It’s the fifth.

Bethlehem Steel Athletic Field was the first, it was constructed in 1913. Bethlehem Steel went on to become one of the most successful teams in American history.

Second was Mark’s Stadium, in North Tiverton, Rhode Island (this is a satellite town of Fall River, Ma.). The famed Fall River Marksman played here, it was built in 1922 and held 15,000 people.

Third, as noted, is Charleston’s Blackbaud Stadium on Daniel Island, in Berkeley County, South Carolina.

Fourth, the Virginia Beach Sportsplex.

Then came Columbus.

Embarrassing.

I’ve seen the Impact play Santos Laguna, TFC play the Impact, and the Ottawa Fury play Newark (PDL).

All three games had their charms, and PDL does the best job of developing talent, without a doubt in my mind. TFC has the youngest team in MLS and is doing a good job in it’s own right for developing youth talent, mainly due to Trader Mo’s ability to find talented midfielders and defenders. What he lacks is the ability to find a striker, and that is his biggest knock…most MLS teams go after older stars on downward trends from foreign countries.

And then there is the Impact which is a place where many Canadian MLS castoffs end up, and the quality of their play is not bad either. The role these teams serve is to provide a place for journeymen, who couldn’t cut it at the higher level, to play. Sometimes they unearth a gem and these guys make it back topside.

Every division serves a role. PDL is one part of the USL pyramid, and to me is the most important part of it.

MLS has done a poor job developing something similar, with no reserve league, and academy teams playing in regional leagues.

As for Promotion/Relegation, I’m working on a type that reduces a lot of the risk involved in investing in a football pyramid with promotion and relegation.

If I hated MLS so much, why would I author a piece like this?

http://www.majorleaguesoccertalk.com/british-media-doesnt-understand-world-football/138

Or this?

http://www.majorleaguesoccertalk.com/the-pride-of-american-club-soccer/1749

Or many other pieces.

I encourage critical examination of issues in American soccer and don’t simply cheerlead. For some that has made me a bad guy. But others are atributing way too much power to me. I cannot change nielsen ratings as has been alleged on other threads or get ESPN to misreport its numbers.

Additionally, I did not through some super human effort change people’s memories and the historical record to believe that Blackbaud was opened before Crew Stadium. It is a matter of historical fact, as J has thankfully, stated.

I do not know if all the media personalities that HMA: Go Crew mentions have really said that Crew Stadium was the first SSS but if they have, they are incorrect. I believe some of them have in fact stated such, otherwise my partner and I would not have placed it in this piece.

I agree also with J that both were great accomplishments. Both leagues in fact are great accomplishments. Why some MLS fans must constantly poke at USL or bristle at any discussion of it is still perplexing to me.

http://www.charlestonbattery.com/stadium_overview.asp
“Completed in April 1999, Blackbaud Stadium became the first privately-funded soccer-specific stadium in the United States.”

http://crewstadium.com/?s=about
“On May 15, 1999, Columbus Crew Stadium, a 22,555-seat venue, opened as the first major league stadium built specifically for soccer in the United States.”

Both are great accomplishments, bu you asked. It’s straight from the Crew’s stadium website. Get over it already.

Are we going to take Kartik Krishnaiyer’s word over the likes of an Eric Wynalda, John Harkes, Ives Galarcep, Grant Wahl or Steve Goff all of whom have correctly given the Crew credit for building the first SSS stadium in US history.

I personally find the part about Blackbaud Stadium offensive and demand that proof be provided (which it cannot because it is false) or this article be removed from here and your sister site which is also USL-centric and thus does a disservice to American soccer.

I challenge you to provide evidence to back up your lie.