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MLS not doing it for you anymore? Tired of Single Entity, Salary Caps, Designated Players, and the Re-Entry Draft? Well step on down to the lower leagues where you can get that grass roots soccer feeling at low, low prices. Enjoy watching soccer in a converted baseball park or high school football stadium? Then we have what you want! Do you want to support teams that may not exist next year? Then you have found the right place!   The classic star-spangled ball that started it all. Tier 2: North American Soccer League: http://www.nasl.com/ NASL was formed by TOA (Team Owners Association) which revolted against the USL and its fly-by-night ways. NASL has been at war with USL (and by proxy, MLS and USSF) ever since.  What does it take to satisfy USSF's D2 requirements? No one knows; it keeps changing. Basically, whatever the D2 requirements that NASL is currently meeting or attempting to meet, plus some new D2 requirements to be dreamed up by USSF at a later date. But wait! NASL wants to be D1 now. So, good luck with that. Lots of new teams coming on board as well, both this year and in next few years; Chicago Sting might be back in a few years. A new team announced for San Francisco (SF Deltas), and rumors about Los Angeles, Orange County, and Las Vegas. NASL season is split into Spring and Fall seasons, but the seasons are very unbalanced; Spring season is very short, Fall season is longer. NASL lost two teams and gained three; however, Puerto Rico FC does not start play until the Fall season this year. No, this doesn't make a lot of sense. Welcome to the NASL. Also: NASL has Freddy Adu! This proves what an up-and-coming, full-of-potential league that the NASL truly is! Adu hasn't had much chance yet to do anything with the Rowdies due to injury last year, but here's some highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C145gjFhcxQ It isn't yet too late to jump on the 2016 Freddy Adu/Tampa Bay Rowdies/NASL bandwagon!   Under Armour is making the new official NASL soccer balls this year. I had no idea that Under Armour made balls. Shows you how old and out of touch I am.  NASL Teams: Carolina RailHawks FC - No longer for sale on eBay. FC Edmonton - Eddies in the space-time continuum. Fort Lauderdale Strikers - Does Ray Hudson annoy you? Blame the Strikers. Indy Eleven - Lost Pete Wilt to the Chicago Sting. Jacksonville Armada FC - Sophomore year. Miami FC - Beating Beckham to the punch. Freshman year. Minnesota United FC - Leaving for MLS once they get their stadium deal done. New York Cosmos - Ottawa Fury FC - Go Furries! Puerto Rico FC - Carmelo Anthony's newest hobby. Freshman year. Rayo OKC - NASL's answer to Chivas USA. Freshman year. Tampa Bay Rowdies - You'd swear they be devils with magical toes.  NASL Soccer Bowl 2.0: The Revenge of the TOA. Tier 3: United Soccer League: http://www.uslsoccer.com/ Just as NASL wants to be D1, USL now wants to be D2. To spite NASL. Most USL teams have affiliations with MLS teams; some are in fact just MLS reserve teams. Try to guess which! No, I'm too lazy to look up which USL teams are currently affiliated with which MLS teams. Do it yourself.  Also I am too tired at this point to think up something witty to say about each USL team; there are just too many of the bleeders. Feel free to make up your own witty/snarky/informative comments about them instead. Eastern Conference: Bethlehem Steel FC - Named after a famous ASL club of the 1920s. Charleston Battery - They fight with DC United over a coffee pot. Charlotte Independence FC Cincinnati FC Montreal Harrisburg City Islanders - Homer Simpson once went to a Harrisburg Coat outlet to buy an irregular coat. Louisville City FC New York Red Bulls II Orlando City B Pittsburgh Riverhounds Richmond Kickers - Won the US Open Cup in 1995. Rochester Rhinos - Owners kicked out of the league; now being run by USL directly. Last non-MLS team to win the US Open Cup, in 1999. Toronto FC II Wilmington Hammerheads FC Western Conference: Arizona United SC Colorado Spring Switchbacks FC LA Galaxy II OKC Energy FC - In a turf war with Rayo OKC of NASL. Orange County Blues FC Portland Timbers 2 Real Monarchs SLC - I think that The Monarch from The Venture Brothers would support this team. Go butterflies! Rio Grande Valley FC Sacramento Republic FC - Wants in to MLS real bad. St. Louis FC San Antonio - Name TBA. USL killed the NASL San Antonio Scorpions and this is the changeling/doppelganger that has taken its place. Wants in to MLS real bad. REAL bad. Seattle Sounders FC 2 Swope Park Rangers KC Tusla Roughnecks FC - NASL name; USL team. Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2  US Open Cup: Dewar Trophy. Classy old fashioned silverware, but you can't drink out of it. Other leagues: Quoting from last year's thread because I'm too lazy to look it up (I doubt anything important has changed in a year's time): quote:Canada's third tier has settled into two leagues: League1 Ontario and the Première Ligue de soccer du Québec. Both leagues play exclusively in their provinces, and the winners play in the Inter-Provincial Cup Championship. Opening day coming soon to a converted baseball park or high school football stadium near you: quote:Opening days of the 2016 season in the USA If it's in the United States or Canada and it's not MLS, post it here!
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Feb 3, 2016 09:04
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Note: '"best" is subjective.
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Feb 3, 2016 21:44
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i would like to post about the impending Canadian Premier League http://www.wakingthered.com/2016/2/3/10906114/canadian-premier-league-closing-in-on-becoming-a-reality replacing the CSL that was so thoroughly infiltrated by matchfixers that one game had both teams trying to score on themselves, this league will have teams owned by real people and not serbian war criminals it will probably a) sit just above L1O and PLSQ and b) be very bad
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Feb 3, 2016 23:49
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CaptainYesterday posted:Note: '"best" is subjective. That's the joke.  [Fake edit: I seem to be stuck in a terminal self-referential Quoting the Simpsons loop.] quote:S.A.’s USL team signs first player quote:New signing Junior Burgos isn't guaranteed Atlanta United roster spot in 2017
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Feb 4, 2016 04:36
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Meh.quote:http://www.ksat.com/web/ksat/sports/san-antonio-fc-reveals-logo-brand-identity
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Feb 5, 2016 07:10
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Did they really need to put a spur in there?
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Feb 6, 2016 01:05
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CaptainYesterday posted:Did they really need to put a spur in there? If they are going to go with the Spurs branding, and also do the FC thing, why not go full Europoser and name the team San Antonio Hotspur FC. It would be unique and interesting at least. San Antonio FC is just so meh. It was pretty inevitable that they were going to go with some kind of Spurs branding, though. quote:http://thecup.us/2016/02/05/format-schedule-for-2016-us-open-cup-unveiled-with-record-number-of-teams/
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Feb 6, 2016 13:27
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Azerban posted:i would like to post about the impending Canadian Premier League > implying that Serbian war criminals are not real people https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqsPlZ5p_G0 Azerban posted:it will probably a) sit just above L1O and PLSQ and b) be very bad Reading your link, it appears that this CPL is the Canadian soccer league run by CFL owners which the NASL was talking about partnering with a while back, only now there is no mention of any NASL involvement. The only owners mentioned are the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. I dunno... quote:What we do know now is that the league will be known as the Canadian Premier League, will have ownership groups with ties to the CFL and the NHL, and will be home to 6-8 teams (some question marks still surround the NASL teams joining this league). I guess it depends on how many really solid ownership groups they really have. If it's just the Hamilton Tiger Cats they really should just join NASL and leave the Canadian league project for later. IMO. Do over Ham fucked around with this message at 04:33 on Jun 29, 2016 |
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Feb 6, 2016 13:41
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Rowdies announced a pre-season trip to England. They'll be playing Nottingham Forest, Notts County, and Leicester. http://www.rowdiessoccer.com/news/2016/02/09/tampa-bay-rowdies-announce-preseason-training-trip-to-england
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Feb 9, 2016 16:41
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King of False Promises posted:Rowdies announced a pre-season trip to England. They'll be playing Nottingham Forest, Notts County, and Leicester. Pretty ambitious of them to get a friendly with the Premier League champions, but I think Leicester could be aiming higher.
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Feb 9, 2016 17:45
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vyelkin posted:Pretty ambitious of them to get a friendly with the Premier League champions, but I think Leicester could be aiming higher. quote:The first match is against a Nottingham Forest XI on Wednesday, March 9. The Rowdies will then take on a Notts County XI on Friday, March 11 and close the tour Wednesday, March 16 against an XI from Premier League-leading Leicester City. In all three of their matches, the Rowdies will play a mixed team of first-team players and reserve team players from each respective club. Reserve team and maybe a few bench warmers from the first team.
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Feb 10, 2016 02:20
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Do over Ham posted:Reserve team and maybe a few bench warmers from the first team. It's still pretty cool, and I hope they stream the matches!
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Feb 10, 2016 02:32
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Hi. Lifetime San Antonio FC supporter checking in.
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Feb 10, 2016 22:05
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Have some bad graphs: 
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Feb 11, 2016 03:24
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awyeahz posted:Have some bad graphs: Sweet. Would really like to see the Rowdies and Cosmos get their stadiums expanded/built to pump those average attendance numbers up even more. Speaking of the Rowdies, yesterday, Sunday Feb. 14th, Valentines Day, was the Rowdies 41st anniversary. Day before that, Saturday Feb. 13th, they lost to DC United 0-1 in their first pre-season friendly at Al Lang. Rowdies 2016 preseason jersey:  NASL 2016 soccer ball from Under Armour: 
Do over Ham fucked around with this message at 10:02 on Feb 15, 2016 |
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Feb 15, 2016 09:52
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Not sure where to post this but might as well put this here as it sort of qualifies as USA/Canada lower leagues, albeit futsal not the regular 11 a side game. I've been seeing this talk about a new futsal league backed by among others Mark Cuban, showing up in my Facebook feed and elsewhere, so I did a little Googling; something to keep an eye on in future I guess: quote:Source: Mark Cuban isn't the only big-name investor in futsal; other NBA owners, prestigious soccer clubs have joined in quote:Mark Cuban's new Futsal League will include a Seattle franchise quote:Mark Cuban invests in new pro sports league quote:Mark Cuban joins ownership group in new Pro Futsal League quote:What’s Futsal? Mark Cuban Bets Big on a New Sports League quote:Mark Cuban invests in Professional Futsal League
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Feb 17, 2016 05:54
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I'm going out on a limb here in guessing that this futsal league will have club names that make even the guy who named the Ohio Xoggz blush.
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Feb 17, 2016 06:49
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CaptainYesterday posted:I'm going out on a limb here in guessing that this futsal league will have club names that make even the guy who named the Ohio Xoggz blush. top kek That's five minutes of my life I'm not getting back, spent reading an 11 year old Big Soccer thread about the Columbus Xoggz/Ohio Xoggz; and I still don't know what a Xoggz is! 
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Feb 17, 2016 08:16
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Minnesota United poised to join MLS in 2017, with name changequote:the Loons will likely be forced to change their name, dropping 'United', and re-branding. The reasoning for the forced change in name? Because Arthur Blank, the owner of the other 2017 expansion franchise, Atlanta United FC, reportedly thinks it would be odd to have two 'Uniteds" joining MLS at the same time. quote:“The word ‘United’ has long been associated with the beautiful game around the world,” AUFC president Darren Eales said upon the unveiling. “It has particular resonance for Atlanta, as a transport hub in the Southeast, as a multi-cultural, international city and as a club committed to community.”
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Feb 17, 2016 22:39
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So two Uniteds in MLS okay; three Uniteds no can do.  Welp, not that I thought much of Arthur Blank and his MLS Atlanta minions before this, but boy are they clueless. They passed up many much better name ideas to latch on to yet another "United", and now they are taking the name "United" away from a team that had that name before they did! Oh well. It does give Minnesota a chance to pick something better, IMO. Never thought much of their name change before, I thought Minnesota United FC it was just "meh", but their new Loon badge was cool; why not make the Loons nickname official, keep the badge, and go with Minnesota Loons FC? I mean why not. Unique, original, a little goofy, and a big middle finger to Garber/Blank. Come on you Loons! Edit to add: Or Minnesota Loons AFC. Minnesota Kicks appears to be off the table for now; someone must own the trademark and isn't selling it, otherwise the NASL would have acquired it by now. Do over Ham fucked around with this message at 11:24 on Feb 19, 2016 |
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Feb 18, 2016 04:03
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Minnesota Hotloons
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Feb 18, 2016 04:26
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Seeing lots of pics of Didier Drogba at Al Lang Stadium showing up in my Facebook feed. "Spring" training, American soccer style, is upon us. 
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Feb 18, 2016 08:18
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A small minority of Fire fans are going crazy with anger over the announced NASL team in Chicago. I'm not going to switch my allegiance, but I hope they can get their stuff figured out. They're going to have a hell of a time finding somewhere to play in the city that's got a capacity of over ~2,000 and isn't Soldier Field.
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Feb 18, 2016 21:50
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Hello Towel posted:A small minority of Fire fans are going crazy with anger over the announced NASL team in Chicago. You might have seen it already, but here's an interesting article in which Peter Wilt talks about the stadium situation, says the NASL team will probably play at Soldier Field for 3 years, and pretty much blames the Fire's owners for not being willing to pay for a stadium in the city. Money quote: quote:“In this case, the Chicago NASL, our investors recognize that it will take a largely private commitment to build a stadium, and with that, if (former Fire owners) AEG had that same willingness 12 years ago, the Fire’s stadium would be in the city. It’s obviously easier to get a stadium built that is largely privately funded.” Also, I would love to see some of the internet rage from Fire fans about the NASL team. Why are they mad??
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Feb 18, 2016 22:09
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Oh, hey, the USL Premier Development League dropped the 'USL' from their name. The new logo for the PDL looks like the Destination America logo.
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Feb 19, 2016 05:19
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Things that make me go "hmmmm....." (Swiped this off of a closed Facebook group, but in this instance I don't think they would mind me sharing this....I hope...) quote:Can't really reveal much (mostly because I don't know), but a source has told me a VIP (not someone playing in this tourney obviously) will be at the Rowdies game this weekend and a large showing by Ralph's Mob could help lead to some big things for the Rowdies future. So there you are. If you are in the Tampa Bay area, this weekend would be a good time to go to the Rowdies preseason game at Al Lang in St. Pete. It may be important for the Rowdies future. No idea what this means, or if the VIP in question would even be a name that we would recognize or not. I speculate that it might be a potential investor that Bill Edwards is trying to attract to the Rowdies ownership group; but who knows. If it is, then the involvement of all of these MLS teams in this Clearwater/St. Pete preseason tournament has probably helped Bill Edwards raise the profile of the Rowdies and make important connections with other owners and potential investors.
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Feb 19, 2016 10:44
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Just got this from The Informant, the Ralph's Mob email newsletter:quote:Spring 2016 Pre-Season - Volume 2, Issue 0.2A
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Feb 19, 2016 15:27
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camoseven posted:Also, I would love to see some of the internet rage from Fire fans about the NASL team. Why are they mad?? Yeah, I saw that article. I just don't think Soldier Field is viable for NASL, even for 3 years. But Wilt knows much better than I do. They're just mad that there's competition for butts in seats, in addition to all the other sports teams already in the area. And - frankly, I'm including myself in this - we're angry that the Fire didn't have the guts or the money or the intelligence or whatever to build in the city in the first place. Bridgeview sucks.
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Feb 19, 2016 15:41
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Hello Towel posted:Yeah, I saw that article. I just don't think Soldier Field is viable for NASL, even for 3 years. But Wilt knows much better than I do.
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Feb 19, 2016 19:19
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Crazy Ted posted:Chicago's big enough to have a well-supported minor league soccer team as well as an MLS team, even if the MLS team doesn't suck. I don't get the Soldier Field thing either, but yeah I'm not going to question Peter Wilt. The other options on their survey were Wrigley or the Cell, and I think Solider Field is definitely better than playing in a baseball stadium. I'm not really sure where else they could play in the city limits, unless they wanted to play at a university or high school. That would require installing seating, and possibly having weird rules about alcohol.
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Feb 19, 2016 19:54
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camoseven posted:The other options on their survey were Wrigley or the Cell, and I think Solider Field is definitely better than playing in a baseball stadium. I'm not really sure where else they could play in the city limits, unless they wanted to play at a university or high school. That would require installing seating, and possibly having weird rules about alcohol. Exactly. DePaul and UIC's stadiums are too small.
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Feb 20, 2016 06:25
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If Chicago Sting and NY Cosmos can get their urban SSS built, and the Rowdies can expand Al Lang, that's quite a few urban SSS for NASL. Will be interesting to see what happens. Having watched the Revs get nowhere in the urban SSS department for over a decade now I'm not hopeful; but then again I'm not exactly convinced that the Krafts are all that serious about building an urban SSS any time soon so who knows. As to the mysterious VIP at the Rowdies preseason match at Al Lang this past Saturday night, there's no word as to who it was. However my informant on Facebook says that the owners suite was full of people and all of the Rowdies management team was up in the suite during the game. Something was definitely going on, but he did not recognize any of the guests. Since he didn't recognize anyone, that rules out people like Garber or Beckham. Probably potential investors, of some kind, but who knows. Just one of those things which we'll be in the dark about unless and until something is officially announced.
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Feb 23, 2016 04:54
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 Above photo of the Rowdies owners suite at Al Lang during last Saturday's game. That's Rowdies owner Bill Edwards with the hat and the glasses staring straight ahead; presumably one or more of the other people are the mystery VIP(s) in question. Not that I expect anyone to recognize any of them but whatever. Just interesting photo and sets off lots of pointless speculation in my mind. Anway....
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Feb 24, 2016 02:57
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Do over Ham posted:
The guy in green looking to the right in the photo looks like Lee Cohen, VP/COO of the Rowdies. I'm not sure about the other two on the left, though.
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Feb 24, 2016 03:44
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Do over Ham posted:
quote:http://patch.com/georgia/brookhaven/atlanta-silverbacks-resume-operations-0 quote:http://www.dirtysouthsoccer.com/2016/2/23/11100802/atlanta-silverbacks-new-owners-NPSL
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Feb 26, 2016 01:42
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quote:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...renovation.html
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Feb 26, 2016 03:36
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the pittsburgh riverhounds have a stadium right across the river from downtown, beautiful skyline view, shockingly close to public transit (not a thing that normally happens here), and somehow decent parking as well. plus they are a third division soccer club in a city that couldn't give two shits about the sport. how MLS clubs struggle so mightily to find urban stadium locations, i will never understand.
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Feb 28, 2016 01:21
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be nice wicka posted:the pittsburgh riverhounds have a stadium right across the river from downtown, beautiful skyline view, shockingly close to public transit (not a thing that normally happens here), and somehow decent parking as well. plus they are a third division soccer club in a city that couldn't give two shits about the sport. how MLS clubs struggle so mightily to find urban stadium locations, i will never understand. You need enough money to convince the city that building a soccer stadium won't become a white elephant after two seasons. In a related story, the site where the Austin American-Statesman is located (which was sold from Cox Communications, the owner of the newspaper, to....the family who owns Cox Communications) is now looking to be redeveloped. From my non-scientific research, citizens are vocal on tuning the 18.9 acre plot into some sort of sports complex, which includes a soccer stadium. Nobody wants another 30-story condo, which we've recently been smitten with downtown.
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Feb 28, 2016 01:56
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CaptainYesterday posted:You need enough money to convince the city that building a soccer stadium won't become a white elephant after two seasons. hounds don't have any money at all. they spent one year in the stadium and the primary owner went bankrupt and they had to sell the team. maybe they just lucked into ultra prime real estate, idk.
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Feb 28, 2016 02:12
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be nice wicka posted:the pittsburgh riverhounds have a stadium right across the river from downtown, beautiful skyline view, shockingly close to public transit (not a thing that normally happens here), and somehow decent parking as well. plus they are a third division soccer club in a city that couldn't give two shits about the sport. how MLS clubs struggle so mightily to find urban stadium locations, i will never understand. City politics and real estate prices/availability are rather different in Pittsburgh, I would assume, than in places like Boston, New York City, Washington DC, Chicago, etc. Pittsburgh is a smaller, post-industrial city; finding unused, cheap land near public transportation should not be a problem in Pittsburgh. Trust me, it is a huge problem in Boston, and not just for the Revs. I imagine Detroit would be a similar situation as Pittsburgh if not more so; there's too much empty urban real estate now. They're only lacking a billionaire owner, not cheap urban real estate. In fact their new stadium in the story I linked to has twice the capacity of the Riverhounds stadium, and they didn't have to build it, just spruce it up a bit.
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Feb 28, 2016 17:47
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