August 29, 2017
Hello all. This is another in my series of open letters
campaigning to get the Tampa Bay Rowdies into Major League Soccer (MLS). Unlike
the previous letters, due to the nature of this letter, I am restricting the
distribution of this letter to the current Rowdies ownership, executives, and a
few others. As I mentioned in my previous letters I am documenting this letter
writing campaign in my blog:
http://supportyourlocalfootballclub.blogspot.com/2016/11/updated-letter-writing-campaign-so-far.html
Back in January, Rowdies owner Bill Edwards mentioned that he
was talking with potential investors located in the Tampa Bay Area who were
interested in partnering with him to take the Tampa Bay Rowdies to MLS.
Tampa Bay Rowdies fans recently have been a bit worried as
we have not yet heard any news as to who else might be investing in a Rowdies MLS
team. Given that there are 11 other cities trying to get the 4 remaining spots
for MLS, word of any additional Rowdies investors, to make the strongest Tampa
Bay Rowdies MLS bid possible, would do a lot to relieve the current anxiety
felt by Rowdies fans.
In my previous open letters, I included Tom Cruise in the
distribution, as there had been news stories indicating that Tom Cruise might
have been interested in investing in David Beckham’s Miami MLS team. Given Tom
Cruise’s connection to Scientology and Scientology’s connection to Clearwater,
the city next door to St. Petersburg, where the Tampa Bay Rowdies play, I
thought it might be productive to include Mr. Cruise in the open letters distribution.
So then I noticed this news story:
Top 5 at noon: Obama
backs Kriseman for mayor; is John Travolta moving to Clearwater?; and more
IS JOHN TRAVOLTA
MOVING TO CLEARWATER? PROPERTY RECORDS OFFER HINTS
Is John Travolta, one
of Scientology's most celebrated members, inching closer to his religion's
international base in Clearwater? On July 10, a waterfront home in the Old
Clearwater Bay neighborhood sold for $3 million to an investment trust held by
Ellen Bannon, the actor's sister. Bannon's investment trust is also listed as
the owner of Travolta's eight-bedroom mansion in Ocala with two airplane
hangars, a tennis court and horse barn, according to property records. The
6,162-square-foot pad overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway sits directly next
door to two houses owned by actor and Scientologist Kirstie Alley.
So as a result of the above, I am including John Travolta in
the distribution of these open letters, on the off chance that he might like to
invest in the Tampa Bay Rowdies MLS team, especially if he is moving to
Clearwater. Check out a Rowdies home game at Al Lang Stadium in downtown St.
Pete, Mr. Travolta!
I am of course including Bill Edwards and the other Rowdies
owners and key Rowdies executives, and the mayor of Clearwater, in this
particular open letter. I am sure Mr. Edwards does not need me to give him any
ideas about potential Rowdies MLS co-investors, but I thought that the above
story was interesting enough to draw his attention to it.
Rowdies fans are getting anxious as we get nearer and nearer
to the end of the year when MLS is expected to announce the next two expansion
franchises, and the Rowdies have not had any good news about their MLS bid
since the successful St. Petersburg referendum about Al Lang Stadium back in
May which passed with an 87% “yes” vote. Quite a few other cities bidding for MLS are
having lots of good news and are being talked up as having an inside track for
MLS expansion, while we hear nothing about the Tampa Bay Rowdies MLS bid. So it
is concerning.
To summarize for anyone reading this why he or she should
invest in a Tampa Bay Rowdies MLS team:
The Tampa Bay Area is the largest TV market (#11) that does
not have a team in MLS. The Tampa Bay Area is the fastest growing market of the
12 markets currently applying for an MLS team.
The Tampa Bay Rowdies have a very hot and intense rivalry
with Orlando City Soccer Club, 107 miles away on I-4. Orlando City Soccer Club plays
in MLS. The Tampa Bay Rowdies are currently playing in the United Soccer League
(USL), where the Orlando City B team also play.
The Tampa Bay Rowdies have one of the oldest (since 1975)
and best known (second only to the New York Cosmos) brand names in USA soccer.
The Tampa Bay Rowdies drew huge crowds at the old Tampa
Stadium back in the late 1970s and early 1980s (averaging over 28,000 a game by
1980 with occasional crowds of over 40,000 and one crowd of over 56,000), in
the original North American Soccer League (NASL).
The Tampa Bay Area has been a soccer hotbed since at least
1975 and has a very large population of very knowledgeable soccer fans and a
very large and very active youth soccer system.
The Tampa Bay Area in general, as well as St. Petersburg in
particular, is attracting a large population of millennials and young working
professionals and educated people and “hipsters”; precisely the kind of people
who are attracted to MLS and to soccer and who MLS is very much interested in attracting
and marketing to.
Al Lang Stadium in downtown St. Petersburg, where the Rowdies
currently play, is on the Tampa Bay waterfront, within easy walking distance of
all kinds of restaurants, bars, theaters, music venues, night clubs, shops, hotels,
and other things to do, and is the ideal kind of urban location that MLS is
looking for in its Soccer Specific Stadia (SSS).
Professional soccer is growing fast in the USA, and Major League
Soccer is growing at a rapid rate and attracting more and more fans from the
younger demographics. For this reason, the Tampa Bay Rowdies in MLS is an
attractive investment to look into.
So on the off chance that Tom Cruise, John Travolta, or
anyone else is interested in partnering with Bill Edwards and investing in the
Tampa Bay Rowdies MLS team, I send this letter. Come on you Rowdies! Soccer is
a kick in the grass! #COYR #MLS2StPete #MLS2TampaBay #Rowdies2MLS
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