Hi guys, First time posting here. I currently live in Richmond, VA and go out to Kickers games every so often. What do you guys think about Richmond getting an MLS team? Richmond has a quirky/hipster side that is very similar to Portland, Oregon, that I feel is ideal for the future MLS soccer fans. Our attendance numbers for the Kickers aren't amazing but we do average 2,000 people per a home game and have been around since 1993.......mind you our owner doesn't believe in alcohol so all these people come out without being able to buy alcohol at the game. If Richmond was able to pull itself together to build a stadium and had a better marketing strategy towards young adults rather than the current "soccer mom," we could have something special here. Virginia doesn't have any professional sports teams and is currently the largest state without a professional sports team. If we had an owner with vision, MLS would be very successful here. What do you think?
ehhhh. i hate to bust your bubble, but Richmond imo would only be good in NASL. Low TV market, other factors...... but, you should keep dreaming about that potential kickers-DCU game in the open cup one day.
The Richmond-Petersburg MSA had a 2010 Census population of just over 1.25 million, putting it 43rd in metro area population. While the 2000-2010 growth rate of 14% isn't shabby, Richmond area population would have to start growing at a much, much faster rate to put Richmond on the radar for any major league team.
The Tidewater Area is projected to be the 38th largest media market in 2030 based on recent population trends and Richmond is projected to be the 43rd largest market. Maybe, a regional team centered somewhere around Williamsburg would be a viable site for MLS expansion in another decade or so.
I really don't see the Triangle Area developing into an MLS level market, but then again, I don't live there. Richmond has done a great job of supporting the Kickers. I just hope that rather than wishing on a star for MLS to drop something into their laps, more soccer fans in the area start supporting their (very good) local product. Oh, and I hope they come to NASL
We have a lot of fans here and a very good youth development league. To be honest, I think our main problem is that our current owner gears the game towards young children. Alcohol isn't sold at any of the Richmond Kickers games. From the recent success of many MLS clubs, a stadium built in the city with young adult fans will ultimately drive the bus. We have the young demographic in the city, we just need an owner with a stadium and a better marketing approach. In regards to market size, Richmond has a better market than Salt Lake City but Salt Lake has a team. I think MLS is going to need to be creative with it's team locations. If we compete against NFL cities, the NFL will win. If we go to cities that currently have no team or an NHL/NBA team, the city will embrace the MLS team. Just a thought. By the way Bullsear, I think Minneapolis would be an excellent candidate for the MLS.
This argument is used all the time as the justification for why a mid level market should be in MLS. There are two problems with that argument: 1. Salt Lake City had an rich owner willing to pay the entrance fee and build a soccer specific stadium. Until your city does, the comparison is pointless. 2. Salt Lake City is constantly underestimated as a market. You claim that Richmond is a better market than Salt Lake? Oh really? http://www.tvb.org/media/file/TVB_Market_Profiles_Nielsen_Household_DMA_RANKS.pdf Salt Lake City: 33rd TV market Richmond-Petersberg: 57th TV market People often just look at the metropolitan area data to conclude that Salt Lake City is small, ignoring that the team is in Sandy and thus also highly accessible to Provo, which is growing rapidly. I'm amused that you argument here is that MLS should go to cities without teams in the other major sports, and then you list Minneapolis as an excellent candidate for MLS - a city with an NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL team.
Minneapolis would be successful and we all know it, but I feel some people on this board only look at major cities for future expansion. For MLS to be successful we need to be in areas that have fans make MLS the number 1 sport. Right now Virginia is the largest state without a professional sports team. Richmond is one of the biggest cities in Virginia and is one of the only major cities with a condensed urban area unlike Virginia Beach which is mainly military and sprawls out. The potential is here.
There is a reason for this. Virginia will not give ANY type of government support to get stadiums built; not bonds, not money for roads, not a tax break, nothing. Jack Kent Cooke wanted to build his stadium in Virginia but he got zip. The Nationals looked had at Arlington and they got zip. American football and baseball teams got nothing, and you think a soccer club can get a stadium built in Virginia? No chance. I like Richmond and the state of Virginia, but Richmond is just too small a market. Let this go, man.
They don't even need to build a new stadium though... They have three options Richmond City Stadium, they already play in this, capacity is what MLS is aiming for, however, it is kind of old and I'm not really digging the wrap around part of the stadium, seems to kind of destroy the homely atmosphere if everything is far apart. The Diamond It's home to a minor league baseball team. If they can't push a minor league team out of the stadium, they have problems. But, there shouldn't be, so give it some Portland Timber expansion love and put some other stands in. They'd only really need 5k to 8k seats to make it respectable, they're already at 12,000 for baseball configuration Last one, this one is kind of iffy Hovey Field it looks kind of rough, but capacity is around 10,000 Though the stands themselves look like they're going to fall apart if more than 20 people get on them. and there looks me like there is a small parking lot next door. thats it. no other parking. Once again, best possible ways of not having to build a whole new stadium, stay in Richmond City Stadium and maybe put some money into renovation, or get the Diamond, which would require more money but I think, in the long run would work out much better.
Honestly, I wish MLS fans would be more open to ideas like this. If the requirement for MLS teams is to build 100 million stadiums, we'll eventually run out of millionaires willing to subsidize. Also, it basically makes any team either: a) a money loser (at least based on GAAP net income) b) a team which is benefitting from a huge money thrown at it from governments. Again, if you really think of it. After a $40 million expansion fee and a $100M stadium, how does any investor get a real ROI? Either you need a government subsidy (usually for a stadium) or a willingness to supply your wealth earned somewhere else on a team, or both.
Well, first off is that we don't want millionaires to buy the teams, we want billionaires. But more importantly we want billionaires committed to growing the game. There is nothing special about Vancouver/Seattle/Portland (well, except that they are not 4-sport towns) and that atmosphere and energy can be built anywhere, if only the owners want it
So this league should exist at the whim of the 1%? We could lower our expectations a bit as fans. Not every club will be Man City. At least some teams in the league should be organically profitable.
This League exists at the whim of the 1%, and always had. We tried the 'organic' thing and the 'letting the 2-70% buy teams' thing and neither of them worked. By the way, how many EPL teams do you think are owned by the 99%?
A smaller city only 2 hours from a city that already has an MLS team. Let's do it!! Let's also give Hartford, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, San Diego, Bakersfield, Fresno, Sacramento, and Buffalo teams.
Here's an even better list from Nielsen, same data year, one that compares this year's size with last year's. http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/corporate/us/en/public%20factsheets/tv/nielsen-2012-local-DMA-TV-penetration.pdf If they're projecting Richmond to halve its rank from 57 to 30 in 20 years, they've got work to do. They're only projected to gain 890 TV households this season.
As a Richmond resident I would love that. But this place is smaller than Columbus, which is struggling to get people into its stadium. Anything is possible but it would require a billionaire to put a brand new stadium downtown and tons of top dollar marketing. And after all that, it probably wouldn't be profitable. Now to play devil's advocate in the original poster's favor, Richmond is home to the largest adult soccer league in the U.S. so the interest in soccer is definitely there.