February 8, 2019
Hello,
It’s me again with my open letters trying to get the Tampa Bay Rowdies into MLS. It has been a year since my last letter; I haven’t given up on #MLS2StPete but there are a number of recent news items, and news from last year, which effect the distribution of this particular letter:
- The Tampa Bay Rowdies appear to be effectively out of the MLS expansion race for now.
- Bill Edwards sold the Tampa Bay Rowdies to the Tampa Bay Rays ownership group late last year.
- Though the Rays denied any immediate interest in MLS for the Rowdies, the Tampa Bay Area is still the largest TV market (#11) in the USA that does not have a team in MLS, and if opportunities were to open up, they might make the move to MLS, possibly with additional investors. It would be better, easier, and cheaper to get into MLS sooner rather than later.
- Spots still appear to be open for MLS in the Southeast, in spite of MLS commissioner Don Garber saying that MLS Southeast expansion was done “for a little while”, as he has also expressed interest in Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper. With the right ownership group the Tampa Bay Rowdies are still a viable bid, especially as their long term stadium situation is very stable and attractive, with an 87% “yes” vote approval from St. Pete voters, for an MLS soccer specific stadium (SSS) at Al Lang Stadium on the waterfront in downtown St. Petersburg.
- David Beckham’s Inter Miami MLS team and John P. Reynal’s OnSide Entertainment have put in rival bids for the use of Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale. Inter Miami wants to build a training facility, youth academy, and stadium for their USL reserve team (possibly as a USL League One, or D3, club?). OnSide Entertainment wants a USL Championship, or D2, club, playing at Lockhart Stadium.
- Bill Edwards still owns the rights to the Fort Lauderdale Strikers trademarks and copyrights; from what I have heard the Strikers IP rights were not included in the sale of the Rowdies to the Rays.
- Inter Miami is still awaiting final approval by the Miami commissioners of their proposed MLS stadium in Miami, and are looking for a temporary home to play in, which will not include Marlins Park, but, speculatively, could include FIU’s stadium, the Miami Dolphins’ stadium, and/or Lockhart Stadium and/or a pop-up temporary stadium on the Lockhart Stadium site (situation unclear and rapidly developing as I type this).
- There are also two new lawsuits which may or not delay Inter Miami’s stadium in Miami.
Rays and Rowdies:
Concerning the viability of a future MLS bid for the Tampa Bay Rowdies, although the Tampa Bay Rays were looking into building a new stadium in Tampa (Ybor City) last year, that deal fell through and the Rays may or may not stay in St. Pete, possibly redeveloping the existing Tropicana Field site, before the lease runs out in 2027. There was a lot of confusion and wild theorizing from Tampa Bay Rays baseball fans, who have not been following the rapid growth of soccer in the USA, including MLS, the USL, etc., over the past 10-15 years, about this purchase, in regards to the future of the Al Lang Stadium site.
The Rays decision to purchase the Rowdies was a decision to invest in the professional sports and entertainment market in the Tampa Bay Area; it was not some kind of plot to gain control of Al Lang Stadium for a future MLB stadium for the Rays. The Al Lang site is too small for a MLB stadium, without expanding the stadium footprint into the harbor via landfill and a new seawall, which is not politically viable, which is why this idea was abandoned by the Rays ten years ago. The Al Lang site is big enough for an MLS stadium, however. In my opinion the Rays decision to purchase the Rowdies was a decision to invest in the long term viability of the Rowdies in St. Pete and was not driven by baseball concerns.
Tampa Bay Rowdies to MLS:
There were two factors which may have caused MLS to pass over the Tampa Bay Rowdies in the MLS expansion race last year: Bill Edwards alone was not a big enough investor for MLS given the competition for the available expansion spots, and the $80 million proposal to expand Al Lang Stadium by adding on to the existing stadium structure was not ambitious enough for MLS.
Before commenting on that further, let me cite below a selection of Greg Holden (of the Rowdies Council) quotes from last year when Bill Edwards was still Rowdies owner, which are still valid reasons why the Tampa Bay Rowdies would make an attractive addition to MLS:
“But when you look at the trends in soccer as far as the ranking, with FIFA Soccer being the number one video game selling globally, and the attendance trends and the viewership trends of English premier league & international soccer, that are starting to flow down to U.S. soccer– it’s really exciting to see what they’ve done, and obviously we are very keenly interested in looking at what they’re doing as we are excited about the future for our Rowdies.”
“The Rowdies brand is actually better known in European soccer parlance and communities than it is in the U.S. in many ways. So I think the idea of continuing along the lines of the Dali Museum, the Leadership Institute at Eckerd College, some of these institutions we have that really have international reach that bring people here from international locales."
MLS expansion would not come cheap, says Holden, vice president of Manning & Napier Advisors in St. Petersburg and leader of the Rowdies Council, a volunteer group that drums up business community support for the team. As soccer’s popularity has grown in the United States, MLS has hiked its franchise fee to $200 million — and that’s just to get into the club.
“Major League Soccer, they don't just want a billionaire; they want several billionaires,” Holden says. “They want a David Beckham and a Spice Girl sitting on the sidelines at every game. So I think that’s part of the magic that Bill is trying to pull together.”
Edwards doesn’t deny that he is looking to bolster the Rowdies ownership team with additional investors. The process, he says, is confidential, but he indicates investors with deep ties to professional soccer would be top the list.
In my opinion, Greg Holden and Bill Edwards have (hopefully!) passed this vision on to the new Rays ownership, so, although Bill Edwards is no longer involved, his plans cited above still apply, and, I hope, are going to be implemented in future for the Rowdies by the Rays ownership. The Rays haven’t bought an obscure, 9 year old minor league soccer team. The Rays have bought a relatively internationally well known (for an American soccer club), 44 year old American soccer brand name, with a lot of local, national, and international history and heritage behind it, which is something which one simply can’t create from scratch with a brand new team working from a blank slate.
Al Lang Stadium and MLS:
The Al Lang Stadium location, directly on the waterfront, in downtown St. Pete, within easy walking distance of parking garages, the Sundial outdoor mall, museums, restaurants, bars, brew pubs, music venues, art studios, and other shopping and entertainment options, makes it an ideal location for the younger MLS demographic, and it would be a unique location in MLS, nestled between the high rise buildings of downtown St. Pete and the harbor with its sailboats, pelicans, feral parrots, palm trees, and views of Tampa Bay. Nothing else in MLS would look or feel quite like what Al Lang Stadium has to offer.
The problem with the original $80 million Al Lang expansion proposal for MLS, is that it looked like half of a brand new modern soccer stadium, tacked on to a crumbling concrete baseball spring training stadium from the 1970s, which is exactly what the proposal was. It also left half of one touchline without any seating at all, which would make for a great view of the harbor, but which would have resulted in too many seats too far away from the pitch, while not having enough premium seats near the touch line on the harbor side.
The ideal MLS SSS (soccer specific stadium), in my opinion, should be something like Orlando City’s new SSS which I visited in 2017 – there should be seating stands along both touch lines and both goal lines (except in Orlando City’s case one of the goal lines has a standing terrace behind it, instead of seating stands, which is a nice touch), and the stands should be as close to the touch lines and goal lines as possible, and the stands should be as steep as practical, to keep the fans as close to the pitch as possible and on top of the action for a much better game day atmosphere.
My only complaint would be that the roof at Orlando City’s SSS doesn’t quite cover every seat, although it has much better coverage than any of the early MLS SSS. Coverage is essential in Florida where the rain can come down in sheets, cascades, buckets, downpours, cats and dogs, etc. Threats of rain in Florida does tend to discourage late walk up ticket sales and keeps people away, so a roof isn’t something to economize on. ETFE roofs are a good idea too, to allow maximum light in to encourage healthy grass growth; natural grass is a must for soccer. A full ETFE dome, either with a moveable roof or a fixed roof, would be even better because sometimes games in Florida get delayed or cancelled due to excessive rain, flooding, and lightning strikes, and a dome would prevent this, although of course that might be beyond an MLS owner’s available budget for a new SSS. But at the very least one needs a roof that keeps the rain off of every spectator, as much as possible.
As to an Al Lang Rowdies SSS proposal that would be acceptable to MLS: a complete teardown of the existing Al Lang Stadium structure is a must, so as to properly reorient the pitch in a north-south direction so as to leave an equal amount of space for new stands behind each touchline and each goal line. There’s no historical value to the existing concrete stadium, which was built in the 1970s. The previous stadiums that hosted famous baseball players during the “golden age” of baseball on the Al Lang site were torn down a long time ago. The existing baseball historical bronze plaques and markers can be preserved and/or incorporated into the new stadium, and the new Rowdies SSS can retain the Al Lang name for historical reasons (plus the addition of corporate sponsor names of course).
Possible Tampa Bay Rowdies MLS ownership groups:
So, between the MLS expansion fee and the costs of an adequate new SSS, joining MLS is getting very expensive. Although the Rays ownership group is deep pocketed, they might want to bring on additional investors for a Rowdies MLS bid. Based on what I have read, the list of ideal additional investors could include:
- Billionaires, obviously, for the deep pockets.
- Local owners of all types, to keep the Rowdies firmly rooted in the Tampa Bay Area community.
- Celebrities, to generate publicity; Seattle Sounders, Los Angeles FC, Inter Miami, etc., show how this can be done when creating ownership groups. There might be a few of these celebrities living in the Tampa Bay Area, or who aren’t local but who might be interested in the Rowdies.
- Soccer people, people with the types of expertise and connections in international soccer who can give the Rowdies an edge in attracting and recruiting soccer players (footballers!) and soccer administrators – Inter Miami has David Beckham, New York City FC is a partnership between the New York Yankees and City Football Group (Manchester City), and so on.
Lockhart Stadium and the Fort Lauderdale Strikers:
Turning to the situation in Miami and Fort Lauderdale; with two groups vying for control of the Lockhart Stadium site, I noticed this comment from the Mayor of Fort Lauderdale:
Before the meeting, Mayor Dean Trantalis said he thinks the 64 acres could be enough space for both proposals.
Looking at the site on Google satellite maps, I am guessing that the 64 acres only refers to the unused Lockhart Stadium site itself, and its parking lots? And not to the empty lot to its south, nor to the unused baseball stadium (Fort Lauderdale Stadium) and baseball practice fields to its north? If that is the case, there is plenty of space for both OnSide Entertainment’s USL Championship, D2, team playing at Lockhart, and for Inter Miami’s training facility, youth academy, and reserve team (possibly USL League One, D3?) in the area to the north of Lockhart where the baseball stadium and baseball practice fields are currently located. Sharing the site would eliminate the non-soccer commercial opportunities that are part of OnSide Entertainment’s business proposal, though, I am guessing? It might not be feasible for business reasons to share or split up the site between the two parties, but it is worthwhile at least mentioning the possibility.
However the situation at Lockhart works out, I am very much interested in saving the legacy of the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. The Strikers were the Rowdies big in-state rivals back in the 1970s, causing many a mullet to be hurled in anger (the fish, not the hairstyle). Back in 1977 the Miami Toros moved to Fort Lauderdale to become the Strikers, instantly seeing a big increase in their attendance (something similar happened when Miami FC did the same thing over thirty years later). The MLS contraction of the Miami Fusion has created the false narrative that Lockhart Stadium is a bad location for soccer; it is only a bad location for soccer teams named after Miami. Lockhart Stadium, being located in Fort Lauderdale, worked just fine for the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. Miami has a lot of international name recognition and it is where famous people want to live and hang out. Miami has sex appeal, but Fort Lauderdale is more centrally located for the sprawling South Florida metro population to the north of Miami.
Unfortunately for the Strikers, their last ownership group (in 2015 and 2016) destroyed the club, resulting in then Rowdies owner Bill Edwards gaining control of the Fort Lauderdale Strikers intellectual property for non-payment of debts owed him by the former Strikers owners. As I am given to understand, the Fort Lauderdale Strikers trademarks, copyrights, and other intellectual property, were not included in the sale of the Rowdies to the Rays. If Bill Edwards still owns these IP rights, he would probably be interested in selling them to anyone who intended to revive the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, playing at Lockhart Stadium again.
Ergo, the purpose and hope of this letter, is not only to eventually get the Rowdies into MLS, but to revive the Strikers and get them into the USL Championship, where the Rowdies currently play. The Rowdies currently have no in-state rivals in the USL Championship; we had in-state rivals Orlando City B, in 2017, and we had three in-state rivals in the NASL in 2016 (Fort Lauderdale Strikers, Jacksonville Armada, and Miami FC – not the Miami FC that became the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, but the Miami FC owned by Riccardo Silva). So the in-state rivalry thing for the Rowdies has been feast or famine.
In summary:
The TL;DR version of this letter (and my previous letters) is as follows:
- The Tampa Bay Area is the largest TV market (#11) without an MLS team.
- Al Lang stadium on the waterfront in downtown St. Pete is a hidden treasure, and it would be a missed opportunity not to build a new MLS SSS there for the Tampa Bay Rowdies.
- If San Jose and Miami deserve a second chance at MLS, why not Tampa Bay?
- The Tampa Bay Mutiny were the MLS 1.0 Tampa Bay Rowdies in all but name; MLS put a team in the Tampa Bay Area for a reason, in spite of not having an owner, but refused to use the Rowdies name or learn what had made the original Rowdies so successful in the first place.
- The Mutiny were not contracted due to poor attendance (relative to other MLS teams at the time) but due to lack of any owners and due to excessive stadium rent of Raymond James Stadium, yet the myth of the Tampa Bay Area being a bad soccer market persists, in spite of the exceptionally good Rowdies home game attendance figures circa 1975-1980.
- Save the Fort Lauderdale Strikers! Someone talk to Bill Edwards about purchasing the IP rights.
No comments:
Post a Comment