Comments on: Under the Radar: Where is the Next Great Soccer City?

By: JMB321

JMB321 — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:37:40 +0000

Bet the TOA will have a team in Indy within 2 years. Any takers?

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:44:04 +0000

Tulsa definitely belongs on this list. The city still has fond memories of the NASL Roughnecks, and the University of Tulsa draws strong support for its successful soccer programs. The city usually gets mentioned in the early rounds of MLS expansion talk, but I’m shocked that the city has been without even a USL team since 1999. It is a tough market, with OU, OSU, TU and ORU, as well as high school football, minor league baseball and arena football, but a well managed upper level minor league soccer team could do well with the right ownership.
Maybe the TOA could fix this and find a strong ownership group in Tulsa in their mad scramble for teams next year. It’d give St. Louis a geographic rival in the league, and there are easy air connections from Tulsa to Atlanta and Minneapolis.
Barring that, it’d be nice to see a PDL team playing at the University of Tulsa’s beautiful soccer complex.

By: Kartik Krishnaiyer

Kartik Krishnaiyer — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:23:22 +0000

I am stunned USL has not gone back to Indy since 2004. It was a solid market for the league before the Blast went really bad.

By: AB

AB — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:04:42 +0000

I’d be all in for a Nashville team. With small pockets of support like Chattanooga near by, you would have more than just a citywide audience. When your roots are in the South, it’s very very hard to pick an MLS team to be *your* team. You feel like you’re settling.

By: Chris in Belfast

Chris in Belfast — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:26:13 +0000

exactly. That’s why Des Moines could work as a USL/TOA club, but not MLS. Folks from Des Moines know that, but we also get a bit tetchy when people assume that no-one would show up to a game or make assumptions about the city when they have no first hand knowledge. It’s kind of annoying.

By: evan eleven

evan eleven — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:04:56 +0000

Salinas, California! the Monterey Bay Area is big enough and rich enough to support a team and the Salinas Sports Complex has a great stadium. the California Jaguars won a USL championship in 1996, but folded after five years… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Jaguars

By: Jonesta

Jonesta — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:03:32 +0000

I couldn’t agree more with the fact that the South needs some teams. We especially need an MLS side so we can get behind a team. DC United is too far away for most of the South (like myself) to support. I was at that US vs Trinidad & Tobago match, I drove up to Nashville from Auburn (best 6 hour trip I have ever taken btw), and had a blast watching Jozy put 3 up on the lil’ Islanders. If an MLS side could draw half of the support that made it out to that game it would be a viable option for expansion.

By: Ed Kirby

Ed Kirby — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:20:08 +0000

I was surprised when Bobby included St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada, in his list of places where minor league professional soccer might work because we’re far away from any other place he mentioned. The city has a three-year-old 5,500-seat Field Turf facility (currently being repaired following flooding), and an indoor practise facility is under construction. There are about 185,000 people living in the metro area, and there is a history of public support for the game, most recently in 2008 when the national amateur men’s Challenge Cup and women’s Jubilee Shield championships were held here. Several thousand youngsters play in various youth leagues, and the St. John’s Soccer Club has a training agreement with Leicester City of the English League Championship. So, there is interest in the game, for sure. There’s an international airport with connections through Newark, about three hours away by jet, and if by some miracle a minor pro team sets up shop here, mark me down for a season ticket.

By: kginkc

kginkc — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:15:49 +0000

Where are the corporate sponsors/ private owners of these expansion team possibilities once the USL and TOA revenue model settles down? I don’t argue the soccer history and fan base for these towns mentioned. It would be AWESOME to have coast to coast soccer mania in this country. My question concerns the business viability of these markets. In these tough econmic times, folks are holding on to their funds tightly and rightly so. Do these teams need loans to make them meet payroll or are ticket receipts, merchandising, tv-radio contracts enough to keep the lights on? Transportation would be a huge factor, I can see a midwest circuit, a southeast circuit, a mid atlantic circuit, a great lakes circuit working very well. Much like how PDL is structured, just up the development and underwriting.

By: Rex

Rex — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:00:53 +0000

MLS attendance is fine. MLS needs TV ratings. For TV ratings you need good attendance but more importantly you need big markets. You could have a team in Iowa, but you would need to market it from Nebraska to Wisconsin to give them a reason to watch on TV.