NASL is not dead; however OKC may have a bigger fish to fry... Man, you haven't forgotten that moniker Laramie4OKC. We had some battles back then. Oklahoma City is getting ready to burst out: New skyline will add three to six new skyscrapers before 2020. OKC Energy averaged 3,700 in a stadium designed to hold 3,400. We will bring an MLS franchise to Oklahoma City. The new 7,500 seat Taft Stadium will be the springboard. MAPS IV: 2017 there will be a push to get some kind of stadium put before the voters. The City of Oklahoma City could do this alone or work with a public-private partnership with OKC Energy FC; they have stated their goals to eventually bring MLS to OKC: Partnership with Funks when McLaughlin made his switch: The partnership represents a major step towards uniting the Oklahoma City soccer community and strengthens Prodigal’s commitment to bring top level professional soccer to Oklahoma City including a potential Major League Soccer team in the years ahead. http://www.energyfc.com/index.cfm?fa=news.article&articleID=D4EDD5F4-41B4-E311-A1F9-000C296FBAA9
Oklahoma City is a 'can do' city; don't forget that. Oklahoma City Zoo is building. 1. Oklahoma City Zoo receives a permanent 1/8 penny sales tax which provides $12 million annually. A. This represents half of the Zoo's operating budget. 2. Thru MAPS (build as we collect) penny sales tax; Oklahoma City builds debt-free projects: A. Bricktown Ballpark B. Bricktown Canal C. Chesapeake Energy Arena D. Oklahoma River Projects (3 dams, developed boathouse district) E. Renovated or rebuilt all public schools in OKC area. Above are several examples; this spurred private economic development three fold. 3. 2014: MAPS tax collections are $50 million over projection. Oklahoma City is growing its business base. A. MAPS III ($777 million in projects) expires in 2017 B. New downtown convention center C. Downtown Central Park D. Modern streetcar system E. Whitewater raft park F. Oklahoma State Fair Park improvements... OU Medical Area booms with construction... Since 1993: Oklahoma City has passed four continuous MAPS Projects (MAPS, MAPS II-schools for Kids, MAPS for HOOPS--arena upgrades, NBA practice facility, MAPS III--current); the continuous building boom has been tripled by private sector investments in our city. If you have been here lately, you've probably noticed the cranes all over the city... 2015 will be the debut of the North American Soccer League in OKC. The competition will make for a strong soccer presence in our city. Hubris? Think again...
No, Laramie. It's civic hubris. Plain and simple. Your OKC snobbery gets tiresome and has little to nothing to do with the subject of this thread. Yet you go on with this endless civic masterbation that would make your own Chamber of Commerce blush. Tulsans don't frequent this thread... but I do. I lived in OKC for years -- three separate times in each of the last three decades. Each time within a mile or two of Taft Stadium. OKC cannot support both USL Pro and the NASL. One will die. I'm hopeful the one that will die is the NASL group-- because if I lived in OKC, I would have season tickets at Taft and wouldn't support the desperate smear machine known as OKC FC. I would have highly enjoyed (for nostalgia purposes) having the Tulsa Roughnecks play in a D-2 league alongside the Tampa Bay Rowdies, Ft Lauderdale Strikers, and the new Jacksonville club. A nice reunion of the 1982 NASL Southern Division. And, of course, a date with the Cosmos that would bring back fond memories for thousands of Tulsa fans. But Brad Lund decided that if he didn't get his first choice for a USL Pro team in OKC... that he'd rather act like a disgruntled employee engaging in a needless pissing match with his former employer and push for an NASL team in OKC first and then a Tulsa team only as an afterthought, when pushing for both makes ZERO FINANCIAL SENSE. Because Brad chose that path, it gave USL Pro little choice but to attempt to fast track a Tulsa USL Pro team using Prodigal LLC and Bob Funk Jr. for leverage (dare I say bribery?). Brad Lund made his bed; now he gets to lie in it. And I will point out that 97 of the top 100 crowds in the history of Oklahoma soccer were for Tulsa Roughnecks' games played at Skelly Stadium from 1978 to 1984. That statistic shouldn't be used as a badge of honor for Tulsa, since over thirty years have passed... but records were meant to be broken. OKC's biggest crowd for soccer (9,223) barely cracks the top 100... and those three non-Roughnecks crowds? There was a 1977 exhibition game in Tulsa on a Tuesday night that drew over 11,000 fans and convinced Ward Lay to move Team Hawaii to Tulsa rather than Cleveland. There was a 2003 exhibition game from Wantland Stadium in Edmond that drew a crowd of 9,223... and then a 2003 exhibition game from Skelly Stadium in Tulsa the very next week that drew over 14,000 people. There are several non-MLS cities out there that have drawn tens of thousands for international exhibitions. There are several cities that are far preferable IMHO than Okie City when you compare politics, media, and fanbase. When, pray tell, will OU ever allow it's cherished football stadium to be used for that purpose so we can properly measure the fan support for a possible MLS team? And, while we're at it, when will OU ever field an NCAA men's soccer team at the D-1 level? There are only two NCAA D-1 soccer programs in the state, and both of those programs are in Tulsa. Last Friday night, I watched TU (with four starters who played extensively for the Athletics this summer), defeat #3 Virginia in front of a loud crowd of more than 2,200 fans... fans stormed the field, some of the Ultras supporters group were there leading and cheering along with the student section... I know Mayor Mick has wanted OCU to go NCAA D-1 for years now, but that ain't happening; my alma mater was home to OKC's only former NASL player, the guy who created the soccer program there: Brian Harvey. And then to have Brian Harvey defect from OKC FC and support Energy FC, well... geez. When your lead NASL investor/spokesman and the only former NASL player in OKC not only abandon you but join the other team, that IMO is when pushing forward is no longer about doing what's best for soccer in OKC. And that's unfortunate.
[Response: So, you claim to know what's best for Oklahoma City's soccer community? We have USL-Pro and NASL in OKC; the two will vie for prominence in our community in 2015. Tulsa will have a similar dilemma to solve like OKC with the competition between USL-Pro (ONEOK Baseball Field) and NPSL (Athletics Stadium) in 2015. Wish Tulsa the best of luck! The NASL debuts in 2015; you appear to have all the answers for Oklahoma City.]
Many people from OKC feel the same way I do. If there are two OKC professional teams in 2015, it will split already sparse media coverage and do more harm than good.
Rumor has it that this franchise might end up in Omaha. Apparantly there was a group up for a facilities visit last week. They looked at UNO, Creighton and Ameritrade.
I'm still waiting to hear from one of the owners. They are at the BOG meeting, I think now? And the last communication we had he assured me that they were ready to go in OKC. They have a stadium lease. They have already hired a coach, and they are scouting players. I know things can change, but that's what the man told me.
Anyone heard anything? Isn't the BOG meeting over? I wonder what exactly the league and/or team are waiting on at this point?
BOG meeting in Ottawa was over last week. The NASL commish was on the FC Edmonton match stream last Sunday and mentioned nothing of OKC FC. I would expect news out by the end of October at the latest as the 2015 schedule should be out by then.
But isn't the title of this thread " is the Nasl dead in the state of Oklahoma " ? Maybe you should start an Des Moine NASL thread instead of hijacking this one, just my oppinion.
Heard from ownership today. Said they were sorry fornthe lack of info. Said once announcement wad made I would understand the delay. Said they understood if I had no faith in them after all this, but would like to meet me for lunch to explain everything they've had to work through. Said to expect an announcement by tje NASL Championship Game
He said, "If I were you, I wouldn't think we had any credibility left. .." He also said that AFTER the announcement he hopes everyone will understand WHY they had to delay and delay and delay. We'll see
I just assumed that in the beginning (around Spring 2013), it was probably Funk Jr's people who were the un-named group being bandied about by Peterson and company. Because, I wondered at the time, who would be stupid enough to sign a non-compete with USL for a PDL club while simultaneously pursuing an NASL bid? Maybe Brad Lund and SOS can find some unsuspecting CHL hockey team like the Denver Cutthroats to run... oh, wait.
I thought that SOS pursued NASL after USL told SOS, their own local PDL operator, that they were going to give local USL Pro rights to another group in the same market? Seems pretty straight up crapfest to me.
It takes several months to jump through all the financial hoops to be awarded an NASL franchise. USL announced OKC FC as a PDL franchise on 02/14/2013. The OKC school board had a meeting on 06/17/2013 with both Commish Peterson and Lund making the case for NASL over USL Pro. My accusation is that Brad Lund / SOS tried to play both sides against the middle, and for weeks (months?) told anyone and everyone involved (including Tim "he knew his role" McLaughlin) on both sides what (they thought) they wanted to hear, and had the nerve to have surrogates post a buncha bull puckey on Bigsoccer... I believe they signed on the dotted line for a PDL club in an effort to one-up Funk Jr while pretending to be blissfully ignorant.... in contrast, Holt and the USL people pretty much did what would be expected in an awkward situation where two competing groups want a USL Pro franchise. Holt likely couldn't legally mention Prodigal by name (confidentiality agreement), and Lund / SOS thought they could pick up some insider information on USL Pro while pretending to Holt that they only had eyes for USL Pro... I also believe that the biggest reason Lund became a point-man and advocate for a Tulsa NASL franchise was because of the insider info he had from USL Pro indicating they wanted and were close to getting both Oklahoma markets as part of a package deal... Here are the Lund apologists from last year.... JULY 2013 http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/battle-of-oklahoma-city.1989234/page-3 Dated JULY 26, 2013 http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/battle-of-oklahoma-city.1989234/page-5 ... and one voice of reason ... And a couple more quotes for good measure.... “Brad's long-term plans, as he explained it, were to build a soccer-specific stadium, on a site that hadn't really been determined, with funding that hadn't really been identified,” Cornett said. “But he seemed to feel confident that he would figure it out."