern of MLS expansion. Well, getting one out of three conditions right isn't bad. MLS has shown that given the right size of wallet, they are willing to overlook stadium and established team. Detroit seems more Philadelphia-esque to me, than St. Louis.
I hope you are correct. It's pretty evident that you know more about the process, so that gives me hope.
Although, I will add one thing, having a "successful" lower division team can bring markets to MLS's attention that they wouldn't normally pay attention to. Orlando most likely would not have gotten a team and San Antonio likely wouldn't be on the radar if they weren't getting good numbers in the lower divisions. Detroit doesn't strike me as one of those cities. It seems to be more of MLS already having a passing interest in having a team in that city. Even with all the troubles Detroit is having, it is still the center of a top 20 tv market and that has some cache in MLS's FO.
I would think that if I was building a sports league in the US and Canada, Detroit would be one of the places I would want to be in first. However, if the right proposal from Detroit didn't come around before long, I would be very tempted to give smaller markets a shot. My fear is that if MLS only grows to 24-28 teams, such a scenario may very well happen and Detroit could be left out. MLS has probably put off giving franchises elsewhere in hopes investors from larger markets, such as Detroit, will get it together. But how long can it go on for when there are only so many more franchises to award? That's what I'm saying, and I think Detroit's investors deserve the criticism. You know, how hard is it to give MLS what they asked for, a soccer stadium in Detroit? If they did that, what more could MLS ask of them other than to try a lower division team first? I mean, it's incredible how many soccer stadium sized swathes of land there are sitting empty in the Motor City. If I was an investor, I would buy one, purchase Detroit FC and move them to tier three. That seems to be exactly what MLS wants, and the most they could ask.
Garber says he's in advanced discussions with Detroit, St. Louis, San Diego, San Antonio, and Austin for expansion — Evan Ream (@EvanReam) April 14, 2016
It looks like Major League Soccer could be coming to Detroit. Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert and Platinum Equity founder Tom Gores are joining forces to try to bring an MLS franchise downtown. http://www.freep.com/story/sports/2016/04/26/major-league-soccer-mls-detroit/83546930/
For the first time I'm buying into the MLS to Detroit. Before it sounded like a bunch of conjecture and rumor but with Gores and Gilbert teaming up, I'm hopeful
This would be a game changer for sure! Those are some seriously deep pockets. And if they could somehow find a way to secure that Wayne County jail site and end that sorry, corrupt saga. That would be extra special.
Another piece: http://detroitsportsnation.com/mls/ddrysdale/report-tom-gores-and-dan-gilbert-bringing-mls-team-to-detroit/69395/?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=facebook_page&utm_medium=Detroit Sports Nation&utm_content=Report: Tom Gores and Dan Gilbert bringing MLS team to Detroit
And the Detroit News picking it up. http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sp...gilbert-teaming-up-mls-team-detroit/83548276/