http://thefirealarm.matchnight.com/tfadefault.cfm?page=ARTICLE&show=882 It sure sounds like it reading this. And here's Peter Wilt's comment from Fire boards. From what i know, i think there is a good chance that it (Milwaukee expansion) could happen. If it becomes reality, i would like to be involved.
I doubt it. That announcement would come at the ASG. This seems like an "expansion rights" press conference kinda deal.
Wow, big news obviously if it is true. While I'd rather see a team in Houston, Portland, or Rochester; Milwaukee is not a bad option in my opinion. If they are playing in a stadium from the start, then that will be fantastic, and will be a great new standard for MLS. Not only will cities need plans for a stadium, they may now need to have a stadium ready. Over/Under 100 posts by midnight?
Hopefully with a little more to it than previous similar events *cough cough Cleveland cough cough* - *cough cough Oklahoma cough cough*
The great thing about Milwaukee is that sans the Superclasico, this will be the closest rivalry in the MLS. Less than a 2 hour drive seperates Milwaukee from Chicago. Yea, good thing you bring up Cleveland. It was pretty much a done deal until the city refused to back the stadium and the owner died. I would worry A LOT about the former, since it could easily happen to Milwaukee.
This would be awesome for Peter, and I think pretty good for the league. I doubt Milwaukee can ever be a giant, but a steady 15k type yeah.. Should be a great rivalry with Chicago... Cool to get out of left field stuff. SJ to Houston certainly won't be..
Today's already been a day of surprises. First Greg's firing, and now Milwaukee. Maybe Harrison before midnight?
Shazam! A wary congrats to Milwaukee on getting an EXPANSION club. This sure has been kept under the rug. Personally, I would rather see MLS expand in areas other than mid-sized metros with struggling MLB clubs - but the Milwaukee Suds will be an excellent addition to MLS. I assume the ownership group is dropping 10 large as an expansion fee, plus, what? 50 large on the new stadium. Damn! I'm envious. And slightly cynical. I'll be looking to see if the MLS announcement has an 'if' there somewhere.
Interesting. I just did a quick search on Google News for my own education and figured others like me who haven't been following developments in Milwaukee closely may also find these articles from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel helpful for some additional background: PabstCity foes push soccer stadium, 07/11 Attorney makes MLS, soccer stadium push, 07/07 Looks like they'll have some interesting political negotiations over where the stadium would be built. Nice problem to have.
Right now there is no "Major Announcement Wednesday" at MLSnet and I have my doubts about this whole thing being real anyway..
From my viewpoint, this seems to be a press conference announcing that Milwaukee is going to try to formalize a bid. And this is also perhaps used to get more attention for a downtown soccer stadium. (cross posted) The Packers moved all the games back to Green Bay back in the 1990s. The Packers used to play at Milwaukee County Stadium and that stadium was destroyed in 2001 when Miller Park was operational. Milwaukee is also home to Marquette University and UW-Milwaukee. However, both schools do not offer football. Uileihn(sp) Soccer park is not really an option. Logistically, it was hard to get to that park when there was 5k fans. It is also an small stadium (bleachers, wood, not aluminum) with the seating on 3 sides of the stadium. You would have to rebuild and redo the whole field since it also floods very often and it is hard to play on the field if there has been rain in the past few days.
Well, we'll learn more tomorrow, but the articles seem to me to imply that the key difference is that Milwaukee has an identified potential ownership group working on the project, whereas San Antonio had a lame duck mayor as the project's major proponent. Perhaps some Milwaukee area posters can help us out with some local insight, but the Greenberg group at least talks a good game - here's a snippet from the 07/07 piece:
Milwaukee strikes me as potentially another KC. Not a big market that already has a MLB team that has a hard time drawing fans. At least they will have the advantage of a SSS which might be the difference.
Keep in mind one difference between this bid/announcement/whatever and San Antonio, Cleveland, whomever is that the SSS is going to be, at least according to the articles on the subject, privately funded, with the possible exception of a Tax Increment District (which is public help, but isn't the same thing as cash). If that turns out to be true, then it vastly improves the odds.
Well, my response to your first sentence was going to be "and what's wrong with that??", since if the second one comes true, KC has been evaulated as viable by both Lamar Hunt and by the investor group that wants to buy the team from him (and for that matter, by Murstein). I do take your point, though, that this is a small and crowded marketplace, and this franchise is likely to never lead the league in revenue, so that's a valid consideration.
agreed. Milwaukee also has basketball, which makes it even worse potentially, especially if the Bucks make the playoffs. But if they've got an ownership group and solid plans for a stadium, more power to 'em. An involved ownership group should be able to get the fans out, even with competition.
The area in question (Pabst City/Park East Freeway). Park East Freeway is located above at WI-145. The freeway spur was destroyed by the city to make way for more development. The proposed Pabst City development (and soccer stadium) is around the southeast corner of I-43 and WI-145.