Casual fans in NYC coming out for USL1 games ??? In the spring and summer we have 2 Major League baseball teams that draw 3-4 Million a year. We have 2 minor leauge teams , one Brooklyn that draws close to 10,000 a game for 18 year old kids playing. Plus broadway and concerts. If you aim for that person..Then don't even bother with a team I live in an area that will attract the majority of fans..and they'll be either immigrants like my parents or first and second generation Americans. We knock that stuff because we know it won't work , not just for the sake of it. Our tastes , are the same ones the South Americans , Europeans and Central Americans have. So thats who we're trying to reach. Right now its all speculation..So we won't go crazy until we hear from the owners..thanks for the concern..but we'll be alright
Were you seriously expecting this to be a MLS club? I am confused. Guess you missed the mark on the Cosmos name, too.
USL Reaches for Big Apple Posted April 2nd, 2009 by editor By Paul Gardner Professional soccer in New York City? Now there’s an idea. I’ll buy that. And that’s what the United Soccer Leagues, the USL - which likes to define itself as an “alternative league” to MLS - is promising us. MLS has dithered and dickered around this issue for all of its 14 years of existence - without showing any real signs of coming up with a Big Apple franchise. You might think we have a New York team. After all - the New York Red Bulls - that’s their official title. Frankly, they’ve got some nerve. New York? For a team that plays in New Jersey, has its offices in New Jersey, and has its practice facilities in New Jersey? There used to be a tenuous New York transportation link - nice special buses from Midtown Manhattan straight to the stadium on game days. Now, even that service has been nixed. As far as I’m concerned that’s the umbilical gone. The Red Bulls are now officially and irretrievably the New Jersey Red Bulls. But we’re soon to have FC New York, a new franchise in the USL First Division. “We are excited to bring professional soccer back to New York” - the words of Doug Petersen, one of the owners of FC New York. He was talking at a press conference yesterday at the Yale Club, in the heart of Manhattan. I wish him and FC New York well. With the usual caveats and queries. Firstly, the name. Why FC? Meaning, I suppose, Football Club - when this is actually a soccer club. Last week we had another Manhattan press conference at which a series of tours by foreign teams was announced - to be called the “World Football Challenge.” Why football, when the sport to be played is soccer? Sheepish answers were given, but no convincing reason emerged. Yesterday, the USL’s head honcho and only-creator, Francisco Marcos, American soccer’s great survivor, regaled us for 14 minutes, and used the world football repeatedly. I don’t know why, and neither did he. Whatever. FC New York should be SC New York if they want to go with initials. But I pass on to the New York bit. Does that mean New York City? The official USL press release is in no doubt, with “USL-1 Headed To New York City.” I’d like to think that’s true. But it’s baffling to find the new owners talking about playing at Hofstra University. The Cosmos played there for a couple of years in the early 1970s. No doubt the facility is a hell of a lot better than it was in those days - it has to be - but it’s still not in the city. It’s some seven miles over the boundary, in Nassau County. It’s Long Island. New York State, yes - but not in the Big Apple. Ignoring such technicalities, Petersen announced with brazen New Yorkishness that there must now be a trophy to be played for between the local teams - the other one being “our brothers on the other side of the river” - Petersen’s words, his way of putting the New Jersey Red Bulls in their non-New York place. And Zap! … here comes the shining trophy - a gold-looking apple, and a modest cup. The game to be called The Grapple for the Apple. This is good stuff. But the big move for SFC New York will be to grab the fan base before MLS can move in. We know, with certainty, that there is a potentially huge Hispanic following for soccer in the city. All those Colombians and El Salvadorans in Queens, for a start - not that far from Hofstra. If SFCNY (that’s pretty awful, but they’ve forced it on me) can grab the allegiance of those groups, it’s going to make it difficult for MLS to move in. The “ethnic fans” were mentioned at the press conference, so there is awareness. That’s a good start. SFCNY will start play in 2010. For the moment, putting together the team is a priority - plus, they tell us, the “establishment of a youth academy.” And the construction of a soccer specific stadium - site TBA. Coach? Players? Not quite yet. Seems there’s talk going on with a European club that will be an affiliate, that will provide expertise. One can only hope that it will not be another of the dreaded British clubs that will be handing down advice. Because if that happens, if SFCNY puts a Brit-oriented team on the field, it will not interest the Hispanics, and will be throwing away its strongest asset.
intru have u ever been to nyc, its friken huge, we dont want to travel outside the already 2nd largest city in the world. and its the principle of having a team in nyc, what if manchester united played in liverppol and where called manchester united, would it make sense?
Paul Gardner wins the title for biggest douche in American soccer year after year hands down. Does he own the rights to the word soccer and get a royalty everytime it is said. So he is pissed when someone says football? Even many casual fans nowadays know that soccer is called football around the world. Paul, take the stick out of your butt. Gardner makes no sense. Last time I checked the USL is going to have years to capture the hispanic fan base in NYC. There isn't even a decent rumor about a MLS NYC team recently. Secondly, if the USL starts drawing thousands of passionate latin fans to watch Queens FC or whatever they end up as, how exactly will they stop MLS from poaching that club (does Vancouver, Portland, or Seattle ring a bell Paul? Its been kind of in the news recently) His self loathing as a Brit is so tired. He acts like the EPL is run by a bunch of neanderthals. Last time I checked the EPL clubs play some pretty nice football, er soccer. Sorry. Now if this NYC USL club hooks up with say Scunthorpe United, then he may have a point.
Nobody built a soccer stadium in the suburbs by choice, because there was a preference for a suburban crowd. Those stadiums have been built in the suburbs mainly because land there is more available and cheaper than urban areas.
Since everyone dogs suburban stadiums, Detroit should be at the head of the list for expansion. I just read where like nearly a third of all real estate in the city is vacant. You could build a great urban stadium cheap. Of course the problem would be it is in well, Detroit. O nevermind. To the 'burbs!
indeed, but that is a mistake that was learned the hard way..they did have a choice though. it is hard to believe that Dallas and Columbus etc. are economic havens that getting land in city limits was impossible to get? possible.. but i doubt it.. but i could be wrong
I don't think that you understand the reasoning behind the author's opinion. The reason that the hispanics will not flock to a English side are for political reasons and not competitive. But if you want to make it exclusively competitive, then the EPL is the antithesis of South American soccer. The hispanic will STAY AWAY IN DROVES.
Columbus's stadium is well within city limits, much less what anyone would consider the "city" part of the metropolitan area. It's not down in the Arena District or steps from High Street, but it is in the city.
I am very familiar with Paul Gardner's anti British feelings. They haven't changed. They were waranted back in the eighties when I first started reading his stuff, but he won't acknowledge that the Premiership is much different today. To Gardner British is bad, Latin is good. The football world is a bit more complicated than that. I would agree with your point though, a British partnership won't entice Latin fans. I frankly think all these cobrandings in the US (Chivas USA, CP Baltimore, etc.) are stupid.
F.C. New York co-owner Doug Petersen meets the Borough Boys: http://www.fiveborosports.com/ssp/news?news_id=2229. It seems that F.C. New York needs a relationship with a foreign club just to get off the ground, which is not a good thing in my mind. My guess is that FCNY will become FC Fulham NY or something like that in the not too distant future.
I was at the meeting last night and that was NOT the gist of what he was saying. If anything Doug was explaining that the USL is better equiped to deal with the world transfer market and all its rules than is the MLS. That's where the partnerships with Foreign teams comes into play.
There's a youth system with that name and it appears that the ties to the academy are so strong that youth players could eventually play for the pro team. True football academy system. I would be surprised if they completely changed the name of the team to something beyond the history and the completed crest/name.
In Paul Gardner's mind it is still 1967 (or whatever year he came over to the USA). The past forty-some-odd-years never happened; the Internet does not exist, etc. It's still 1967 and everyone in America is still too parochial and still too isolated from the rest of the world to understand the proper distinctions in words like 'football' and 'soccer'. Also, he's trying to act more American than the Americans. Newsflash, Paul: we're much more American than you will ever be, we'll decide for ourselves what to call the game, thank you very much. We do not need some Limey ex-patriot telling us what we, as Americans, should be calling this game. He's just the mirror image of some British yahoo on a web forum making fun of Americans and their 'soccerball'. So instead of being a British yahoo, he's trying to pass himself off as an American yahoo. His constant fellating of 'Hispanics' is just another aspect of his very British anti-British-ism.
It's been awful quiet since the big announcement on April 1. From early April: "As for a potential partner, Petersen said he is currently negotiating with four different European-based clubs and expects to finalize a deal by the middle of this month. From there, he said, the club will begin to hire its coaches and technical staff." http://www.fiveborosports.com/ssp/news?news_id=2229 Anyone want to speculate, informed or not, about FCNY's European partner? What about coaching candidates?
Any speculation on possible stadium sites? I friend of mine works for the Parks Department and he was trying to figure out some open areas. He mentioned some possible brown field locations. But that most of these sites didn't have train access. I think one of them was near the race track.
They have mentioned a few sites not really sure if they have a race track or not. I know they mentioned Icahn Stadium but I don't know if they have anything worked out yet.
I think I read a reference to some site near Kennedy Airport. Also, Aqueduct Racetrack is always mentioned anytime someone brings up building a soccer stadium in Queens. It's near a highway and a subway, so it's got that going for it. More recently, some developer type proposed a hockey arena in the Willet's Point area. While the idea seems like a stretch, if there's room for a hockey arena then there's room there for a soccer stadium. What I'd like to know is whether FCNY and it's partners have the money and the clout to build a stadium, in Queens or elsewhere. I would not be optimistic about this team's chances for survival if they play long-term at Hofstra, Icahn or Baker Field.