Open Letter: December 2, 2017
December 2, 2017
Hello all; this is another open letter in my ongoing
campaign to get the Tampa Bay Rowdies into Major League Soccer (MLS), as
documented in my blog.
Updated. The letter
writing campaign so far:
http://supportyourlocalfootballclub.blogspot.com/2016/11/updated-letter-writing-campaign-so-far.html
I was not going to be writing any more letters for a while
but some recent news headlines prompted me to write this short letter:
Tim Leiweke fears
David Beckham’s MLS franchise won’t come to fruition.
MLS has selected
Cincinnati, Detroit, Nashville & Sacramento as the finalists for the 1st 2
expansion spots. Owners & officials from the 4 markets will make formal
presentations to MLS Commissioner Don Garber & the league’s expansion
committee in New York on Dec. 6.
Statement from
Rowdies Chairman & CEO Bill Edwards on Recent MLS Expansion News.
It is my understanding that the Tampa Bay Rowdies bid is not
currently under consideration due to the need for additional investors, so I am
writing this to encourage additional investors to join the Rowdies MLS
ownership group, especially potential investors in the Tampa Bay Area. The
Tampa Bay Area had a very strong start for professional soccer in the 1970s but
has been consistently scoring own goals since that time, letting other markets
steal our place. It would be a shame if this was allowed to happen again.
In addition, if the Miami Beckham United project really does
not come to fruition, this seems to me an obvious case of a logical pooling of
resources: MBU has the additional ownership money Bill Edwards needs to take
the Tampa Bay Rowdies to MLS; the Tampa Bay Rowdies have an urban, waterfront,
downtown stadium, an active fan base and very strong supporters group, and a 42
year old well known soccer brand name and history and tradition to match that,
all of which are lacking in Miami.
If the MBU stadium plans don’t come to fruition, as I
understand it, the Beckham MLS expansion fee discount can’t be transferred to
another market; however the ownership group that Beckham has put together could
still buy into (with full MLS expansion fee price) a team in another market,
and as I have been advocating in these open letters for the past two+ years,
the Tampa Bay Rowdies are an obvious solution to this problem if the Miami stadium
situation proves to be untenable.
#COYR #Rowdies2MLS #MLS2StPete #MLS2TampaBay
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