you see what a "SUPERPUTZ" YOU ARE, The quote above is by me...NOT by NYYankee we are NOT the same person...superputz but I like youre style! wrong, just like MLS pulling out of Lockhart, W R O N G
superputz I am not leca!!!!!! I am NYYankee, we are not one and the same. Two different people!!! You really ought to get a life, superpoop, and as for forensic writing style analysis, take my advice and don't quit your day job...
NYYankee...you call yourself NYYankee, but your team is the Revs. yeah right Your team is the Revs, and you're pretending to be from New York, and you've posted 5 times...all whining about contraction in Florida, defending the Miami market. But you're not a sockpuppet for leca. yeah right
no problem, If we cant have MonkeyLeague we will put in place "A" league, in SE Florida and that is just as good.
Re: We had our chance???? If you think that it's the fans fault; then your the blithering IDIOT! The fans and the fans ALONE are the ones that brought in 15K+ into Lockhart stadium. It had nothing to do with the MLS or the teams management and any gimmicks that they should have tried to get more fans into the stadium. Fact was that we had a good team and word of mouth was the only reason 15K showed up. It wasn't the local media (anti soccer, pro baseball idiots) it wasn't the marketing team of the Fusion (more blithering idiots like yourself) and it sureley wasn't the MLS (liers). Horrobitch left because he was misled by the MLS and expected a much quicker return on his 40M + investement. So there you have it in a nut shell! if you want details of any of the above I'll be glad to share. But son't go around pretending that you know what F*&^*&^ taking about when if FACT you don't ave a clue. SO Florida is KING when it comes to soccer! Send any of your teams down here and we'll show you how good we are! Put your money where your mouth is!
Give 'em hell, leca, CoachRiver.... ...but you're wasting your time...these fans have an inherant need to blame our market (Logic aside) for the Fusion's contraction. As long as they can convince themselves of that, they don't have to accept the fact that their team could be next--hell, their league.... If you truly support this league, you should have been just as outraged as we were down here...but many of you just chalked it up to 'yeah, they had it coming'...you know I'm right. If it was some other team contracted instead of us, I would be crapping my pants for the state of the league. The spinning and manipulation from HQ is so intense, it would be laughable if it weren't so pathetic. Have a nice day.
Generally speaking, South Florida does a LOUSY job of supporting it's teams. If MLS comes back to Florida, it should go to Tampa. Compare: Baseball: Miami: Lowest attendence in MLB, with a team that averages .500 ball Tampa: Worst team in MLB, by far in away, losing close to or more than 100 games a year... Average attendence is 33 percent higher than Miami Soccer: Tampa always averages better attendence than South Florida. Even in the old NASL day, the Tampa Bay Rowdies averaged twice what the Strikers averaged. In the Mutiny's last year as a team, they won only 3 or 4 games, total. The Fusion had one of the best teams in MLS. Tampa still averaged 20 perecnt higher attendence than Miami. Football: The Dolphins stuggle to sellout (unless the Jets are playing). Tampa has 45,000 people WAITING to buy season tickets. Hockey: Tampa averages higher attendence than the Panthers, although the Panthers have, on average been the better team. The bottom line is that South Florida is a TERRIBLE sports market, plain and simple. Even the Miami Hurricanes fail to sell out the Orange Bowl, unless 30,000 FSU Seminoles show up to buy the remaining tickets... If MLS goes to Florida, it should be Tampa!
USAsoccer, get real....judge your own backyard, been there, it was not pretty.!!! Support soccer in S. Florida, and you may also get A league soon.
Would someone with a valid, logical argument for bringing an MLS team to South Florida please step forward!
I wish that Florida would have a team but realistically speaking where would you put one? Certainly not Miami or Ft Lauderdale. They are just money pits. Tampa Bay was decent but for a team to work there, a real investor would have to come in. Doubt that would happen during a recession. Jacksonville is the 14th largest city in the US based on population and the largest in Florida. I'm not sure about passion for the sport growing there. To me, if you want to have a decent club you need a place that is able to draw roughly 15,000 fans when the team is in last place in the league table like DC United. I can't see that happening in Florida. Not without an owner with very deep pockets.
The way a pro team will prosper and flourish in florida is by building a structure up from the bottom. With the right money, marketing and product, an MLS franchise could surely succeed to some degree in Tampa or Miami today. However, I think you will see some pro teams prosper and that can stay around for the long haul (extend your vision out 50 years if you dare) in Florida that start by integrating with the community up and down the soccer ladder- and beyond. Incorporate a massive youth system (merge existing clubs together), infilitrate the community- involve local business, charities, youth organizations- spread your image in Kind, and build up from PDL, DIII, A-League. If the market grows this way for a team, the foundation will be sound enough to take it to DI. But by then, perhaps the A-League will be DI. At any rate, that is how soccer has grown up around the world-bottom up- from local amatuer teams to world class money making/spending, passion creating machines. There are some teams moving this way today- Rampage, Kickers, etc... Maybe you will see it in south florida (another team for Lockhart?), maybe in O-Town (the Craze), or maybe in the Tampa Area (Bradenton??) But surely Pro soccer will return to Florida.
Yes, I will. We will start with more than 11,000 fans and have a SSS. Who've you got that promises better?
Fair enough. BUT ... The only possible way to make it work is for someone with deep pockets and marketing sense, management skills, and all around business savvy. Not Horowitz. Not Stillitano. Not any small-time soccer fan with just enough chips to play one hand in the game. Someone who can spend money wisely and who is in touch with the South Florida economic system. However, when this miracle worker does show up I doubt MLS would give him/her the chance as they've been burned there before.
Tito... you still do not understand what has been told here. MLS is the one that burned this market !!!!!!!!! This market is in the top 10 markets, even under adverse conditions. It is very CHEAP to play out of Lockhart, compared to all present markets in MLS. We are screaming because...MLS/Horrorwitz/GarberNFL damaged the S Florida image, with their lies and blunders, and we feel that circus monkeys could of managed this area far better. Comprende ???????????????????????????????? ;-) ;-) Pro soccer will be back in S Florida, we have the fans, the heritage, the passion, the stadiums...
OK, so those guys damaged the S Florida image. What has the Marlin, Panther, and Heat management done to the image? (Not to mention butterfly ballots.)
Point well taken, maybe......Marlins---Won the World Series in 1997 then Wayne Huizenga tore the team apart. It would have been nice to see them defend the title but we had that taken away by another greedy owner. Then he bolted, sold it to someone who just used it as a stepping stone to buy the Red Sox, who sold it to an owner, with the help of MLB. New owner is an Art dealer who knows nothing about baseball. He is waiting to sell it to the group in Virginia so he can make a wopping profit. Heat---Just a team that sucks Panthers---Stanley Cup Finals in their 5th year... the Wayne Huizenga gutted the team.... greedy owner. Sold the team but to a group that looks like they are trying. Butterfly ballots....Hey, I love my hanging, dimpled and pregnant chads. Screwed up ownership in S.Florida is the name of the game. It don't look like the fans, superputz.
Re: Re: superputz Trust me! I'm me, and not leca or any of the other guys anbd gals posting on behalf of Florida. We are not the same person but we do share the same passion for soccer and perhaps we are all or once were from Florida. You on the other hand are an obvousis putz! Who dosen't even know what he is saying.
Hey! I guess you missed it! We have sleeping security guards at aiport security too.! What does that have anything to do with MLS and the fact that its' run by a bunch of morons.
Re: Re: superputz Proof that I'm not leca or any of those other posters. I for 1 do not want MLS back in Suth Florida! Bunch of bozos running a monkey league! No thanks!
Let me get this straight, NYYankee/leca/Coach River...all of these teams that fail/are failing in Miami...it's never that the fans don't turn out, right? It's always sucky ownership, right?
Ok, I can buy the argument that the Fans of South Florida deserved better, that given another chance under the right circumstances a team there could succeed, that perhaps there really is a market for Soccer in S Florida that we didn't get to see when the Fusion were there....and it should be pointed out that MLS didn't neccesarily contract Miami because of low attendance, MLS contracted Miami because of an untenable I/O situation. I get that. The point you and others have repeatedly failed to make is exactly how Garber/MLS "screwed" Miami. The MLS office does not handle local promotion. The MLS office does not run the daily operations of MLS teams (aside from Dallas, but not for long there). The MLS office does not hire individual teams' front office staff, including promotions people and community relations people. Aside from letting a guy like Horowitz into the league in the first place (which was Logan, not Garber), I'm not sure exactly what MLS did to "screw" Miami that Miami didn't well do to itself through incompetent management. In some ways you could argue that MLS has been victimized by Horowitz, forcing MLS into a situation that has greatly damaged the image of the league in the south florida. Well? let me in on the skinny please, there's something I apparently dont know.
MLS/Garber/Horrorwitz equal, single entity. It does not equal LONG TERM COMMITMENT Impotent management by MLS in a FEW markets, helped "contraction" not only Horrorwitz.. River you dont need to justify nothing to SUPERPUTZ...not one friggin thing..I enjoy his obsession with his "5 is 1" theory. ha, ha, ha, ha, ha ...etc.
Clearly you just don't understand what happened. MLS had to take action to prevent the potential mass exodus of investors. Horowitz was whining that he wanted out, and there was no one else willing or able to step in and take over the Fusion. The league couldn't run another team, Tampa was eliminated for that reason, and Dallas (I presume) almost was were it not for the McKinney stadium talks at the time. MLS had two choices: contract Miami and Tampa Bay, or start down an endgame path that led to extinction. MLS' only long term commitment was to it's own existance. PLEASE tell me what incompetent management in the Miami market by MLS led to the Fusion's demise. Be specific.