Peter, You know that anything any of us can do to help you need only ask. At least until your team actually makes it into the league. Then all bets are off! Congrats.
Any excuse to have a beer.... Hey, at least we're not posers. The rest of 'em are fighting over fashion.
I got a true second team now! I hope that they lose 7 times a year. And that is it. 4 games in MLS Regular Season 1 game in USOC 2 games in playoffs.
I'm excited about a geographic rivalry. Finally a true rivalry. The Dallas-chicago rivalry was a little hollow, plus we had to listen to tex gator all the time on these boards. Let them have their houston-dallas southern, incestuous, rivalry and we'll take our brats and beer. I'll be a little jealous that milwaukee will have PW just like I'm jealous that the packers have Favre.
My recap from today's press conference: - Marty Greenberg got up and spoke about the mission of Milwaukee Pro Soccer, LLC, and he gave a background on soccer in general, soccer in Wisconsin, and what his group wanted to do. - This group wants to put a stadium in downtown Milwaukee, at the "Park East" location. That is clearly their #1 site. The stadium will be part of a mixed-use development with retail, offices, entertainment, etc, the typical type of mixed-use talk when you hear about a stadium being built. The figure that was quoted by Marty Greenberg for a total cost (whole project) was $ 300-320 million. Marty then introduced Peter. - Peter got up and spoke about Milwaukee, about his career, and what he wants to bring to Milwaukee. He mentioned how the stadium would be used for 40-60 events per year, and he quoted that LA uses the HDC for about 80 events per year at this time. MLS soccer, international soccer, US Open Cup, HS and College Soccer, "limited" concerts, and other community events was how he described it. - Peter made several mentions of the ethnic makeup of Milwaukee, the youth soccer population, and, one of his sticking points, was about the advantages of a downtown stadium, compared to a suburban stadium. Peter made references to downtown stadiums such as Wrigley Field and Fenway Park, and he also mentioned Camden Yards in Baltimore and the ballpark in Detroit too, as more examples of how a stadium can anchor a neighborhood and bring people into a city, as opposed to driving people outside of it. Peter and Marty Greenberg fielded about 10 questions, including - questions about their deadlines to make all of this happen: Peter stated that 2008 was the year that they were looking to start play in, not 2007 as many people had speculated. He mentioned that MLS was probably only going to add 1 more Midwest city, possibly 2, by the end of the decade, so Milwaukee needed to get moving to get "to the front of the line". - questions about the Pabst City development downtown, and whether or not they were looking at Pabst City at all as a potential stadium site. Peter and Marty were both very clear that Park East was their #1 choice. They stated that they had spent about a year and a half working on studying that area, and they were convinced that it had all of the things they wanted from a site. They did not want to elaborate on any site other than Park East, and in my conversation with Peter afterwards, he was very clear that Park East was the only site they wanted to be talking about publicly. My personal thought on the Pabst City thing is that people who don't want the Pabst City development to happen in it's current form are trying to use the soccer stadium as a pick, and really, they are just using soccer for leverage. That's just my personal thought. - someone asked about attendance for the Rampage and Wave United, and why Peter/Marty thought MLS would work in a city that wasn't supporting those teams in the past. Peter's response stated that comparing MLS soccer and other leagues was not comparing apples to apples, as the other leagues don't bring in Landon Donovan, Freddy Adu, Chris Armas, Tony Sanneh, and other international stars. He went on to mention how the Utah Blitzz were drawing in the "hundreds" last season in Salt Lake, and that Real Salt Lake was drawing 21,000 so far this year. - someone asked Marty what help, if any, they were going to be asking the city of Milwaukee for. Greenberg stated they would be requesting a TIF break for the site, probably around $ 25 million, but both Peter and Marty tried to emphasize that this was going to be, for the most part, a privately financed project. Peter mentioned how Bridgeview and Fricso are 100% and 75% publicly funded, and how this would be different. A follow up question asked about the soccer stadium itself, and the figure quoted for that part of the development project was "$ 40-60 million". - someone asked of Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker was involved in the project at all...they have not met with Walker in "several months", but he has been keep up to date with the project as a whole. - someone else pointed out that the Mayor of Milwaukee was not there today, and Greenberg said that, to date, the mayor has been "neutral" on the project and that a representative of the mayor's office was in attendance. - in response to a question about MLS involvement, Peter said that they have been in discussions with Commissioner Garber, and with the league's board of governors...that was pretty much how he left that question.
Hey man, can't help it. After working in Chicago and going to every game for two years, you become more than the average fan. And after leaving Chicago (thank god) and eventually settling in Madison, I just can't change that I am a Fire fan first and a Milwaukee Warriors fan second. That being said, I have already been in contact with Mr. Wilt about this project.
Here is a link to the pdf of today's press release re: Wilt. This is what Milwaukee Pro Soccer gave out at the conference, and it is what they distributed via e-mail: http://www.geocities.com/kebzach/wiltpressrelease.pdf
If you get a chance, please visit this site, http://www.jsonline.com/sports/index.asp#poll5150 and vote on the poll. It's for today only. 57.8% of voters currently favor MLS in Milwaukee after 1,504 votes so far. peter
With Bridgeview being south of the city, I would expect far-north suburbanites in Chicagoland to attend more, or support, the Milwaukee franchise (IE: Anything from Deerfield, and north).
Seems like it would be easier from where I am currently (Waukegan), but after 8 years how could I switch colors? Plus, even though I'm proud to be from Wisconsin, I'm from Madison, and so (as already mentioned on this thread) I couldn't care less about Milwaukee... This would be EXCELLENT.
I can't think of a better situation for Peter. If he can't get it done in Milwaukee, no one can. I hope his deal includes some stock in the new franchise. Humm. Could this finally be the rest of the story as to why Peter's contract wasn't renewed? Could it be that Peter was talking with the group in Milwaukee for some time and AEG got wind of it? Or, could it be that it was a mutual deal that Peter's contract wasn't going to be renewed because he wanted to do the Milwaukee thing, and the Fire needed a take out for Peter, but the Milwaukee group wasn't ready to announce initially? From the articles, it sounds like the group in Milwaukee has been working on this for several months. What I am suggesting is just pure speculation, but it makes much more sense than anything else I've heard about Peter's departure. I guess the other plausible explanation remains--the people at AEG are complete morons. I live about halfway between Bridgeview and Milwaukee. As hard as it would be to change loyalties, if getting to Bridgeview is too much of a hassle, or if Guppy turns out to have no clue (oh, yeah-- I forgot... the Metrostars are the "model" franchise-- what could I be thinking? ), those of us in the far north suburbs now have an altenative...
Peter--I figured you'd have the stock thing covered. I guess that gets back to the AEG complete moron theory. Good luck and best wishes.
This IS good news! SEEEEEEEEE.....good things happen to good people and Peter is good people. See you Friday!
thx for the help. final push added 1%! "Do you hope Milwaukee lands a Major League Soccer franchise? Yes (58.5%) No (41.5%) Total votes: 1,697" peter