Life After MLS

In light of recent developments in St. Louis it seems that "life after MLS" is one huge step closer. I still hold out hope that the recent awkward silence out of Nagle means we've entered the final stages of landing the franchise, when everyone is supposed to keep quiet and not leak any details, but I'm not holding my breath.

Don't get me wrong, I want MLS. OTH, if our foreseeable future is USL Championship, then, "Strangely enough, I'm kinda of okay with that," too. I'll be bummed, but probably just for a day or two.

Republic are now like that childhood best friend that I don't want to part ways with. Would Sacramento of MLS be a small-market powerhouse, or Minnesota United? I don't want Minn U. If we stay USL and get our business model/expenses in order, Republic could easily be a USL powerhouse. Ours. The USL 2.0 that other clubs try to emulate.

All I ask is we get a permanent, SSS stadium with real grass and operate as a true division two team, not as a minor league team, if that makes sense. The club should be a flagship, where soccer is done "the Republic way." Make that USL 3.0. I want to be the team that other fan bases get sick and tired of seeing at the top of the standings.

I can live with that, and pay good money for it, too.

 

I truly thought Sacramento would get a team and that you fans had earned it with your outstanding support.

It will be nice to not lose you as a rivalry and I do hope you can get a permanent home post haste as again you fans deserve it.

Screw Garber and his mafioso way of running MLS.

 

On this note, the #SavetheCrew movement looks like it has been successful in keeping the Crew in Columbus - however, this comes with the promise that Precourt gets a team located in Austin. So, there's another expansion slot gone if true - and extremely unfair to all of the bids that were made over the past couple of years that MLS considered, of which Austin wasn't even one. I imagine this is even more horrible news for San Antonio than it is for Sacramento. But I agree with all of the points above - if the Republic aren't getting a team in the near term, settle in where we are. Get out of Papa Murphy's Park, build a permanent stadium somewhere to call home and boss the USL - whoops, I mean, "USL Championship" - for the near term.

I have a feeling it's going to take some organizational restructuring to get Sacramento into MLS, perhaps with some sort pro/rel or splitting of the top divisions.

 

I was only going to post a couple of paragraphs from an article in The Athletic but, screw it, here's a most of it:

... financial difficulties associated with the pandemic — Burkle holds substantial interest in hospitality businesses, which took major hits in 2020 — put the status of the bid up in the air. As reported by The Athletic last month, Sacramento missed its deadline to sign and submit a long-form expansion agreement and make its first expansion fee payment in December 2020. Multiple sources confirmed on Friday that the Burkle’s group never did submit a signed agreement or make any expansion payments, including any sort of down payment prior to the league announcing Sacramento as an expansion team.

...Some sources said it’s not necessarily the worst thing for MLS, however. The league will have to deal with some embarrassment that comes with announcing a deal before an agreement was signed, only to see it fall apart. But multiple sources who have helped bring expansion teams into the league in the last five years characterized Friday’s news as a net positive for MLS.

...sources at both the club and the league level acknowledged that the market wouldn’t do much for MLS on a national or international level.

...The source said that there’s a sense among league stakeholders that MLS will look at Burkle pulling out as an opportunity to get out of something the league felt obligated to do after Garber’s 2015 comments, rather than something that was in its absolute best interest.

For example, Sacramento today would be the 18th largest TV market in the league. Larger TV markets absent from MLS’s current and forthcoming footprint include Phoenix, Detroit and Tampa-St. Petersburg. Those three areas have also submitted MLS expansion bids in recent years, along with San Diego and Las Vegas.

It’s also feasible, perhaps likely, that MLS will ask whoever replaces Burkle for a bigger expansion fee than the $200 million he agreed to pay. The most recent fee, paid by Charlotte owner David Tepper, was $300 million with the potential to go as high as $325 million.

While larger markets remain in play, sources questioned whether, in the midst of the pandemic, MLS would find any potential buyers willing to put down $300 million for an expansion team. Another source pointed to the fact that there are three MLS teams currently on the market — Orlando, Houston and Real Salt Lake — that can be purchased with the infrastructure already in place for around the same price as what MLS will likely ask for an expansion bid.

That could prompt MLS to move slower than usual with its plans to fill Sacramento’s spot, perhaps holding off for several years...

While multiple sources across NWSL don’t expect Friday’s MLS news to impact Sacramento’s attempt to join the women’s league, it does raise a major complication. Sacramento’s expansion bid included plans for facilities that potentially may not be built now. Soccer-specific stadiums and professional training facilities have played a large role in NWSL expansion; if Sacramento is unable to meet expectations of its original bid, they could face pressure from within the NWSL to sell their expansion rights to another ownership group. With known interested parties in the Bay Area (including incoming USL club Oakland Roots), that pressure could be meaningful ahead of the 2022 season.

Sources said the Sacramento ownership group has made multiple payments to the NWSL as part of its expansion bid. Another source said former U.S. women’s national team coach Jill Ellis, who was hired in a front office role that would function across both the MLS and NWSL teams, has a multi-year contract with the club.
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Edit: We're done. No MLS any time soon. I'm off to download the official USL Championship smartphone app. I'll be using it for a long time.

 

Goddamn, I was making fun of ya'll in the other thread, but I really did think that you will join MLS in 5 years tops.

That article above is not good, not good AT ALL. Fcuck man...that stadium, by the river, goddamn I was looking forward to that away game.

Shiatttt!!!!!

 

I am so disappointed for you guys yet again. I am at a loss for words. This truly sucks.

 

I was too as it is an easy trip to Sacramento from Reno for games. And the article was a devastating read.

 

Yeah, he left a good job in the NBA front-office to come to Republic. This is a sign we're going to be division II for a good long while.

Edit: He worked for the Kings between NBA front-office and Republic.

 

Jesus, that article reads like the fat lady not only sang, but she took a shit on the stage as she walked off...

Gutted for Sac fans because if this is accurate it sure doesn't look like MLS will be back. They'll be moving on to Phoenix, San Diego, or some other market with more "national appeal". I hope at the very least you all are able to hang on to your USL side, or were they a short term thing pending the MLS team at this point?

 

It all sucks of course, but knowing Cal Expo was a temporary stadium I suppose it's not surprising that it was MLS or bust. And I suppose that was the danger of such a situation. Honestly I don't see MLS making that kind of mistake again where an MLS team is granted while there is no MLS venue and only a temp venue available. They rolled those dice in San Jose and the Quakes stayed in largely temporary Buck Shaw years beyond when the league wanted them out. And now with Sac they rolled again with it being granted without a stadium actually ready to go to shovels in the dirt and only a temp venue in place... NorCal has killed that going forward. Coincidently, if Burkle is out of the MLS bid, who owns the USL side now? I always presumed they were tied to one another.

Just really sucks the USL team is also locked in that temp venue position where it's got no long term home sans MLS. I'm actually following this closer than most non-Sac fans because while I'm a Quakes fan in MLS, my local team is the USL San Diego Loyal who similar to Sac were founded by Warren Smith. And they were founded with an eye on MLS like Sac. I think the only upside we have is that the Loyal play in a permanent stadium and that an even better permanent stadium is under construction just up the road so even if MLS doesn't happen the USL side isn't necessarily screwed. I'd like to think it's a lesson Warren learned but I suspect it was just dumb luck that we happened to have a USL friendly venue ready to go, and a both USL and MLS friendly venue independently under construction thanks to San Diego State Univ.

 

Republic were actually in good shape on the MLS stadium. EID had passed, city council approved, city funding in place for some infrastructure. It was shovel-ready, just needed a timeline (and, it turns out, an owner who had signed a contract) but COVID got in the way of that by moving expansion back a year for all expansion teams but Austin. It's all about the ownership group, and we lost our whale.

The thing that sucks about the stadium is that, ironically, we were ready to go with a big, MLS-caliber SSS but a USL version is actually going to be hard to justify. I doubt they'll put one at the railyard site. Plus, Republic don't draw 11,569 a game like they used to. The stadium situation is a real quandary now. Other clubs have built USL-sized SSS. I hope we figure it out.

 

Oh, brother. Here we go again.

Sacramento CA needs new lead investor for MLS expansion team | The Sacramento Bee (sacbee.com)

“My phone is ringing off the hook,” Mayor Darrell Steinberg said on Monday. “I can’t be specific (about who is calling) at this point but there is already significant interest being expressed from some major investors and that is exactly what we want.”

Sacramento Republic FC principle owner Kevin Nagle said this weekend he has also talked with other wealthy people who expressed interest in exploring the possibility of launching a top-tier soccer team in the capital city. He and city officials declined to say who or how many may be interested.

“We have re-engaged with potential lead investors, and have been receiving serious inquiries since Friday’s news broke,” Nagle said in an emailed statement.

Quick, everyone!! Hold your breath!!!!

 

The latest reporting from The Athletic has Sacramento sources ripping Burkle. To summarize, he:

• put off starting construction of the stadium, allowing stadium costs to increase
• was attempting to shave costs from the project by cutting luxury boxes and amenities
• rarely attended meetings, sending Alvarez in his place
• invested no money in the USL operation
• never answered questions from potential new investors regarding what rights and responsibilities buying in require

One source said of Burkle, his "heart never seemed to be in it."

 

Damn, he's a southern end of north bound jackass.

 

So basically they never really had him on board. MLS' worst case of premature expansion to date it would seem.