(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9xvz0y/edwards_leaves_massive_legacy_with_rowdies/
Edwards Leaves Massive Legacy with Rowdies
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.uslchampionship.com/news_article/show/969269
Edwards Leaves Massive Legacy with Rowdies
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9yash6/tampa_tour_time_flies_by_in_the_yellow_and_green/
Tampa Tour: Time flies by in the yellow and green in UK and USA for Norwich City and Tampa Bay Rowdies fans | Norwich City | Eastern Daily Press
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.edp24.co.uk/sport/norwich-city/time-flies-by-in-the-yellow-and-green-in-uk-and-usa-1-5784072
Tampa Tour: Time flies by in the yellow and green in UK and USA
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.edp24.co.uk/sport/norwich-city/intense-training-has-been-a-key-part-of-city-s-form-rhodes-1-5783852
Tampa Tour gallery: Intense training has been a key part of City’s form – Rhodes
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.edp24.co.uk/sport/norwich-city/hospital-visit-and-coaching-all-part-of-city-s-time-in-the-usa-1-5784253
Tampa Tour: Hospital visit and coaching all part of City’s time in the USA
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.tribalfootball.com/articles/chelsea-hero-cole-back-in-england-to-pursue-coaching-career-4257224
Chelsea hero Cole back in England to pursue coaching career
(Follow link for full article.)
https://metro.co.uk/2018/11/17/joe-cole-names-chelsea-superstar-eden-hazard-as-the-best-player-he-played-with-8150119/
Joe Cole names Chelsea superstar Eden Hazard as the best player he played with
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.frontrowsoccer.com/2018/11/17/those-names-are-familiar-cedar-stars-academy-adds-ex-cosmos-fernandes-gorskie-mulligan-from-usl-clubs/
THOSE NAMES ARE FAMILIAR: Cedar Stars Academy adds Ex-Cosmos Fernandes, Gorskie, Mulligan from USL clubs
(Follow link for full article.)
https://sportstalkflorida.com/soccer/miami-beckham-united/politics-and-lawyers-are-as-important-as-players-for-david-beckham/
Politics And Lawyers Are As Important As Players For David Beckham
A funny thing happened to David Beckham and his soccer team partners on the way to getting land needed to build a stadium in Miami for their Major League Soccer expansion franchise. Beckham and his partners won the right from Miami voters to negotiate a purchase of city land that is part of a municipal golf course on Election Day. But the morning after, Beckham and his group were legally barred from speaking to Miami officials because there was an ethics complaint about Beckham’s group. A Miami attorney David Winkler alleged that Beckham’s group, Miami Beckham United LLC, was lobbying the city to get the stadium proposal on the ballot but Beckham’s group members were not registered lobbyists.
Voters said yes to a proposal that allowed Miami to change its no-bidding laws which would allow city officials to negotiate a no bid deal with Beckham’s business to use city land for the stadium. Beckham’s plan to get the lease then build a facility along with other development on a city owned golf course. Four of five Miami commissioners would have to approve the lease. Major League Soccer has been waiting for Beckham to field a Miami franchise since granting Beckham a license to operate a Miami team in 2014. The latest plan is to build a stadium on a golf course, the Melreese Country Club which is owned by the city of Miami. The Beckham proposal is like many others, an athletic facility will anchor a complex that comes complete with shops, a hotel, office space and a public park. Beckham added new business partners in December 2017. The new partners didn’t care much for a proposed Overton location and the city owned golf course property became the apple of the Beckham group’s eye. It has not been easy for David Beckham to build a stadium.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/mls/article221694715.html
MLS commissioner to tour Inter Miami’s proposed stadium site
Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber was a guest speaker Thursday at the SoccerEx conference at Marlins Park; and he is taking advantage of his time in Miami to tour the proposed stadium site for David Beckham’s new MLS team, Inter Miami.
Garber is meeting with Beckham’s co-owner Jorge Mas on Friday morning and taking a tour of the Melreese Golf Course stadium site, he told the Herald.
The team is scheduled to begin play in 2020, but the stadium and Freedom Park they plan to build on the Melreese site won’t be ready until 2021 at the earliest, so they need a short-term home. Options include Marlins Park, Hard Rock Stadium, FIU Stadium and FAU Stadium.
“Our goal is to launch in 2020, that hasn’t really changed,” Garber said. “We have a lot of work to do to finalize a temporary venue.
“The most important thing is from a technical standpoint is the field needs to be perfect, or as perfect as it can be in a temporary environment. It needs to have the proper support systems for players both from a locker room perspective and other elements that ensure our players will be safe and healthy. We need to ensure that we have the right schedule, and when you’re playing as a tenant in a stadium, scheduling gets very complicated.”
Broadcast capabilities and fan experience are also critical, he said.
Garber called the Miami deal “the hardest we’ve ever done,” and said the inclusion of the Mas brothers last winter made the difference.
“What Jorge Mas achieved is almost unthinkable,” he said. “He was able to deliver on a site in a market that has been enormously challenging for us for 10 years. It’s a credit to him and his connection in the community, his focus, his business acumen. He delivered everything he said he’d do. Hats off to him. I hope the people in this community understand how focused and committed he is to Major League Soccer here in Miami. Without Jorge, I’m not sure we’d be where we are.”
Cordeiro on U.S. coach search: U.S. Soccer president and Miami Beach resident Carlos Cordeiro has not been home much since he was elected to the post early this year.
He spent the first three months traveling to meet with 175 federations in advance of the vote for the 2026 World Cup site. After the United States, Mexico and Canada won the joint bid, he turned his focus to other federation issues such as changing the culture and structure of the organization, supporting the U.S. women’s team heading into the 2019 Women’s World Cup, hiring Earnie Stewart as the first-ever general manager for the men’s team (a search is underway for a women’s GM), and starting a Youth Task Force to unite the various grass-roots organizations.
“Being the U.S. Soccer president is 24/7,” he said. “The responsibility of president you don’t really fully appreciate until you’re in the seat.”
One of his most pressing issues is hiring a men’s national team coach. Bruce Arena stepped down Oct. 13, 2017, and Dave Sarachan is the interim coach. Cordeiro said he expects an announcement “no later than the end of this year.” Candidates include Columbus Crew coach Gregg Berhalter, Toronto FC coach Greg Vanney, Kansas City coach Peter Vermes, U.S. Under-20 coach Tab Ramos and former Red Bulls coach Jesse Marsch.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9xp1zk/rowdies_to_host_2019_usl_experience/
Rowdies to Host 2019 USL Experience
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.sylsoccer.com/news_article/show/966090
Tampa Bay Rowdies Revealed As 2019 USL Experience Host
Elite player program to feature multi-day professional environment
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9yt1i1/tampa_bay_rowdies_chiefs_thrilled_to_host_norwich/
Tampa Bay Rowdies chiefs thrilled to host Norwich City
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.canaries.co.uk/News/2018/november/tampa-bay-rowdies-interview
Tampa Bay Rowdies chiefs thrilled to host Norwich City
Thursday, November 29, 2018
Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Joe Cole Retires
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9wnoia/joe_cole_retires/
Joe Cole Retires
Obviously not a surprise, but loved having him here. He was having a harder time in this last season, but he gave his all.
More than anything he provided leadership on the pitch. Will be missed!
He provided great leadership off the pitch as well
(Follow link for full article.)
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9ww8gj/thankyoujoe/
#ThankYouJoe
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_7C0KyziX4
#ThankYouJoe
Tampa Bay Rowdies
Joe Cole has announced his retirement from professional football. Thank you for always giving it your all while wearing the green and gold hoops!
#ThankYouJoe
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9wnoia/joe_cole_retires/
Joe Cole Retires
Obviously not a surprise, but loved having him here. He was having a harder time in this last season, but he gave his all.
More than anything he provided leadership on the pitch. Will be missed!
He provided great leadership off the pitch as well
(Follow link for full article.)
Joe Cole retires: Former England, Chelsea & West Ham midfielder quits at 37
Former England and Chelsea midfielder Joe Cole has retired at the age of 37.
Cole, who came through West Ham's youth system before spells at Liverpool, Lille, Aston Villa and Coventry City, has played for United Soccer League side Tampa Bay Rowdies since 2016.
He scored 10 goals in 56 games for England between 2001 and 2010.
"It has been a dream come true. All of it," said Cole. "I hope the next two decades are as special as my last 20 years as a professional have been."
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9ww8gj/thankyoujoe/
#ThankYouJoe
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_7C0KyziX4
#ThankYouJoe
Tampa Bay Rowdies
Joe Cole has announced his retirement from professional football. Thank you for always giving it your all while wearing the green and gold hoops!
#ThankYouJoe
Monday, November 12, 2018
Our City: Miami Votes in Favor of Stadium Deal
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.themaneland.com/2018/11/11/18083582/our-city-miami-votes-yes-for-stadium-deal-inter-miami-david-beckham
Our City: Miami Votes in Favor of Stadium Deal
Can we see the Miami stadium vote as a referendum on soccer in the “The Gateway to the Americas?”
In the midst of Florida’s midterm elections that would decide both the leadership of the state and the state’s representation in Congress, among other important races, was a bit of soccer business as well. Major League Soccer expansion club Inter Miami’s stadium plans were up for debate as voters decided if the city should be able to negotiate directly with the club about the development of 73 acres at the Melreese Country Club site.
We’ve followed the David Beckham United FC story from Orlando with a combination of interest and derision, as the club has sputtered through the potential of expansion for the past five years. The most significant hurdle has been the same from the beginning, a proper stadium site. Navigating the demands of MLS and the unique political climate of South Florida has meant a lot of headaches for those involved, and a lot of anxiety for soccer supporters. This vote, giving a green light to negotiations between the club and the city, has to feel like a significant victory for everyone involved.
More than victory, it feels like a bit of community love for the Beckham project which has seen its fair share of negative headlines.
While the exact numbers are still being counted, it seems around 60 percent of voters approve of the deal. While the majority of the news surrounding the club seems to be an even balance between stadium location debates and tantalizing transfer rumors dominating headlines, supporters of the club have continued to show vast amounts of patience in the project. This recent vote has given the public an opportunity to weigh in on their feelings not only about the stadium discussion, but the prospects of having soccer in Miami. The people working to build Club Internacional de Futbol Miami have to feel buoyed by the positive vote.
The city has had a difficult history with soccer, with the Gatos and Toros of the old NASL, the Sharks of the American Soccer League, and the Fusion from the early days of MLS all coming to an early end. One-off events involving European powerhouses have drawn significant crowds in the past, but the lack of successful long-term league soccer in Miami has to make any venture in South Florida a well thought out and carefully planned endeavor. This positive vote should put a bit of confidence into the thoughts of the MLS front office.
Despite our enjoyment of that at times laughably challenging saga from here in Orlando, if we are honest with ourselves, we need a club in Miami. Say what you will about the manufactured rivalries of MLS, they sell TV rights, create viewers, and sell tickets. And, if we are lucky, it can create some excitement like that on display between Portland and Seattle in this year’s MLS Cup playoffs.
Hopefully, this vote can pave the way for Beckham and company to build their stadium and field their team, and we can all get to work on enjoying a Miami-Orlando Sunshine State derby.
Believe it or not, it's still not a done deal yet in Miami
Apparently some sort of city or county commissioners still have to approve the stadium deal and only then is it a done deal. I do think they will approve, but if for some reason they don’t, Beckham’s group has publicly said there is no plan B and they refuse to build in the other location (Overlook?) that at one time they said they would use.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/soccer/2018/11/06/election-day-miami-voters-david-beckham-mls-soccer-complex/1912389002/
David Beckham's soccer complex for MLS team approved by Miami voters
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2018/11/06/beckham-scores-with-miami-voters-in-soccer-stadium.html
Beckham scores with Miami voters in soccer stadium referendum
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article220667190.html
Beckham scores key victory after voters endorse stadium plan in referendum
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.goal.com/en-us/news/we-want-griezmann-beckham-hopes-france-star-joins-new-mls/f6krqnfkoq7c1scfl06pnuv76
‘We want Griezmann’ - Beckham hopes France star joins new MLS club
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.stumptownfooty.com/2018/11/6/18068488/david-beckham-miami-stadium-on-midterm-ballot-mls-portland-timbers-real-madrid-wayne-rooney
Around the Forest: David Beckham’s Miami Stadium on midterm ballot
Also: England players not consulted on Rooney call-up; How can the Timbers advance past Seattle; Corey Baird wins MLS Rookie of The Year and more!
(Follow link for full article.)
http://www.pinkun.com/norwich-city/winter-is-coming-but-there-s-little-for-city-to-fear-1-5771766
David Freezer: Winter is coming but there’s little for City to fear – with a little help from some Florida sunshine
Warm weather breaks have become common place in modern football but Norwich City will be breaking new ground when they head to the USA for the approaching international break.
In preparation for the long, hard Championship slog ahead Daniel Farke’s squad are fortunate enough to be heading across the pond to Florida, to enjoy some November sunshine.
The club took in the west coast of America during their 2013 pre-season tour during Chris Hughton’s reign but a mid-season break to such exotic climes is a rare treat.
Tampa will be the team’s home next week and thanks to City’s official destination partner, Visit Tampa Bay, I’m even more fortunate to be flying out to the US to report on the tour for the EDP, Evening News and Pinkun.com.
While some of that will be focused on fitness work, relaxation and team bonding for the players, the tour also represents a fine chance for the Canaries to represent the club in a country where football – proper football – really is taking off.
It faces tough competition in participation terms with baseball, basketball and American football so deep set in American culture, yet the Wayne Rooney boosted Major League Soccer (MLS) is really kicking on.
Atlanta United averaged over 53,000 this season, Seattle Sounders over 40,000 and Florida’s own Orlando City were close to capacity with an average of almost 24,000.
David Beckham is behind a new franchise being set up in Miami amid much fanfare, England legend Wayne Rooney has been a hit for DC United this season with 12 goals in 20 games and Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been, well, Zlatan, with 22 goals including some of his usual spectacular style.
It’s Tampa for City though, on the west coast of Florida, where Tampa Bay Rowdies compete in the second-tier United Soccer League, also wearing yellow and green.
The Rowdies’ 7,200 capacity Al Lang Stadium – where former Canaries midfielder Darel Russell played during the final season of his career – will be City’s training base for the week.
City’s head of performance Chris Domogalla, who followed Farke across from Borussia Dortmund II, explains: “Essentially it’s because of the more hours of sunlight per day in Tampa than here at Colney.
“We’ve had a really good season so far regarding the weather, but November usually turns out to be very dark and wet here, so we will get more and better natural vitamin D supply from the sunlight and warmth in Tampa and it will break up the dark days a little bit for the boys.”
Of course that means the players on international duty will miss out on the tour, let’s not feel too sorry for them though.
Teemu Pukki is set to be playing in Greece with Finland just needing a point to seal top spot in Group C2 and a place in the Euro 2020 play-offs, before a second chance to wrap it up in Hungary.
Max Aarons is due to be in Turkey for three qualifiers, in Manavgat on the south coast, as the England U19s look to book a place in the elite stage of qualification for next summer’s finals in Armenia.
Jamal Lewis and Michael McGovern may not quite be getting their vitamin D in Dublin as Northern Ireland take on the Republic in a friendly, before hosting Austria in the Nations League in Belfast.
While poor old Timm Klose has two games in Switzerland, a friendly against Qatar and a Nations League clash with Belgium – you can whack the sarcasm up to maximum for this sentence, I could happily live in Switzerland, a beautiful country.
Anyway, I digress. Sporting director Stuart Webber will also be flying out, hoping to be able to promote a flourishing squad still sitting pretty in the Championship’s automatic promotion places after victory over Millwall on Saturday.
Speaking to City’s website, Webber explained: “There’s a commercial element with our relationship with Visit Tampa Bay which has been really fruitful for the club and we’re really grateful for that relationship, so that’s great.
“But also it’s something we spoke about as a staff on the sporting side, could we do something in November during the international break because it’s our last chance before March to have a break and enjoy some warm weather and better training conditions for the team.
With the Carrow Road clash with Millwall the 13th game since City returned from the international break – featuring a superb nine wins so far, few fans will argue the City players have earned a reward.
There are eight games to be squeezed in between November 24 and the turn of the year. If some November sunshine can help boost the chances of the Canaries still being in the top two as we enter 2019, it will be more than worth the effort.
• You can keep up to date with City’s tour of Tampa by downloading the new Pink Un app from your mobile device’s relevant app store, where we’ll be bringing you plenty of exclusive Canaries content from now on
(Follow link for full article.)
http://www.kentreporter.com/sports/venerable-cox-returns-to-the-stars-for-indoor-season/
Venerable Cox returns to the Stars for indoor season
Major Arena Soccer League veteran Jamael Cox will be back with the Tacoma Stars for the 2018-19 season.
Cox signed this week with the Kent-based club. Per team and league policies, terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Cox, a Tacoma native, won a state championship with Stadium High School in 2010. His resume also includes a trial with the Glasgow Rangers of the Scottish Premier League and playing with the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the North American Soccer League.
Cox appeared in 17 regular-season matches last season and had his best MASL offensive point total with 18 (13 goals, five assists). He added three goals in three playoff games. For his career, Cox has 48 points (34 goals, 14 assists) in 55 games played.
“Jamael could be the fastest player in the league and when he is in the mood, he can score goals at will,” said Darren Sawatzky, Stars coach and general manager. “Securing him for the next couple years was important for us, and we hope to see him in the top of our division scoring goals. Having local players developed here is key to our brand and community connection and Jamael is a very talented player.”
The Stars kick off the season on Saturday, Dec. 1 against the Turlock Express. For tickets, call 1-844-STARS-84 or go to tacomastars.com.
https://www.themaneland.com/2018/11/11/18083582/our-city-miami-votes-yes-for-stadium-deal-inter-miami-david-beckham
Our City: Miami Votes in Favor of Stadium Deal
Can we see the Miami stadium vote as a referendum on soccer in the “The Gateway to the Americas?”
In the midst of Florida’s midterm elections that would decide both the leadership of the state and the state’s representation in Congress, among other important races, was a bit of soccer business as well. Major League Soccer expansion club Inter Miami’s stadium plans were up for debate as voters decided if the city should be able to negotiate directly with the club about the development of 73 acres at the Melreese Country Club site.
We’ve followed the David Beckham United FC story from Orlando with a combination of interest and derision, as the club has sputtered through the potential of expansion for the past five years. The most significant hurdle has been the same from the beginning, a proper stadium site. Navigating the demands of MLS and the unique political climate of South Florida has meant a lot of headaches for those involved, and a lot of anxiety for soccer supporters. This vote, giving a green light to negotiations between the club and the city, has to feel like a significant victory for everyone involved.
More than victory, it feels like a bit of community love for the Beckham project which has seen its fair share of negative headlines.
While the exact numbers are still being counted, it seems around 60 percent of voters approve of the deal. While the majority of the news surrounding the club seems to be an even balance between stadium location debates and tantalizing transfer rumors dominating headlines, supporters of the club have continued to show vast amounts of patience in the project. This recent vote has given the public an opportunity to weigh in on their feelings not only about the stadium discussion, but the prospects of having soccer in Miami. The people working to build Club Internacional de Futbol Miami have to feel buoyed by the positive vote.
The city has had a difficult history with soccer, with the Gatos and Toros of the old NASL, the Sharks of the American Soccer League, and the Fusion from the early days of MLS all coming to an early end. One-off events involving European powerhouses have drawn significant crowds in the past, but the lack of successful long-term league soccer in Miami has to make any venture in South Florida a well thought out and carefully planned endeavor. This positive vote should put a bit of confidence into the thoughts of the MLS front office.
Despite our enjoyment of that at times laughably challenging saga from here in Orlando, if we are honest with ourselves, we need a club in Miami. Say what you will about the manufactured rivalries of MLS, they sell TV rights, create viewers, and sell tickets. And, if we are lucky, it can create some excitement like that on display between Portland and Seattle in this year’s MLS Cup playoffs.
Hopefully, this vote can pave the way for Beckham and company to build their stadium and field their team, and we can all get to work on enjoying a Miami-Orlando Sunshine State derby.
Believe it or not, it's still not a done deal yet in Miami
Apparently some sort of city or county commissioners still have to approve the stadium deal and only then is it a done deal. I do think they will approve, but if for some reason they don’t, Beckham’s group has publicly said there is no plan B and they refuse to build in the other location (Overlook?) that at one time they said they would use.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/soccer/2018/11/06/election-day-miami-voters-david-beckham-mls-soccer-complex/1912389002/
David Beckham's soccer complex for MLS team approved by Miami voters
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2018/11/06/beckham-scores-with-miami-voters-in-soccer-stadium.html
Beckham scores with Miami voters in soccer stadium referendum
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article220667190.html
Beckham scores key victory after voters endorse stadium plan in referendum
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.goal.com/en-us/news/we-want-griezmann-beckham-hopes-france-star-joins-new-mls/f6krqnfkoq7c1scfl06pnuv76
‘We want Griezmann’ - Beckham hopes France star joins new MLS club
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.stumptownfooty.com/2018/11/6/18068488/david-beckham-miami-stadium-on-midterm-ballot-mls-portland-timbers-real-madrid-wayne-rooney
Around the Forest: David Beckham’s Miami Stadium on midterm ballot
Also: England players not consulted on Rooney call-up; How can the Timbers advance past Seattle; Corey Baird wins MLS Rookie of The Year and more!
(Follow link for full article.)
http://www.pinkun.com/norwich-city/winter-is-coming-but-there-s-little-for-city-to-fear-1-5771766
David Freezer: Winter is coming but there’s little for City to fear – with a little help from some Florida sunshine
Warm weather breaks have become common place in modern football but Norwich City will be breaking new ground when they head to the USA for the approaching international break.
In preparation for the long, hard Championship slog ahead Daniel Farke’s squad are fortunate enough to be heading across the pond to Florida, to enjoy some November sunshine.
The club took in the west coast of America during their 2013 pre-season tour during Chris Hughton’s reign but a mid-season break to such exotic climes is a rare treat.
Tampa will be the team’s home next week and thanks to City’s official destination partner, Visit Tampa Bay, I’m even more fortunate to be flying out to the US to report on the tour for the EDP, Evening News and Pinkun.com.
While some of that will be focused on fitness work, relaxation and team bonding for the players, the tour also represents a fine chance for the Canaries to represent the club in a country where football – proper football – really is taking off.
It faces tough competition in participation terms with baseball, basketball and American football so deep set in American culture, yet the Wayne Rooney boosted Major League Soccer (MLS) is really kicking on.
Atlanta United averaged over 53,000 this season, Seattle Sounders over 40,000 and Florida’s own Orlando City were close to capacity with an average of almost 24,000.
David Beckham is behind a new franchise being set up in Miami amid much fanfare, England legend Wayne Rooney has been a hit for DC United this season with 12 goals in 20 games and Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been, well, Zlatan, with 22 goals including some of his usual spectacular style.
It’s Tampa for City though, on the west coast of Florida, where Tampa Bay Rowdies compete in the second-tier United Soccer League, also wearing yellow and green.
The Rowdies’ 7,200 capacity Al Lang Stadium – where former Canaries midfielder Darel Russell played during the final season of his career – will be City’s training base for the week.
City’s head of performance Chris Domogalla, who followed Farke across from Borussia Dortmund II, explains: “Essentially it’s because of the more hours of sunlight per day in Tampa than here at Colney.
“We’ve had a really good season so far regarding the weather, but November usually turns out to be very dark and wet here, so we will get more and better natural vitamin D supply from the sunlight and warmth in Tampa and it will break up the dark days a little bit for the boys.”
Of course that means the players on international duty will miss out on the tour, let’s not feel too sorry for them though.
Teemu Pukki is set to be playing in Greece with Finland just needing a point to seal top spot in Group C2 and a place in the Euro 2020 play-offs, before a second chance to wrap it up in Hungary.
Max Aarons is due to be in Turkey for three qualifiers, in Manavgat on the south coast, as the England U19s look to book a place in the elite stage of qualification for next summer’s finals in Armenia.
Jamal Lewis and Michael McGovern may not quite be getting their vitamin D in Dublin as Northern Ireland take on the Republic in a friendly, before hosting Austria in the Nations League in Belfast.
While poor old Timm Klose has two games in Switzerland, a friendly against Qatar and a Nations League clash with Belgium – you can whack the sarcasm up to maximum for this sentence, I could happily live in Switzerland, a beautiful country.
Anyway, I digress. Sporting director Stuart Webber will also be flying out, hoping to be able to promote a flourishing squad still sitting pretty in the Championship’s automatic promotion places after victory over Millwall on Saturday.
Speaking to City’s website, Webber explained: “There’s a commercial element with our relationship with Visit Tampa Bay which has been really fruitful for the club and we’re really grateful for that relationship, so that’s great.
“But also it’s something we spoke about as a staff on the sporting side, could we do something in November during the international break because it’s our last chance before March to have a break and enjoy some warm weather and better training conditions for the team.
With the Carrow Road clash with Millwall the 13th game since City returned from the international break – featuring a superb nine wins so far, few fans will argue the City players have earned a reward.
There are eight games to be squeezed in between November 24 and the turn of the year. If some November sunshine can help boost the chances of the Canaries still being in the top two as we enter 2019, it will be more than worth the effort.
• You can keep up to date with City’s tour of Tampa by downloading the new Pink Un app from your mobile device’s relevant app store, where we’ll be bringing you plenty of exclusive Canaries content from now on
(Follow link for full article.)
http://www.kentreporter.com/sports/venerable-cox-returns-to-the-stars-for-indoor-season/
Venerable Cox returns to the Stars for indoor season
Major Arena Soccer League veteran Jamael Cox will be back with the Tacoma Stars for the 2018-19 season.
Cox signed this week with the Kent-based club. Per team and league policies, terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Cox, a Tacoma native, won a state championship with Stadium High School in 2010. His resume also includes a trial with the Glasgow Rangers of the Scottish Premier League and playing with the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the North American Soccer League.
Cox appeared in 17 regular-season matches last season and had his best MASL offensive point total with 18 (13 goals, five assists). He added three goals in three playoff games. For his career, Cox has 48 points (34 goals, 14 assists) in 55 games played.
“Jamael could be the fastest player in the league and when he is in the mood, he can score goals at will,” said Darren Sawatzky, Stars coach and general manager. “Securing him for the next couple years was important for us, and we hope to see him in the top of our division scoring goals. Having local players developed here is key to our brand and community connection and Jamael is a very talented player.”
The Stars kick off the season on Saturday, Dec. 1 against the Turlock Express. For tickets, call 1-844-STARS-84 or go to tacomastars.com.
Tipsheet: San Diego rejects MLS stadium, thins expansion field
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/jeff-gordon/tipsheet-san-diego-rejects-mls-stadium-thins-expansion-field/article_17d7a27b-336d-50fc-ae96-64a8cc200f37.html
Tipsheet: San Diego rejects MLS stadium, thins expansion field
As St. Louis awaits word from the Major League Soccer on its revived expansion bid, voters in San Diego kept that city's bid on the back burner.
Folks there were confronted with two ballot proposals regarding stadiums -- one for a new 35,000-seat football facility for San Diego State University and one for a new 22,000-seat soccer edifice.
The soccer proposal received just 37.4 percent voter support. SoccerCity project manager Nick Stone had this declaration for the San Diego Union-Tribune on Tuesday night: “Major League Soccer is gone from San Diego if we lose.”
If that's true, that eliminates one direct competitor for St. Louis in the current MLS expansion race. Austin, Sacramento, Phoenix and Detroit have also shown interest, with Austin likely to get in.
"Cincinnati will join next year. It's a current USL club. We'll work on finalizing the actual launch dates for Miami and for Nashville," MLS commissioner Don Garber told reporters in September. "That gives us two more teams to get us to 28. There's still many, many cities that are a part of that process and we engage with them regularly.
"We have not established a timetable for that next round, but between the five or six or seven that are still in the mix, we'll pick two of them and we'll figure out how they're going to roll out so that we can be a fully expanded league."
San Diego's football stadium proposal -- which also included other SDSU facilities for the Mission Valley Campus -- won with 54.44 percent of the vote.
"SDSU Mission Valley will not rely on taxpayer dollars, student tuition or student fees," San Diego State president Adela de la Torre said. "This is important to understand. The university will not raise student tuition or fees. The Mission Valley site plan is a self-supporting project that will be paid for by revenue generated by uses on the site."
Currently San Diego State plays in the SDCCU Stadium, the old home of the San Diego Chargers. That aging stadium and its surrounding parking lot will be the site of the new development.
Meanwhile the Chargers are stuck playing in a MLS stadium in Carson City while waiting to move into Stan Kroenke's stadium in Inglewood. The new San Diego State stadium will be designed to allow expansion past 50,000 seats in case the Chargers want to come home some day.
The Chargers moved to suburban LA after voters shot down an initiative for a new downtown NFL stadium and convention center expansion in 2016.
San Diego State also sounds willing to share its football stadium with a MLS team, although the league strongly prefers cozier stadiums tailored to soccer. Earlier talks with potential MLS team investors broke down because they wanted a smaller stadium.
“We’ll reach out to them and let them know we’re really interested and try to understand if they’re still interested in the San Diego market," SDSU athletic director John David Wicker told the Union-Tribune. "They’ve talked about it as such a strong market, so how can we move forward together?
“We’re excited to sit down with them.”
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/ben-frederickson/benfred-compared-to-other-markets-st-louis-should-look-even/article_e21dcb40-161c-5e70-8723-4567042be13e.html
BenFred: Compared to other markets, St. Louis should look even better to MLS
The home website of Major League Soccer featured a banner Friday across the top of the page that displayed the crests of the league’s 23 active teams.
To the right of the elaborate designs rested three empty crests marked only by the city abbreviations for the league’s teams-to-be.
An updated look around the field of play makes it easier to imagine “STL” appearing there in the near future.
League expansion, like soccer itself, is not solely dependent on your team’s plan of attack.
The strength, skill and organization of your opponents matter.
If the team you are facing stumbles, you gain ground.
That seems to apply here.
Friday made it one month since the MLS4TheLou group announced its plan to secure an expansion team. This renewed effort, backed predominantly by private funding from the Taylor family, should be appealing to the league and the city. Gone is the out-of-town ownership element and the request for $60 million from the public. In its place is increased private funding, a sensible request for a tax on concessions and other sales within the stadium, and an ask for an assist from the state in developing a piece of blighted land already deemed desirable by MLS.
Since that encouraging announcement, wheels have turned quietly.
The new ownership group has adopted a low-key public approach after its initial splash, but that’s not a bad thing. Those who have heard briefings by ownership group member Jim Kavanaugh have described his outlook as intensely optimistic regarding his discussions with city, state and MLS leaders. Kavanaugh shared during a recent podcast appearance with broadcaster Dan McLaughlin his hopes of checking significant boxes within the next 90 days. Asked for specifics Friday, a representative for the ownership group said more information could be available as early as next week.
That 90-day timeline would be an impressive goal, considering the Board of Aldermen has not approved a financial package, and the requested tax credits have not been approved by the state. But again, optimism remains high at this point. If city leaders who donned scarves at the news conference are as eager behind closed doors as they were in front of cameras, there should be no hurdle that can’t be cleared. Gov. Mike Parson has been interested and helpful, a direct contrast from his predecessor, who was pulled down by scandal after undermining the previous attempt to secure a team.
Vibes remain upbeat.
Even more so if you consider the competition.
In last month’s announcement about the future of the Columbus Crew, MLS said it would solve consternation about the Crew’s potential relocation by a) welcoming in new owners who planned to keep the team in its current location and b) assisting departing Crew owner Anthony Precourt in establishing a team in Austin, Texas. What does that mean for St. Louis? Well, if the league’s previously announced plan is followed, the math would suggest MLS would have just one vacant spot to fill before reaching its goal of 28 teams by 2022.
The count: 23 existing teams, plus the announced additions of Miami, Nashville and Cincinnati. And then the plans for Austin.
That leaves one big TBD with more than a handful of cities in the mix. Sounds competitive. But let’s look closely.
San Diego voters just sided with a college football stadium proposal for land the San Diego ownership group hoped to claim. This was after the ownership group there referred to the vote as a referendum on the hopes of landing a team.
Sacramento remains without an ownership group with deep enough pockets to impress the league. Columbus staying put would spoil hopes of the Crew relocating to California.
Detroit’s plan for modifying Ford Field as a soccer venue instead of building a soccer-specific stadium has been publicly rebuked by MLS Commissioner Don Garber.
Charlotte and Raleigh heard Garber say in September that he does not envision any more southeastern clubs joining the league soon.
Phoenix is fascinating. The city’s United Soccer League club is strong. Billionaire Chinese investor Alex Zheng seems determined. But all the money in the world won’t change the fact that MLS would have to compete with the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA in that market. That’s a tough act to follow.
The MLS did not respond when asked Friday for an expansion update.
“The timeline for announcing the next MLS expansion teams has not been set,” read an MLS statement provided to the San Diego Union-Tribune this week. “Markets and potential ownership groups remain active.”
When it comes to expansion, the league is smart to keep the ball in the air.
St. Louis is a prime example of how a seemingly down-and-out city can recover in time to strike.
Wait too long, though, and an opponent might do the same.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://kmox.radio.com/articles/prospective-st-louis-mls-team-owner-hopeful-good-news-soon
Prospective St. Louis MLS Team Owner Hopeful For Good News Soon
Here's where things stand at the moment
(Follow link for full article.)
http://www.startribune.com/in-mls-successful-teams-either-spend-big-or-develop-well/500151461/
In MLS, successful teams either spend big or develop well
Spending is one option, developing is the other. Neither is a guarantee.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.si.com/soccer/2018/11/05/election-day-mls-expansion-san-diego-miami-votes
Election Day Has an Impact on MLS Expansion
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.constructiondive.com/news/fairground-advocacy-group-files-injunction-to-stop-construction-of-nashvill/541353/
Fairground advocacy group files injunction to stop construction of Nashville MLS stadium
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9uqevo/mizel_is_among_new_mexicos_first_6/
Mizel is among New Mexico's first 6
Toni Soler played at UT, this is his first pro contract. Also played PDL for Tormenta. I picked him out at the beginning of the college season too, cause I'm a smart soccer fan
& Josh Suggs had a cup of coffee in Pinellas. Loaned to us by San Jose but never appeared in a league game.
Losing all my favorite players damn it if we lose Blake I will riot ... peacefully
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.uslsoccer.com/news_article/show/966118
New Mexico United Announces First Six Players
SANDOVAL JOINED BY NEW MEXICO NATIVE SUGGS, GOALKEEPER MIZELL AMONG ARRIVALS
A Georgia native, Mizell was a nominee for the 2016 USL Goalkeeper of the Year award with the Charlotte Independence, where Lesesne was an assistant coach at the time. This past season he competed for the Tampa Bay Rowdies and has seen more than 5,000 minutes of action in the USL during his professional career since attending Clemson University. For the Tigers, he was the starting goalkeeper for all three seasons, winning All-ACC Freshman Team honors in 2010 and All-ACC Second Team honors in 2011. Mizell was also an All-ACC Academic Team selection in 2011 and 2012.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9uv0bc/long_sleeves/
https://i.imgur.com/k8oV7Eo.jpg
Long Sleeves
NB for the noobs/outsiders: this is Rowdie Ralph/Ralph Rowdie, one of the Rowdies mascots back in the day.
The other mascot being Soccer Head! Or was it Soccerhead?
So much better than a sock!
Saw this pic on Facebook today, remembered someone was asking about long sleeved Rowdies kit a while back.
This was never an actual Rowdies uniform shirt, but, still, thought this was interesting anyway.
Note this was from 1976; that is a Bicentennial badge on the upper left of the shirt. NASL teams all wore those during the 1976 season.
Ye old sombrero
Long-sleeve jersey?!
[desire for indoor Rowdies intensifies]
Of course it was never an actual Rowdies jersey- just something that the marketing department made for the Ralph mascot.
Right.
And the OG Indoor NASL teams actually look like they just wore their short-sleeve outdoor jerseys inside as well
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9vh3qv/unused_substitutes_ep_181_one_georgi_hristov_oc/
Unused Substitutes Ep 181 – One Georgi Hristov (OC)
Such a great interview...Georgi couldn't have been more appreciative...
You can hear our interview with Gerogi Hristov on this episode of the podcast. Lot of topics covered.
(Follow link for full article.)
http://www.theunsubs.com/wp/2018/11/08/episode-181-one-georgi-hristov/4133
Episode 181 – One Georgi Hristov
The star of tonight’s show is none other than Rowdies Legend Georgi Hristov. He talks with Jake about the end of his time with the club, pays tribute to the owners, players, coaches, staff, and fans, and talks about what comes next (and a lot of other topics as well!)
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9vl7ho/norwich_city_fc_will_be_hosting_an_open_training/
Norwich City FC will be hosting an open training session at Al Lang Stadium on Thursday, November 15
Thursday at 10. Cool, I'll close my eyes and picture it while I sit at work.
Fuck Yeah Norwich!!! The only team I can say I truly have any kind of some kinda connection to English footy because of dat Green n Gold baby. Unlike all these Man U Man City Arsenal blah blah bandwagon fans over here beating their chest for a team they have nothing to do with whatsoever.
Runcorn Linnets FC babyyyy!
Just like at this mascot
lolol that's pretty epic
‼️‼️@NorwichCityFC will be in the Tampa Bay area next week and they will host an open training session at Al Lang Stadium on Thursday, November 15 with a little help from @VisitTampaBay . Stop by to see our green and gold brethren from across the pond! 🇺🇸🤝🏴
Attached photo | imgur Mirror
(Follow link for full article.)
https://twitter.com/TampaBayRowdies/status/1060898553361399809
Tampa Bay Rowdies
Verified account
@TampaBayRowdies
‼️‼️@NorwichCityFC will be in the Tampa Bay area next week and they will host an open training session at Al Lang Stadium on Thursday, November 15 with a little help from @VisitTampaBay. Stop by to see our green and gold brethren from across the pond! 🇺🇸🤝🏴
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9w9srt/offseason_update_with_assistant_coach_martin/
Offseason Update with Assistant Coach Martin Paterson
(Follow link for full article.)
https://youtu.be/P6qM_nYlWf4
Offseason Update with Assistant Coach Martin Paterson
Tampa Bay Rowdies
https://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/jeff-gordon/tipsheet-san-diego-rejects-mls-stadium-thins-expansion-field/article_17d7a27b-336d-50fc-ae96-64a8cc200f37.html
Tipsheet: San Diego rejects MLS stadium, thins expansion field
As St. Louis awaits word from the Major League Soccer on its revived expansion bid, voters in San Diego kept that city's bid on the back burner.
Folks there were confronted with two ballot proposals regarding stadiums -- one for a new 35,000-seat football facility for San Diego State University and one for a new 22,000-seat soccer edifice.
The soccer proposal received just 37.4 percent voter support. SoccerCity project manager Nick Stone had this declaration for the San Diego Union-Tribune on Tuesday night: “Major League Soccer is gone from San Diego if we lose.”
If that's true, that eliminates one direct competitor for St. Louis in the current MLS expansion race. Austin, Sacramento, Phoenix and Detroit have also shown interest, with Austin likely to get in.
"Cincinnati will join next year. It's a current USL club. We'll work on finalizing the actual launch dates for Miami and for Nashville," MLS commissioner Don Garber told reporters in September. "That gives us two more teams to get us to 28. There's still many, many cities that are a part of that process and we engage with them regularly.
"We have not established a timetable for that next round, but between the five or six or seven that are still in the mix, we'll pick two of them and we'll figure out how they're going to roll out so that we can be a fully expanded league."
San Diego's football stadium proposal -- which also included other SDSU facilities for the Mission Valley Campus -- won with 54.44 percent of the vote.
"SDSU Mission Valley will not rely on taxpayer dollars, student tuition or student fees," San Diego State president Adela de la Torre said. "This is important to understand. The university will not raise student tuition or fees. The Mission Valley site plan is a self-supporting project that will be paid for by revenue generated by uses on the site."
Currently San Diego State plays in the SDCCU Stadium, the old home of the San Diego Chargers. That aging stadium and its surrounding parking lot will be the site of the new development.
Meanwhile the Chargers are stuck playing in a MLS stadium in Carson City while waiting to move into Stan Kroenke's stadium in Inglewood. The new San Diego State stadium will be designed to allow expansion past 50,000 seats in case the Chargers want to come home some day.
The Chargers moved to suburban LA after voters shot down an initiative for a new downtown NFL stadium and convention center expansion in 2016.
San Diego State also sounds willing to share its football stadium with a MLS team, although the league strongly prefers cozier stadiums tailored to soccer. Earlier talks with potential MLS team investors broke down because they wanted a smaller stadium.
“We’ll reach out to them and let them know we’re really interested and try to understand if they’re still interested in the San Diego market," SDSU athletic director John David Wicker told the Union-Tribune. "They’ve talked about it as such a strong market, so how can we move forward together?
“We’re excited to sit down with them.”
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/ben-frederickson/benfred-compared-to-other-markets-st-louis-should-look-even/article_e21dcb40-161c-5e70-8723-4567042be13e.html
BenFred: Compared to other markets, St. Louis should look even better to MLS
The home website of Major League Soccer featured a banner Friday across the top of the page that displayed the crests of the league’s 23 active teams.
To the right of the elaborate designs rested three empty crests marked only by the city abbreviations for the league’s teams-to-be.
An updated look around the field of play makes it easier to imagine “STL” appearing there in the near future.
League expansion, like soccer itself, is not solely dependent on your team’s plan of attack.
The strength, skill and organization of your opponents matter.
If the team you are facing stumbles, you gain ground.
That seems to apply here.
Friday made it one month since the MLS4TheLou group announced its plan to secure an expansion team. This renewed effort, backed predominantly by private funding from the Taylor family, should be appealing to the league and the city. Gone is the out-of-town ownership element and the request for $60 million from the public. In its place is increased private funding, a sensible request for a tax on concessions and other sales within the stadium, and an ask for an assist from the state in developing a piece of blighted land already deemed desirable by MLS.
Since that encouraging announcement, wheels have turned quietly.
The new ownership group has adopted a low-key public approach after its initial splash, but that’s not a bad thing. Those who have heard briefings by ownership group member Jim Kavanaugh have described his outlook as intensely optimistic regarding his discussions with city, state and MLS leaders. Kavanaugh shared during a recent podcast appearance with broadcaster Dan McLaughlin his hopes of checking significant boxes within the next 90 days. Asked for specifics Friday, a representative for the ownership group said more information could be available as early as next week.
That 90-day timeline would be an impressive goal, considering the Board of Aldermen has not approved a financial package, and the requested tax credits have not been approved by the state. But again, optimism remains high at this point. If city leaders who donned scarves at the news conference are as eager behind closed doors as they were in front of cameras, there should be no hurdle that can’t be cleared. Gov. Mike Parson has been interested and helpful, a direct contrast from his predecessor, who was pulled down by scandal after undermining the previous attempt to secure a team.
Vibes remain upbeat.
Even more so if you consider the competition.
In last month’s announcement about the future of the Columbus Crew, MLS said it would solve consternation about the Crew’s potential relocation by a) welcoming in new owners who planned to keep the team in its current location and b) assisting departing Crew owner Anthony Precourt in establishing a team in Austin, Texas. What does that mean for St. Louis? Well, if the league’s previously announced plan is followed, the math would suggest MLS would have just one vacant spot to fill before reaching its goal of 28 teams by 2022.
The count: 23 existing teams, plus the announced additions of Miami, Nashville and Cincinnati. And then the plans for Austin.
That leaves one big TBD with more than a handful of cities in the mix. Sounds competitive. But let’s look closely.
San Diego voters just sided with a college football stadium proposal for land the San Diego ownership group hoped to claim. This was after the ownership group there referred to the vote as a referendum on the hopes of landing a team.
Sacramento remains without an ownership group with deep enough pockets to impress the league. Columbus staying put would spoil hopes of the Crew relocating to California.
Detroit’s plan for modifying Ford Field as a soccer venue instead of building a soccer-specific stadium has been publicly rebuked by MLS Commissioner Don Garber.
Charlotte and Raleigh heard Garber say in September that he does not envision any more southeastern clubs joining the league soon.
Phoenix is fascinating. The city’s United Soccer League club is strong. Billionaire Chinese investor Alex Zheng seems determined. But all the money in the world won’t change the fact that MLS would have to compete with the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA in that market. That’s a tough act to follow.
The MLS did not respond when asked Friday for an expansion update.
“The timeline for announcing the next MLS expansion teams has not been set,” read an MLS statement provided to the San Diego Union-Tribune this week. “Markets and potential ownership groups remain active.”
When it comes to expansion, the league is smart to keep the ball in the air.
St. Louis is a prime example of how a seemingly down-and-out city can recover in time to strike.
Wait too long, though, and an opponent might do the same.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://kmox.radio.com/articles/prospective-st-louis-mls-team-owner-hopeful-good-news-soon
Prospective St. Louis MLS Team Owner Hopeful For Good News Soon
Here's where things stand at the moment
(Follow link for full article.)
http://www.startribune.com/in-mls-successful-teams-either-spend-big-or-develop-well/500151461/
In MLS, successful teams either spend big or develop well
Spending is one option, developing is the other. Neither is a guarantee.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.si.com/soccer/2018/11/05/election-day-mls-expansion-san-diego-miami-votes
Election Day Has an Impact on MLS Expansion
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.constructiondive.com/news/fairground-advocacy-group-files-injunction-to-stop-construction-of-nashvill/541353/
Fairground advocacy group files injunction to stop construction of Nashville MLS stadium
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9uqevo/mizel_is_among_new_mexicos_first_6/
Mizel is among New Mexico's first 6
Toni Soler played at UT, this is his first pro contract. Also played PDL for Tormenta. I picked him out at the beginning of the college season too, cause I'm a smart soccer fan
& Josh Suggs had a cup of coffee in Pinellas. Loaned to us by San Jose but never appeared in a league game.
Losing all my favorite players damn it if we lose Blake I will riot ... peacefully
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.uslsoccer.com/news_article/show/966118
New Mexico United Announces First Six Players
SANDOVAL JOINED BY NEW MEXICO NATIVE SUGGS, GOALKEEPER MIZELL AMONG ARRIVALS
A Georgia native, Mizell was a nominee for the 2016 USL Goalkeeper of the Year award with the Charlotte Independence, where Lesesne was an assistant coach at the time. This past season he competed for the Tampa Bay Rowdies and has seen more than 5,000 minutes of action in the USL during his professional career since attending Clemson University. For the Tigers, he was the starting goalkeeper for all three seasons, winning All-ACC Freshman Team honors in 2010 and All-ACC Second Team honors in 2011. Mizell was also an All-ACC Academic Team selection in 2011 and 2012.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9uv0bc/long_sleeves/
https://i.imgur.com/k8oV7Eo.jpg
Long Sleeves
NB for the noobs/outsiders: this is Rowdie Ralph/Ralph Rowdie, one of the Rowdies mascots back in the day.
The other mascot being Soccer Head! Or was it Soccerhead?
So much better than a sock!
Saw this pic on Facebook today, remembered someone was asking about long sleeved Rowdies kit a while back.
This was never an actual Rowdies uniform shirt, but, still, thought this was interesting anyway.
Note this was from 1976; that is a Bicentennial badge on the upper left of the shirt. NASL teams all wore those during the 1976 season.
Ye old sombrero
Long-sleeve jersey?!
[desire for indoor Rowdies intensifies]
Of course it was never an actual Rowdies jersey- just something that the marketing department made for the Ralph mascot.
Right.
And the OG Indoor NASL teams actually look like they just wore their short-sleeve outdoor jerseys inside as well
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9vh3qv/unused_substitutes_ep_181_one_georgi_hristov_oc/
Unused Substitutes Ep 181 – One Georgi Hristov (OC)
Such a great interview...Georgi couldn't have been more appreciative...
You can hear our interview with Gerogi Hristov on this episode of the podcast. Lot of topics covered.
(Follow link for full article.)
http://www.theunsubs.com/wp/2018/11/08/episode-181-one-georgi-hristov/4133
Episode 181 – One Georgi Hristov
The star of tonight’s show is none other than Rowdies Legend Georgi Hristov. He talks with Jake about the end of his time with the club, pays tribute to the owners, players, coaches, staff, and fans, and talks about what comes next (and a lot of other topics as well!)
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9vl7ho/norwich_city_fc_will_be_hosting_an_open_training/
Norwich City FC will be hosting an open training session at Al Lang Stadium on Thursday, November 15
Thursday at 10. Cool, I'll close my eyes and picture it while I sit at work.
Fuck Yeah Norwich!!! The only team I can say I truly have any kind of some kinda connection to English footy because of dat Green n Gold baby. Unlike all these Man U Man City Arsenal blah blah bandwagon fans over here beating their chest for a team they have nothing to do with whatsoever.
Runcorn Linnets FC babyyyy!
Just like at this mascot
lolol that's pretty epic
‼️‼️@NorwichCityFC will be in the Tampa Bay area next week and they will host an open training session at Al Lang Stadium on Thursday, November 15 with a little help from @VisitTampaBay . Stop by to see our green and gold brethren from across the pond! 🇺🇸🤝🏴
Attached photo | imgur Mirror
(Follow link for full article.)
https://twitter.com/TampaBayRowdies/status/1060898553361399809
Tampa Bay Rowdies
Verified account
@TampaBayRowdies
‼️‼️@NorwichCityFC will be in the Tampa Bay area next week and they will host an open training session at Al Lang Stadium on Thursday, November 15 with a little help from @VisitTampaBay. Stop by to see our green and gold brethren from across the pond! 🇺🇸🤝🏴
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9w9srt/offseason_update_with_assistant_coach_martin/
Offseason Update with Assistant Coach Martin Paterson
(Follow link for full article.)
https://youtu.be/P6qM_nYlWf4
Offseason Update with Assistant Coach Martin Paterson
Tampa Bay Rowdies
Sunday, November 4, 2018
Rays, Lightning and sports commission leaders discuss the future of stadiums and the industry in Tampa Bay [Paywall, but relevant quotes in comment]
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9ssqwh/rays_lightning_and_sports_commission_leaders/
Rays, Lightning and sports commission leaders discuss the future of stadiums and the industry in Tampa Bay [Paywall, but relevant quotes in comment]
Rays, Lightning and sports commission leaders discuss the future of stadiums and the industry in Tampa Bay via Tampa Bay Business Journal
I will include only the relevant quotes that pertain to the Rowdies. I still want to maintain TBBJ's right over their own paywall, for better or worse.
Brian Auld, president, Tampa Bay Rays, on the strategy for the Rays purchasing Rowdies: It's a great brand, it's nearby. We are looking forward to getting access to the data from the soccer player GPS units, tracking all the games. Some sports scientists are excited to see what that data tells us. ... To have two great sports teams in the same area is something that we think is going to be helpful for us. We sell thousands of tickets so we are looking forward to using those contacts.
Rob Higgins, executive director, Tampa Bay Sports Commission, on new events for Tampa Bay: We need to focus on the events we have. Just two weeks ago we had a chance to host the U.S. Men's National team versus Colombia team. We ended up having more than 38,600 people there, which is 7,000 more than we ever had. With the Women's Final Four, we have to make sure that goes well for future opportunities and finding ways for our fifth Super Bowl leading to our sixth. We certainly have our eyes on hosting an outdoor game similar to how we hosted the NHL All-Star. I think that's what our community has got to do, look for these non-traditional opportunities.
Sounds like there will be some interesting crossover from the Rays in sports data analytics and in sports marketing/ticket sales.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/news/2018/10/30/rays-lightning-and-sports-commission-leaders.html#g/438097/2
Rays, Lightning and sports commission leaders discuss the future of stadiums and the industry in Tampa Bay
The Rays shine a light on opportunities after the Rowdies purchase and the challenges they are facing.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-ni16usPuA
Top 10 Moments of 2018 - :#1 Tampa Bay Rays Purchase Rowdies
Tampa Bay Rowdies
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YELfn5WlJLw
Top 10 Moments of 2018: #2 Hristov Sets All-Time Scoring Record
Tampa Bay Rowdies
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfRjwUxNdio
Top 10 Moments of 2018 - #3 Neill Collins Named Head Coach
Tampa Bay Rowdies
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fACrwIe2S7Y
Top 10 Moments of 2018 - #4 Sebastian Guenzatti's Hat Trick
Tampa Bay Rowdies
Continuing our countdown of the top 10 moments of the 2018 season...
#4: The night @seba9113 scored the second hat trick in modern Rowdies history in a 3-0 win over @NorthCarolinaFC!
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoZFhUUwHzg
Catching up with Marcel Schäfer
Tampa Bay Rowdies
We caught up with Marcel Schäfer to get an update on his new job as sporting director for VfL Wolfsburg
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGAeAuUe1Ck
What's on the Rowdies' U.S. Travel Bucket List?
Tampa Bay Rowdies
Where in the U.S. would the Rowdies players like to travel? Find out in our latest feature, presented by Ashley Homestore!
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEf8IozdIMY
Top 10 Moments of 2018 - #5: Season Opener Win vs. NCFC
Tampa Bay Rowdies
Continuing our countdown of the top 10 moments of the 2018 season...
#5: Starting our season off with a bang and a 3-1 road win over North Carolina FC on opening weekend!
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9ssqwh/rays_lightning_and_sports_commission_leaders/
Rays, Lightning and sports commission leaders discuss the future of stadiums and the industry in Tampa Bay [Paywall, but relevant quotes in comment]
Rays, Lightning and sports commission leaders discuss the future of stadiums and the industry in Tampa Bay via Tampa Bay Business Journal
I will include only the relevant quotes that pertain to the Rowdies. I still want to maintain TBBJ's right over their own paywall, for better or worse.
Brian Auld, president, Tampa Bay Rays, on the strategy for the Rays purchasing Rowdies: It's a great brand, it's nearby. We are looking forward to getting access to the data from the soccer player GPS units, tracking all the games. Some sports scientists are excited to see what that data tells us. ... To have two great sports teams in the same area is something that we think is going to be helpful for us. We sell thousands of tickets so we are looking forward to using those contacts.
Rob Higgins, executive director, Tampa Bay Sports Commission, on new events for Tampa Bay: We need to focus on the events we have. Just two weeks ago we had a chance to host the U.S. Men's National team versus Colombia team. We ended up having more than 38,600 people there, which is 7,000 more than we ever had. With the Women's Final Four, we have to make sure that goes well for future opportunities and finding ways for our fifth Super Bowl leading to our sixth. We certainly have our eyes on hosting an outdoor game similar to how we hosted the NHL All-Star. I think that's what our community has got to do, look for these non-traditional opportunities.
Sounds like there will be some interesting crossover from the Rays in sports data analytics and in sports marketing/ticket sales.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/news/2018/10/30/rays-lightning-and-sports-commission-leaders.html#g/438097/2
Rays, Lightning and sports commission leaders discuss the future of stadiums and the industry in Tampa Bay
The Rays shine a light on opportunities after the Rowdies purchase and the challenges they are facing.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-ni16usPuA
Top 10 Moments of 2018 - :#1 Tampa Bay Rays Purchase Rowdies
Tampa Bay Rowdies
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YELfn5WlJLw
Top 10 Moments of 2018: #2 Hristov Sets All-Time Scoring Record
Tampa Bay Rowdies
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfRjwUxNdio
Top 10 Moments of 2018 - #3 Neill Collins Named Head Coach
Tampa Bay Rowdies
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fACrwIe2S7Y
Top 10 Moments of 2018 - #4 Sebastian Guenzatti's Hat Trick
Tampa Bay Rowdies
Continuing our countdown of the top 10 moments of the 2018 season...
#4: The night @seba9113 scored the second hat trick in modern Rowdies history in a 3-0 win over @NorthCarolinaFC!
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoZFhUUwHzg
Catching up with Marcel Schäfer
Tampa Bay Rowdies
We caught up with Marcel Schäfer to get an update on his new job as sporting director for VfL Wolfsburg
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGAeAuUe1Ck
What's on the Rowdies' U.S. Travel Bucket List?
Tampa Bay Rowdies
Where in the U.S. would the Rowdies players like to travel? Find out in our latest feature, presented by Ashley Homestore!
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEf8IozdIMY
Top 10 Moments of 2018 - #5: Season Opener Win vs. NCFC
Tampa Bay Rowdies
Continuing our countdown of the top 10 moments of the 2018 season...
#5: Starting our season off with a bang and a 3-1 road win over North Carolina FC on opening weekend!
Election Day May Shape The Future Of Major League Soccer
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.sportstalkflorida.com/soccer/mls/election-day-may-shape-the-future-of-major-league-soccer/
Election Day May Shape The Future Of Major League Soccer
The MLS nd Commissioner Don Garber are watching closely.
Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber and his bosses, the MLS owners, are particularly interested in Election Day. San Diego and Miami have stadium referendums on the ballot that will impact David Beckham’s proposed team in Miami and in San Diego voters will decide on stadium issues that could bring an MLS team to the city. In Miami, David Beckham wants a piece of public land for his proposed stadium-village concept. There are two questions facing San Diego voters. San Diego State University has a different vision for redeveloping the present stadium area than Soccer City backers. There are a few possible outcomes. One plan wins, the other loses. Both plans win but the proposal that gets the most votes wins. Both lose and the future of the stadium area is unknown with city elected officials having to come up with a new plan.
The San Diego State University and Soccer City proposals have the same goal. Build a stadium that could be used for a Major League Soccer franchise. Soccer City wants a 23,500 seat building that could be expanded to accommodate San Diego State football. The university would build a 35,000 seat stadium that could be used for soccer or expand the building by 20,000 seats in an attempt to lure the NFL back to town. Soccer City’s plan includes setting aside 16 acres in the event the NFL is interested in returning to San Diego to build an NFL style stadium. There would be a stadium-village offering, a hotel, housing, a commercial district and a park. Beckham’s plan is far more straight forward. Miami voters are not actually voting on whether they should give Beckham land for his team. Instead the voters will decide if Beckham and his partners should skip the competitive bidding process for public land and waive city law. The voters will speak.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-6350003/TALK-TOWN-REAL-Beckham-split-David-business-partner-23-years.html
TALK OF THE TOWN: The REAL Beckham split is between David and his business partner of 23 years
Their partnership has been one of the longest and most lucrative in the world of celebrity.
But after 23 years together, David Beckham and his long-term business partner Simon Fuller – who created the Pop Idol brand – are about to go their separate ways after the former footballer decided that he wants to manage and run his own company.
While all the talk has been about the state of the Beckham marriage, I understand that the real fall-out is between David, 43, and Fuller 58, and that there’s a major wrangle over money.
David is currently negotiating a buy-out of shares that Fuller holds in DB Ventures, the most financially successful company within the Beckham brand. One sticking point is thought to be over how much the shares are worth.
Fuller relinquished his role as David’s manager earlier this year and is thought to be keen to hold out for as much money as he can get from the split.
He then plans to move on to work on other commitments, which include a new BBC wildlife show and managing his ‘global pop band’, Now United.
Last year, Beckham’s business recorded a staggering £24.9 million profit after tax, thanks to the success of enterprises such as his men’s fashion range Kent & Curwen and his role as global ambassador for pan-Asian life insurance group, AIA in Hong Kong – alone thought to be worth more than £5 million per year.
Fuller, 58, is a part-owner of Beckham’s US soccer team, Inter Miami, but could lose his interest. He will remain a shareholder in David’s wife Victoria’s fashion business, as well as managing her.
A source close to Fuller said: ‘David wants to go forward without Simon. Now he’s no longer playing football he sees himself as a businessman and wants to free himself from all of this.
‘There is a lot of wrangling over money. Brand Beckham has been going for 23 years and it isn’t an easy one to untangle.’
Fuller’s pals say he no longer needs David in his stable.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article221098270.html
Miami Chamber: It’s time for professional soccer in Miami
Sports is good business.
The Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce has supported the establishment of major league sports teams in Miami since the Miami Dolphins.
The Chamber worked to bring the first Super Bowl to Miami (Super Bowl V). We supported the Miami Heat and the Miami (then the Florida) Marlins franchises because professional sports are good for business and they are good for projecting an image of our community as a world class.
The only major league sports we do not have is soccer. This is a bit ironic given that soccer is the most popular sport internationally, and Miami is one of the most international cities.
Having an MLS team would put Miami among the very few metropolitan areas that have all professional sports represented.
David Beckham has tried for years to bring his franchise to Miami because he knows it will be financially successful and that it “fits” here.
Now, with the backing of the Mas family and other private investors, there is a real possibility to finally establish the team by allowing the City of Miami to negotiate with International Miami CF in a no-bid process to bring MLS soccer and develop Miami Freedom Park.
The Miami Freedom Park project will create 15,000 new jobs and contribute over $40 million in annual tax revenues to be divided by the city, the county, the state and the school board, as well as an annual lease payment to the city of over $3.5 million dollars. And most importantly, it will be paid for by the owners, not the taxpayers, a rarity in sports franchise negotiations.
Once completed, the park will include a state-of-the-art soccer stadium, a 58-acre public park and public soccer fields open to all players and fans. It will be accessible to fans on Tri-rail and Metrorail - and someday on Brightline.
The Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce Board voted overwhelmingly to endorse this initiative and urges voters to vote YES on Miami Referendum 1 — #378.
Alfred Sanchez is the President and chief executive officer of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/news/2018/11/02/hartman-says-austins-mls-aggressor-is-paying-off.html
Hartman says Austin has become the MLS aggressor
The man behind Morgan's Wonderland and Toyota Field offers some insight on MLS as league has become more interested in Austin than San Antonio in recent years.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.law.com/dailybusinessreview/2018/11/02/david-beckham-faces-ethics-complaint-claiming-improper-soccer-stadium-lobbying/?slreturn=20181004233911
David Beckham Faces Ethics Complaint Claiming Improper Soccer Stadium Lobbying
Miami attorney David Winker claims Beckham and others served as unregistered lobbyists for a Major League Soccer stadium planned near Miami International Airport.
https://www.sportstalkflorida.com/soccer/mls/election-day-may-shape-the-future-of-major-league-soccer/
Election Day May Shape The Future Of Major League Soccer
The MLS nd Commissioner Don Garber are watching closely.
Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber and his bosses, the MLS owners, are particularly interested in Election Day. San Diego and Miami have stadium referendums on the ballot that will impact David Beckham’s proposed team in Miami and in San Diego voters will decide on stadium issues that could bring an MLS team to the city. In Miami, David Beckham wants a piece of public land for his proposed stadium-village concept. There are two questions facing San Diego voters. San Diego State University has a different vision for redeveloping the present stadium area than Soccer City backers. There are a few possible outcomes. One plan wins, the other loses. Both plans win but the proposal that gets the most votes wins. Both lose and the future of the stadium area is unknown with city elected officials having to come up with a new plan.
The San Diego State University and Soccer City proposals have the same goal. Build a stadium that could be used for a Major League Soccer franchise. Soccer City wants a 23,500 seat building that could be expanded to accommodate San Diego State football. The university would build a 35,000 seat stadium that could be used for soccer or expand the building by 20,000 seats in an attempt to lure the NFL back to town. Soccer City’s plan includes setting aside 16 acres in the event the NFL is interested in returning to San Diego to build an NFL style stadium. There would be a stadium-village offering, a hotel, housing, a commercial district and a park. Beckham’s plan is far more straight forward. Miami voters are not actually voting on whether they should give Beckham land for his team. Instead the voters will decide if Beckham and his partners should skip the competitive bidding process for public land and waive city law. The voters will speak.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-6350003/TALK-TOWN-REAL-Beckham-split-David-business-partner-23-years.html
TALK OF THE TOWN: The REAL Beckham split is between David and his business partner of 23 years
Their partnership has been one of the longest and most lucrative in the world of celebrity.
But after 23 years together, David Beckham and his long-term business partner Simon Fuller – who created the Pop Idol brand – are about to go their separate ways after the former footballer decided that he wants to manage and run his own company.
While all the talk has been about the state of the Beckham marriage, I understand that the real fall-out is between David, 43, and Fuller 58, and that there’s a major wrangle over money.
David is currently negotiating a buy-out of shares that Fuller holds in DB Ventures, the most financially successful company within the Beckham brand. One sticking point is thought to be over how much the shares are worth.
Fuller relinquished his role as David’s manager earlier this year and is thought to be keen to hold out for as much money as he can get from the split.
He then plans to move on to work on other commitments, which include a new BBC wildlife show and managing his ‘global pop band’, Now United.
Last year, Beckham’s business recorded a staggering £24.9 million profit after tax, thanks to the success of enterprises such as his men’s fashion range Kent & Curwen and his role as global ambassador for pan-Asian life insurance group, AIA in Hong Kong – alone thought to be worth more than £5 million per year.
Fuller, 58, is a part-owner of Beckham’s US soccer team, Inter Miami, but could lose his interest. He will remain a shareholder in David’s wife Victoria’s fashion business, as well as managing her.
A source close to Fuller said: ‘David wants to go forward without Simon. Now he’s no longer playing football he sees himself as a businessman and wants to free himself from all of this.
‘There is a lot of wrangling over money. Brand Beckham has been going for 23 years and it isn’t an easy one to untangle.’
Fuller’s pals say he no longer needs David in his stable.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article221098270.html
Miami Chamber: It’s time for professional soccer in Miami
Sports is good business.
The Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce has supported the establishment of major league sports teams in Miami since the Miami Dolphins.
The Chamber worked to bring the first Super Bowl to Miami (Super Bowl V). We supported the Miami Heat and the Miami (then the Florida) Marlins franchises because professional sports are good for business and they are good for projecting an image of our community as a world class.
The only major league sports we do not have is soccer. This is a bit ironic given that soccer is the most popular sport internationally, and Miami is one of the most international cities.
Having an MLS team would put Miami among the very few metropolitan areas that have all professional sports represented.
David Beckham has tried for years to bring his franchise to Miami because he knows it will be financially successful and that it “fits” here.
Now, with the backing of the Mas family and other private investors, there is a real possibility to finally establish the team by allowing the City of Miami to negotiate with International Miami CF in a no-bid process to bring MLS soccer and develop Miami Freedom Park.
The Miami Freedom Park project will create 15,000 new jobs and contribute over $40 million in annual tax revenues to be divided by the city, the county, the state and the school board, as well as an annual lease payment to the city of over $3.5 million dollars. And most importantly, it will be paid for by the owners, not the taxpayers, a rarity in sports franchise negotiations.
Once completed, the park will include a state-of-the-art soccer stadium, a 58-acre public park and public soccer fields open to all players and fans. It will be accessible to fans on Tri-rail and Metrorail - and someday on Brightline.
The Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce Board voted overwhelmingly to endorse this initiative and urges voters to vote YES on Miami Referendum 1 — #378.
Alfred Sanchez is the President and chief executive officer of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/news/2018/11/02/hartman-says-austins-mls-aggressor-is-paying-off.html
Hartman says Austin has become the MLS aggressor
The man behind Morgan's Wonderland and Toyota Field offers some insight on MLS as league has become more interested in Austin than San Antonio in recent years.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.law.com/dailybusinessreview/2018/11/02/david-beckham-faces-ethics-complaint-claiming-improper-soccer-stadium-lobbying/?slreturn=20181004233911
David Beckham Faces Ethics Complaint Claiming Improper Soccer Stadium Lobbying
Miami attorney David Winker claims Beckham and others served as unregistered lobbyists for a Major League Soccer stadium planned near Miami International Airport.
Beckham's Miami plans called a 'real mess' ahead of public vote over MLS stadium on top of toxic waste dump
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.goal.com/en-us/news/david-beckham-in-lawsuit-showdown-over-mls-stadium-plans-on/taxckrb0487p1cpn6bc41cd2h
Beckham's Miami plans called a 'real mess' ahead of public vote over MLS stadium on top of toxic waste dump
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/david-beckham-making-mess-mls-13531558
David Beckham making a mess of his MLS dream by trying to put stadium on toxic wasteland
Former England skipper Beckham is in court on Tuesday over the 73-acre site near Miami airport
(Follow link for full article.)
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/sd-sp-mls-soccer-expansion-update-san-diego-vote-20181102-story.html
Beyond fate of San Diego stadium vote, MLS has other prospects to ponder
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.soccerladuma.co.za/news/articles/international/categories/world-news/2018-fifa-world-cup-winner-i-want-to-retire-in-mls/506014
2018 World Cup Winner: I Want To Retire In MLS
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.stltoday.com/business/local/state-highway-commission-renews-city-option-for-possible-mls-stadium/article_0b00fff7-51a1-5ce5-80c7-9f04f6ad36a4.html
State highway commission renews city option for possible MLS stadium site
The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission has renewed a St. Louis economic development agency's option to purchase excess right-of-way for the potential construction of a Major League Soccer stadium near Market and 22nd streets.
The right-of-way is expected to become available as St. Louis and the Missouri Department of Transportation redo Highway 40 (Interstate 64) interchange in anticipation of the $1.7 billion National Geospatial Intelligence campus to the north.
It could be the home of a $250 million, 20,000-seat MLS stadium if the ownership group made up of World Wide Technology CEO Jim Kavanaugh and the Taylor family of Enterprise Holdings that has recently emerged is awarded a franchise from the league.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://mlsmultiplex.com/2018/11/03/mls-expansion-season-success/
MLS Expansion: A season of success
As MLS continues to grow, expansion sides are continuing to come into the league and raise the bar with their play on and off the field.
On October 21, the expansion side Los Angeles FC tied the Vancouver Whitecaps 2-2 in Banc of California Stadium.
Although the result itself will hardly take home any headlines, the draw gave LAFC 57 points for the 2018 season, which now holds the record for most ever points by a club in its inaugural season.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9tkb3w/al_lang_open_tomorrow_for_saturday_morning_market/
Al Lang open tomorrow for Saturday Morning Market and 3 Rowdies Development Academy Matches
(Follow link for full article.)
https://twitter.com/TampaBayRowdies/status/1058011460943646720
Tampa Bay Rowdies
Verified account
@TampaBayRowdies
We’re opening Al Lang Stadium to the public this Saturday during the Saturday Morning Market! Spend some time in the stadium with us, participate in a public clinic and watch the Tampa Bay Rowdies Development Academy play throughout the day!
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9t0gom/tropics_sign_veteran_fw_max_touloute_rookie_luvio/
Tropics sign veteran FW Max Touloute & rookie Luvio Touloute for upcoming MASL season
Max last played pro outdoors with the 2015 Pittsburgh Riverhounds (my continuing research tells me he's also spent time with the NPSL's FC Wichita). He's played professional indoors since 2011, with Wichita, Kansas City & San Diego for the past 2 seasons. Could be a big-time scoring threat, he had 16 goals in 19 games in 16-17 before an injury-plagued season last campaign.
(Follow link for full article.)
.
https://www.fltropics.com/news/tropics-sign-touloute-brothers-for-upcoming-masl-s
TROPICS SIGN TOULOUTE BROTHERS FOR UPCOMING MASL SEASON
https://www.goal.com/en-us/news/david-beckham-in-lawsuit-showdown-over-mls-stadium-plans-on/taxckrb0487p1cpn6bc41cd2h
Beckham's Miami plans called a 'real mess' ahead of public vote over MLS stadium on top of toxic waste dump
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/david-beckham-making-mess-mls-13531558
David Beckham making a mess of his MLS dream by trying to put stadium on toxic wasteland
Former England skipper Beckham is in court on Tuesday over the 73-acre site near Miami airport
(Follow link for full article.)
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/sd-sp-mls-soccer-expansion-update-san-diego-vote-20181102-story.html
Beyond fate of San Diego stadium vote, MLS has other prospects to ponder
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.soccerladuma.co.za/news/articles/international/categories/world-news/2018-fifa-world-cup-winner-i-want-to-retire-in-mls/506014
2018 World Cup Winner: I Want To Retire In MLS
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.stltoday.com/business/local/state-highway-commission-renews-city-option-for-possible-mls-stadium/article_0b00fff7-51a1-5ce5-80c7-9f04f6ad36a4.html
State highway commission renews city option for possible MLS stadium site
The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission has renewed a St. Louis economic development agency's option to purchase excess right-of-way for the potential construction of a Major League Soccer stadium near Market and 22nd streets.
The right-of-way is expected to become available as St. Louis and the Missouri Department of Transportation redo Highway 40 (Interstate 64) interchange in anticipation of the $1.7 billion National Geospatial Intelligence campus to the north.
It could be the home of a $250 million, 20,000-seat MLS stadium if the ownership group made up of World Wide Technology CEO Jim Kavanaugh and the Taylor family of Enterprise Holdings that has recently emerged is awarded a franchise from the league.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://mlsmultiplex.com/2018/11/03/mls-expansion-season-success/
MLS Expansion: A season of success
As MLS continues to grow, expansion sides are continuing to come into the league and raise the bar with their play on and off the field.
On October 21, the expansion side Los Angeles FC tied the Vancouver Whitecaps 2-2 in Banc of California Stadium.
Although the result itself will hardly take home any headlines, the draw gave LAFC 57 points for the 2018 season, which now holds the record for most ever points by a club in its inaugural season.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9tkb3w/al_lang_open_tomorrow_for_saturday_morning_market/
Al Lang open tomorrow for Saturday Morning Market and 3 Rowdies Development Academy Matches
(Follow link for full article.)
https://twitter.com/TampaBayRowdies/status/1058011460943646720
Tampa Bay Rowdies
Verified account
@TampaBayRowdies
We’re opening Al Lang Stadium to the public this Saturday during the Saturday Morning Market! Spend some time in the stadium with us, participate in a public clinic and watch the Tampa Bay Rowdies Development Academy play throughout the day!
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9t0gom/tropics_sign_veteran_fw_max_touloute_rookie_luvio/
Tropics sign veteran FW Max Touloute & rookie Luvio Touloute for upcoming MASL season
Max last played pro outdoors with the 2015 Pittsburgh Riverhounds (my continuing research tells me he's also spent time with the NPSL's FC Wichita). He's played professional indoors since 2011, with Wichita, Kansas City & San Diego for the past 2 seasons. Could be a big-time scoring threat, he had 16 goals in 19 games in 16-17 before an injury-plagued season last campaign.
(Follow link for full article.)
.
https://www.fltropics.com/news/tropics-sign-touloute-brothers-for-upcoming-masl-s
TROPICS SIGN TOULOUTE BROTHERS FOR UPCOMING MASL SEASON
Monday, October 29, 2018
MLS expansion: Ranking the remaining potential markets
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.goal.com/en-us/news/mls-expansion-ranking-the-remaining-potential-markets/1r8xo6ok3s4ee1p5ob31e779pf
MLS expansion: Ranking the remaining potential markets
The MLS expansion race could be down to one open slot if the Columbus Crew are saved and Austin secures a team in the process. Here are the contenders
Major League Soccer expansion has seen the league grow in ways few could have imagined 15 years ago, when contraction forced the league to shrink to 10 teams, leaving its future in doubt. There are no longer questions about whether the league will survive. Those have been replaced with questions of how much more can the league grow.
The 23-team league will expand to 24 in 2019 with the arrival of Cincinnati's expansion team, followed by Miami and Nashville in 2020. If a bid to keep the rights to the Columbus Crew in the hands of local ownership goes through — thus saving the Crew, and helping MLS avoid a PR nightmare — then current Crew owner Anthony Precourt will be awarded a new team in Austin, Texas, set to begin play in 2021.
That would leave one remaining expansion slot open before MLS reaches its self-imposed limit of 28 teams. Given how many strong expansion candidate markets are still left, it's tough to see MLS sticking to its 28-team limit over the long term, but what is clear is that the league's 14-year expansion march will be put on hold once the 28th team is chosen.
That could set up a major battle for the 28th slot, with several candidates capable of putting together bids strong enough to merit inclusion. Goal takes a look at the leading markets still in the running for that 28th spot - and potential entry beyond the 28-team mark - ranked in order of their chances of being selected by MLS:
7. TAMPA
When David Beckham's Miami expansion team begins play it will leave just one market that has lost an MLS team and not gotten it back in the form of Tampa. MLS commissioner Don Garber made bringing MLS back to Miami a priority, but hasn't been as publicly driven to bring MLS back to Tampa more than 15 years after the Mutiny were contracted.
The recent sale of the Tampa Bay Rowdies to the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team should improve the market's chances of gaining an MLS expansion team, but the fact that the Southeast has recently added Orlando City, Atlanta United and will soon add Miami leaves Tampa low on this list as MLS focuses its attention on other parts of the country.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.statesman.com/news/20181026/circuit-of-americas-announces-support-for-petition-bid-to-sink-mls-stadium
Circuit of the Americas announces support for petition bid to sink MLS stadium
The Circuit of the Americas officially announced Friday its intentions to support an effort to torpedo a deal between the city of Austin and Major League Soccer franchise owner Anthony Precourt to build a soccer stadium in North Austin.
An investor in the racetrack had already made a donation to the political action committee IndyAustin to support the group’s effort to force an election on the stadium deal, according to the PAC’s latest campaign finance report.
But Friday’s announcement made it official that the track, which is in the process of bringing its own soccer team to Austin, wants no MLS team in Austin. The track’s chairman, Bobby Epstein, has said that having a MLS team in Austin would be a serious blow to the success of the United Soccer League franchise Austin Bold FC that will begin playing at the track in March.
“Austin cannot keep giving special deals to out of town businesses with no connection to the community, while local businesses and homeowners struggle to afford to be here,” a blog post from the Circuit of the Americas said. “By seeking a public vote - not unlike what has occurred in stadium deals elsewhere - IndyAustin is trying to do what is best for the taxpayers and the school district.”
IndyAustin is circulating a petition that calls for elections on any city deals that would allow the construction of stadiums or other entertainment venues on public land.
The organization was one of the driving forces behind the petition that put Proposition J on the ballot. That item was aimed at the now-defunct CodeNext land use code rewrite. It calls for future elections to be held on any comprehensive updates to Austin’s land use and zoning codes.
Precourt plans to build a privately financed $200 million, 20,000 seat stadium at the city-owned McKalla Place tract near the Domain. The city approved an initial stadium deal in August.
The site was to be the home of the Columbus Crew. However, it now appears that a group that includes the owner of the Cleveland Browns will purchase the franchise and Austin will get an expansion team.
In an Oct. 9 campaign finance report, IndyAustin showed a $20,000 donation from Irving Kessler, a Minnesota man who is listed as an investor in the Circuit of the Americans in a 2012 SEC filing.
When reached recently, IndyAustin co-founder Linda Curtis said she had no qualms about taking money from people associated with the track.
“Should we tell other business people that they shouldn’t protect their interests and roll over and let a raid go on land they wanted access to?” Curtis said. “It doesn’t matter if it is COTA. Politics makes strange bedfellows and it always has.”
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9sjffh/so_hows_our_partnership_with_sao_paulo_these_days/
So how's our partnership with Sao Paulo these days? - Soccer star found dead ‘almost beheaded with his genitals severed’
Brazil is basically a 3rd world country outside of the rich parts of the big cities. And even those parts are pushing the line nowadays
(Follow link for full article.)
https://nypost.com/2018/10/29/soccer-star-found-dead-almost-beheaded-with-his-genitals-severed/amp/?utm_source=reddit.com
Soccer star found dead ‘almost beheaded with his genitals severed’
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9sja1g/mls_expansion_ranking_the_remaining_potential/
MLS expansion: Ranking the remaining potential markets | Goal.com
7. TAMPA
When David Beckham's Miami expansion team begins play it will leave just one market that has lost an MLS team and not gotten it back in the form of Tampa. MLS commissioner Don Garber made bringing MLS back to Miami a priority, but hasn't been as publicly driven to bring MLS back to Tampa more than 15 years after the Mutiny were contracted.
The recent sale of the Tampa Bay Rowdies to the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team should improve the market's chances of gaining an MLS expansion team, but the fact that the Southeast has recently added Orlando City, Atlanta United and will soon add Miami leaves Tampa low on this list as MLS focuses its attention on other parts of the country.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.goal.com/en-us/news/mls-expansion-ranking-the-remaining-potential-markets/1r8xo6ok3s4ee1p5ob31e779pf
MLS expansion: Ranking the remaining potential markets
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9sebsz/check_out_my_blog_post/
Check out my blog post!
What if the Tampa Bay Rowdies adopted a badge?
My next blog post 🖥 featuring the Tampa Bay Rowdies is live on my site and ready for your viewing pleasure! Be sure to leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! 📲
https://i.redd.it/6g7afv5hz4v11.jpg
http://www.enriquealvaradodesign.com/blog/thelbd/tampa-bay-rowdies
I like
Very cool concept and I really like the thinking behind it. My only concern would be the B being lower than the R and behind the T, it doesn't read left to right TBR, which is okay, but it also reads top to bottom TRB as well. in my opinion, at least one of those should be in the proper order.
tldr;
Have you thought about taking those "Rowdies font" style TBR letters and making them interlocking?
I’ve looked at that in the past...would definitely take some creative redesign to make them readable. I never fully went there.
👎
(Follow link for full article.)
http://www.enriquealvaradodesign.com/blog/thelbd/tampa-bay-rowdies
BENJAMIN ENRIQUE ALVARADO | GRAPHIC DESIGNER
TAMPA BAY ROWDIES | THE LOGO BREAKDOWN
What’s up everyone, thank you for all the love/hate/feedback on my last post! If you missed it don’t worry, you can check it out right here.
Next up on the Logo BreakDown are the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the USL League One or Two or Campeones, idk something like what other leagues are doing. I resorted to having another twitter convo (mostly with myself) on what team I should pick next. Being that I live in Tampa and I follow a couple accounts, the Rowdies come up on my timeline quite often. I have always been drawn to the Rowdies logo, because it’s another unique logo like the Chicago Fire. The bright colors reel me in and the weird style of the type(font), but the thing that drives me crazy is the absence of a shield! Working with multiple logos at a time makes it a bit tough with you always have one logo that looks nothing like the rest. So after reaching out to the Rowdies twitter community, I decided to choose the Rowdies as my next project.
I got some really good feedback in terms of things I should stay away from, things to keep and what everyone liked. From the start I knew I wasn’t going to mess with the typography, it is too special and quite complicated to break up and rearrange. So when Twitter said not to mess with it, I was in agreement.
A couple of them put their own mockups together, you can check that out here, so that too was good for me to check out and see what had already been done. All in all, it generated a good discussion and something for me to build my ideas from. One thing that stuck with me was a comment by @KodyAllenson about the word mark being imperfectly perfect. Gave me a little bit of an idea but I was unsure if I’d be able to accomplish the look.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9rycoz/gasparilla_bowl_moves_to_tampa_wfla/
Gasparilla Bowl moves to Tampa - WFLA
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wfla.com/amp/video/gasparilla-bowl-comes-to-tampa_20181024214941/1546983852
The move to Tampa was announced back in May. It’s a shame but the timing was never right for it to move to Al Lang anyway. They’ve been looking to get out of the Trop for a while. No one was waiting around for the chance the Al Lang might be expanded. That said, there’s always the chance it could move back years down the road or another bowl game could go to DTSP.
Welp, there goes any idea of expanding Al Lang to include this bowl game after the Trop is gone.
So RayJay is going to host two Bowls? (There’s too many damn bowls nowadays.)
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.wfla.com/video/gasparilla-bowl-comes-to-tampa_20181024214941/1546983852
Gasparilla Bowl comes to Tampa
Gabrielle Shirley talks to Titus O'Neil about the changes coming to the Gasparilla Bowl this December. O'Neil serves as the new Bowl Chairman and is happy to bring the game to Raymond James Stadium.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9rdjcv/offseason_update_with_neill_collins/
Offseason Update with Neill Collins
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuBxcHzBx6g
Offseason Update with Neill Collins
Tampa Bay Rowdies
An offseason update from Rowdies head coach Neill Collins.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9rciin/the_unused_substitutes_ep_180_the_neill_collins/
The Unused Substitutes - Ep 180: The Neill Collins Mixtape (OC)
You can hear our full interview with Neill Collins on this episode.
(Follow link for full article.)
http://www.theunsubs.com/wp/2018/10/24/episode-180/4122
Episode 180 –
Lots of off-season news to start digging through tonight & the guys are here for it!
In tonight’s episode:
Sale to Rays complete
Roster Moves
Jake talks to Neill Collins about
His takeover as manager
Mid-season signings
Offseason plans & Player departures
Looking ahead to next season
His long-term view
The Georgi Decision
Joe Cole’s status
The ownership change
The Club’s relationship w/TBU and the DA
His personal view of the season
Is it 2019 yet?
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9r91fr/beyond_the_hype_over_beckhams_stadium_heres_what/
Beyond the hype over Beckham’s stadium, here’s what the Miami ballot measure means
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article220225945.html
Beyond the hype over Beckham’s stadium, here’s what the Miami ballot measure means
If most voters say “no,” it’s unclear what would happen next for Beckham and his partners.
Jorge Mas, the partner who frequently speaks for the group, said if the referendum fails, “there is no plan B.” He told a reporter he will not fall back on land the team owns or has a contract to buy in Overtown.
“I’m not going back to Overtown. I couldn’t look myself in the mirror,” he said. “It’s not a good idea for the community.”
The ownership team has spent $414,014 on political advertisements, according to the most recent campaign finance reports. The ads were purchased through a political committee, Miami Freedom Park Political Committee, which has been funded exclusively by team owners, who include Beckham; Mas and his brother Jose, both executives of Miami-based infrastructure giant MasTec.; Sprint chairman Marcelo Claure; and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son.
The group has faced criticism for pushing the proposal to a commission vote so fast that the public didn’t have enough time to analyze details. Mas, who entered the picture only a year ago and brought the other partners with him, argues he has had to move rapidly because of pressure from the league. He maintains if the city were to go through a bidding process, that could take years and MLS — which has already waited a long time — doesn’t want to wait any longer.
“We don’t have the luxury of time,” he said. “We’re kicking off in March 2020.” Previous delays have made MLS wary. The Inter Miami expansion agreement requires permits for the stadium site by November 2019.
Throughout the process, Mas has acknowledged that Miamians may be suspicious when it comes to stadiums on public land. And they certainly are — the public financing package that paid for the construction of Marlins Park left taxpayers on the hook for nearly $2 billion in loan payments.
“I understand and recognize that there is extreme skepticism in our community, especially after the failed Jeffrey Loria deal,” Mas said, referring to the former Miami Marlins owner who has refused to share profits from the sale of the team with Miami taxpayers. “That’s left a very significant bad taste in many peoples’ mouths.”
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article220482650.html
Fair rent? Toxic soil? Traffic? There are still questions about Beckham stadium
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article215528040.html
What goes on at Melreese park and why are some opposed to giving up golf for soccer?
I wonder what the polling looks like. I'd be somewhat surprised if it gets voted down, but 100% surprised if they actually walk away from the whole thing.
No idea if anyone is doing actual opinion polling.
Mas brothers are the only ones spending money on this, and the opposition isn’t organized or funded.
Comments on these articles are overwhelmingly against, but there aren’t that many comments and comments doesn’t really reflect actual voters anyway.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article220225945.html
Beyond the hype over Beckham’s stadium, here’s what the Miami ballot measure means
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zbok2SIqLY&pbjreload=10
Top 10 Moments of 2018 - #6: Marcel Schäfer's Final Match
Tampa Bay Rowdies
Continuing our countdown of the top 10 moments of the 2018 season...
#6: Celebrating Marcel Schäfer on his final night with the Rowdies before returning to VfL Wolfsburg!
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeK0gAntD-Q
2018 Rowdies Blooper Reel
Tampa Bay Rowdies
Sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself 😂! These are some of our favorite funny moments from this season.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKObd7CQ-zc
Top 10 Moments of 2018 - #7 Zac Portillos' First Professional Goal
Tampa Bay Rowdies
Continuing our countdown of the top 10 moments of the 2018 season...
#7: Zac Portillos rises for first goal as a professional!
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPXnad3YYFA
#ThankYouGeorgi
Thank You Georgi!
Tampa Bay Rowdies
#ThankYouGeorgi
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF5WOuN9geA
Top 10 Moments of 2018 - #8 Dominic Oduro's Last-Minute Equalizer in Debut
Tampa Bay Rowdies
Continuing our countdown of the top 10 moments of the 2018 season...
#8: @DominicOduro's 90th minute game-tying goal in his Rowdies debut.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff4gBsyhwiE
Top 10 Moments of 2018 - #9 Ralph's Mob Honor's Tam's Retirement
Tampa Bay Rowdies
Continuing our countdown of the top 10 moments of the 2018 season...
#9: Ralph's Mob showing its appreciation for Tamika Mkandawire on the night he retired!
(Follow link for full article.)
http://www.theunsubs.com/wp/2018/10/18/episode-179-goodnight-sweet-danish-prince/4113
Episode 179 – Goodnight Sweet Danish Prince
After the 2018 mercifully ends with a 1-0 loss in Bethlehem, the guys take a look at the final standings in the East and West, discuss Neill Collins’ open letter, bid farewell to Martin Vingaard, and wildly speculate about the offseason to come
(Follow link for full article.)
http://www.theunsubs.com/wp/2018/10/18/episode-178-last-week-tonight/4109
Episode 178 – Last Week Tonight
Hope is gone, dreams are crushed, 2018 is over…but there’s still one more game to go. This show is one week late and probably not worth the wait, but we present it anyway, for all you completionists!
(Follow link for full article.)
http://www.theunsubs.com/wp/2018/10/02/episode-177-rays-of-hope/4083
Episode 177 – Rays of Hope?
Coming off today’s announcement of the Rowdies sale to the Tampa Bay Rays, Matt and Dan are joined by Jake to unpack all the news.
In this episode:
What we know
What we think
What we hope
Evaluating the Bill Edwards Era
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/MLS/comments/9qus8x/a_tale_of_several_cities_looking_for_mls_expansion/
A Tale of Several Cities Looking For MLS Expansion
I’d rather have Rowdies in the league than Charlotte
For your last team there, I'd also add an "or Tampa Bay" to your list. They still have a decent bid, and that probably isn't going to change anytime soon.
Oh I agree. Would be fun to see a three-way Florida Derby, especially given the history between Tampa and Miami(-area) teams. Problem is their new ownership says they’re not interested in MLS at the moment. After the 2026 World Cup, though, I could see Tampa and one of the NC teams coming online…maybe both if a 4th team joins in, like Vegas or a revived Indy bid.
The Rays weren’t going to announce MLS ambitions at the press conference standing next to the USL president.
Rays are focused on getting their Ybor stadium deal done; they don’t need the distraction of MLS at the moment.
Key word is “moment”; things can change quickly.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.101sports.com/2018/10/22/a-tale-of-several-cities-all-looking-for-mls-expansion/
A Tale of Several Cities Looking For MLS Expansion
Charlotte, Raleigh and Tampa Bay are bidding, but commissioner Garber recently said that with Miami and Nashville joining the league as expansion teams soon, in addition to Orlando and Atlanta, “It’s a hotbed of soccer in the grassroots level. There’s enormous energy and diversity that exists in this part of the country. I think we’re probably done expanding in the southeast for a little while, but we’re feeling pretty good about it.”
If MLS stop at 28, I'm a dutchman. You don't walk away from interest like that - if I had to bet, I'd say MLS will get to at least 32, probably with a structure re-jig to two conferences of two divisions. AS for teams 28-32...Again, if I were a betting man, I'd say St Louis, Phoenix, Detroit, Sacramento, Tampa in that order, with Indianapolis the final unlucky loser.
Look for a San Diego USL team, me thinks, and keep an eye out for Baltimore as a huge dark horse.
MLS is definitely frothing at the mouth to add both St. Louis and San Diego to the league (#BringBackTheSockers) - in light of both cities recently losing their NFL teams - despite neither city being as far along in the process as others. I doubt the Tampa Bay area will get another team so soon in light of Miami finally getting a new team and Orlando having one as well. Also, the league just doesn't seem to be as into Sacramento as Sacramento seems to be into it. But given that I'd push for the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, and MLS all having an eventual maximum of 40 teams, I'd be open to them eventually expanding there. In the near future, however, I'd prefer to see MLS add teams in St. Louis, San Diego, Detroit, Phoenix, San Antonio (assuming the league tells Anthony Precourt to take a hike regarding ever putting a team in Austin), and one more team in Canada -- most likely Calgary, since it's the country's next biggest market after Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/MLS/comments/9rqoaj/oc_the_future_of_professional_soccer_in_north/
[OC] The Future of Professional Soccer in North America
(Follow link for full article.)
https://sportmuse.net/2018/10/24/the-future-of-professional-soccer-in-north-america/
The Future of Professional Soccer in North America
https://www.goal.com/en-us/news/mls-expansion-ranking-the-remaining-potential-markets/1r8xo6ok3s4ee1p5ob31e779pf
MLS expansion: Ranking the remaining potential markets
The MLS expansion race could be down to one open slot if the Columbus Crew are saved and Austin secures a team in the process. Here are the contenders
Major League Soccer expansion has seen the league grow in ways few could have imagined 15 years ago, when contraction forced the league to shrink to 10 teams, leaving its future in doubt. There are no longer questions about whether the league will survive. Those have been replaced with questions of how much more can the league grow.
The 23-team league will expand to 24 in 2019 with the arrival of Cincinnati's expansion team, followed by Miami and Nashville in 2020. If a bid to keep the rights to the Columbus Crew in the hands of local ownership goes through — thus saving the Crew, and helping MLS avoid a PR nightmare — then current Crew owner Anthony Precourt will be awarded a new team in Austin, Texas, set to begin play in 2021.
That would leave one remaining expansion slot open before MLS reaches its self-imposed limit of 28 teams. Given how many strong expansion candidate markets are still left, it's tough to see MLS sticking to its 28-team limit over the long term, but what is clear is that the league's 14-year expansion march will be put on hold once the 28th team is chosen.
That could set up a major battle for the 28th slot, with several candidates capable of putting together bids strong enough to merit inclusion. Goal takes a look at the leading markets still in the running for that 28th spot - and potential entry beyond the 28-team mark - ranked in order of their chances of being selected by MLS:
7. TAMPA
When David Beckham's Miami expansion team begins play it will leave just one market that has lost an MLS team and not gotten it back in the form of Tampa. MLS commissioner Don Garber made bringing MLS back to Miami a priority, but hasn't been as publicly driven to bring MLS back to Tampa more than 15 years after the Mutiny were contracted.
The recent sale of the Tampa Bay Rowdies to the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team should improve the market's chances of gaining an MLS expansion team, but the fact that the Southeast has recently added Orlando City, Atlanta United and will soon add Miami leaves Tampa low on this list as MLS focuses its attention on other parts of the country.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.statesman.com/news/20181026/circuit-of-americas-announces-support-for-petition-bid-to-sink-mls-stadium
Circuit of the Americas announces support for petition bid to sink MLS stadium
The Circuit of the Americas officially announced Friday its intentions to support an effort to torpedo a deal between the city of Austin and Major League Soccer franchise owner Anthony Precourt to build a soccer stadium in North Austin.
An investor in the racetrack had already made a donation to the political action committee IndyAustin to support the group’s effort to force an election on the stadium deal, according to the PAC’s latest campaign finance report.
But Friday’s announcement made it official that the track, which is in the process of bringing its own soccer team to Austin, wants no MLS team in Austin. The track’s chairman, Bobby Epstein, has said that having a MLS team in Austin would be a serious blow to the success of the United Soccer League franchise Austin Bold FC that will begin playing at the track in March.
“Austin cannot keep giving special deals to out of town businesses with no connection to the community, while local businesses and homeowners struggle to afford to be here,” a blog post from the Circuit of the Americas said. “By seeking a public vote - not unlike what has occurred in stadium deals elsewhere - IndyAustin is trying to do what is best for the taxpayers and the school district.”
IndyAustin is circulating a petition that calls for elections on any city deals that would allow the construction of stadiums or other entertainment venues on public land.
The organization was one of the driving forces behind the petition that put Proposition J on the ballot. That item was aimed at the now-defunct CodeNext land use code rewrite. It calls for future elections to be held on any comprehensive updates to Austin’s land use and zoning codes.
Precourt plans to build a privately financed $200 million, 20,000 seat stadium at the city-owned McKalla Place tract near the Domain. The city approved an initial stadium deal in August.
The site was to be the home of the Columbus Crew. However, it now appears that a group that includes the owner of the Cleveland Browns will purchase the franchise and Austin will get an expansion team.
In an Oct. 9 campaign finance report, IndyAustin showed a $20,000 donation from Irving Kessler, a Minnesota man who is listed as an investor in the Circuit of the Americans in a 2012 SEC filing.
When reached recently, IndyAustin co-founder Linda Curtis said she had no qualms about taking money from people associated with the track.
“Should we tell other business people that they shouldn’t protect their interests and roll over and let a raid go on land they wanted access to?” Curtis said. “It doesn’t matter if it is COTA. Politics makes strange bedfellows and it always has.”
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9sjffh/so_hows_our_partnership_with_sao_paulo_these_days/
So how's our partnership with Sao Paulo these days? - Soccer star found dead ‘almost beheaded with his genitals severed’
Brazil is basically a 3rd world country outside of the rich parts of the big cities. And even those parts are pushing the line nowadays
(Follow link for full article.)
https://nypost.com/2018/10/29/soccer-star-found-dead-almost-beheaded-with-his-genitals-severed/amp/?utm_source=reddit.com
Soccer star found dead ‘almost beheaded with his genitals severed’
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9sja1g/mls_expansion_ranking_the_remaining_potential/
MLS expansion: Ranking the remaining potential markets | Goal.com
7. TAMPA
When David Beckham's Miami expansion team begins play it will leave just one market that has lost an MLS team and not gotten it back in the form of Tampa. MLS commissioner Don Garber made bringing MLS back to Miami a priority, but hasn't been as publicly driven to bring MLS back to Tampa more than 15 years after the Mutiny were contracted.
The recent sale of the Tampa Bay Rowdies to the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team should improve the market's chances of gaining an MLS expansion team, but the fact that the Southeast has recently added Orlando City, Atlanta United and will soon add Miami leaves Tampa low on this list as MLS focuses its attention on other parts of the country.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.goal.com/en-us/news/mls-expansion-ranking-the-remaining-potential-markets/1r8xo6ok3s4ee1p5ob31e779pf
MLS expansion: Ranking the remaining potential markets
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9sebsz/check_out_my_blog_post/
Check out my blog post!
What if the Tampa Bay Rowdies adopted a badge?
My next blog post 🖥 featuring the Tampa Bay Rowdies is live on my site and ready for your viewing pleasure! Be sure to leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! 📲
https://i.redd.it/6g7afv5hz4v11.jpg
http://www.enriquealvaradodesign.com/blog/thelbd/tampa-bay-rowdies
I like
Very cool concept and I really like the thinking behind it. My only concern would be the B being lower than the R and behind the T, it doesn't read left to right TBR, which is okay, but it also reads top to bottom TRB as well. in my opinion, at least one of those should be in the proper order.
tldr;
Have you thought about taking those "Rowdies font" style TBR letters and making them interlocking?
I’ve looked at that in the past...would definitely take some creative redesign to make them readable. I never fully went there.
👎
(Follow link for full article.)
http://www.enriquealvaradodesign.com/blog/thelbd/tampa-bay-rowdies
BENJAMIN ENRIQUE ALVARADO | GRAPHIC DESIGNER
TAMPA BAY ROWDIES | THE LOGO BREAKDOWN
What’s up everyone, thank you for all the love/hate/feedback on my last post! If you missed it don’t worry, you can check it out right here.
Next up on the Logo BreakDown are the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the USL League One or Two or Campeones, idk something like what other leagues are doing. I resorted to having another twitter convo (mostly with myself) on what team I should pick next. Being that I live in Tampa and I follow a couple accounts, the Rowdies come up on my timeline quite often. I have always been drawn to the Rowdies logo, because it’s another unique logo like the Chicago Fire. The bright colors reel me in and the weird style of the type(font), but the thing that drives me crazy is the absence of a shield! Working with multiple logos at a time makes it a bit tough with you always have one logo that looks nothing like the rest. So after reaching out to the Rowdies twitter community, I decided to choose the Rowdies as my next project.
I got some really good feedback in terms of things I should stay away from, things to keep and what everyone liked. From the start I knew I wasn’t going to mess with the typography, it is too special and quite complicated to break up and rearrange. So when Twitter said not to mess with it, I was in agreement.
A couple of them put their own mockups together, you can check that out here, so that too was good for me to check out and see what had already been done. All in all, it generated a good discussion and something for me to build my ideas from. One thing that stuck with me was a comment by @KodyAllenson about the word mark being imperfectly perfect. Gave me a little bit of an idea but I was unsure if I’d be able to accomplish the look.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9rycoz/gasparilla_bowl_moves_to_tampa_wfla/
Gasparilla Bowl moves to Tampa - WFLA
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wfla.com/amp/video/gasparilla-bowl-comes-to-tampa_20181024214941/1546983852
The move to Tampa was announced back in May. It’s a shame but the timing was never right for it to move to Al Lang anyway. They’ve been looking to get out of the Trop for a while. No one was waiting around for the chance the Al Lang might be expanded. That said, there’s always the chance it could move back years down the road or another bowl game could go to DTSP.
Welp, there goes any idea of expanding Al Lang to include this bowl game after the Trop is gone.
So RayJay is going to host two Bowls? (There’s too many damn bowls nowadays.)
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.wfla.com/video/gasparilla-bowl-comes-to-tampa_20181024214941/1546983852
Gasparilla Bowl comes to Tampa
Gabrielle Shirley talks to Titus O'Neil about the changes coming to the Gasparilla Bowl this December. O'Neil serves as the new Bowl Chairman and is happy to bring the game to Raymond James Stadium.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9rdjcv/offseason_update_with_neill_collins/
Offseason Update with Neill Collins
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuBxcHzBx6g
Offseason Update with Neill Collins
Tampa Bay Rowdies
An offseason update from Rowdies head coach Neill Collins.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9rciin/the_unused_substitutes_ep_180_the_neill_collins/
The Unused Substitutes - Ep 180: The Neill Collins Mixtape (OC)
You can hear our full interview with Neill Collins on this episode.
(Follow link for full article.)
http://www.theunsubs.com/wp/2018/10/24/episode-180/4122
Episode 180 –
Lots of off-season news to start digging through tonight & the guys are here for it!
In tonight’s episode:
Sale to Rays complete
Roster Moves
Jake talks to Neill Collins about
His takeover as manager
Mid-season signings
Offseason plans & Player departures
Looking ahead to next season
His long-term view
The Georgi Decision
Joe Cole’s status
The ownership change
The Club’s relationship w/TBU and the DA
His personal view of the season
Is it 2019 yet?
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9r91fr/beyond_the_hype_over_beckhams_stadium_heres_what/
Beyond the hype over Beckham’s stadium, here’s what the Miami ballot measure means
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article220225945.html
Beyond the hype over Beckham’s stadium, here’s what the Miami ballot measure means
If most voters say “no,” it’s unclear what would happen next for Beckham and his partners.
Jorge Mas, the partner who frequently speaks for the group, said if the referendum fails, “there is no plan B.” He told a reporter he will not fall back on land the team owns or has a contract to buy in Overtown.
“I’m not going back to Overtown. I couldn’t look myself in the mirror,” he said. “It’s not a good idea for the community.”
The ownership team has spent $414,014 on political advertisements, according to the most recent campaign finance reports. The ads were purchased through a political committee, Miami Freedom Park Political Committee, which has been funded exclusively by team owners, who include Beckham; Mas and his brother Jose, both executives of Miami-based infrastructure giant MasTec.; Sprint chairman Marcelo Claure; and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son.
The group has faced criticism for pushing the proposal to a commission vote so fast that the public didn’t have enough time to analyze details. Mas, who entered the picture only a year ago and brought the other partners with him, argues he has had to move rapidly because of pressure from the league. He maintains if the city were to go through a bidding process, that could take years and MLS — which has already waited a long time — doesn’t want to wait any longer.
“We don’t have the luxury of time,” he said. “We’re kicking off in March 2020.” Previous delays have made MLS wary. The Inter Miami expansion agreement requires permits for the stadium site by November 2019.
Throughout the process, Mas has acknowledged that Miamians may be suspicious when it comes to stadiums on public land. And they certainly are — the public financing package that paid for the construction of Marlins Park left taxpayers on the hook for nearly $2 billion in loan payments.
“I understand and recognize that there is extreme skepticism in our community, especially after the failed Jeffrey Loria deal,” Mas said, referring to the former Miami Marlins owner who has refused to share profits from the sale of the team with Miami taxpayers. “That’s left a very significant bad taste in many peoples’ mouths.”
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article220482650.html
Fair rent? Toxic soil? Traffic? There are still questions about Beckham stadium
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article215528040.html
What goes on at Melreese park and why are some opposed to giving up golf for soccer?
I wonder what the polling looks like. I'd be somewhat surprised if it gets voted down, but 100% surprised if they actually walk away from the whole thing.
No idea if anyone is doing actual opinion polling.
Mas brothers are the only ones spending money on this, and the opposition isn’t organized or funded.
Comments on these articles are overwhelmingly against, but there aren’t that many comments and comments doesn’t really reflect actual voters anyway.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article220225945.html
Beyond the hype over Beckham’s stadium, here’s what the Miami ballot measure means
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zbok2SIqLY&pbjreload=10
Top 10 Moments of 2018 - #6: Marcel Schäfer's Final Match
Tampa Bay Rowdies
Continuing our countdown of the top 10 moments of the 2018 season...
#6: Celebrating Marcel Schäfer on his final night with the Rowdies before returning to VfL Wolfsburg!
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeK0gAntD-Q
2018 Rowdies Blooper Reel
Tampa Bay Rowdies
Sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself 😂! These are some of our favorite funny moments from this season.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKObd7CQ-zc
Top 10 Moments of 2018 - #7 Zac Portillos' First Professional Goal
Tampa Bay Rowdies
Continuing our countdown of the top 10 moments of the 2018 season...
#7: Zac Portillos rises for first goal as a professional!
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPXnad3YYFA
#ThankYouGeorgi
Thank You Georgi!
Tampa Bay Rowdies
#ThankYouGeorgi
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF5WOuN9geA
Top 10 Moments of 2018 - #8 Dominic Oduro's Last-Minute Equalizer in Debut
Tampa Bay Rowdies
Continuing our countdown of the top 10 moments of the 2018 season...
#8: @DominicOduro's 90th minute game-tying goal in his Rowdies debut.
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Top 10 Moments of 2018 - #9 Ralph's Mob Honor's Tam's Retirement
Tampa Bay Rowdies
Continuing our countdown of the top 10 moments of the 2018 season...
#9: Ralph's Mob showing its appreciation for Tamika Mkandawire on the night he retired!
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http://www.theunsubs.com/wp/2018/10/18/episode-179-goodnight-sweet-danish-prince/4113
Episode 179 – Goodnight Sweet Danish Prince
After the 2018 mercifully ends with a 1-0 loss in Bethlehem, the guys take a look at the final standings in the East and West, discuss Neill Collins’ open letter, bid farewell to Martin Vingaard, and wildly speculate about the offseason to come
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http://www.theunsubs.com/wp/2018/10/18/episode-178-last-week-tonight/4109
Episode 178 – Last Week Tonight
Hope is gone, dreams are crushed, 2018 is over…but there’s still one more game to go. This show is one week late and probably not worth the wait, but we present it anyway, for all you completionists!
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http://www.theunsubs.com/wp/2018/10/02/episode-177-rays-of-hope/4083
Episode 177 – Rays of Hope?
Coming off today’s announcement of the Rowdies sale to the Tampa Bay Rays, Matt and Dan are joined by Jake to unpack all the news.
In this episode:
What we know
What we think
What we hope
Evaluating the Bill Edwards Era
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https://www.reddit.com/r/MLS/comments/9qus8x/a_tale_of_several_cities_looking_for_mls_expansion/
A Tale of Several Cities Looking For MLS Expansion
I’d rather have Rowdies in the league than Charlotte
For your last team there, I'd also add an "or Tampa Bay" to your list. They still have a decent bid, and that probably isn't going to change anytime soon.
Oh I agree. Would be fun to see a three-way Florida Derby, especially given the history between Tampa and Miami(-area) teams. Problem is their new ownership says they’re not interested in MLS at the moment. After the 2026 World Cup, though, I could see Tampa and one of the NC teams coming online…maybe both if a 4th team joins in, like Vegas or a revived Indy bid.
The Rays weren’t going to announce MLS ambitions at the press conference standing next to the USL president.
Rays are focused on getting their Ybor stadium deal done; they don’t need the distraction of MLS at the moment.
Key word is “moment”; things can change quickly.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.101sports.com/2018/10/22/a-tale-of-several-cities-all-looking-for-mls-expansion/
A Tale of Several Cities Looking For MLS Expansion
Charlotte, Raleigh and Tampa Bay are bidding, but commissioner Garber recently said that with Miami and Nashville joining the league as expansion teams soon, in addition to Orlando and Atlanta, “It’s a hotbed of soccer in the grassroots level. There’s enormous energy and diversity that exists in this part of the country. I think we’re probably done expanding in the southeast for a little while, but we’re feeling pretty good about it.”
If MLS stop at 28, I'm a dutchman. You don't walk away from interest like that - if I had to bet, I'd say MLS will get to at least 32, probably with a structure re-jig to two conferences of two divisions. AS for teams 28-32...Again, if I were a betting man, I'd say St Louis, Phoenix, Detroit, Sacramento, Tampa in that order, with Indianapolis the final unlucky loser.
Look for a San Diego USL team, me thinks, and keep an eye out for Baltimore as a huge dark horse.
MLS is definitely frothing at the mouth to add both St. Louis and San Diego to the league (#BringBackTheSockers) - in light of both cities recently losing their NFL teams - despite neither city being as far along in the process as others. I doubt the Tampa Bay area will get another team so soon in light of Miami finally getting a new team and Orlando having one as well. Also, the league just doesn't seem to be as into Sacramento as Sacramento seems to be into it. But given that I'd push for the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, and MLS all having an eventual maximum of 40 teams, I'd be open to them eventually expanding there. In the near future, however, I'd prefer to see MLS add teams in St. Louis, San Diego, Detroit, Phoenix, San Antonio (assuming the league tells Anthony Precourt to take a hike regarding ever putting a team in Austin), and one more team in Canada -- most likely Calgary, since it's the country's next biggest market after Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/MLS/comments/9rqoaj/oc_the_future_of_professional_soccer_in_north/
[OC] The Future of Professional Soccer in North America
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https://sportmuse.net/2018/10/24/the-future-of-professional-soccer-in-north-america/
The Future of Professional Soccer in North America
Vote Yes in Miami for the David Beckham soccer stadium deal
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article220722340.html
Vote Yes in Miami for the David Beckham soccer stadium deal
Here’s a rendering of the soccer stadium and commercial complex that will be built at the Melreese Golf Course track and surrounding land near MIA
EDITORIALS
Vote Yes in Miami for the David Beckham soccer stadium deal
Given the history of Marlins Park, recommending the construction of stadiums to Miami-Dade voters and taxpayers is like walking through a minefield.
It’s a prickly question being posed only to Miami residents: Should soccer star David Beckham and partner Jorge Mas be allowed to negotiate a no-bid contract to build a soccer stadium for Beckham’s Major League Soccer franchise, plus a commercial complex at the city-owned Melreese Golf Course near Miami International Airport?
If voters approve, Mas and Beckham can begin crafting a 99-year, no-bid lease for the development of Miami Freedom Park, a $1 billion retail, office, hotel, a 25,000-seat soccer stadium complex and a 58-acre public park on 72-acres of land.
If voters approve, Mas and Beckham can begin crafting a 99-year, no-bid lease for the development of Miami Freedom Park, a $1 billion retail, office, hotel, a 25,000-seat soccer stadium complex. The overall footprint of the redevelopment is about 131 acres. Of that plot of land, 73-acres would be leased for the soccer stadium and commercial complex. In addition, there is a 58-acre public park that would be developed but remains under the full control of the city.
We know the numbers are fluid and agreements are still fuzzy, but we’re going to recommend that Miami voters take a leap of faith and vote Yes, clearing the way for the Beckham/Mas project to be launched.
And here’s why:
We get that much is at stake. And if this deal was being proposed by an out-of-town mogul with no stake in our community, the Board would have no qualms recommending rejecting the project to voters. And we have been skeptical from the start. We swatted down Beckham’s early efforts to grab waterfront property. But joining him in his 4-year-old effort to build a stadium, not in Overtown but in Melreese, is Jorge Mas and his brother, who are well-known community leaders and philanthropists.
Their family fortune stems from the locally-based MasTec, an engineering and construction company that generates billions a year. They are not former Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria, or his arrogant stepson, David Samson, who gleefully saddled Miami-Dade voters with a years-long tax burden.
We know Beckham and the Mas family will make money on this project, but we also believe they will go out of their way to be fair and just to this community and to the residents around the proposed stadium complex. Miami has been home to the Mas family for decades. It’s the place where their late patriarch Jorge Mas Canosa became a popular Cuban exile leader.
Would we expect the same moral obligation from an outside developer who goes through the competitive bid process and wins? No.
We believed Mas when he told the Board that no public money will be tapped and that taxpayers will not pay any of the costs associated with preparing Melreese for redevelopment, including necessary utility work, underground infrastructure, road improvements and a pedestrian bridge over the Tamiami Canal to connect the park to the Miami Intermodal Center, making it a new stop for visitors.
We believe he will oversee a traffic plan to ensure that visitor traffic to and from the airport is not adversely affected. That would be irresponsible, damaging and unforgivable.
We believe that Mas will live up to his promise to address the long list of issues, expertly detailed in articles by Miami Herald reporter Joey Flechas.
They include concerns about soil contamination, a better focus on the financial benefits to the city, the value of public parks, traffic flow around a major airport and the fate of the First Tee Miami, a youth golf program at Melreese. Not to mention that a fair market value is paid for the city land.
Are we naive? No, we’re realistic. At some point, local residents, collectively, are going to have to move past the fear of being fooled again by a stadium project. The original Marlins Park 2009 deal had Miami-Dade and Miami contributing about $490 million for the privately owned $640 million stadium, which was then sold with the team for $1.2 billion in 2017. Loria did not share sale profits with the county.
The fact is that Miamians’ needs are changing and the landscape is also changing to accommodate them. Take note of how the Underline will eventually alter the look and use of South Dixie Highway under the elevated Metrorail tracks. And millennials have not embraced golf; only a lucky few enjoy Melreese now.
The Mas family and Beckham, who has held on longer than anyone thought to the idea of a Miami stadium, are the right team to get the community over their resistance to new stadium projects.
If things go south, the Mas family will face the public’s wrath — so will we. However, we’re optimistic.
The Miami Herald recommends a Yes vote on Miami Referendum 1 — #378.
👍🏻👍🏻
I vote no leave melreese alone
Completely for this! This will benefit everybody. Honestly, how many have gone to Melreese? It’s limited to the use of a few. Imagine having a gigantic public park plus other things that benefit everyone. Voting yes makes sense.
i voted against it. There is no reason not to award this deal through a competitive process except that Beckham needs to meet some soccer league deadline. That is really not an issue for the tax payers of Miami. Compete this deal and see if anyone can agree to pay more or to put the land to better use through a competitive RFP process.
Herald dead wrong.
Insane people give away green space and park land.
Wise people protect open space as one of the most precious resources on earth.
Vote this down.
Defeat this land scam and MSL will come anyway.
Soccer will land near transit and density.
Melreese will get cleaned up.
More park access will happen.
If you like giving away precious public land to the rich follow the Herald's (idiotic) lead...and watch them pave over paradise.
The precedent will be set forever.
Maybe your park will be sold out for condos, a mall, anything but safe, green, play space.
Vote No. Remember the Miami Herald was a huge cheerleader for the Marlins deal (scam) which diverts over $3 Billion, including debt service, to the Marlins Stadium and Garages. $3 Billion that could have been spent on affordable housing, education and other causes benefiting tourism. No-Bid deals are never beneficial to the taxpayers. Vote No on #379.
I voted no, use marlins park which is underutlized and the taxpayers were screwed with it. Maybe we can get some of that money back.
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https://stpetecatalyst.com/evolving-entertainment-from-the-bayfront-center-to-the-mahaffey-theater/
Evolving entertainment: From the Bayfront Center to the Mahaffey Theater
Vintage postcard image (1960s) of the Bayfront Center complex. The present-day Mahaffey Theater is on the left side; the City razed the arena (right) in 2004. The Dali Museum was erected on the arena site seven years later. Photo: Florida Memory Project.
The Mahaffey Theater has been part of the downtown St. Petersburg landscape since 1965, although it’s changed considerably in appearance and stature. For 22 years, it was a boxy little part of the city’s ambitious ($5 million in early ’60s money) Bayfront Center complex, attached at the hip to a 7,000-seat arena where families gathered to see Holiday on Ice, the Lipizzaner Stallions and the Ringling Brothers/Barnum & Bailey Circus, where sports fans cheered on the Tampa Bay Rowdies, and where the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Van Halen and the Grateful Dead attracted massive amounts of screaming fans. All the big “adult” spectacle acts – Elvis, Liberace and Lawrence Welk – performed in the big hall, too, which everyone referred to as simply the Bayfront Center.
The Bayfront Theater, as the Mahaffey was known, was reserved for smaller crowds (the original venue had slightly fewer than 2,000 seats) and more sophisticated entertainment like orchestras, operas and ballets.
The Bayfront Theater, 1960s. Photo provided by the Mahaffey Theater.
In the early years the theater was programmed almost exclusively for St. Petersburg’s older population – easy listening acts such as Ferrante and Teicher, Sandler & Young, Peter Nero and Roger Williams made annual appearances.
Louis Armstrong, who in previous years had performed at both the Manhattan Casino and the St. Petersburg Coliseum, headlined at the Bayfront Theater in December, 1966.
The City was slow to put popular music acts on the stage. The first “rock groups” to play the theater were the Turtles and Bubble Puppy in March, 1969 – nearly four years after the place had opened.
Victor Borge
By the mid 1970s, “soft” artists along the lines of Gordon Lightfoot, Melissa Manchester, George Benson and Chuck Mangione were infiltrating the lineup, interspersed between the bread and butter acts – the Fred Waring Orchestra, the Lettermen, Johnny Mathis, the Vienna Boys Choir – and septuagenarian Victor Borge, whose cornball comedy mixed with classical piano-playing was such a hit with the St. Pete oldsters the Bayfront Theater was on his touring itinerary every year for decades.
Because the Bayfront Center was city-owned, the two venues were also booked for high school graduations, business conventions, political rallies and other civic events. (Richard Nixon famously spoke to a packed arena in October, 1970, the first time a sitting U.S. president had ever visited Pinellas County.)
The major rock artists began to make regular stops at the arena – mega-acts of the mid to late ‘70s including Jethro Tull, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Jimmy Buffett, the Police, Rush, Cheap Trick and Journey.
Things began to change in the 1980s. Competition for those big touring dollars meant newer, more state-of-the-art venues like the USF Sun Dome in Tampa and the Lakeland Civic Center began to tear away at the Bayfront arena’s business.
The little theater had fans with deeper pockets.
In 1987, St. Petersburg’s Mahaffey family spearheaded a $24.5 million renovation of the theater, which had become seriously outdated. Among other significant physical changes, “window box” seats were built, to give the newly-plush venue the appearance of a European opera house.
By 2004, the aging arena was hemorrhaging money, and the City decided to tear it down. The Mahaffey Theater was left standing on its own, the anchor property on big, open and otherwise vacant waterfront acreage.
Things went well for the Mahaffey for a few years, until poor programming choices and the waning interest of the public delivered yet another showdown. It was either admit defeat and shut it down, or try to bring it into the future.
The Mahaffey Theater today. Photo provided by the Mahaffey Theater.
In 2011, businessman Bill Edwards was granted a contract to manage the facility through his Big3 Entertainment. Edwards also kicked in for upgrades and expansion of the lobby – today, you’d never know it was once bolted to an ice-skating arena – and the construction of the trademark glass atrium windows.
That same year, the new Salvador Dali Museum building opened, across the grass courtyard from the Mahaffey (today, the museum, and the courtyard, rest on the former site of the Bayfront arena).
The city has extended Big3’s management contract several times, as more high-end shows – from the likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Tony Bennett, Diana Ross, Steve Martin and others – and a growing reputation for both quality and luxury have generated profits and positive word-of-mouth.
Find the Mahaffey Theater’s website here.
Making history
The Bayfront Center was officially dedicated on May 6, 1965. Comedian Jonathan Winters emceed a glitzy gala, co-starring singer Nancy Ames, the Highwaymen and a TV-style orchestra.
The St. Petersburg Times covered the event with three next-day stories. “Both the young and old attended,” said one, “choosing a wide array of outfits – from sporty shifts with sequined cocktail dresses, with sport coats and dark suits for the men.”
Buried on a back page of this same edition of the Times was a story with the headline Near-Riot Cuts Short Teen Program:
CLEARWATER – A group of screaming teen-agers climbed out of the bleachers at Jack Russell Stadium last night and tried to rush the bandstand where the Rolling Stones were belting out rock and roll music.
On the very same night St. Petersburg was formally dressed and applauding – for the first time in its history – Hollywood show business on a local stage, music history was being made in a ratty Clearwater baseball stadium. The two events could not have been more different – nor, as the Times’ choice of coverage made clear, did anyone recognize the significance of the “near-riot.” Teens, of course, were just teens, and the choices they made were fickle and unimportant.
The Stones’ performance had been cut short that night, the band members directed to a waiting station wagon and hustled back to their hotel. They never finished the concert. “There will never be another show like this as long as I am here,” the head of Clearwater’s recreation department was quoted as declaring.
Afterwards, in his room at the Fort Harrison Hotel, Keith Richards came up with the music for “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” Mick Jagger wrote the lyrics the next day, at the pool.
“Satisfaction,” of course, became the Rolling Stones’ breakout record in America, in the summer of 1965, and one of the pillars of mid ‘60s rock ‘n’ roll. After “Satisfaction,” many, many things would never again be the same.
And so the grand opening of the Bayfront Center was headline news, but not a watershed moment in popular culture – that was happening up the road in Clearwater.
(Follow link for full article.)
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/padres/sd-sp-padres-owners-chargers-stadium-nfl-mlb-mls-20181028-story.html
Column | Padres owners "on same page" on measures targeting former Chargers stadium site
Padres Hall of Fame inductee Trevor Hoffman, second from right, sits with Ron Fowler, right, executive chairman, Hoffman's wife, Tracy, General Partner Peter Seidler and San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, far left, Sept. 28 at the unveiling of Trevor Hoffman Way. (Hayne Palmour IV/San Diego Union-Tribune)
When the Chargers’ relocation was announced, valuable land in Mission Valley came open.
Among the powerful San Diegans paying attention were Padres lead investor Peter Seidler and Executive Chairman Ron Fowler.
They’d presented a unified front as Padres stewards, but here seemed to differ.
Seidler was for the “SoccerCity” plan, investing $2 million in it. Per a Voice of San Diego report last month, Seidler also attended a Valentine’s Day 2017 meeting arranged by Mayor Kevin Faulconer and former Mayor Jerry Sanders to bolster SoccerCity’s prospects.
Fowler, meantime, stayed off a SoccerCity bandwagon whose City Hall occupants included Faulconer and mayoral chief of staff Stephen Puetz, whose wife had joined the Padres’ front office.
I reached out recently to the Padres’ tandem to clarify their Mission Valley position in advance of the general election Nov. 6, when San Diego voters will decide the fate of SoccerCity (Measure E) and the “SDSU West” (Measure G) initiative that came about after talks between SoccerCity and San Diego State crumbled in early 2017.
Fowler responded.
“Peter and I don't have a difference of opinion,” he said via email. “We made some comments along the way, but we are on the same page. We both regret that we have dueling initiatives rather than a unified approach to the property.”
Not of one mind
The Chargers’ relocation announcement came Jan. 12, 2017.
Within three weeks, Faulconer joined SoccerCity’s point men, private-equity investors Nick Stone and Mike Stone, and Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber, at the USS Midway Museum for a news conference championing the plan.
While Seidler supported SoccerCity with not just money but through public comments and lending his name to SoccerCity partners, Fowler noted that February that many plan details were still private.
“Once we see the citizens’ initiative,” Fowler said Feb. 23, to 1090-AM, “I think people will be able to make informed decisions.”
SDSU West supporters would say some negotiating discoveries and the initiative itself, spanning some 3,000 pages, raised concerns.
SoccerCity backers said opposition had come from Mission Valley developers whose projects could suffer if the initiative passes (and who’ve spent about $4 million opposing Measure E).
When March arrived, Mike Stone was acknowledging the jarring outcome of not having SDSU on board. “We are surprised, candidly … with our failure to be able to deliver a consensus solution with San Diego State,” he told 1090, “but we’re not giving up.”
If someone had the clout to broker a SoccerCity-SDSU reconciliation, Fowler belonged on the short list of candidates.
Not only a partner to Seidler since 2012, he was a longtime sponsor of local sports endeavors, a soccer booster who owned the San Diego Sockers in the 1980s and a SDSU benefactor who donated $50 million to State’s business school in October 2016.
Fowler, though, remained unenthusiastic about SoccerCity and seemed to blame the plan for the split with SDSU.
“I think the problem was that there was a soccer plan, so to speak,” he told 1090 that June, “but I think it was really more of a real estate development plan.”
SoccerCity backers, meantime, would imply that SDSU President Elliot Hirshman had reneged on a verbal deal with them before announcing that March he was leaving to become president of Stevenson University in Maryland.
Faulconer and Seidler
Making his support for SoccerCity official, Faulconer endorsed the initiative in May 2017 but failed in his bid to get the City Council to put it up to special election.
Two months ago, Faulconer and Seidler made statements softening their stance on SoccerCity. The mayor said he still supported the measure but wouldn’t urge San Diegans to vote against SDSU West.
Seidler, who runs his own private equity fund, acknowledged he’d invested in SoccerCity, but, in a reach that Padres fielders would appreciate, said he’d been “neutral” on it all along. He said he held the same view of SDSU West.
“I told both sides that I will not comment publicly so I need to honor my word,” Seidler said Thursday, via email, when asked why he’d seemingly downshifted on SoccerCity.
However the vote turns out, it’ll be interesting to see if Faulconer and Seidler, who share an interest in alleviating San Diego’s homeless problem downtown, align on other issues going forward.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.wtnh.com/sports/dillon-stadium-construction-underway-for-usl-team/1560463517
Dillon Stadium construction underway for USL team
HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) - An old football stadium will soon be a new soccer stadium!
Dillon Stadium construction is underway in Hartford.
Related Content: Minor leagues helping Hartford re-establish sports identity
It will serve as the home for the new professional team, Hartford Athletic.
The team is part of the United Soccer League, which is just one tier below Major League Soccer.
Related Content: Former MLS All-Star Jimmy Nielsen named head coach of Hartford Athletic
Hartford Athletic will be hitting the field for fans
(Follow link for full article.)
https://stpetecatalyst.com/business-briefs-raymond-james-volunteers-commerce-park-expansion-and-more/
Business Briefs: Raymond James volunteers, Commerce Park expansion and more
Financial advisors and associates at Raymond James Financial Inc. (NYSE: RJF) volunteered a record number of hours in support of the firm’s annual Raymond James Cares Month in August.
More than 2,500 professionals contributed 7,253 hours to benefit 172 non-profit organizations across the United States and United Kingdom, the company said. The number of volunteer hours reflects an 18 percent increase from 2017, and the number of participants increased by more than 16 percent.
Since the inception of Raymond James Cares Month in 2012, advisors and associates have volunteered more than 36,800 hours, the company said.
Groundbreaking
Mayor Rick Kriseman and City Administrator and Deputy Mayor Kanika Tomalin were among those turning the first ceremonial shovels for a Sunday groundbreaking for Euro Cycles of Tampa Bay. The motorcycle sales and repair company is expanding in Commerce Park, a south St. Pete development along the 22nd Street corridor. The City Council initially approved a development agreement with the company in 2016.
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Rick Kriseman
@Kriseman
Ground has been broken at 22nd Street South's Commerce Park. Euro Cycles of Tampa Bay + job opportunities coming soon! #SunShinesHere
4:29 PM - Oct 28, 2018
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Welbilt CEO
William Johnson, president and CEO, Welbilt
Welbilt Inc., a commercial food equipment manufacturer in New Port Richey, has named William Johnson as its new president and CEO.
Johnson previously was CEO at Chart industry (NASDAQ: GTLS), an engineered equipment manufacturer, and before that he held various senior level positions at Dover Corporation (NYSE:DOV), a manufacturer of industrial product
Hubertus Muhlhauser resigned as CEO of Welbilt (NYSE: WBT) in August to CEO at CNH Industrial N.V. (NYSE: CNHI).
Johnson will get a base salary of $820,000 and be eligible for short-term and long-term incentives, Welbilt said in a regulatory filing.
He’s expected to assume day-to-day leadership of the company next week, and he joined the board of directors today.
Bloomin’ sales
Bloomin’ Brands investment in the customer experience are working, says Liz Smith, chairman and CEO.
Outback Steakhouse
She pointed to a 2.9 percent increase in comparable U.S. restaurant sales in the third quarter of 2018, with the gains led by Outback Steakhouse, where sales were up 4.6 percent.
Bloomin’ (NASDAQ: BLMN), the Tampa-based restaurant company whose brands are Outback, Bonefish Grill, Carrabba’s Italian Grill and Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, posted $965 million in total sales for the 13 weeks ended Sept. 30, up 1 percent from the same quarter last year. Net income dropped for the just-ended quarter to $4.1 million, or four cents a share, down from $5.6 million, or six cents a share, a year ago.
The company also increased its guidance for earnings per share in 2018.
The revenue gains come one week after Barington Capital Group, an activist investor, called on Bloomin’ to spin off or sell three of its restaurant brands and leave Outback to operate independently. Barington cited underperformance by the company.
Home sales
Nearly one of every 20 foreign buyers who bought residential property in the United States in the past year have purchased property in Florida.
Additionally, nine percent of those foreign buyers bought property in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area, a new report from Florida Realtors said.
International sales accounted for $22.9 billion from August 2017 through July 2018, down five percent from $24.2 billion in the same period a year earlier. The state’s rising property values coupled with a lack of for-sale inventory impacted the slower pace of international residential real estate activity, according to the report.
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https://ussoccerplayers.com/2018/10/a-new-hall-of-fame-faces-american-soccers-generation-gap.html
A NEW HALL OF FAME FACES AMERICAN SOCCER’S GENERATION GAP
US Soccer Players - First things first: The new National Soccer Hall of Fame is gorgeous. The sleek, airy $55 million facility is a welcome addition to the American game’s “bucket list” of must-see attractions, restoring the Hall to life after nearly a decade after the closure of its previous home in Oneonta, New York. Yet as with so many matters of history, memory and collective experience in these times, it’s also complicated.
Built into the remodeled south end of Toyota Stadium, home of FC Dallas, the new Hall opens to the public on November 2. A few journalists, VIPs, and other visitors got an advance preview of the place last week as it hosted its first major event, the induction ceremony for a 2018 class that included USMNT legend Brad Friedel and a busy weekend’s worth of related activities.
Chief among them was a 50th anniversary celebration of the old North American Soccer League, which came into existence in 1968 and died in 1985, yet still casts a long shadow across the sport. That occasion reunited dozens of NASL old-timers in Frisco for the weekend, capped by a “legends game” at the stadium after Sunday’s MLS match between FC Dallas and Sporting KC.
The NASLers gathered at the Hall for a tour of their own on Friday afternoon. I had the pleasure of experiencing the exhibits with that group of trailblazers, who shared many laughs and old stories as they meandered through.
“Having seen the setup in New York, they worked hard for a long period of time, but it was dated. And it didn’t have the traffic that comes by in a city like Dallas,” said former Dallas Tornado striker Kyle Rote Jr, one of the NASL’s few homegrown stars and a USMNTer with five caps to his name. “The common population can get exposed to the Hall of Fame here. And the technology that is put into so many of these presentations here is at an A+ level, and it brings back great memories, and a great sense of satisfaction that we indeed had lives that counted for something. And what it counted for in many ways was distributing the game of soccer in this country.”
The new Hall of Fame is the first landmark of its kind in major-league North American pro sports that's part of an active stadium. In addition to the usual artifacts like jerseys, photographs, boots, and balls, it features advanced technology like facial-recognition and virtual-reality software to provide a customized, cutting-edge experience. Unlike its predecessor in remote upstate New York, it’s located in the midst of a massive metropolitan area, a short drive from millions of North Texas residents as well as one of the world’s busiest airports.
Everyone seemed to agree that the new place is, on balance, a marked upgrade on the old one. That it represents a necessary evolution from the past. And that it sensibly seeks to connect with younger generations who view the game and the world differently from their elders. That part connected with their own experiences as soccer evangelists.
“When we came to Dallas in ‘71, [legendary coach Ron] Newman said you’re 50 percent a player, 50 percent an ambassador,” said English ex-Tornado Bobby Moffat, one of the NASL reunion’s lead organizers. “And that’s what we all were and we still are. That hasn’t stopped.”
Another influential figure, former Baltimore Bays and Tampa Bay Rowdies and briefly, USMNT coach Gordon Jago, beamed as he took in the scene. He’s already making arrangements for participants in the famed Dallas Cup youth tournament to tour the new Hall. Still, there was a bittersweet tinge to the NASLers’ visit, even with icons of their era like Pele, Johan Cruyff and Giorgio Chinaglia occupying prime real estate.
“Well, this is kind of sweet and sour, in a way, because we were part of the growth of soccer since 1967,” said Charlie Schiano, owner and chairman of NASL’s Rochester Lancers. “And this is very handsome and well done, but I think there should be a little more attention to the work that was done in the ‘60s and early ‘70s by the North American Soccer League, which I think laid down the roots, the taproots which we see today … It’s really magnificent but it lacks – I don’t think there’s enough recognition given to the North American Soccer League, what they accomplished, starting the fires, igniting the interest in soccer.”
Schiano’s words reflect the strange place the old days still occupy in our sport’s consciousness.
Stunning, sexy, fabulously flawed and devastatingly doomed all at once, the NASL showed us both the best- and worst-case scenarios for soccer in North America. MLS’s founders saw it as a case study in what not to do, taking pains to avoid treading a similar path – only to find fans, competitors and even their own member clubs drawn to those glory days like moths to flame. Purists extol the legacy of the 1950 World Cup team that shocked the world. Yet relatively few kids of today even recognize names like Gaetjens, Keough, and Bahr, let alone their faces.
A game eternally labeled as this country’s sport of the future continues to wrestle with the ghosts of its past. Schiano’s old friend Joe Sirianni, the Lancers’ trainer, equipment manager and longest-serving employee, wistfully summed up this awkwardness between yesterday and tomorrow in American soccer.
“It’s a beautiful building, but a building’s always a building,” said Sirianni of the new Hall. “Oneonta contained a lot of memorabilia, a lot of history, but really where soccer was, not what soccer is today…. It’s a beautiful building, state of the art, all the sophistication and technology of today, but today we’re celebrating 50 years of history and the history is not here. So that’s my views.”
Some in attendance suggested that a Hall of Fame located inside an MLS venue could never pay full and fitting tribute to the NASL. Others took the more pragmatic view that this was the best-case scenario after so many years with no Hall at all. In the end, the project in Frisco, which reportedly ran some $16 million over budget, became a reality because of the Hunt family, owners of FCD as well as the descendants of leading NASL investor Lamar Hunt. Few organizations in modern American soccer can claim such close ties to both the old days and the present state of things.
The Hall of Fame itself will probably evolve, too. It’s said that there’s far more memorabilia still in storage in Soccer.com’s North Carolina warehouses than there is room to display it in the relatively compact dimensions in Frisco. Maybe even the most obscure corners of our game’s history will get their turn in the spotlight, and not be completely overshadowed by the VR penalty-kick games and design-your-own-jersey activities.
Hopefully, the rest of us can soak up a few more colorful tales and lessons from the NASL generation before they too fade into memory.
“The 50th reunion is of people who’ve given their lives to try to help young people fall in love with the game of soccer,” said Rote. “It’s not just about playing, it’s also about being a missionary for the game of soccer to the local communities... that’s very satisfying. That’s a great part of why I’m here.”
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http://www.espn.com/soccer/major-league-soccer/story/3679965/landon-donovan--logical-to-have-league-with-mlsliga-mx-sides
Landon Donovan: 'Logical' to more games with MLS, Liga MX sides
Landon Donovan said he believes a potential North American league that features teams from the U.S. and Mexico would be beneficial for both the sport in both countries.
"For me it is logical, because they're the best leagues in this part of the world, they have the biggest players, if we want get better compete with Europe and parts of South America, I think it's important," Donovan told ESPN Deportes.
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https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/soccer/fc-cincinnati/2018/10/27/fc-cincinnati-moves-forward-only-mls-mind/1793946002/
FC Cincinnati moves forward with only MLS in mind. Here's what that means for the club
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https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/soccer/fc-cincinnati/2018/10/27/fc-cincinnatis-3-years-usl-were-historic-its-final-loss-not/1790207002/
FC Cincinnati's 3 years in USL were 'historic.' Its final loss was not.
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https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/soccer/fc-cincinnati/2018/10/26/fc-cincinnatis-alan-koch-man-lead-club-into-mls/1684468002/
FC Cincinnati's Alan Koch: The man to lead the club into Major League Soccer
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http://www.startribune.com/memories-of-landycakes-evoked-as-new-u-s-soccer-stars-head-to-europe/498672211/
Memories of 'Landycakes' evoked as new U.S. soccer stars head to Europe
New players seek success overseas, where Landon Donovan didn't last.
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https://www.goal.com/en-us/news/mls-expansion-ranking-the-remaining-potential-markets/1r8xo6ok3s4ee1p5ob31e779pf
MLS expansion: Ranking the remaining potential markets
https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article220722340.html
Vote Yes in Miami for the David Beckham soccer stadium deal
Here’s a rendering of the soccer stadium and commercial complex that will be built at the Melreese Golf Course track and surrounding land near MIA
EDITORIALS
Vote Yes in Miami for the David Beckham soccer stadium deal
Given the history of Marlins Park, recommending the construction of stadiums to Miami-Dade voters and taxpayers is like walking through a minefield.
It’s a prickly question being posed only to Miami residents: Should soccer star David Beckham and partner Jorge Mas be allowed to negotiate a no-bid contract to build a soccer stadium for Beckham’s Major League Soccer franchise, plus a commercial complex at the city-owned Melreese Golf Course near Miami International Airport?
If voters approve, Mas and Beckham can begin crafting a 99-year, no-bid lease for the development of Miami Freedom Park, a $1 billion retail, office, hotel, a 25,000-seat soccer stadium complex and a 58-acre public park on 72-acres of land.
If voters approve, Mas and Beckham can begin crafting a 99-year, no-bid lease for the development of Miami Freedom Park, a $1 billion retail, office, hotel, a 25,000-seat soccer stadium complex. The overall footprint of the redevelopment is about 131 acres. Of that plot of land, 73-acres would be leased for the soccer stadium and commercial complex. In addition, there is a 58-acre public park that would be developed but remains under the full control of the city.
We know the numbers are fluid and agreements are still fuzzy, but we’re going to recommend that Miami voters take a leap of faith and vote Yes, clearing the way for the Beckham/Mas project to be launched.
And here’s why:
We get that much is at stake. And if this deal was being proposed by an out-of-town mogul with no stake in our community, the Board would have no qualms recommending rejecting the project to voters. And we have been skeptical from the start. We swatted down Beckham’s early efforts to grab waterfront property. But joining him in his 4-year-old effort to build a stadium, not in Overtown but in Melreese, is Jorge Mas and his brother, who are well-known community leaders and philanthropists.
Their family fortune stems from the locally-based MasTec, an engineering and construction company that generates billions a year. They are not former Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria, or his arrogant stepson, David Samson, who gleefully saddled Miami-Dade voters with a years-long tax burden.
We know Beckham and the Mas family will make money on this project, but we also believe they will go out of their way to be fair and just to this community and to the residents around the proposed stadium complex. Miami has been home to the Mas family for decades. It’s the place where their late patriarch Jorge Mas Canosa became a popular Cuban exile leader.
Would we expect the same moral obligation from an outside developer who goes through the competitive bid process and wins? No.
We believed Mas when he told the Board that no public money will be tapped and that taxpayers will not pay any of the costs associated with preparing Melreese for redevelopment, including necessary utility work, underground infrastructure, road improvements and a pedestrian bridge over the Tamiami Canal to connect the park to the Miami Intermodal Center, making it a new stop for visitors.
We believe he will oversee a traffic plan to ensure that visitor traffic to and from the airport is not adversely affected. That would be irresponsible, damaging and unforgivable.
We believe that Mas will live up to his promise to address the long list of issues, expertly detailed in articles by Miami Herald reporter Joey Flechas.
They include concerns about soil contamination, a better focus on the financial benefits to the city, the value of public parks, traffic flow around a major airport and the fate of the First Tee Miami, a youth golf program at Melreese. Not to mention that a fair market value is paid for the city land.
Are we naive? No, we’re realistic. At some point, local residents, collectively, are going to have to move past the fear of being fooled again by a stadium project. The original Marlins Park 2009 deal had Miami-Dade and Miami contributing about $490 million for the privately owned $640 million stadium, which was then sold with the team for $1.2 billion in 2017. Loria did not share sale profits with the county.
The fact is that Miamians’ needs are changing and the landscape is also changing to accommodate them. Take note of how the Underline will eventually alter the look and use of South Dixie Highway under the elevated Metrorail tracks. And millennials have not embraced golf; only a lucky few enjoy Melreese now.
The Mas family and Beckham, who has held on longer than anyone thought to the idea of a Miami stadium, are the right team to get the community over their resistance to new stadium projects.
If things go south, the Mas family will face the public’s wrath — so will we. However, we’re optimistic.
The Miami Herald recommends a Yes vote on Miami Referendum 1 — #378.
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I vote no leave melreese alone
Completely for this! This will benefit everybody. Honestly, how many have gone to Melreese? It’s limited to the use of a few. Imagine having a gigantic public park plus other things that benefit everyone. Voting yes makes sense.
i voted against it. There is no reason not to award this deal through a competitive process except that Beckham needs to meet some soccer league deadline. That is really not an issue for the tax payers of Miami. Compete this deal and see if anyone can agree to pay more or to put the land to better use through a competitive RFP process.
Herald dead wrong.
Insane people give away green space and park land.
Wise people protect open space as one of the most precious resources on earth.
Vote this down.
Defeat this land scam and MSL will come anyway.
Soccer will land near transit and density.
Melreese will get cleaned up.
More park access will happen.
If you like giving away precious public land to the rich follow the Herald's (idiotic) lead...and watch them pave over paradise.
The precedent will be set forever.
Maybe your park will be sold out for condos, a mall, anything but safe, green, play space.
Vote No. Remember the Miami Herald was a huge cheerleader for the Marlins deal (scam) which diverts over $3 Billion, including debt service, to the Marlins Stadium and Garages. $3 Billion that could have been spent on affordable housing, education and other causes benefiting tourism. No-Bid deals are never beneficial to the taxpayers. Vote No on #379.
I voted no, use marlins park which is underutlized and the taxpayers were screwed with it. Maybe we can get some of that money back.
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https://stpetecatalyst.com/evolving-entertainment-from-the-bayfront-center-to-the-mahaffey-theater/
Evolving entertainment: From the Bayfront Center to the Mahaffey Theater
Vintage postcard image (1960s) of the Bayfront Center complex. The present-day Mahaffey Theater is on the left side; the City razed the arena (right) in 2004. The Dali Museum was erected on the arena site seven years later. Photo: Florida Memory Project.
The Mahaffey Theater has been part of the downtown St. Petersburg landscape since 1965, although it’s changed considerably in appearance and stature. For 22 years, it was a boxy little part of the city’s ambitious ($5 million in early ’60s money) Bayfront Center complex, attached at the hip to a 7,000-seat arena where families gathered to see Holiday on Ice, the Lipizzaner Stallions and the Ringling Brothers/Barnum & Bailey Circus, where sports fans cheered on the Tampa Bay Rowdies, and where the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Van Halen and the Grateful Dead attracted massive amounts of screaming fans. All the big “adult” spectacle acts – Elvis, Liberace and Lawrence Welk – performed in the big hall, too, which everyone referred to as simply the Bayfront Center.
The Bayfront Theater, as the Mahaffey was known, was reserved for smaller crowds (the original venue had slightly fewer than 2,000 seats) and more sophisticated entertainment like orchestras, operas and ballets.
The Bayfront Theater, 1960s. Photo provided by the Mahaffey Theater.
In the early years the theater was programmed almost exclusively for St. Petersburg’s older population – easy listening acts such as Ferrante and Teicher, Sandler & Young, Peter Nero and Roger Williams made annual appearances.
Louis Armstrong, who in previous years had performed at both the Manhattan Casino and the St. Petersburg Coliseum, headlined at the Bayfront Theater in December, 1966.
The City was slow to put popular music acts on the stage. The first “rock groups” to play the theater were the Turtles and Bubble Puppy in March, 1969 – nearly four years after the place had opened.
Victor Borge
By the mid 1970s, “soft” artists along the lines of Gordon Lightfoot, Melissa Manchester, George Benson and Chuck Mangione were infiltrating the lineup, interspersed between the bread and butter acts – the Fred Waring Orchestra, the Lettermen, Johnny Mathis, the Vienna Boys Choir – and septuagenarian Victor Borge, whose cornball comedy mixed with classical piano-playing was such a hit with the St. Pete oldsters the Bayfront Theater was on his touring itinerary every year for decades.
Because the Bayfront Center was city-owned, the two venues were also booked for high school graduations, business conventions, political rallies and other civic events. (Richard Nixon famously spoke to a packed arena in October, 1970, the first time a sitting U.S. president had ever visited Pinellas County.)
The major rock artists began to make regular stops at the arena – mega-acts of the mid to late ‘70s including Jethro Tull, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Jimmy Buffett, the Police, Rush, Cheap Trick and Journey.
Things began to change in the 1980s. Competition for those big touring dollars meant newer, more state-of-the-art venues like the USF Sun Dome in Tampa and the Lakeland Civic Center began to tear away at the Bayfront arena’s business.
The little theater had fans with deeper pockets.
In 1987, St. Petersburg’s Mahaffey family spearheaded a $24.5 million renovation of the theater, which had become seriously outdated. Among other significant physical changes, “window box” seats were built, to give the newly-plush venue the appearance of a European opera house.
By 2004, the aging arena was hemorrhaging money, and the City decided to tear it down. The Mahaffey Theater was left standing on its own, the anchor property on big, open and otherwise vacant waterfront acreage.
Things went well for the Mahaffey for a few years, until poor programming choices and the waning interest of the public delivered yet another showdown. It was either admit defeat and shut it down, or try to bring it into the future.
The Mahaffey Theater today. Photo provided by the Mahaffey Theater.
In 2011, businessman Bill Edwards was granted a contract to manage the facility through his Big3 Entertainment. Edwards also kicked in for upgrades and expansion of the lobby – today, you’d never know it was once bolted to an ice-skating arena – and the construction of the trademark glass atrium windows.
That same year, the new Salvador Dali Museum building opened, across the grass courtyard from the Mahaffey (today, the museum, and the courtyard, rest on the former site of the Bayfront arena).
The city has extended Big3’s management contract several times, as more high-end shows – from the likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Tony Bennett, Diana Ross, Steve Martin and others – and a growing reputation for both quality and luxury have generated profits and positive word-of-mouth.
Find the Mahaffey Theater’s website here.
Making history
The Bayfront Center was officially dedicated on May 6, 1965. Comedian Jonathan Winters emceed a glitzy gala, co-starring singer Nancy Ames, the Highwaymen and a TV-style orchestra.
The St. Petersburg Times covered the event with three next-day stories. “Both the young and old attended,” said one, “choosing a wide array of outfits – from sporty shifts with sequined cocktail dresses, with sport coats and dark suits for the men.”
Buried on a back page of this same edition of the Times was a story with the headline Near-Riot Cuts Short Teen Program:
CLEARWATER – A group of screaming teen-agers climbed out of the bleachers at Jack Russell Stadium last night and tried to rush the bandstand where the Rolling Stones were belting out rock and roll music.
On the very same night St. Petersburg was formally dressed and applauding – for the first time in its history – Hollywood show business on a local stage, music history was being made in a ratty Clearwater baseball stadium. The two events could not have been more different – nor, as the Times’ choice of coverage made clear, did anyone recognize the significance of the “near-riot.” Teens, of course, were just teens, and the choices they made were fickle and unimportant.
The Stones’ performance had been cut short that night, the band members directed to a waiting station wagon and hustled back to their hotel. They never finished the concert. “There will never be another show like this as long as I am here,” the head of Clearwater’s recreation department was quoted as declaring.
Afterwards, in his room at the Fort Harrison Hotel, Keith Richards came up with the music for “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” Mick Jagger wrote the lyrics the next day, at the pool.
“Satisfaction,” of course, became the Rolling Stones’ breakout record in America, in the summer of 1965, and one of the pillars of mid ‘60s rock ‘n’ roll. After “Satisfaction,” many, many things would never again be the same.
And so the grand opening of the Bayfront Center was headline news, but not a watershed moment in popular culture – that was happening up the road in Clearwater.
(Follow link for full article.)
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/padres/sd-sp-padres-owners-chargers-stadium-nfl-mlb-mls-20181028-story.html
Column | Padres owners "on same page" on measures targeting former Chargers stadium site
Padres Hall of Fame inductee Trevor Hoffman, second from right, sits with Ron Fowler, right, executive chairman, Hoffman's wife, Tracy, General Partner Peter Seidler and San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, far left, Sept. 28 at the unveiling of Trevor Hoffman Way. (Hayne Palmour IV/San Diego Union-Tribune)
When the Chargers’ relocation was announced, valuable land in Mission Valley came open.
Among the powerful San Diegans paying attention were Padres lead investor Peter Seidler and Executive Chairman Ron Fowler.
They’d presented a unified front as Padres stewards, but here seemed to differ.
Seidler was for the “SoccerCity” plan, investing $2 million in it. Per a Voice of San Diego report last month, Seidler also attended a Valentine’s Day 2017 meeting arranged by Mayor Kevin Faulconer and former Mayor Jerry Sanders to bolster SoccerCity’s prospects.
Fowler, meantime, stayed off a SoccerCity bandwagon whose City Hall occupants included Faulconer and mayoral chief of staff Stephen Puetz, whose wife had joined the Padres’ front office.
I reached out recently to the Padres’ tandem to clarify their Mission Valley position in advance of the general election Nov. 6, when San Diego voters will decide the fate of SoccerCity (Measure E) and the “SDSU West” (Measure G) initiative that came about after talks between SoccerCity and San Diego State crumbled in early 2017.
Fowler responded.
“Peter and I don't have a difference of opinion,” he said via email. “We made some comments along the way, but we are on the same page. We both regret that we have dueling initiatives rather than a unified approach to the property.”
Not of one mind
The Chargers’ relocation announcement came Jan. 12, 2017.
Within three weeks, Faulconer joined SoccerCity’s point men, private-equity investors Nick Stone and Mike Stone, and Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber, at the USS Midway Museum for a news conference championing the plan.
While Seidler supported SoccerCity with not just money but through public comments and lending his name to SoccerCity partners, Fowler noted that February that many plan details were still private.
“Once we see the citizens’ initiative,” Fowler said Feb. 23, to 1090-AM, “I think people will be able to make informed decisions.”
SDSU West supporters would say some negotiating discoveries and the initiative itself, spanning some 3,000 pages, raised concerns.
SoccerCity backers said opposition had come from Mission Valley developers whose projects could suffer if the initiative passes (and who’ve spent about $4 million opposing Measure E).
When March arrived, Mike Stone was acknowledging the jarring outcome of not having SDSU on board. “We are surprised, candidly … with our failure to be able to deliver a consensus solution with San Diego State,” he told 1090, “but we’re not giving up.”
If someone had the clout to broker a SoccerCity-SDSU reconciliation, Fowler belonged on the short list of candidates.
Not only a partner to Seidler since 2012, he was a longtime sponsor of local sports endeavors, a soccer booster who owned the San Diego Sockers in the 1980s and a SDSU benefactor who donated $50 million to State’s business school in October 2016.
Fowler, though, remained unenthusiastic about SoccerCity and seemed to blame the plan for the split with SDSU.
“I think the problem was that there was a soccer plan, so to speak,” he told 1090 that June, “but I think it was really more of a real estate development plan.”
SoccerCity backers, meantime, would imply that SDSU President Elliot Hirshman had reneged on a verbal deal with them before announcing that March he was leaving to become president of Stevenson University in Maryland.
Faulconer and Seidler
Making his support for SoccerCity official, Faulconer endorsed the initiative in May 2017 but failed in his bid to get the City Council to put it up to special election.
Two months ago, Faulconer and Seidler made statements softening their stance on SoccerCity. The mayor said he still supported the measure but wouldn’t urge San Diegans to vote against SDSU West.
Seidler, who runs his own private equity fund, acknowledged he’d invested in SoccerCity, but, in a reach that Padres fielders would appreciate, said he’d been “neutral” on it all along. He said he held the same view of SDSU West.
“I told both sides that I will not comment publicly so I need to honor my word,” Seidler said Thursday, via email, when asked why he’d seemingly downshifted on SoccerCity.
However the vote turns out, it’ll be interesting to see if Faulconer and Seidler, who share an interest in alleviating San Diego’s homeless problem downtown, align on other issues going forward.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://www.wtnh.com/sports/dillon-stadium-construction-underway-for-usl-team/1560463517
Dillon Stadium construction underway for USL team
HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) - An old football stadium will soon be a new soccer stadium!
Dillon Stadium construction is underway in Hartford.
Related Content: Minor leagues helping Hartford re-establish sports identity
It will serve as the home for the new professional team, Hartford Athletic.
The team is part of the United Soccer League, which is just one tier below Major League Soccer.
Related Content: Former MLS All-Star Jimmy Nielsen named head coach of Hartford Athletic
Hartford Athletic will be hitting the field for fans
(Follow link for full article.)
https://stpetecatalyst.com/business-briefs-raymond-james-volunteers-commerce-park-expansion-and-more/
Business Briefs: Raymond James volunteers, Commerce Park expansion and more
Financial advisors and associates at Raymond James Financial Inc. (NYSE: RJF) volunteered a record number of hours in support of the firm’s annual Raymond James Cares Month in August.
More than 2,500 professionals contributed 7,253 hours to benefit 172 non-profit organizations across the United States and United Kingdom, the company said. The number of volunteer hours reflects an 18 percent increase from 2017, and the number of participants increased by more than 16 percent.
Since the inception of Raymond James Cares Month in 2012, advisors and associates have volunteered more than 36,800 hours, the company said.
Groundbreaking
Mayor Rick Kriseman and City Administrator and Deputy Mayor Kanika Tomalin were among those turning the first ceremonial shovels for a Sunday groundbreaking for Euro Cycles of Tampa Bay. The motorcycle sales and repair company is expanding in Commerce Park, a south St. Pete development along the 22nd Street corridor. The City Council initially approved a development agreement with the company in 2016.
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Rick Kriseman
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Ground has been broken at 22nd Street South's Commerce Park. Euro Cycles of Tampa Bay + job opportunities coming soon! #SunShinesHere
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Welbilt CEO
William Johnson, president and CEO, Welbilt
Welbilt Inc., a commercial food equipment manufacturer in New Port Richey, has named William Johnson as its new president and CEO.
Johnson previously was CEO at Chart industry (NASDAQ: GTLS), an engineered equipment manufacturer, and before that he held various senior level positions at Dover Corporation (NYSE:DOV), a manufacturer of industrial product
Hubertus Muhlhauser resigned as CEO of Welbilt (NYSE: WBT) in August to CEO at CNH Industrial N.V. (NYSE: CNHI).
Johnson will get a base salary of $820,000 and be eligible for short-term and long-term incentives, Welbilt said in a regulatory filing.
He’s expected to assume day-to-day leadership of the company next week, and he joined the board of directors today.
Bloomin’ sales
Bloomin’ Brands investment in the customer experience are working, says Liz Smith, chairman and CEO.
Outback Steakhouse
She pointed to a 2.9 percent increase in comparable U.S. restaurant sales in the third quarter of 2018, with the gains led by Outback Steakhouse, where sales were up 4.6 percent.
Bloomin’ (NASDAQ: BLMN), the Tampa-based restaurant company whose brands are Outback, Bonefish Grill, Carrabba’s Italian Grill and Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, posted $965 million in total sales for the 13 weeks ended Sept. 30, up 1 percent from the same quarter last year. Net income dropped for the just-ended quarter to $4.1 million, or four cents a share, down from $5.6 million, or six cents a share, a year ago.
The company also increased its guidance for earnings per share in 2018.
The revenue gains come one week after Barington Capital Group, an activist investor, called on Bloomin’ to spin off or sell three of its restaurant brands and leave Outback to operate independently. Barington cited underperformance by the company.
Home sales
Nearly one of every 20 foreign buyers who bought residential property in the United States in the past year have purchased property in Florida.
Additionally, nine percent of those foreign buyers bought property in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area, a new report from Florida Realtors said.
International sales accounted for $22.9 billion from August 2017 through July 2018, down five percent from $24.2 billion in the same period a year earlier. The state’s rising property values coupled with a lack of for-sale inventory impacted the slower pace of international residential real estate activity, according to the report.
(Follow link for full article.)
https://ussoccerplayers.com/2018/10/a-new-hall-of-fame-faces-american-soccers-generation-gap.html
A NEW HALL OF FAME FACES AMERICAN SOCCER’S GENERATION GAP
US Soccer Players - First things first: The new National Soccer Hall of Fame is gorgeous. The sleek, airy $55 million facility is a welcome addition to the American game’s “bucket list” of must-see attractions, restoring the Hall to life after nearly a decade after the closure of its previous home in Oneonta, New York. Yet as with so many matters of history, memory and collective experience in these times, it’s also complicated.
Built into the remodeled south end of Toyota Stadium, home of FC Dallas, the new Hall opens to the public on November 2. A few journalists, VIPs, and other visitors got an advance preview of the place last week as it hosted its first major event, the induction ceremony for a 2018 class that included USMNT legend Brad Friedel and a busy weekend’s worth of related activities.
Chief among them was a 50th anniversary celebration of the old North American Soccer League, which came into existence in 1968 and died in 1985, yet still casts a long shadow across the sport. That occasion reunited dozens of NASL old-timers in Frisco for the weekend, capped by a “legends game” at the stadium after Sunday’s MLS match between FC Dallas and Sporting KC.
The NASLers gathered at the Hall for a tour of their own on Friday afternoon. I had the pleasure of experiencing the exhibits with that group of trailblazers, who shared many laughs and old stories as they meandered through.
“Having seen the setup in New York, they worked hard for a long period of time, but it was dated. And it didn’t have the traffic that comes by in a city like Dallas,” said former Dallas Tornado striker Kyle Rote Jr, one of the NASL’s few homegrown stars and a USMNTer with five caps to his name. “The common population can get exposed to the Hall of Fame here. And the technology that is put into so many of these presentations here is at an A+ level, and it brings back great memories, and a great sense of satisfaction that we indeed had lives that counted for something. And what it counted for in many ways was distributing the game of soccer in this country.”
The new Hall of Fame is the first landmark of its kind in major-league North American pro sports that's part of an active stadium. In addition to the usual artifacts like jerseys, photographs, boots, and balls, it features advanced technology like facial-recognition and virtual-reality software to provide a customized, cutting-edge experience. Unlike its predecessor in remote upstate New York, it’s located in the midst of a massive metropolitan area, a short drive from millions of North Texas residents as well as one of the world’s busiest airports.
Everyone seemed to agree that the new place is, on balance, a marked upgrade on the old one. That it represents a necessary evolution from the past. And that it sensibly seeks to connect with younger generations who view the game and the world differently from their elders. That part connected with their own experiences as soccer evangelists.
“When we came to Dallas in ‘71, [legendary coach Ron] Newman said you’re 50 percent a player, 50 percent an ambassador,” said English ex-Tornado Bobby Moffat, one of the NASL reunion’s lead organizers. “And that’s what we all were and we still are. That hasn’t stopped.”
Another influential figure, former Baltimore Bays and Tampa Bay Rowdies and briefly, USMNT coach Gordon Jago, beamed as he took in the scene. He’s already making arrangements for participants in the famed Dallas Cup youth tournament to tour the new Hall. Still, there was a bittersweet tinge to the NASLers’ visit, even with icons of their era like Pele, Johan Cruyff and Giorgio Chinaglia occupying prime real estate.
“Well, this is kind of sweet and sour, in a way, because we were part of the growth of soccer since 1967,” said Charlie Schiano, owner and chairman of NASL’s Rochester Lancers. “And this is very handsome and well done, but I think there should be a little more attention to the work that was done in the ‘60s and early ‘70s by the North American Soccer League, which I think laid down the roots, the taproots which we see today … It’s really magnificent but it lacks – I don’t think there’s enough recognition given to the North American Soccer League, what they accomplished, starting the fires, igniting the interest in soccer.”
Schiano’s words reflect the strange place the old days still occupy in our sport’s consciousness.
Stunning, sexy, fabulously flawed and devastatingly doomed all at once, the NASL showed us both the best- and worst-case scenarios for soccer in North America. MLS’s founders saw it as a case study in what not to do, taking pains to avoid treading a similar path – only to find fans, competitors and even their own member clubs drawn to those glory days like moths to flame. Purists extol the legacy of the 1950 World Cup team that shocked the world. Yet relatively few kids of today even recognize names like Gaetjens, Keough, and Bahr, let alone their faces.
A game eternally labeled as this country’s sport of the future continues to wrestle with the ghosts of its past. Schiano’s old friend Joe Sirianni, the Lancers’ trainer, equipment manager and longest-serving employee, wistfully summed up this awkwardness between yesterday and tomorrow in American soccer.
“It’s a beautiful building, but a building’s always a building,” said Sirianni of the new Hall. “Oneonta contained a lot of memorabilia, a lot of history, but really where soccer was, not what soccer is today…. It’s a beautiful building, state of the art, all the sophistication and technology of today, but today we’re celebrating 50 years of history and the history is not here. So that’s my views.”
Some in attendance suggested that a Hall of Fame located inside an MLS venue could never pay full and fitting tribute to the NASL. Others took the more pragmatic view that this was the best-case scenario after so many years with no Hall at all. In the end, the project in Frisco, which reportedly ran some $16 million over budget, became a reality because of the Hunt family, owners of FCD as well as the descendants of leading NASL investor Lamar Hunt. Few organizations in modern American soccer can claim such close ties to both the old days and the present state of things.
The Hall of Fame itself will probably evolve, too. It’s said that there’s far more memorabilia still in storage in Soccer.com’s North Carolina warehouses than there is room to display it in the relatively compact dimensions in Frisco. Maybe even the most obscure corners of our game’s history will get their turn in the spotlight, and not be completely overshadowed by the VR penalty-kick games and design-your-own-jersey activities.
Hopefully, the rest of us can soak up a few more colorful tales and lessons from the NASL generation before they too fade into memory.
“The 50th reunion is of people who’ve given their lives to try to help young people fall in love with the game of soccer,” said Rote. “It’s not just about playing, it’s also about being a missionary for the game of soccer to the local communities... that’s very satisfying. That’s a great part of why I’m here.”
(Follow link for full article.)
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