Well....this coincides with stories that Florida Universities will bend over backwards to get Pro Soccer back in FL. Provide Ticket Offices, etc to get a team and rebuild the soccer seen in FL. I'm not sure what the deal is with FAU's lockhead because it can seat up to 18000 and can be converted into a soccer field. Miami FC plays. Assuming MJ is looking for sub-6000 venue for his crowds. Monday's Daily Briefing: Professional soccer could find a home at FAU By Chuck King Florida Atlantic may be about to become the new home site of a professional football team. Actually, it's more like futbol. And this could turn interesting quickly. FAU Athletic Director Craig Angelos told FAUOwlAccess.com that a team owner from the Women's Professional Soccer league is exploring the possibilities of having his team play its home games on FAU's campus. And we're not talking next year, when the new football stadium is complete. He wants to play in Boca Raton for the upcoming season, which begins in April. Dan Borislow recently brought the Washington Freedom and seems to have received permission to relocate the franchise to South Florida. Judging by the WPS schedule page, Borislow, a Palm Beach County resident who invented the MagicJack internet telephone connection, has apparently already renamed the franchise the magicTalk SC, after his company's latest product. Borislow reportedly showed interest in playing at Lockhart Stadium, but has also met multiple times with FAU officials. Angelos said the plan would be to bring in additional seating to FAU's main soccer field (located next to the Oxley Center football practice fields), raising the capacity to the neighborhood of 3,000. FAU would provide turnkey services, including ticket sales and event staffing. Angelos said he hopes the first season goes well enough to allow the creation of a new soccer stadium on campus - perhaps over near the track - that would seat about 5,000 and allow the magicTalk SC to consider FAU more of a permanent home. If that happens, the FAU campus could become a major player in the South Florida soccer scene, providing a home for various youth and perhaps college tournaments. Along with raising FAU's prestige in the soccer community, the move could being added funds to the athletic department down the road. The plan sounds like it could be a winner for both parties, so we'll keep FAUOwlAccess.com readers updated on the progress. Now, if Angelos could find a minor league baseball team willing to play in the Owls' current ballpark, the baseball team may finally get the much needed upgrades to their stadium, too.
sounds workable. will the south florida citizens cooperate at the rate of about 3000 per game. that's the big question.
Big question indeed - although the old WUSA never had a club in Florida, it has to be remembered that the only two MLS clubs ever to fold completely were both located in Florida (Miami Fusion and Tampa Bay Mutiny, both after 2001 season). And examples from other leagues can be cited... - the Rays (even with their recent success) and Marlins continue to linger in the lower half of the MLB attendance tables; - the Jacksonville Jaguars a few years back had six of their eight home matches blacked out on local telly due to failure to sell out within 72hr of kick-off; - the Panthers (Sunrise, FL) continue to be a poor NHL home draw (although in their case, missing the playoffs nine straight years - tying a league record and threatening to break it this season - hasn't helped); - even the WNBA was outtathere after 2002 (Miami Sol one of first two WNBA clubs to fold; Orlando Miracle become Connecticut Sun). Is it because most of the people are originally from other parts of the country/world and continue to support their old hometown teams (a problem we have here in Washington as well)? Whatever the reason...the record of the past decade shows Floridians to be rather a tough sell for pro sports cluibs.
well...i'm not sure what the mls was thinking. did they really think brasilians, cubans, colombians, argentines, etc from SA and CA would follow mls? they think the league is a joke even with beckham and henry. at least with the wps you do have the best women in the world excluding the germans. he has an outside chance of getting 3500-4000 per game for the right price. people in washington cry about losing the team but they werent even going to the games. how about 4500-5000 show up a game...not 2500...which i've seen from box scores. mls is a "C" league to Latins and Euros.
The old WUSA Freedom (I was a STH there all three seasons) used to draw quite a bit more than that at RFK Stadium...the problem with the WPS Freedom is that the Maryland Soccerplex is very difficult to get to unless you already live in Montgomery or western/northern PG counties - 10mi from the nearest Metro station, for one thing. I don't drive so couldn't get out to the WPS Freedom matches (exxept for the RFK doubleheaders with DC United), but even with wheels, if you're coming from Virginia it's a bit of a yomp. I realise that RFK wasn't an option for the WPS Freedom because of the costs involved, but a rather high price was paid in terms of stadium accessibility by playing at the Soccerplex.
and...Latinos and even Euros for the most part will not go unless a famous player from their home country is playing. When Blanco played with the Chicago Fire, Mexicans filled Toyota Park. Once he left, they left. I'm from an ethnic background myself. I love soccer and go to any and all soccer events. However, my father will not go to even an MLS game unless someone from his native country is playing. And even then, it better be someone with a name and not a second or third division player coming over. He could give a sh_t about American soccer and refuses to spend money on it. Unfortunately.
The Freedom were third in attendance in the league, behind only Boston and Chicago. They beat out all of the surviving teams (Atlanta, Philly, Sky Blue) except for Boston.
Well...I'm not sure, went thru box scores and saw several games where attendance was under 2500. One game was 2110. All I'm saying is you have to put 45000-50000 in seats over 10 homes games or a guy like Dan will move the team which he is moving. Now....since he is completely renaming them to Magic Fool Talk...i'd hope the league would keep that name rights and property open for new owners. But again...if i looked at some of those numbers...i'm not sure i put a team in washington again. you have to have 4000 on avg in those seats.
Did anyone really have a 4000-5000 average ever in the last 2 seasons? Atlanta and Philly both barely drew 2,000 their first year. IMO,Mr. MagikTalk is moving the team, not because DC area cannot put people in the stands, but because he just wants the team he just bought to be where he lives and the area he likes. This has nothing to do with DC being a bad place to have a women's pro team. He's already said he will be completely hands on. This is his toy and he wants to play with it as he sees fit. It's just that simple.
Freedom attendance, game by game, in 2010 was: 3899 2665 4198 8261 (RFK, so that's probably bogus) 3762 3249 3744 4809 2118 (Wed) 2511 (Thu, added to schedule) 3143 3545 Just one game under 2,500, and that was on a weeknight. A second one came close, not altogether surprisingly since it was both on a weeknight and added to the schedule after the Athletica folded. Total attendance: 45,904 Average attendance: 3,825 Just the Soccerplex: Total attendance: 37,643 Average attendance: 3,422 Numbers on all the teams are here: http://www.kenn.com/the_blog/?p=3508 As indicated there, no team in the league, not even Boston, managed to get 4,500 or more fans per game. Only two teams even broke 4,000, Boston and Chicago.
The DC area is a great soccer area. The Freedom is the most successful and well known women's pro franchise in the US. However, as I said before IMO, this guy looks at this as his personal experiment and he will do with it as he sees fit. And Southern Florida is what he wants to experiment with. Those who have been Freedom fans for years dislike what's happening to their team. Those who would live in Southern Florida and want a women's pro team down there are happy about it. You do have to give him credit for rescuing the team from totall colapse. And he may have even breathed new life into the league. It's a bitter-sweet sort of thing.
Star City - that is patently untrue. In paid attendance the Freedom were near the bottom of the league.
This is not your fault, because you are dealing with what you know - the numbers posted here are announced attendance, not the actual paid attendance, or the actual fannies in the seats known as "the drop". In the paid and drop categories the Freedom were in the bottom half of the league.
The one I bolded was the last of the DC United-Freedom RFK doubleheaders and the attendance reported was probably that of United (which set an all-time low in attendance last season amid a train-wreck campaign, so 8261 for the full twin-bill doesn't sound far-fetched). This was the one in which they departed from the old 'ladies first' formula of the United-Freedom doubleheaders of the WUSA era and also 2009 and had United go first - I was there; the vast majority of people who were there for United left before the Freedom kicked off - sad.
And you know this how? ETA: Okay, I've been contacted privately by someone I know is in the know and assured that ManUFan17's claim is accurate.
Looks like it's game over for the club in Washington. Feel horrible for the Freedom fans who had to suffer from this weaselly liar systematically destroy years and years of work. Here's hoping the Washington FC W-League team gets a lot of support.
Really, there are going to play all their matches at a place that seats between 1200 and 1500? I'm sorry, but that's just....I don't even have words for what that is. $15 to get in, only $10 if you bring your own lawn chair...or will you have to rent a lawn chair from the club?
Hopefully they can claim to have sell-out crowds for every game then, and entice additional attendance with the lawn chairs and towels. Having been there before, I would certainly want to rent an umbrella as well. I can see the MJ call center pitching discounted expansion deals for the next 100 seats signups, and new capacity being added every day, just in time to say the least.
Well, supposedly the schedule comes out tomorrow. So we'll see how many games they will play in Florida. I already plan on going to Florida this summer for vacation so I am curious as to the schedule. Wouldn't mind seeing a game there as well.
I still doubt it, given the conflicting info I've heard here and there. But in any case, the Freedom had an unrivaled history and a solid fan base, even if they weren't always willing to trek out to the Plex.
I've said it before -- if we're all looking for someone to blame, blame the DC-area moneybags who paid lip service to wanting the team there but didn't step up.
yep. it saddens me the league didnt put the freedom franchise name on ice and its' history. he could have called them MagicTalk Mermaids or something. MagicJack's Washington Freedom is a joke. someone needs to check with the commish on this. can new investor take the name back? BIG MISTAKE letting him keep the name esp if the current group of teams hold and 3-4 teams come in from the West next season along with chicago.
Technically I have very little feeling about this, one way or the other, although I can understand my Freedom friends not liking the name change one bit, much less the move to south Florida. My emotions have been spent with the Red Stars fiasco. But I have to keep reminding that if it weren't for this guy, not only the league may not exist, but the Freedom itself would have been flushed down the toilet maybe never to exist again.