Rob Stone from FOX Sports Talks 2018 World Cup Draw (Part 3)

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http://atlanta.cbslocal.com/2017/12/06/rob-stone-from-fox-sports-talks-2018-world-cup-draw-part-3/

Rob Stone from FOX Sports Talks 2018 World Cup Draw (Part 3)

I had seen it do very well in the youth system, I had obviously seen some university programs do well but on the professional level really outside of the old-school Tampa Bay Rowdies really kind of struggle. And it’s always hard to say Florida is in the south even though it’s more south than the Carolinas and Georgia and company but I had been tracking the Atlanta market for a long time. I used to work local television in Albany, Georgia. Atlanta always struck me as kind of this fair-weather sports town where you better be doing well or no one is really going to care, so when the Braves were hot back in the day man it was fantastic. I loved watching the games. And then when they dipped I was like ‘wow that brand new stadium seems awfully empty. Here come the Falcons and the Dirty Bird and when they dipped, there go the fans. You just hadn’t seen that popularity of the sport to that type of level to the south and I was not optimistic.

You mentioned the Tampa Bay Rowdies. Tell me about your love for the Rowdies.

ROB: My sports love on the professional side. I was born in Tampa but moved away at a very early age and when I first got involved in the sport of soccer my dad said to me ‘you need a team to follow’ and back then you didn’t follow EPL, you didn’t know what was going on in Germany and Italy. There wasn’t this lifeline to that and he said there was a team in my hometown. Tampa. The Tampa Bay Rowdies. And that just became my team. I loved the green and yellow, I had the fully kit, I loved Rodney Marsh, The Crown-Prince of soccer. I had a poster of him up on my bedroom wall. When I would go to school in Chapel Hill, North Carolina I wouldn’t sign my papers Rob Stone when I was in second grade, I signed them Rodney Stone. So that’s how much I loved Rodney Marsh and the teachers did not know what the hell was going on with young student Stone over there and I’m sure there were some parent teacher meetings where that came up and they had to properly explain why I had to sign my papers that way. But that’s how it started and it just never left.

I’m a Tar Heel at heart I’ll always cheer for North Carolina basketball. I’m a Rowdie at heart. I’ll always cheer for the success of the Tampa Bay Rowdies. But in my business, I don’t really allow myself too many options to be a fan. I’m just a fan of sports in general and a fan of the stories and you need to cover it in an even-keeled manner. People ask me ‘who is your favorite soccer team? Who is your favorite EPL team?’ I don’t really have one. I just love the game and I love watching and I love cheering for American success.