September 26, 2016
Hello All. This is another in a series of open letters
urging Miami Beckham United (MBU), David Beckham’s attempt to launch an MLS
club in Miami, to consider talking to Bill Edwards and the other owners of the
Tampa Bay Rowdies, as an alternate backup plan if the Miami situation does not
work out. As I mentioned in my last letter I am documenting some of this letter
writing campaign in my blog (“support
your local football club dot blogspot dot com”). I observe that the search
for a stadium in Miami has not been going very well for MBU, with no news in
several months:
So maybe a word of
explanation or two about why I started this blog.
So, MBU needs a SSS,
and a billionaire investor, otherwise they are dead in the water, MLS discount
or no. MLS won't allow this situation to go on forever; this situation has been
dragging on for two and a half years; the plan was to get Miami into MLS for
the 2018 season and time is running out.
Well, conveniently,
there is a stadium on a harbor, in Florida, a downtown, urban waterfront
stadium, about a four hour drive north-west from Miami: Al Lang Stadium in St.
Petersburg. The Tampa Bay Rowdies play there. The Rowdies have a 41+ year history
and have name recognition worldwide amongst soccer fans of a certain age. Owner
Bill Edwards is a local St. Pete real estate developer who is also active in
the entertainment business and may actually already (or at least potentially)
have some contacts through his entertainment business with David Beckham and
Beckham's business partner Simon Fuller.
And also, I might add, potentially with another MBU partner,
Tim Leiweke, whose Oak View Group recently announced the charter members of
their Arena Alliance, which includes Amalie Arena, where Jeffrey Vinik’s Tampa
Bay Lightning play; Vinik has been mentioned in the past by Rowdies fans as a
potential Rowdies owner. His focus is on Tampa, not St. Petersburg, but a large
Tampa Bay Rowdies MLS ownership consortium hopefully would represent the entire
Tampa Bay area.
Things are in a state of flux right now in the USA/Canada
lower leagues soccer world, below MLS (ie, NASL and USL); recent news seems to
indicate that Bill Edwards is taking the Rowdies from NASL to USL, with the
ultimate goal of taking the Rowdies to MLS. Towards that end, there are obvious
advantages for Edwards in an MLS partnership with MBU: the Beckham expansion
fee discount (where other new MLS teams may see an increase of up to $200
million for expansion fees), and also getting into MLS as team number 24, when
MLS may very well be frozen at 28 teams for some considerable time to come,
according to recent announcements (linked on my blog). Here are some (by no
means all) cities that have been talking about, or speculated as having, MLS
ambitions, excluding Miami and the teams joining MLS in 2017 and 2018, in no
particular order: Detroit, Phoenix, Las
Vegas, Sacramento, San Diego, Anaheim/Orange County, San Antonio, Austin, El
Paso, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Rochester, St.
Louis, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Memphis, Chattanooga, Nashville, Charlotte,
Charleston, Ft. Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Tampa Bay. Some of these are not
serious; considerably more than four however are very serious, so MLS spots
25-28 are going to face some stiff competition.
Would Beckham & Co. be able to work out an MLS Tampa Bay
Rowdies ownership consortium deal with Bill Edwards? Impossible to know until
someone tries; some Rowdies fans fear, after the firings of several long term,
old time Rowdies stalwarts, that Bill Edwards is too much of a “hands on” owner
to work well with others; however, employees are one thing, and business
partners are something else entirely. Beckham has something Edwards might want;
Edwards has something Beckham might want; compromises and arrangements could be
made, deals could be brokered. No way to know what is possible, unless the
right people start talking to each other; hence these open letters.
Let me include some other matters about the downtown St.
Petersburg location (near Al Lang Stadium) that might appeal to David and
Victoria Beckham, from a non-soccer perspective: St. Petersburg, and the Tampa
Bay area, as an arts, culture, and fashion location alternative to Miami. As I
mentioned in my previous letter, the Tampa Bay area tends to get unfairly overshadowed
by Orlando and Miami in the eyes of outsiders who don’t know Florida well.
Annual events in St. Pete includes the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg,
and the St. Pete Art & Fashion Week (links to these on my blog), and no
doubt others I am unfamiliar with, having not lived in the Tampa Bay area for a
long time. Downtown St. Pete is, however, becoming quite the center for Art
Museums:
St. Petersburg's new
arts destination
Through exhibitions
and education programs, The James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art will
emphasize core values of the art that moved Tom and Mary James during their
collecting: action, fortitude, heritage, and integrity.
The James Museum will
not only be another milestone project for our local arts scene but will join
with the Salvador Dali Museum, the St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts, the
Chihuly Collection and the forthcoming Museum of the American Arts & Crafts
Movement, among many other entities, in affirming St Petersburg, Florida, as a
sophisticated arts and cultural destination for visitors and residents alike.
There are a number of St. Pete museum openings upcoming,
including the James Museum opening in the Fall of 2017, the Chihuly Collection,
currently at the Morean Arts Center but opening at its own, new location in October
of this year, and the Museum of the American Arts & Crafts Movement which
is scheduled to open at a $40 million dollar, 110,000-square-foot location in
St. Pete some time in 2018. Links on my blog for reference. I’ve just scratched
the surface here but hopefully I have given David and Victoria Beckham in
insight into what St. Petersburg, and the Tampa Bay area, have to offer them,
which may appeal to their interests, if the Miami MLS situation does not work
out.
I have mentioned in my previous letters the history and
importance of the Tampa Bay Rowdies name and legacy; I seldom go long without
finding reminders of this influence today; more reasons why the Rowdies legacy should
be kept alive and secured by returning the Rowdies to the top flight of USA
soccer, which is MLS, where the Rowdies belong. When Sam Allardyce was being
considered for England manager this past August, stories like these popped up
on my newsfeed:
How Sam Allardyce had
a 'life-changing' experience at the Tampa Bay Rowdies
Sam Allardyce played
just 11 matches for the Tampa Bay Rowdies in the summer of 1983 but he has
described his brief time there as "life-changing".
On the field, the experience
of playing in the North American Soccer League did not yield any success for
the burly centre-back as he struggled to cope with the blazing-hot Florida
sunshine in a Rowdies team long since past their best.
However, the Rowdies'
access to the high-tech facilities used by the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers
completely transformed his outlook on the game.
It was at Bolton
Wanderers where Allardyce became well known for embracing statistical tools
such as ProZone - and his appreciation of sports science can be traced back to
his spell at the Rowdies.
Speaking of the Buccaneers, as a reminder of what I
mentioned in previous letters, the current Raymond James Stadium could be very
useful in transitioning the Rowdies to MLS, while the Al Lang Stadium location
is being rebuilt (similar to how Orlando City are using the Citrus Bowl while their
own new soccer specific stadium (SSS) is being built). More on Sam Allardyce,
the Tampa Bay Rowdies, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers:
England target Sam
Allardyce turned into one of football’s great innovators by spell in America
But none at home made
an impression on him like the US soccer team Tampa Bay Rowdies, which had
access to all the best training aides because of their links to the Tampa Bay
Buccaneers NFL team.
Allardyce only played
for the Rowdies for five months but the adventure provided him with the
managerial know-how which today sees him in pole position for the England post.
As he finished his
beer he told me: “Nobody does it here like the Rowdies. We still haven’t caught
up in this country. We are miles behind.”
Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Rowdies continue to create a new
history and a new legacy in their new NASL incarnation in St. Pete, as
demonstrated here:
Joe Cole, Big Sam and
why US Division two soccer is thriving
“I, I believe. I
believe that. I believe that we will win,” chant the crowd with what has become
the default song heard all over soccer games in the United States. And they do.
On a warm, yet humid evening, my wife and I attended the Tampa Bay Rowdies
versus Jacksonville Armada FC soccer game at the 7,500 capacity Al Lang Stadium
in downtown St Petersburg, Florida.
The ‘Rowdies’ play in
the North American Soccer League or NASL. The league once made famous in the
late 70’s and early 80’s by Pele, Best, Beckenbauer and new England manager Sam
Allardyce who himself played 11 games for the Tampa based team in 1983.
Located next to a
Salvador Dali museum and feet from an Indy car Race Track, the Rowdies are one
of the original NASL teams from those past glory years. Below all the MLS’
franchises these more ‘homely’ clubs are in effect North America Division two.
In an aging but
quaint and connected stadium, this former baseball field has become a caldron
of families, songs, drums, banter and even flares. ‘Ralph’s Mob’ the official
supporters club of the home team occupy a large section of the terraces behind
the goal. A bearded chap wearing a funeral directors hat beats loudly on a
large bass drum emblazoned with team livery. Huge billowing flags are waved
above in a sight probably more common in the San Siro than Old Trafford.
Also in the news recently, some more ammunition to fire at
the doubters who still think that professional soccer in the USA is a niche
sport which will never make any money:
Forbes Releases 2016
MLS Team Valuations
NEW YORK (September
7, 2016) – Forbes announces today its fourth-ever franchise valuations for
Major League Soccer. The average MLS
team is now worth $185 million, up 18% from last year and up a staggering 80%
from 2013. The Seattle Sounders remain
the most valuable team, worth $285 million.
The Seattle Sounders joined MLS in 2009 and have been the league’s most
valuable team in every Forbes ranking since 2013, 2015 and 2016. New York City FC and Orlando City SC join
Forbes’ ranking for the first time, ranking third and fifth respectively.
Someone investing in MLS circa 2001 could have really
cleaned up! But there’s still plenty of room for growth, especially with the
Beckham discount keeping the expansion fee so low compared to what other new
MLS clubs will be paying. Some of the current Rowdies fans may have been upset
by some of Bill Edwards decisions, but overall he has done well in securing and
improving Al Lang Stadium, and making sure that the basic job of running the
club gets done effectively and that everyone gets paid on time; the same
unfortunately cannot be said for our long time Florida rivals, the Ft.
Lauderdale Strikers:
How Fort Lauderdale
Strikers' global ambitions have put NASL club on brink
And very few bothered
to come back, as the Strikers - under Brazilian owners Paulo Cesso, Ricardo
Geromel and Rafael Bertani - began a policy of trying to make the club a global
brand while paying little attention to trying to attract the local community to
come to matches.
Hopefully this will not be a problem for a future Tampa Bay
Rowdies team playing in MLS; building a global brand is all well and good, but
putting down roots in the local community and making sure that local fans show up
and that the team is an active part of the community should always be priority
one; the basic job that has to be done before one can worry about things like
building a global brand.
Finally, a bit of daydreaming on my part. One problem with pro
soccer in Florida is the weather; the Tampa Bay area is the lightning capital
of the USA and heavy rain depresses fan turnout. Roofs would be nice, but cost
money, and soccer really should be played on grass; solutions like moveable
roofs and moveable grass pitches are expensive, but new cheaper technology
might come in handy should the Tampa Bay Rowdies eventually build a new SSS
(soccer specific stadium) at the Al Lang site:
New roof technology
could benefit a new Rays stadium
The roof is made from
ethylene tetrafluoroethylene, an intriguing polymer known as ETFE. It is
stronger than glass but 100 times lighter. It stretches like a rubber band
under pressure, such as from wind or piles of snow.
Most important,
manufacturers can embed ETFE with tiny dots that filter sunlight and lower
temperatures. The result shades fans but still lets them see sky, clouds and
outside surroundings.
"It's kind of a
Minnesota version of an open-air stadium,'' says Michele Kelm-Helgen,
chairwoman of the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority. "We looked at
retractable roofs, but we were concerned that given our climate, we may not
have cause to open the roof that much."
A glass wall at one
end of the roof has 100-foot pivoting doors that let in fresh air and breeze.
"Even in the wintertime, you feel like you are outside, but you will be
warm,'' Kelm-Helgen says. [ . . . ]
ETFE construction
typically features at least two membranes separated by air pockets a foot deep
or more that create an insulating pillow effect. Sometimes a middle layer is
added, Wright says, with air pressure valves that move it up or down, allowing
computers to alter the degree of shade as the sun moves across the sky. [ . .
. ]
"ETFE is a good
material. If you understand where the air comes in and where to force it out
and how to keep the air moving, you are not going to create a greenhouse,''
says Soligo. "If people really want an open-air feeling, you can do a lot
for them.''
Singapore, about 85
miles from the equator, has humidity you can slurp. Yet one end of its new 55,000-seat
National Stadium remains open to the city even when its retractable ETFE roof
closes for games.
Rather than cooling
the entire stadium, designers installed air-conditioning vents under each seat.
A digital ticketing system turns them on only when people are sitting in the
seats. Cool air flows down to the playing field so competitors don't get heat
stroke. As air eventually warms, it rises and escapes through vents in the
roof.
Energy costs are 60
percent below those of conventional methods.
See the Forsyth Barr Stadium in New Zealand for the first
example of a fully enclosed, ETFE roofed stadium with natural grass pitch
growing inside. Something along those lines would be perfect on the Al Lang
Stadium site; natural grass soccer pitch, players and fans fully protected from
lightning and rain storms, and yet it would feel “outdoorsy” with excellent
views of the St. Pete waterfront, Tampa Bay, and the other downtown St. Pete
views. And most importantly, it would be considerably less expensive than older
methods of enclosing stadiums from the weather. With the Beckham discount, the
money saved on the MLS expansion fee could be put towards a much better stadium
for the Rowdies.
COYR!
No comments:
Post a Comment