Ok. I drove way the hell out to Plant City to support The Rowdies. I couldn't believe how empty and lonely the stadium was and confused as to why VSI TAMPA created a USL PRO TEAM. Going over the bridge to watch the Rowdies...too far? Put a team in Tampa and have them play in Plant City farming community? Not a good idea...cool stadium though. Why not a PDL team and USf Stadium or even UT Stadium would be better. If Pro was the ultimate goal, what were you guys thinking.....a bit embarrassing.....advertise and don't count on academy kids? Tax write off? A way of annoying NASL Rowdies (200 people will not compete with Rowdies). I want to support you guys, but something seems wrong here....lack of interest or secondary business goal....and what was up with the coach? Was he disappointed in the lack of anything,......on a serious note, the place was silent. Even the rowdies seemed stale in Plant City.....I hope you guys do well.....but maybe, save the money on USL PRO Level, and stick with PDL. Of course, if this is a step for your best academy kids, nice, however, with no fan interest, you should act as agents that bridge them to nasl/mls teams...MLS will not put up with this location for long unless you are paying????? Fire your promoter. I am assuming this is a 1 year venture. Not trying to be mean, but the lack of respect for promoting a D3 team is horrid. Will you fold at seasons end or move into a Tampa based stadium....and the fans? Green and Gold will draw the fans, and Orlando, who should move to NASL, are claiming MLS?????? Too far? Good luck and please respond... BTW: The fired coach pulled the same crap at last club...why the hire in the first place...issues in head? Lover of Football,
4-4 vs the Portland Timbers Reserves, sounds entertaining, i watched 5 mins over a stream, could not see much of the main stand, was there many there? how do VSI/USL PRO teams feel about these match's with MLS reserve teams?
VSI does not draw well. They didn't acquire a stadium lease until very late, they are out in the sticks and are not a particularly adept organization. And this was, I believe, the first "crossover" game at the USL Pro team's yard. So far the USL teams have done well against the MLS reserves. Don't know that there is a huge feeling one way or the other. Most folks would probably rather see Portland's reserves than Antigua.
I can't seem to find attendance figures on the USL website for the Plant City games. Anyone have a better source?
They had an extra couple minivans show up and they got a bit behind counting. Not used to such a large crowd.
I had nothing else to do this morning, so I decided to read this entire thread, from start to finish. wow....what a joke this seems. Going from the announcement of VSI, to the smoke and mirrors of a 28K SSS, to the "temporary 5K seat stadium" that was going to taken out of a box and erector-setted in place... What a ride! Does this make ANYONE ELSE a little more leery of big pronouncements? But from reading BS for awhile now, it seems like the VSI situation may be more of the norm, than the exception? It makes me even wonder about the ownership group in OKC, especially till I see tangible proof of promised deliverables. I'm not going to turn pessimistic, or anything. I think I'm just going to be less of a Pollyanna, than a realist. So far OKC FC's ownership hasn't promised anything that they haven't delivered. And it seems like they got the PDL season together this year fairly quickly. They didn't over-reach. And so far it been a fun ride.
I don't think it's league-exclusive, one, and I think they're on the low end of the bell curve, but not the norm.
OK, another question for Kenn, or whoemever; I know we don't know what's going to happen here, but is it more the norm for groups to come in like this one, and promise anything and everything, get people really excited, and then deliver almost nothing, and go down in spectacular flames? Or is it more common for groups to come in with high hopes but little money, under the local radar, promise very little, don't have resources to put out much of an effort, and die quietly? Or maybe on the positive side, which of these two types of beginnings seem to lead to success? Which has been more common in the DII DIII world?
I think it was far more prevalent in the late 1990s for the second scenario you laid out above. Quite frankly, in the post-1994-World Cup world, there was kind of a land rush and not everybody who got into this knew what they were doing. There were a lot of well-intentioned people whose main failings were being under-capitalized or having a lack of experience. Some of them muddled through or stuck with it long enough to figure it out. Others didn't, obviously. (The 70% failure rate makes that obvious.) I think (and it may or may not stand up to scrutiny - I think it would) that the spectacular flameouts you mention are the exception rather than the rule. Not that there haven't been failures, and not that there haven't been people (to this day) who stood up at their introductory press conferences and said they were going to do this or that, but it seems as though the really grandiose statements like the ones attached to VSI are fewer than in the past.
They will not be in Plant City next year. http://plantcityobserver.com/2013/0...ing_wp_cron=1375481885.4275400638580322265625
The field they play on may or may not be owned by Big League Dreams and made into a baseball park. http://plantcityobserver.com/2013/0...ague-dreams-inc-for-plant-city-stadium-lease/. But we know VSI declined to make a bid and the city will sell it/lease it this year. The team has told the city they will pay to convert the field back for baseball at the end of the season. Their lease is up and the players on the team told me tonight they have been told they will not be back in Plant City next year.
I spent some time tonight talking to the VSI Fans, not many of them but a hundred or so, who I wanted to make sure knew to come to Sunday night's game. They were all from Brandon or Temple Terrace (10 to 15 miles away). They said the Plant City and Lakeland folks, in particular the youth soccer players (and their families), will not come to games because of the great rivalry between the youth systems in the area and the perception that supporting VSI would support the hated Brandon Flames. The team needs to move to a place where the locals might like them. I counted 162 nooses at tonight's 2-1 loss to Pittsburgh.
What puzzels me is,that Brandon is not that far away from Plant City and the kids and familys that play for VSI don't come out and support their USL Pro team.
Attendance is bad, but are they really looking to hang themselves? George, this team hasn't done the first thing to market themselves. They could have played in Brandon and gotten the same attendance.
Unfortunately you're right. With the kind of crowds that they have been pulling,they could of played at JC Handly Complex in Brandon and saved a whole lot of money. It just pisses me off that with all the kids and familys involved with the VSI Flames in Brandon that they can't drive over to Plant City and support their USL Pro side. They should be able to draw 1-2K fans a game,not two hundred.
They have told all their youth groups about the team AND any Brandon youth player who wears their jersey to the game gets in free. Yet, I only saw two teams worth there last night. They hire two off duty policemen as security for the whole park. Not a bad idea when there are only 100+ people but Sunday I hope they do not panic when the much louder ILF arrives.
The atmosphere at Sunday night's match is going to be the best that they have experienced at Plant City Stadium.
If VSI do not play in Plant City (which they seemed to think was a cool venue), any ideas where they might play? Actually in Tampa? or at least closer? Would they play at the JC Handly Complex? That doesn't look very likely. VSI, at least theoretically, have plenty of money. So I expect them to carry on next season. Any ideas or rumors about where?
That's the thing with VSI, you never know what you are going to get - at least that is their track record so far. We were speculating on this board up until after the season started as to where they were going to play. They have a really bad record at letting people know the details. We all (well, almost everyone that cares about VSI at all) hope that they play in Tampa next season, assuming there is a next season. There are a myriad of places they could play, but only a few that make sense assuming they want alcohol sales....but up to this point they do not seem to care about any sales, ticket or otherwise. In theory there is now enough time again to build the temporary stadium before next season. So, assuming they have money, and assuming they care to play next season I would say the most likely place would be their supposed training complex in Brandon. But those are a lot of assumptions......and not a ton of time to get things in order if they are going to build something. Plant City is a possibility again, but that whole stadium is in flux until the city decides what they want to do with it or VSI gets a semi long term lease on it.
The local brighthouse news channel has said even the International Softball championship is not coming next year because the stadium is being sold. They did not have beer sales this past year so that does not seem to be a facto so High Schools should work for them.
I knew about the beer sales, that is a good point you make about next season. Basically that leaves all the usual suspects for stadiums - as well as most high school fields. Essentially that means that there is no reason to really speculate until an announcement is made, IMO.