MLS and CFG gambled on getting permission to build a stadium in Flushing, Queens, while it was Mayor Bloomberg's chance to build a legacy after this attempt to bring the Jets back to NYC had fallen through. De Blasio has shown no interest. Talen Energy Stadium. $120 million ($140 million in today's dollars) though probably the last of its type. And for a mere $C47 million, I give you Saputo Stadium!
And learned nothing from it and repeated themselves with Beckham in Miami. As a result, residents of less than probability expansion candidates have to be on extortion alert. What's that, Indianapolis? Sacramento?
Miami is a mess but it's a mess that was years in the making. But their plans to convert a golf course won a public vote 60-40, which isn't bad in a city that's been burned by previous stadium developments. As of April 8th Indy Eleven's stadium has been pretty much a done deal with or without MLS. Sacramento City Council have committed $33 million towards improving public streets and infrastructure. The $252 million stadium will be privately funded. The only thing that's held Sac back is finding the right billionaire, and Garber's reluctance to rule out Detroit and San Diego. Phoenix has the support of Goldman Sachs and won't need any help from local government as the site is on a Native American reservation. However, it's in the suburbs with no current rail link to the city. Vegas and San Diego are unknowns at this point. Meanwhile the city of Allen in Texas is looking into supporting a $500 million cricket stadium.
In Sacramento's case, the proposed stadium location is in a major urban infill development at the long-abandoned railyards, and Nagle already owns the land. The vast majority of the $33 million in public money for street and infrastructure construction is going to be spent with or without a stadium. The railyards development has been planned since well before anyone in Sacramento was talking about MLS. There's lots of synergy here. It's been so easy to get a downtown stadium approved because the city had a pre-existing opportunity to almost double the size of its downtown without having to remove any currently occupied buildings.
It has a Scottsdale address but is a long free kick from Tempe and is right off the highway (202). The population center of the Valley is just slightly southeast of there. Yes, there is no light rail link (the ideal place would have been the site of the former greyhound track, which is a rail stop and has tons of parking because that lot holds a popular swap meet) and likely won't be...probably ever. But it has decent access. The real problem (which they are addressing) is there is one way in and one way out of the parking lot. They draw well and the site itself is good and they have a deal with the Pima folks to use the land for 99 years, if memory serves. They could start turning dirt and tearing down as soon as they got an MLS franchise, if they did. (They would play in the recently upgraded and downsized Sun Devil Stadium for a year, maybe two, until they rebuilt on the existing site.) I don't know what happens if they don't get into MLS. (They have not even run actual plumbing yet.) I do not know if all their many investors will be as interested in having a super robust D2 team if they don't get a D1 team. That is the question facing the lower level clubs currently chasing the carrot.