Rowdies June 2 Photos

(Follow link for full article.)

http://www.mor-tv.com/article/rowdies-june-2-photos/21084469

Rowdies June 2 Photos

Team MOR joined the Tampa Bay Rowdies and gave away some swag, see photos of some great Rowdies Fans!

(Follow link for full article.)

https://www.uslsoccer.com/news_article/show/924046

USL Power Rankings - Week 12

Positive runs by Reno, Charlotte, Nashville see clubs continue upward trajectory

Also receiving votes: Ottawa Fury FC 3, Tampa Bay Rowdies 3, Indy Eleven 2

Also receiving votes: Tampa Bay Rowdies (15)

(Follow link for full article.)

https://www.law360.com/articles/1049915/nasl-says-its-2019-soccer-season-is-off-if-suit-lags

NASL Says Its 2019 Soccer Season Is Off If Suit Lags

Law360 (June 4, 2018, 8:09 PM EDT) -- The North American Soccer League asked a New York federal judge on Monday to bump up an initial conference for its case alleging the U.S. Soccer Federation conspired with Major League Soccer to keep NASL from competing as a top professional league, saying it needs to meet sometime this week in order to save the 2019 season.

Although the parties are due to meet toward the end of June, if a schedule setting a December trial date isn't fixed this week or soon after, there won't be...

(Follow link for full article.)

https://www.thebentmusket.com/2018/6/5/17377702/us-open-cup-4th-round-new-england-revolution-brad-friedel-usl-louisville-city-fc

US Open Cup, 4th Round: New England visits USL champs Louisville City FC

It's homecoming time for Louisville native Andrew Farrell

(Follow link for full article.)

https://www.revolutionsoccer.net/post/2018/06/05/live-stream-revolution-louisville-city-fc

LIVE STREAM: Revolution at Louisville City FC

(Follow link for full article.)

https://www.prosoccerusa.com/mls/new-england-revolution/louisville-city-revolution-open-cup/

U.S. Open Cup: Louisville City FC stuns New England Revolution, 3-2

(Follow link for full article.)

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article212579099.html

Appeals court can rule any day on David Beckham stadium deal. Then it gets complicated.

David Beckham speaks at an event in January announcing that Major League Soccer is bringing an expansion team to Miami. The stadium site in Overtown was never mentioned during that ceremony. Weeks later, the Beckham partnership began pursuing a new stadium site at Miami's Melreese golf course. Lynne Sladky AP

Miami-Dade County on Tuesday fought for the right to sell David Beckham land for a stadium in a no-bid deal, making its case before an appeals court at a time when it's not clear the retired soccer star even wants the public property anymore.

Beckham's lawyers are using activist Bruce Matheson's lawsuit against the $9 million county land deal to delay making a $901,500 down payment on the three acres of Miami-Dade land in Overtown. Meanwhile, Beckham's negotiating team, now led by new partner Jorge Mas, is pursuing a different site several miles away at Miami's Melreese golf course.

Hours after the hearing in front of Florida's Third District of Appeal, Mayor Carlos Gimenez said that the county would postpone the June 8 payment until after the Matheson suit concludes. The decision avoids a showdown over a deadline for the Beckham group to keep intact a nine-acre stadium site the partners assembled off the Miami River in Overtown.

The site was picked and secured months before Mas and his brother José joined the venture and promptly began searching for other places to play Major League Soccer.

The bid for another site raises the stakes for the appeals decision, since a quick win for the county and Beckham could actually cause more complications than would a drawn-out wait for a ruling.

There's a chance the three-judge panel that heard arguments from both sides will rule swiftly and decisively for the county after Tuesday's oral arguments. That would also eliminate the justification for delaying $901,500 payment and force the Beckham group to pay up if it wants to keep the Overtown site in play.

Only one judge, Robert Luck, asked questions during the hearing, and he hit both sides with challenges to their legal arguments.

Weeks after county commissioners approved the deal in June 2017, Matheson sued to block the transaction, saying Miami-Dade wrongly cited Florida's economic-development law in justifying the no-bid sale. The Beckham partners made their first $450,000 down payment in August, despite the Matheson suit. The Mas brothers joined the partnership in the fall.

A trial court later ruled with Miami-Dade, saying Florida allows local governments to contribute property to recruit companies and support ventures that would create jobs and boost the economy.

"The competitive bidding statutes in Florida is one of the most important statutes on the books," said Richard Ovelmen, lead lawyer for Matheson. Heir to a family that was once a major land holder in Miami-Dade, Matheson owns property near the Overtown site and helped lead the opposition to county approval of Beckham's stadium plans there.

Luck pointed to examples of Florida law that allow governments to sell land without going through a competitive bidding process. He cited affordable housing statutes where developers can buy land for nominal amounts, and laws allowing other governments and non-profits to acquire county land for public purposes.

"You state at least 15 times in your brief that any property must go through this procedure" of competitive bidding, Luck said.

The line of questioning favored the county's reasoning that while Florida's economic-development statute does not explicitly allow for no-bid deals, it wouldn't make sense to subject job-creating projects to better offers. Oren Rosenthal, an assistant county attorney, told Luck that negotiating a deal to bring a company to county land would fall apart if another bidder could just step in and buy the designated site for a slightly higher price.

"This challenge is an attempt to legislate by litigation," Rosenthal said. "Mr. Matheson disagrees with what the county did with [the Beckham deal] and with what the state ultimately did in adopting its economic-development statute."

Luck asked why the economic-development statute doesn't spell out an exemption to the state law requiring competitive bidding for government land deals.

"Certainly the legislature knows how to use 'not withstanding.' They do it constantly when they want to say: 'Ignore everything else,' " Luck said. "In this instance, they didn't."

Luck's monopoly on the questioning suggests he'll draft the opinion for the three-judge panel that heard Matheson v. Miami-Dade. The Beckham partnership joined the suit as a co-defendant, and had a lawyer speak briefly at Tuesday's hearing.

The court's ultimate decision could extend the litigation timetable — giving the Beckham group more time to delay the $901,500 payment while it pursues Melreese. The court could send the case back to the trial level, or issue a ruling that the losing side could appeal to the Florida Supreme Court.

But the court could also end the case by issuing a ruling without a written decision. Those rulings aren't subject to further appeal, but also don't set precedent for future cases.

That kind of quick decision could leave the Beckham group having to pay nearly $1 million to keep the Overtown site alive as it pursues a far more uncertain deal for Melreese.

Securing the 140-acre city golf course requires striking a lease deal with Miami, and then winning voter approval in a city referendum expected in November. Should the Beckham group falter in those talks or at the polls, Overtown could emerge as a backup site. Jorge Mas has said publicly the nine-acre Overtown site, including six acres the Beckham group has already purchased, is too small for the for-profit hotel, entertainment and office complex he wants next to the stadium.

At Tuesday's County Commission meeting, Gimenez said county lawyers planned to send the Beckham group a letter delaying the $901,500 payment until after the court system issues a "final determination" in the Matheson suit. The soccer group would then have the option of making the down payment or notifying the county it wanted to pull out of the deal .

Gimenez said the county determined the original 2017 deal gives the stadium group the ability to delay payments in the face of litigation. "I believe they have that right," Gimenez said of Beckham and partners.

(Follow link for full article.)

https://www.hottimeinoldtown.com/2018/6/5/17427672/columbus-crew-chicago-fire-usoc-2018-round-4-preview-news-projected-lineups-how-to-watch

Kings In Exile: Columbus Crew vs Chicago Fire, USOC Round 4 Preview

The Fire face off against That Yellow Team in their 2018 US Open Cup debut

For all the pride that the club and its fans have taken in the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup over the years, the Chicago Fire enter the 2018 edition of the tournament with relatively minimal fanfare. The team is treating it as Just Another Game in an otherwise punishing season thrust onto a thin and trundling squad. Enthusiasm among fans seems uncharacteristically muted this year, for reasons I won’t even try to guess at.

You can’t really make anyone care about something if they really don’t want to. If the players and Veljko Paunovic are viewing tomorow’s clash with Columbus as just more fixture congestion, we’re going to get the result we deserve. If the fans can’t get behind the team for this game, it’ll be hard to blame the players for not giving 100% either. We know what’s at stake here— a chance to redeem this season, a shot at a fifth USOC title, and potentially making That Yellow Team forever winless against us in the Cup.

This used to, and ought to be again, our tournament.

In all probability, though, Pauno is going to rest the starters and focus on making sure no one else gets hurt. The tyranny of lowered expectations.

Chicago Fire all-time USOC record vs Columbus Crew: 6-0-0, 15 GF / 8 GA

Chicago Fire away USOC record vs Columbus Crew: 1-0-0, 2 GF / 1 GA

(Follow link for full article.)

https://www.mystatesman.com/sports/soccer/mayor-best-use-mckalla-help-facilitate-major-league-soccer/Xm5IwKqHxIAUTp6jYEOkyK/

Mayor: Best use of McKalla is ‘to help facilitate Major League Soccer’

Austin Mayor Steve Adler is hardly ready to kick the ball into the net, but he did express a preference Tuesday for Major League Soccer at McKalla Place.

Adler made his first public comments since the release of Friday’s city staff report on the 24-acre, city-owned North Austin property and a proposal by the Columbus Crew SC owner to build a 20,118-seat stadium on that site near the Domain.

“I was pleased to see that the report indicated McKalla was a viable location for soccer. It also pointed out there were other viable uses for it, and that doesn’t surprise me,” Adler said. “The council’s going to have to step in and wade through those competing priorities. My sense is that (soccer) is a really unique opportunity to gather all parts of our community in a public setting in ways that don’t happen now.

“While I’m a huge proponent of affordable housing — and will vote to expand the housing element of the bond and using much of our publicly available land for affordable housing — I think the best use of this property in this location is to help facilitate Major League Soccer.”

District 3 Council Member Sabino “Pio” Renteria wants to make an MLS deal work in Austin, but a tight timeline is a concern. Representatives of Precourt Sports Ventures, who operate the Crew SC, have said they need some kind of agreement this summer in order to move the team here in 2019. The City Council has meetings June 14 and June 28 before taking a break until Aug. 9.

“The way our session is filling up, it’s going to be very hard to get it done in two meetings,” Renteria said. “There are points in that proposal likely to be negotiated. We’re going to have a lot of questions for them. Unless they get right down to it, without a lot of back and forth, I just don’t see getting this done in less than a month. We have so much on our plate right now.”

Renteria, who identified himself a soccer and pro sports fan, said the sticking point could be who pays for $16 million in infrastructure improvements, including $13 million for a proposed Capital Metro rail station.

“The city report was encouraging for soccer, that it could generate a lot of money. I was pretty excited,” he said. “In the proposal, I was glad to see they’re making that commitment to Foundation Communities.”

Foundation Communities is a nonprofit that builds affordable housing in Austin.

“Then further down I saw the infrastructure costs they want paid up front, and that’s money we don’t have. For most development, we don’t go around waiving fees, unless we’re housing homeless people.”

Adler noted he’s been so tied up in CodeNext, Austin’s complicated attempt to rewrite its land development code, that he hasn’t covered the full report or proposal.

“There’s still more detail we need to get from the soccer team and from the league, and I need to better understand how we can still get some community benefits associated with affordable housing from this,” he said. “In addition to the ones in the report, I’m interested in knowing if we can dedicate sales tax generated from the site towards the affordable housing trust fund.”

Renteria said affordable housing at McKalla Place is not realistic at this point.

“I’m all for affordable housing, but we don’t have the money for that right now,” he said. “Maybe with some partnerships down the road. The funding is just not there at the moment.”

Renteria made a case for MLS at McKalla — with the right deal.

“I really want soccer. It would be a big plus for Austin,” he said. “Yet we need to protect the taxpayers. It comes down to whether we can afford the infrastructure improvements and the real costs. When they finance that stadium, we want to make sure we don’t get stuck.”

(Follow link for full article.)

https://sportsday.dallasnews.com/soccer/soccer/2018/06/05/20-years-fc-dallas-in-the-lamar-hunt-us-open-cup

20 Years: FC Dallas in the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup

(Follow link for full article.)

https://www.wusa9.com/article/sports/dc-united-fans-object-to-dc-sports-curse-chatter/65-561743324

DC United fans object to 'DC sports curse' chatter

Some people in D.C. say the city has plenty of championships... from Washington's soccer team.

(Follow link for full article.)

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/economicdevelopment/Tampa-Bay-area-mayors-Transportation-problems-hurt-economic-development_168884871

Tampa Bay area mayors: Transportation problems hurt economic development

Clearwater Mayor George Cretekos (left), Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn and St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman discussed transportation and economic development Tuesday during the annual CREW Tampa Bay lunch for women working in commercial real estate. RICHARD DANIELSON | Times

TAMPA — The mayors of Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater agreed Tuesday, as they have before, that not having a better transportation system is the most serious disadvantage the bay area has when it tries to recruit business.

"The biggest regret of my eight years, when I leave office next May, is the fact we haven’t moved the needle on transportation," Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn told about 450 people at the annual lunch for CREW Tampa Bay, a networking group for women working in commercial real estate.

LAST YEAR: Government leaders urge businesses to become transportation leaders

That means the region should have bus rapid transit, ride-sharing, autonomous vehicles, "and, yes, for parts of the community, rail has got to be part of the solution," Buckhorn said. "Rail for urban areas is critical."

In Hillsborough, the County Commission should let voters countywide "choose for themselves what they want their future to look like," the mayor said. Similarly, he said, the Legislature should let individual cities like Tampa hold referendums on enacting a tax for transportation.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Tampa again comes up short in quest to hold city-only sales tax referendum for transit

Without a dedicated revenue source that can be used to match federal transportation funds and repay money borrowed from the bond market, "we’re just taping it together with duct tape," Buckhorn said.

"It’s not just a quality of life issue; it’s an economic development issue," said St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman, who also supported having the authority to do a city-only referendum. "We are at a competitive disadvantage without having serious mass transit options available to us."

Clearwater Mayor George Cretekos, who spent years in Washington D.C. as an aide to U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, said new businesses have grown up around Metro stops there, while the bay area has watched congestion worsen.

"Maryland, D.C., and Virginia can get together and come up with a transit alternative system, and we can’t get two counties together to decide what to do and how to do it to benefit all of us," he said. "That’s an embarrassment for every one of us."

(Follow link for full article.)

https://twitter.com/TampaBayRowdies/status/1004001221152313345

Tampa Bay Rowdies

‏Verified account @TampaBayRowdies

It's time to find out if you are the winner of our Rowdies Riches Sweepstakes! It's up to $4,000! Make sure to grab your match program from this past Saturday and visit http://RowdiesRiches.com .

7:05 AM - 5 Jun 2018

(Follow link for full article.)

https://twitter.com/AngelWill21/status/1003352466090536966

Angel Williams, MPA
‏
@AngelWill21

Thanks @LeonTTaylor for taking the time to sign autographs and take a picture with these teens from @tampaparksrec Stay and Play last night! #ClassAct

12:07 PM - 3 Jun 2018 from Al Lang Stadium

(Follow link for full article.)

https://twitter.com/TampaBayRowdies/status/1004010090960248832

Tampa Bay Rowdies

‏Verified account @TampaBayRowdies

A lovely day at work 😄

7:40 AM - 5 Jun 2018