Smaller stadiums aim to host more non-sporting events
The hyper-competitive race to win entertainment customers in Florida has a few new players: small-scale stadiums.
Al Lang Stadium, St. Petersburg
The main priority for Al Lang Stadium is Tampa Bay Rowdies soccer, says Lee Cohen, Rowdies VP and COO.
But the soccer season leaves lots of opportunities to host other events at the stadium. Aside from 22 to 24 soccer dates for the Rowdies, part of the United Soccer League, Cohen says there’s quite a bit of stadium availability.
In the past, for example, Al Lang has hosted a variety of activities, including skateboarding and rugby events along with commercial shoots and photo shoots.
Once the Rowdies figured out the basics in terms of hosting soccer events at the stadium, Cohen says the team felt comfortable hosting programming outside of matches. “There are necessary costs that go into keeping the building afloat,” he says, and many days when it’s empty.
One of the main non-soccer events it’s hosted is the Al Lang Live concert series, produced by Bill Edwards’ Big 3 Entertainment. A prominent entrepreneur and philanthropist, Edwards sold the Rowdies to the Tampa Bay Rays in the fall, after helping grow the soccer team's brand and presence in the region.
This year, there are three concerts scheduled so far in April, May and June, including Santana and Bryan Adams, with more likely to be booked. Last year's lineup included the Counting Crows and Poison. Cohen says they’d like to go from three or four concerts a year to eight or 10 concerts. “The concert business was another way to put on another major event inside the facility,” he says.
Concerts have also been held at the stadium in conjunction with Rowdies games. “We saw there was good mix of people coming to Rowdies games based on the people we were bringing in,” Cohen says, leading them to give a concert series a go.
The concerts also expose people to downtown St. Petersburg and Al Lang Stadium who might not have thought of coming to the venue. “We try and take advantage of being good stewards of the market,” Cohen says. “The more we can program the facility, the better it will be.”
On Saturdays, visitors to a farmers market outside the stadium are invited to come inside Al Lang Stadium to use bathrooms and get out of the sun. Cohen says they also open up the stadium on first Saturdays of the month for people to enjoy, with soccer matches shown for fans to watch and the field available for kids to run around on, essentially turning the stadium into a big park.
Cohen says he and his colleagues are always thinking about other opportunities, in addition to music and sports.
In April, a group called Synapse will present them with ideas about different things they could do with the stadium, from sporting events to entertainment to corporate outings. Cohen says, “Now that we’ve got the soccer and got the concerts, what’s the next wave of events?”
Along with connecting the community to Al Lang Stadium, non-soccer events provide another revenue stream. “I think that the way we try to look at it," Cohen says, "anything outside of the Rowdies business is just extra business."
Al Lang officials have also looked to other soccer organizations to see what they bring in to their facilities. and being in the Tampa Bay area means they have a host of other sports facilities to look to for inspiration and ideas, from Raymond James Stadium to Amalie Arena to Tropicana Field.
As a 7,000-seat outdoor stadium, Al Lang does face some basic challenges. Weather is a major one, especially Florida’s rainy season. “It’s always going to be something we’re going to face, but it’s not something we’re going to run away from,” Cohen says. “We’re just going to prepare for it.”
Also, other events can’t damage the field or any other aspects of the stadium that are crucial for soccer. Cohen says, “You’ve got to make sure it doesn’t affect the primary business.”
Where are those stadium renderings? #MLS4THELOU says to expect them by months' end
Pressure is mounting for the city's MLS bid as Sacramento, its chief rival for the 28th franchise, releases new renderings of its stadium, and as the league's board of governors prepares for a potential expansion decision in two weeks.
Report: Fire negotiating exit from SeatGeek Stadium
The Fire are negotiating to escape their lease with the Village of Bridgeview for SeatGeek Stadium. | Brian Sandalow, For the Sun-Times
The Fire are trying to move back to Chicago. And perhaps with a different identity.
The Athletic first reported Friday the Fire, MLS and the Village of Bridgeview are negotiating to end a lease that brought the team to the southwest suburb in June 2006. It is unclear how much the Fire would have to pay to exit the lease — which runs through 2036 — to move back to Chicago and Soldier Field.
Miami seeks expert to negotiate with David Beckham team
Miami commissioners have agreed to hire a third party to assist city administrators in their negotiations with the David Beckham group for a long-term lease of city-owned property adjacent to Miami International Airport.
The deal, if approved, would turn the Melreese Golf Course into a sweeping commercial development anchored by a Major League Soccer stadium.
The controversial matter has led some commissioners to put the squeeze on city administrators in an effort to get the best deal and the ability to vote on the final lease before November’s election.
Commissioner Manolo Reyes is up for re-election and says he wants to be able to vote on the proposal, which thus far he has opposed.
On a move by Mr. Reyes, commissioners on March 14 directed the city manager to report on the status of negotiations for the proposed ground lease at the March 28 commission meeting, and to deliver a finished proposed lease for review and approval by the Sept. 12 meeting.
City Manager Emilio González and City Attorney Victoria Mendez prepared a resolution for March 28 for the commissioners to hire Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP as legal consultants, to provide subject matter expertise on negotiations between the city and Miami Freedom Park LLC (the Beckham group).
Mr. González said he worked with the city attorney to find the most appropriate consulting firm that specializes in sports facilities, and they agreed to retain the Hunton firm “as we enter greater negotiations.”
Mr. Reyes immediately questioned the firm’s expertise in large commercial ventures.
He said the issue isn’t really a plan for a soccer stadium. “Let’s tell the public what it really is. It’s building a massive commercial project on Melreese,” said Mr. Reyes. He asked what type of experience the company had negotiating massive real estate developments.
Mr. González responded: “All stadiums are real estate deals.”
Mr. Reyes then cited state statutes and city resolutions that prohibit the city from spending tax dollars on any company that does business with Cuba.
“I think it precludes them,” he said.
Commissioner Wifredo “Willy” Gort agreed it’s not just a stadium proposal, it’s “a completely different deal” with offices, hotels, a shopping center and more.
Commissioner Joe Carollo agreed, saying: “The bulk of what the project is, is commercial in nature… the main revenue to the city would come from a mall, hotel, office space and parking. The very smallest portion of revenue is (from) the stadium.”
Mr. Carollo continued, “I do not feel comfortable bringing in a firm whose expertise is not in major commercial real estate. This doesn’t impress me. It’s not what we need here.”
He finally added, “We have an obligation to put this out to bid,” in reference to hiring the most qualified consultants. Recognizing the tight deadline the commission imposed on the administration, he suggested a quick request for proposals be issued.
Mr. Carollo suggested the request be very specific and emphasize the city wants a firm with experience negotiating major commercial developments, and that those services include advising the city on the best deal and providing a full analysis of what is proposed to be built on the site and the market rate value of those additions.
“We need real numbers,” said Mr. Carollo. He and other commissioners have lately been expressing dissatisfaction with existing city leases which they feel do not bring in the amount of revenue they should.
“I agree with the commissioner,” said Mr. Reyes. “My first concern is that this is not a stadium deal. This is a major commercial development.”
Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP, headquartered in Richmond, VA, established a Miami office in 1999. A representative of the firm said it doesn’t do any business with Cuba.
Mark Arnold, from the firm, said Hunton specializes in stadium developments. He said the firm worked on a large commercial project in New York that included a hockey stadium and significant retail, similar to what is proposed at Miami Freedom Park.
Mr. Arnold said the firm has experience handling deals that have included convention centers, hotels and more. He said it represented local governments in 14 stadium transactions.
Chairman Ken Russell was looking for a deferral of the resolution to hire the Hunton firm.
After advice from Ms. Mendez, commissioners agreed to direct her office to immediately prepare a request for letters of interest from firms nationwide with expertise on major stadium and commercial ventures.
They approved a quick turnaround, with 15 days for companies to submit letters of interest.
Mr. Carollo said he wants each commissioner to have up to three days to review all of the letters, and suggested a special meeting in April to make the hire.
The commission approved this on a unanimous vote. It then voted to withdraw the resolution regarding the Hunton firm. It was noted that the Hunton firm is not prohibited from submitting a letter of interest.
Melreese Golf Course is on about 131 city-owned acres at 1400 NW 37th Ave.
City voters in 2018 approved a proposal authorizing the city to negotiate and execute a 99-year lease with Miami Freedom Park LLC, for about 73 acres, waiving bidding, and converting Melreese to a soccer stadium, at least 1 million square feet office, retail, commercial uses, 750 hotel rooms and more, and a 58-acre public park.
David Beckham has wrecking ball ready for Lockhart Stadium
The David Beckham soccer era in Fort Lauderdale will begin soon, starting with the demolition of two sports stadiums that hosted decades of community memories.
The soccer legend won the unanimous go-ahead Tuesday night to tear down Lockhart Stadium and the adjacent Fort Lauderdale Stadium in the next six months.
The two stadiums have seen baseball home runs, soccer goals and football touchdowns dating back to the 1950s. Two professional soccer teams called Lockhart home, and two professional baseball teams honed their skills at the Fort Lauderdale Stadium during Spring Training. Local high schools fueled football rivalries at Lockhart for years.
In recent years, the stadiums fell into disrepair, overgrown and abandoned.
Next up: Inter Miami CF, a new Major League Soccer team owned by Beckham and his business partners.
Beckham plans a “soccer-centric community destination” at the 64-acre Lockhart site. After the stadium is torn down, a new, canopied, 18,000-seat replacement will go up. And Inter Miami will play its first two seasons there. In addition, the property will serve as Inter Miami’s training hub for the next 50 years, under the tentative agreement with the city.
Fort Lauderdale city commissioners inked an interim agreement Tuesday night with Beckham, so his group can get started remaking the public property next to Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE), north of Commercial Boulevard and west of Interstate 95. The agreement allows Beckham’s group to test soil, assess environmental damage, tear down the stadiums, salvage Lockhart bleachers if possible, and begin planning and designing the proposed new soccer complex.
Beckham and his business partners are on a relatively short time line to get a new stadium constructed at Lockhart by next February.
Under Beckham’s proposal, the city will contribute no money toward the new stadium, but would allow use of the city land for 50 years.
Mayor Dean Trantalis raised a concern with Lockhart’s demolition, worrying that if Beckham should “walk away from the deal,” the city couldn’t move to the second-ranked rival bidder for the city acreage. That bidder, FXE Futbol, proposed renovating Lockhart Stadium to host a Division 2 soccer team.
Beckham’s lawyer-lobbyist Stephanie Toothaker said the stadiums likely couldn’t be rehabilitated, and demolition will be costly, because they contain asbestos.
“Even if all we did was demolish, that’s actually a great benefit to the city of Fort Lauderdale,” Toothaker said.
Others on the commission said they didn’t mind having the stadium torn down and the property cleared, or had faith in the deal.
“I’m optimistic about this deal going forward,” Commissioner Robert McKinzie said. “We know we cannot use the stadium in its current condition.”
City Manager Chris Lagerbloom said he likes to protect the city from risk also. But he didn’t advise delaying the Beckham stadium based on worst-case scenario, as the mayor proposed.
"We’re both going to travel with a little bit of risk if this project is going to open in 2020," he said.
Toothaker, said she’d return with some assurance for the city. Trantalis said he’d like a performance bond to be posted, so the city could recoup money if the deal breaks down after the stadium is removed.
“I feel the city is left exposed. If we find ourselves with a stadium that has been scrapped and the other side walks away, the city is left holding the bag — in this case, an empty bag,” Trantalis said.
Inter Miami eventually is expected to play in a new stadium in Miami, at the city’s Melreese Country Club golf course. But facing delays there, Beckham recently announced the team would play its first two seasons at Lockhart.
“The whole purpose of this agreement is to keep us on track with timing,” Toothaker said, acknowledging there are still many issues to hammer out.
When Inter Miami moves to Miami-Dade County, the Lockhart site will remain the team’s training hub, where soccer talent is developed. Beckham will field a USL League One farm team at Lockhart, as well as a youth soccer academy. Beckham also would build a parking garage, and 30,000-square foot training center with gym, classrooms, dining facilities, medical and rehab space for his professional and farm teams.
For the public, four regulation size soccer fields that can be used for other sports will be built, as well as a dog park, a running trail, field maintenance building, playground and public park space. There would be space for a community center, but Beckham proposes the city pay for it.
Miami Beckham United’s partners are David and Victoria Beckham, brothers Jorge and Jose Mas of MasTec, a $7 billion engineering and construction company; Marcelo Claure and Masayoshi Son of SoftBank Group, and Simon Fuller, a TV producer and talent manager.
A final deal still must be approved by the City Commission.
The deal will bring a new public park — and possibly a community center — to the city’s northern end. A newly approved parks bond issue could provide money for the city to develop the park portion of the acreage, though commissioners haven’t agreed on details.
City Commissioner Heather Moraitis, whose district includes the Lockhart site, said she’s holding community meetings to find out what people want to see on the portions of the acreage that will be public parks or sports fields. A meeting Monday night was well attended, she said.
“Everyone’s super excited about it,” she said.
Fort Lauderdale and Stranahan high school officials said they hope to be included in the plans. Their football teams since 2012 have had to play elsewhere, usually outside city limits.
Civic activists beseeched the city in March not to forge an agreement with Beckham unless it allows use of the new stadium for local high school football games. Toothaker had said the group couldn’t commit to specific dates until the Major League Soccer schedule is issued. But she agreed Tuesday to add the football games as “aspirational” goals, and promised to work with school district officials.
Jose Mas said recently that if salvaged bleachers are placed around one of the play fields, a “mini stadium” could be created for the local schools. That might not work for high school football games, because of security requirements, high school sports officials say.
Sac Republic FC releases new MLS stadium renderings (Slideshow)
New renderings for a Major League Soccer stadium in the Railyards development suggest local momentum is building again toward a potential expansion team.
Joe Cole explains why he rejected Tottenham in favour of Liverpool in 2010
Cole, who also turned out for Lille, Aston Villa and Coventry before calling time on his playing career with the Tampa Bay Rowdies last November, also admits that Chelsea were the club he enjoyed playing for the most, and now hopes to inspire the next generation as a coach with the west London outfit.
Fort Lauderdale says Beckham can demolish Lockhart Stadium
David Beckham's planned Major League Soccer stadium in South Florida is another step closer to reality. The Fort Lauderdale City Commission voted to enter into an interim agreement with Beckham's group, one that will allow the MLS club to demolish Lockhart Stadium as a precursor to building a stadium of its own on that plot of land. Beckham's group plans to have a stadium in place on the Lockhart site in time to begin an inaugural MLS season in March 2020.
The Socceresq Podcast (Ep. 13): The Miami Experiment with Neil Blackmon and Kartik Krishnaiyer
We just recently passed the five-year anniversary of David Beckham’s announcement that he was exercising his options purchase a MLS team, and announcing where he’d like to play.
To celebrate, I decided to call up a couple of colleagues to chat about all things Miami: Neil Blackmon and Kartik Krishnaiyer. We talk a little about the history of soccer in South Florida, the rise (and fall) of the Miami Fusion and Ft. Lauderdale Strikers, and why it’s been so difficult for Beckham to find a place to play.
Check it out on YouTube, if you want to see our smiling faces.
Sacramento Republic FC releases new stadium renderings
The Sacramento Republic FC released a new set of renderings Tuesday -- the most detailed to date -- as the team and the city continues to press for a bid to become home to a Major League Soccer team.
Team management pointed out some key refinements in their plans to build the stadium in the downtown railyards east of 7th Street.
MLS, Inter Miami dispute Inter Milan's U.S. trademark application
Major League Soccer contends that it will be damaged by a 2014 U.S. trademark application filed by Serie A club Inter Milan over usage of the term "Inter," according to a legal document filed by the league and obtained by ProSoccerUSA.
In a notice of opposition filed on March 25 to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, MLS says: "No one soccer team can claim exclusive rights to the term INTER, therefore Milan has no exclusive rights to the term INTER."
MLS will introduce expansion Inter Miami CF as its 25th club for the 2020 season. The club, which counts David Beckham as one of its principal owners, will be formally known as Club Internacional de Futbol Miami.
Inter Milan, winners of 18 Italian top-flight titles and three Champions League trophies, filed a trademark application in 2014 for the usage of the term, according to the document.
MLS argues that numerous clubs around the world use the term in their names and that it should not be associated with a particular side. Others teams cited are Inter Nashville FC, Inter Atlanta FC, FC Inter Turku (Finland), NK Inter Zapresic (Croatia), Inter Leipzig (Germany), and Inter de Grand-Goave (Haiti).
When Beckham unveiled the name of the club in September 2018, the former Manchester United and Real Madrid star said the name "celebrates the incredible energy of one of the most exciting cities in the world -- one that is diverse, passionate and ambitious -- a city that has welcomed me and so many others, so warmly."
Inter Milan, officially known as FC Internazionale Milano S.p.A, made light following that announcement on social media. Beckham played at rivals AC Milan for two loan spells while he was with the LA Galaxy.
Inter Miami announced in March that they will play its first two seasons at Fort Lauderdale's Lockhart Stadium while working toward building a permanent home at Miami Freedom Park.
Fort Lauderdale, Stranahan football teams hope to be included in David Beckham's Lockhart Stadium plans
While the city of Fort Lauderdale and David Beckham’s Inter Miami CF Major League Soccer club make plans to revitalize Lockhart Stadium for South Florida’s new MLS team, local high school football teams are hoping they will be included, too.
Fort Lauderdale approved a plan that made little mention of high school football on March 19, but Lockhart Stadium has historically been the home for Fort Lauderdale and Stranahan’s teams. They would like to return.
“I only wish that whatever happens with Lockhart Stadium — if they knock it down, rebuild it, whatever — they keep Fort Lauderdale High School and Stranahan High School in mind,” Fort Lauderdale coach Richard Dunbar said.
Neither Fort Lauderdale or Stranahan have been playing their games inside Fort Lauderdale’s city limits. The Flying L’s have been playing at Northeast, while the Mighty Dragons have played most home games at South Plantation. The two Fort Lauderdale football teams haven’t played at Lockhart Stadium since 2012.
Returning high school games to Lockhart Stadium, which opened in 1959, would mean a lot to both football teams.
“It would mean everything to the school and the community,” Stranahan athletic director Thomas Harrison said. “This past year has been very difficult for us, basically being the equivalent of couch surfing from school to school. We played at South Plantation, we played at Dillard, we played at Northeast. Only one of those [is] actually in the city of Fort Lauderdale’s city limits.
“To have a place that we could go every week, that’s going to be our home, a place that’s historically been our home, would mean a lot.”
Broward County Public Schools Director of Athletics and Student Activities Shawn Cerra said representatives of the district met with Fort Lauderdale mayor Dean Trantalis and the City Commission before the commission selected Beckham’s proposal.
“We met with them and had some pretty rich conversations about not only the stadium facility itself, but also the surrounding fields they’re going to be creating,” Cerra said.
Lockhart Stadium may not be able to provide the teams with their only home playing fields. Inter Miami starts play in MLS next year, and the MLS season and high school football season overlap from August until October — longer if Inter Miami makes the playoffs.
Inter Miami’s current plan is to play at Lockhart Stadium for two years while a stadium in Miami is built. After the MLS team leaves, the club plans to place its youth academy and United Soccer League third-division farm team in Fort Lauderdale.
For security reasons, the stadium itself is likely to be the only location that could host events as highly trafficked as a high school football game. But the side fields could be used for smaller events.
Cerra said in addition to Fort Lauderdale and Stranahan home football games, he hopes other high school events can be played at the new Lockhart Stadium, including the annual Blanche Ely-Dillard Soul Bowl and soccer state championships.
“We are definitely looking to be part of this project.” Cerra said.
Inter Miami and the city of Fort Lauderdale still need to hash out the final details of the agreement, which will be voted on in a public City Commission meeting later this year. The next step for local high school teams, Cerra said, would be to continue talks with the city and Inter Miami.
“Every person that we met with in person was very open-minded and really aggressively trying to secure what we were trying to accomplish,” Cerra said.
WATCH: Orlando City ‘fools’ with Beckham’s Miami via Blair Witch spoof
April Fools’ Day on social media gets tired real quickly, so embrace the fresh and never let go.
Orlando City SC’s video qualifies as fresh, even though it isn’t quite a prank as much as a chance to rip on its future geographic rivals: David Beckham’s Inter Miami CF.
Beckham and his crew are going to redevelop Lockhart Stadium, which has been abandoned for some time, and it’s going to be gorgeous. But the announcement wasn’t as sexy, with Becks standing in front of the overgrown field for the news.
OCSC sent players Dom Dwyer, Lamine Sane, and Benji Michel into “the wilderness” for a spoof on “Blair Witch Project.” Not quite anything to be believed, but genuinely amusing.
It could’ve been perfect, but the ending did not feature a corner.
Just wait til DPs Messi, Ronaldo, and Neymar enact their revenge in several years.
Orlando City SC
@OrlandoCitySC
BREAKING: Three players vanish after traveling to Lockhart Stadium to scrimmage @InterMiamiCF, leaving only their footage behind.
A Tale Of Two Cities: Oakland And Tampa And Baseball Parks
The 2019 Major League Baseball season has started and two problems have not been solved. There seems to be no resolution for the ownership groups of the Oakland A’s and Tampa Bay Rays in their quest for new ballparks. The stadium issues in Oakland and Tampa were supposed to be resolved by the end of December 2018. Major League Baseball would then be free to find two expansion sites with Montreal the overwhelming favorite to get one of those slots. But the present Oakland ownership seemingly in the same position as prior Oakland ownership groups since 2001. The owners are seeking a stadium to replace the Oakland Coliseum. Present A’s ownership has identified an Oakland waterfront area a potential ballpark site but there is a major traffic concern and no one knows how many toxins are in the ground as the property has housed a gas plant, a charcoal plant and oil tanks. The Port of Oakland has been monitoring ground water at the site since 2002. Oakland ownership wants to move into the waterfront stadium by 2023 but there are many environmental tests to come and eventually a site cleanup. A’s ownership also wants to build housing on the site but because of the probable toxins in the ground, there is a prohibition of constructing housing on the site. A’s ownership is also facing opposition from unions and an environmental group over its plans.
St. Petersburg officials are waiting to hear from Rays’ ownership about future stadium plans. Rays ownership has a deal with St. Petersburg to play in the city stadium through 2027. A proposal to move the team to the Tampa side of the bay fell through last year. St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman claims there is money available through the local Tourist Development Council for a stadium but it won’t last forever.
SAINT PETERSBURG (FOX13) - Saint Petersburg, is now known globally as a city to push the envelope on Eco-friendly issues, and that’s just fine with Neal Norton, the owner of a bike shop on First Ave. South. A green city means more cash flow for his business.
“Our shop is located right on a major bike route,” Neal said.
St. Pete plans to add nine more miles of bike lanes this year as part of a plan calling for 30 miles over the next decade.
This follows a damning Wall Street Journal report last year which found Tampa Bay, more specifically Pinellas County, as the deadliest place to ride a bike because of the high number of accidents.
“As we’ve put in more bike lanes the average number of bike lanes has gone down,” said Evan Mory the City’s transportation director.
There is an organization protesting Saint Pete’s bike lane plans. Dr. Ed Carlson heads up Citizens Against Lane Loss. They are concerned as the city’s population grows reducing motorist lanes for bike lanes will lead to further congestion.
“It’s the mayor and the head of transportation, who doesn’t have an engineering degree, they are imposing this whole thing on the city,” Carlson said.
His group is even angrier over a plan to ditch close to 100 parking spaces and keep bike lanes to make way for a rapid bus lane on First Avenue North from 20th to 31st street.
“We are all for it done right which is on the side of the road on a bike path, rather than a lane in the street for just a few bikers,” Carlson said.
Mayor Rick Kriseman’s office has made it clear bike lanes will only grow. There’s even an initiative by several different transportation organizations encouraging many driver to try and go “car free.”
“We’ve been in conversation with those involved with the Strikers brand,” Mas said. “We want to be very respectful to the history. We have some very cool ideas.”
David Beckham's Soccer Club Tries To Win Over Miami While Flirting With Fort Lauderdale
David Beckham's new Major League Soccer team, Inter Miami, has gone through a lot — multiple proposed-then-nixed stadium sites, a key public vote, legal challenges and scads of political battles — to get where it is now: negotiating to build a 25,000-seat stadium and $1B mixed-use project on a city-owned golf course.
In the meantime, because the team is scheduled to start playing in 10 months, it went to Fort Lauderdale for permission to redevelop that city's Lockhart Stadium to use for pro matches for the first two years and for training after that.
This divvying up of team operations has upset some Miamians who fought for the team to be based there, expecting more than just 18 or so pro games per year. So now Beckham's group is in an awkward position of convincing Miami it is still its No. 1 city while Fort Lauderdale's lipstick is all over its collar — lest the whole Miami deal fall through.
Whereas the Miami negotiations have been marked by careful maneuvering, the team was easily welcomed in Fort Lauderdale. Mayor Dean Trantalis was in a celebratory mood at a Bisnow conference last week, the morning after his Fort Lauderdale City Commission voted to move forward in talks with Beckham's team rather than a rival soccer startup that has long wanted the space — and feels Beckham's group undercut it.
“David Beckham has landed!” Trantalis said in his opening statement to the audience. "Fort Lauderdale is going to be the center of soccer. We’re so pleased and so happy that the commission unanimously voted to make that happen."
Now, a week after winning approval in Fort Lauderdale, Inter Miami is tackling its next big obstacle: the Miami City Commission. The commission is expected to vote on lease terms by September.
Jorge Mas, the managing partner and lead investor behind Beckham’s franchise, spoke to Magic City Soccer on Monday about plans for the publicly owned Melreese Country Club site.
Mas faces an uphill task at the Miami City Commission, where Inter Miami appears to be one vote short for approval of his plans. Commissioner Manolo Reyes has been one of the primary critics of the deal, and if he votes against the project, the final decision may rest with Willy Gort, whose district includes Melreese and surrounding neighborhoods.
In Monday’s interview with Magic City Soccer, Mas appealed to the commissioners directly, detailing how the team has been hosting focus groups and community meetings to gauge concerns in their districts. He also reminded them of the election result last November: Miami voters overwhelmingly supported the city entering into negotiations for the Melreese site without having to consider competing bids.
Mas framed the project at Melreese, dubbed Miami Freedom Park, as an “economic engine” for the city. He cited the importance of his fellow investors in the franchise, who include Masayoshi Son and Marcelo Claure, the CEO and chief operating officer of SoftBank, respectively. SoftBank controls significant stakes in Uber and WeWork, through its Vision Fund, the world’s largest tech and private equity fund.
“What we are trying to develop at Miami Freedom Park is a technology hub that can be the home of the creative minds of young men and women in South Florida, that can establish high-paying jobs,” Mas said.
The franchise claims that Miami Freedom Park would result in $44M in annual tax revenue to local governments. Mas also defended the decision to play their first two years at Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, which will house the team’s youth academy and technical headquarters. That site would also host Miami’s USL League One affiliate, which would play in the American third division of soccer.
Inter Miami negotiators committed to branding the affiliate team with a Fort Lauderdale identity. Different iterations of a pro team called the Fort Lauderdale Strikers have played at Lockhart on-and-off since the late 1970s.
“We’ve been in conversation with those involved with the Strikers brand,” Mas said. “We want to be very respectful to the history. We have some very cool ideas.”
Hours after Mas spoke with Magic City Soccer, an opponent of the stadium deal, Miami-based attorney William Douglas Muir, filed a fresh court challenge. He had already sued, alleging that the city of Miami should not have been allowed to negotiate a closed-bid deal for Miami Freedom Park. He lost that challenge, but is now appealing. See Also: Will Miami Marlins Finally Build Youth Academy That Was Promised In 2007?
See Also: Will Miami Marlins Finally Build Youth Academy That Was Promised In 2007?
Related Topics: David Beckham, Jorge Mas, Miami MLS, Miami CRE, InterMiami
The 2019 home opener is in the books, and the guys share their thoughts on the new season, on and off the pitch!
In this episode:
Rowdies 2:0 Riverhounds
Shawn Barry MOTM, TOTW & International call-up
Even our parking garages are Rowdie
The Yellow & Green Dream
Eastern Conference Wrap Up
STL Preview
We had a chat with Phill Grooms, host of St Louis Soccer Report, about this weekend’s matchup, offseason moves for both clubs, and how STL’s MLS push is impacting the current USL club
Interview with Stephen Schrutt from Hunger + Thirst Group – St. Petersburg Foodies Podcast Episode 30
Interview with Stephen Schrutt from Hunger + Thirst
Welcome to the St. Petersburg Foodies Podcast Episode 30. Our featured interview today is with Stephen Schrutt. Stephen is the owner of Hunger + Thirst Group. They operate the restaurants and bars: The Avenue Eat + Drink, Park & Rec, and No Vacancy in downtown St. Petersburg. Stephen grew up in Tampa, and is an avid sports fan. He announces his brand's expansion in Tropicana Field just in time for the start of baseball season. Our featured local music is from Speakeasy. Speakeasy's Bassist Brendon Porter answers The Fast Five Foodies Questions, and we feature the song 'It's Great to Be Back'.
Rowdies’ atmosphere of cheers, chants amps up sense of community
Wow...TWO articles from the Times tonight...very cool...
(Wonder if they’ll make the Sunday paper...)
This was a really good write up that does a great job explaining why this is the local team I support in terms of season tickets. I'm going to be a bit petty and not give them any credit for the other article - it was just a rewrite of the recap the team released. There was no media outside of Dan & I talking to Neill and Andrew after the game.
Rowdies’ atmosphere of cheers, chants amps up sense of community
Ralph’s Mob, vibrancy of downtown St. Petersburg, enhaces the draw for soccer fans
As I made my way to Al Lang Stadium Saturday, one question kept entering my thoughts.
Do I want to enter the belly of the beast?
For the uninitiated, and prior to Saturday I was among the uninitiated, the belly of the beast is the center of Section 307 at Al Lang. Behind the northern goal at the home of the Tampa Bay Rowdies, a group of fans known as Ralph’s Mob set up there.
They do not sit there.
They stand, cheer, chant, beat drums, wave flags and deliver an electric pulse that reverberates across the pitch, off the Mahaffey Theatre and into the nighttime sky above the bay. It’s not part of the game, it is the game – as integral as the stellar play of keeper John McCarthy or the defensive strategies of Coach Neill Collins.
They started immediately in Saturday’s game against Loudoun United, lighting torches that blew yellow smoke and singing a song that sounded vaguely familiar. Thanks to my knowledge of 1970s music, I detected the melody: Supertramp’s super hit The Logical Song. Thanks to Google, I learned that the Western Sydney Wanderers football club in Australia rewrote the song as a call to arms for its fans.
But you knew that, right?
This is the kind of fun that draws Palm Harbor’s Jackie June and Abigail Cilmi to the Rowdies games. June, a native of Britain, likens the constant cheering, drumming and clapping to an authentic English soccer game.
“I love baseball, but there’s no real atmosphere at a baseball game unless it’s the ninth inning and it’s the last out,” said June, who later explained that every member of Ralph’s Mob gets a songbook with lyrics. “With soccer, it’s 90 minutes of action and the fans are involved. It’s amazing.”
An amazing game on an amazing night. Downtown St. Petersburg’s vibrancy rose with the spectacularly breezy and pleasant night. Everyone seemed to be out for a good time on a Saturday. That included a 200-plus wedding party that paraded from Station House to the Dali, accompanied by a New Orleans-style jazz band playing When the Saints Go Marching In.
All of the district’s amenities — it’s bars, it’s walkability, it’s watery vistas — also bring out Rowdies fans from far and wide. But it’s the gameday atmosphere that keeps them coming back.
Sarasota’s Bill Cantrill and Jamie Aungst were among a number of fans from south of the Skyway. They found their way to the Thirsty First near the corner of First Street and First Avenue N. a typical pregame gathering spot for Ralph’s Mob. Gulfport’s Mitchell Lauster, a former Indiana high school player who now lives in Gulfport.
“This is my first year in the Mob,” Lauster said. “I had been coming to the games, but it brings more excitement to have a group of people to cheer with.”
The cheers engage, the guy dressed like a pirate with the bubble wand is cute, and the stadium – especially if you arrive early enough to see cruise ships sailing by on the horizon — is pitch perfect, pun intended.
Yet, it’s the sense of community that proved to be a theme throughout the night. Ian Linn founded the Skyway Casuals, a group of Rowdies fans who hail primarily from the Bradenton/Sarasota area and not only attend home games, but gather at Shamrocks Bar in Sarasota to watch away games.
It’s a full official 501-c7 with scarves, stickers and a flag. Linn loves the game, but he also loves the camaraderie.
“It’s the in-stadium experience,” Linn said. “It’s the singing, the chanting, the smoke bombs. We like to come and make a day of it."
At day’s end, however, the game matters to these fans. They come for the fun but to also see a winning team, and in the 2019 version of the Rowdies, they believe they have a group strong on defense and youth, with only one player over the age of 30.
It’s an approach akin to the Rays, whose ownership purchased the soccer club last year — and it may prove to be a formula that gives this burgeoning community more to chant, cheer and celebrate.
You know, the belly of the beast is actually warm, cozy and a blast.
Loudoun United will have to wait another few weeks to score its second goal or record its first victory, but it did achieve the team’s first shutout on Saturday in its match against the Tampa Bay Rowdies.
“What a great effort from the team to get a point on the road against Tampa. They are a very strong team physically, as well as quick and aggressive which makes the game very difficult,” Coach Richie Williams said. “We have seven players on the field with this being their first year as pros and their third game on top of that, and to be able to go out there and compete and get a point is incredible.”
Goalkeeper Earl Edwards recorded three saves during the match. Tampa, which stands second in the USL Championship Group A season standings at 2-2-0, controled the ball for nearly two-thirds of the game.
“I knew it was going to be tough coming down here to play against Tampa, they are one of the better teams in the USL. To be able to come down and contribute and help the team get a shutout was an accomplishment for everybody,” Edwards said. “Defensively, I thought we were great, to get a shutout at a place like this is hard to do so I am glad we were able to get that done. Going forward I think we could have been better on the ball but like I said this is a tough place to play so we will take what we got.”
Loudoun United (0-2-1) will next play the Ottawa Fury FC (1-1-0), at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 13, in Canada.
Norwich City loan watch: Marshall on target at Leeds as Oliveira closes on Reading return
Over in the USA left-back Caleb Richards again played the full match as Tampa Bay Rowdies maintained their unbeaten start to the United Soccer League season, drawing 0-0 at home to Loudoun United in the Eastern Conference of the second-tier Championship.
Stuart Sternberg: Rays should be good, late sellout ‘problematic’
Principal owner says opportunity is there to add to team for playoff push.
ST. PETERSBURG — Principal owner Stuart Sternberg said he goes into the season “highly optimistic” about a Rays team he expects to win at least 90 games, there is “nothing new” on the search for a stadium and opening day not selling out until Wednesday night was "problematic.''
Talking to Tampa Bay media before Thursday’s game, Sternberg said, among other things:
* He expects the team to be in the playoff race.
"I’d like to get to 90-plus wins, and we can’t control really what happens after that,'' he said. "Our division and the number of games we play against especially the two top teams makes it quite difficult, but I will take our chances. Unfortunately, 90 wins didn’t even get us a smell. ... If we get to 90 and not even close again it will be a bit frustrating, but I’ll take my chances with 90.
* There are multiple reasons for his optimism about the team.
"We feel as good about this club as any as we’ve had in the recent past,'' he said. "There’s been times when others have been more optimistic about the team than I have. I love the balance that we have, I like the depth we have minor-league-wise, and I like the opportunity we’re going to have to add if necessary because we’ve got ... some room payroll-wise, we’ve got some pieces we could move potentially if we chose to try to get better come June or July.
* Needing until Wednesday to sell out with a reduced capacity of 25,025 was not a good sign.
"It’s problematic, and the sellout isn’t 33 (thousand) that we have or 38 (thousand) or 42 (thousand),'' he said. "Twenty-five thousand seats, given everything that we are, the way we finished last year, the team we have, 4 o’clock start, it should be a layup to use a different sport’s phrase. But it is what it is, and I always say for the people that are here, the 25,000 that are here, whether they bought their tickets a month ago or they bought them yesterday, we’re going to put on a great show and they’re going to have a great time.
* His Wednesday meeting with St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman to talk about the stadium situation was just an update.
"Nothing new at all, other than I told him, I had promised him back in January we’d be back to him by some point in the summer and I reiterated that to him,'' he said. "(In the) next couple of months, we should be able to come in with something. It might be great news, it might be awful news, I don’t know what it will be. And don’t read into that in any stretch. We promised an honest assessment by summer, and that will be the case.''
* There will be “hiccups” with making Tropicana Field cash-free, the organization may have been a year early in doing so, but fans eventually will see the benefits.
* His biggest concerns are not about the closer-less bullpen but, in order, over-optimism, how the new players mesh with the returning group and the lack of enough veteran presence to help the team down the stretch.
* He expects the team will use the blue-lighted roof during games at some point this season.
Some names go down in a football club’s folklore. Players that conjure up fantastic memories of moments, skills, and success many, many years after hanging up their boots.
Some years give teams a season to remember. A pinnacle in a club’s rich history, never to be forgotten and often to be celebrated by generations of future supporters who can only wish that they were there.
For Vancouver Whitecaps, 1979 was that season. Their finest hour. The year that the ‘Caps became North American champions and won the NASL Soccer Bowl. September 8th 1979 is the day etched in history and the starting line-up above is the team that got them there in a 2-1 championship game victory over Tampa Bay Rowdies at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Heading into the season the ‘Caps were confident of having a good year, but there weren’t many people that expected them to go all the way.
They’d won the Western Division of the NASL National Conference in 1978 by 32 points, having lost only six matches over the regular season, the best record in the league along with the New York Cosmos. They’d easily got past Toronto Metros-Croatia in the Conference quarter-finals before unexpectedly crashing out to Portland Timbers in the semis.
It had left a feeling of what could have been around the club, so nothing much has changed there in terms of playoff performances against Cascadian rivals in the MLS era! But 1979 was a different story.
The Whitecaps once again won their Division, this time with a record of 20 wins and 10 defeats. Dallas Tornado were dispatched 3-2 and then 2-1 in the Conference quarter-finals, then the ‘Caps lost their first Conference semi-final 3-2 to the LA Aztecs after a shootout, before winning the second match 1-0 and then winning the deciding ‘mini game’ by the same scoreline.
The Conference championship matches against the New York Cosmos became stuff of legend. The ‘Caps won the first match 2-0 at Empire Stadium, but fell 3-2 after a shootout loss in the second match at Giants Stadium. That set up the mini game, which also went to a shootout, but Vancouver shocked their hosts and spoiled their dreams of playing at home in the Soccer Bowl.
A week later and Trevor Whymark was the hero in the same stadium, scoring a brace against the Rowdies and writing himself and the team into Vancouver sporting history for eternity.
That was then, this is now. Forty years later and it’s the ruby anniversary of that Soccer Bowl winning season. The hoop is back for the Whitecaps strip, Carl Valentine is regaling people with wonderful stories, and it’s been fantastic to hear that the club will be honouring their greatest achievement to date throughout the season. And so will we be here at AFTN.
We love out footballing history and over the coming months we’ll be taking a weekly look at the Whitecaps from 40 years ago – the matches, the moments, the players, the talking points, and more, as we look back at a season to remember, dig into some ‘Kick’ matchday magazines to capture the mood of the game in North America at that time, and bring you some chats with key players from that famous year.
Saturday marks the 40th anniversary of the Whitecaps 1979 season kicking off with a Friday night home game at Empire Stadium against the visiting Dallas Tornado. How did that one play out? Find out tomorrow!
To get you all in the mood, have a look over the full results from that championship winning season and the movers and shakers that saw the Whitecaps lift the NASL trophy come the end of it (scanned from some programs from the time). Enjoy!
Detroit City FC to add suites from shipping containers
Semi-pro club bought six industrial shipping containers for Keyworth Stadium
Four containers will become 12 suites, and 7 have been leased so far; 2 become bars
Suite season lease is $10,000 and aids DCFC's bid to turn pro later in 2019
Soccer and Beer and Memphis: A Perfect Combination
The last professional soccer game I attended was the Memphis Rogues. I played the game a little in lower school, but can't be accused of taking it seriously. If I'm going to be honest, I'm one of the few University of Alabama alumni who doesn't take that sports program seriously either. I have, however, been to enough baseball and football games to know that what, and more importantly, how you drink at these things is crucial. And that may be the real sport.
Memphis has a professional USL soccer team now, the 901 FC, and I felt compelled to see its inaugural match-up with the Tampa Bay Rowdies. Admittedly, soccer is a lot tighter on the clock than football, and baseball doesn't even have one. Soccer games all run 90 minutes, more or less, so you haven't got hours to burn. The good people over at the Bluff City Mafia — the 901 FC's supporter club — got around that hurdle by kicking off the pregame festivities at 2 p.m. down at the Brass Door. This was followed by a short, boozy march — complete with flags and chanting — to AutoZone Park for the 6 match. Good people.
So, given the time involved, Game-Day Drinking is like its cherished cousin, Day Drinking: It's important to set the right pace. You don't have to dial it back to "lunch with Grandmother," but you certainly need to keep it a click or two below peak "Warren Zevon."
For her part, the enchanting Mrs. M thought that arriving at the Brass Door at 4 p.m. was the perfect touch of fashionable lateness. By that time, the place was filled with an impressive amount of whooping and hollering. Impressive, because there was absolutely no reasonable cognitive association these happy people could possibly have for a team that had never played before. Except, of course, that it was Memphis' soccer team. And there they were, leading bar-wide cheers with perfect strangers. It makes a fella proud.
Beer-wise, there was a lot of Guinness being slung about, but there always is in Irish bars. And for a game-day brew, it's not a bad choice. The ABV is a relatively low 4.2 percent, and while it tastes heavy, the truth is that at 125 calories, it's only 15 more than Bud Light.
Outside, the steam was rising from a recent rain, and inside, it was crowded — and I'm fat. So I went with a Wiseacre Ananda — light and crisp — but you might want to avoid it for a long haul. Mrs. M had a Bud Light; a lady is entitled to her mysteries.
The lovely thing about soccer is that it is one of the few times Memphis seems cosmopolitan, as you move through a crowd hearing Irish-English, Australian, along with some lively Spanish in Latin American accents. Mrs. M's grandfather was English, so I was curious — for purely sociological reasons — to see if all these chants and beer-swilling would trigger some first-rate English football hooliganism in her. She was too busy making friends with some people from Philadelphia, but the night was still young.
We marched and chanted and finally turned the corner into AutoZone Park. For some reason, being in a stadium always makes me slink back to domestic brews, although you can get a limited selection of local craft beers at the game.
The readers who had to google to find out just who the hell the Memphis Rogues were might not have the association of cheap domestics and sports, but they work well. You want it to be tasty and drinkable, but you also don't want to think about it too much either. I had a big, tall Budweiser. True, soccer really isn't America's game, but Bud is owned by the Belgians now, so it's a topsy-turvy world these days.
Incidentally, Mrs. M never went even remotely hooligan on me or anyone else. That woman is a delight.
After 3 weeks of USL Championship soccer, we are starting to see less movement in the power rankings. Saint Louis FC broke the trend of teams ranked number 1 falling the next week, as they retained the top spot after earning a point against a good Tampa Bay Rowdies team. Sacramento Republic FC was finally able to move out of the 5th spot after being stuck there since the pre-season, and are now 2nd on the list. North Carolina FC had the week off from USL Championship action, and remain 3rd and Tampa Bay’s draw against the top team kept them in 4th. Rounding out the top 5 is Louisville City FC, who earned a full 3 points against a week Hartford Athletic team that is surprisingly not ranked last (that honor goes to Tacoma Defiance this week).
Orange County SC is stuck in the lower half of the power rankings after again coming up win less in their most recent match against New Mexico United. Their struggles to put together a solid 90 minute performance have resulted in dropped points, and have resulted in the 2nd furthest drop in the rankings since the pre-season (San Antonio FC is first, dropping 16 spots from 10 to 26).
DYLAN
After watching St. Louis and the Rowdies play this weekend, I can’t actually believe St. Louis are still on top of the power rankings. But their defense got a good test in, and held up well. They seem like they’re pretty good when no one gets sent off. It was a bit of a disappointment with the top two teams in the East going at it. Sam Fink giveth and Sam Fink taketh.
ALAN
What a week! Energy FC gets a drumming from Sacramento Republic led by a hat trick from Cameron Iwasa. Luca Lobo scores like 15 more goals for Tulsa and is leading the Golden Boot race early. What looked like early troubles for Orange County, now look like they ran into hot teams in Tulsa and New Mexico. Colorado looks pretty real right now too with two wins already in the early season. Fresno is another club that will be interesting to see where they end up after the first 10 games.
In the East, it was hard to argue that Saint Louis and The Rowdies wasn’t a fun watch, with Saint Louis a hand ball away from getting all the points from their first three games. Louisville has beaten up on lesser opponents, which is what playoff teams do. Nashville did not look great against the baby bulls and should have walked away with a loss, but managed to hold on to the draw.
Bobby Moffat, the Dallas Tornado's soccer 'missionary,' returns to role with book, film
The cigarette smoke at J's Breakfast & Burgers spills out the front door the moment you open it, as though the place is on fire; it hits you in the face like a glass ashtray. Ah, Addison, that time-warp town where coughing into your coffee is the price you pay for 24-7 bacon and eggs.
The man sitting in the very back — somewhere through the fog, in the non-smoking section — picked this Midway Road establishment because he likes the food and knows the waitstaff. They serve him greasy-spoon grief with a stack of pancakes; he gives them good-natured guff in the dialect of a man born and raised in the dockyards city of Portsmouth along the southern England coast.
Fitting, I guess, this is where I meet Bobby Moffat — at least for the first time since I was 8, if memory serves, when Mom took me to shake his and Kyle Rote Jr.'s giant hands at the old Cullum & Boren sporting good store in NorthPark Center. J's is only a couple of stoplights away from the Greenhill School campus where Moffat once served as groundskeeper to make extra money when his pro soccer contract paid pocket change.
Moffat, now 73, was a childhood hero of mine; maybe yours, too. He was a longtime star on a Dallas Tornado team full of household names in a lot of North Dallas households, back when every restaurant in this city boasted white ceilings rendered a dull shade of cancerous. He played at Texas Stadium, like the other pro footballers in town; then, at Southern Methodist University's Ownby Stadium.
Former Dallas Tornado soccer player Bobby Moffat at his home in Collin County (Ashley Landis/Staff Photographer)
Moffat sent me a note a couple of weeks back with a story pitch: He's helping raise funds so a Los Angeles-based filmmaker can finish her nearly completed documentary about the late North American Soccer League, of which Lamar Hunt's Dallas Tornado was a charter member in 1968. The doc had been Moffat's idea, an offshoot of the 50th anniversary NASL celebration in Frisco last fall for which he'd helped raise the cash and awareness while FC Dallas offered the accommodations.
The league's history "has been pasted over," Moffat said. But it was huge: The NASL introduced young Yanks to soccer before David Beckham was born, boasted among its investors Elton John and Yes keyboard player Rick Wakeman, and counted among its fans Mick Jagger and Robert Redford.
Dallas Tornado midfielder Bobby Moffat (14) goes up for a header against New York Cosmos star Pelé during a June 1975 exhibition game at Downing Stadium on Randall's Island in New York. (The Associated Press/1975 File Photo)
The NASL was ultimately a financial failure, said Moffat, who kicked the winning shot in the '71 best-of-three semi-finals against the Rochester Lancers and tussled with Pele on national TV when the Brazilian icon made his U.S. debut in '75. "But it didn't fail when it came to establishing the game on this continent."
In his email about the documentary, Moffat introduced himself first as a longtime reader of this newspaper. I suspect that's because his name appeared in The Dallas Morning News — and the Dallas Times Herald — hundreds of times in the 1970s. Over time those mentions faded, along with memories of the league that brought Pele, Franz Beckenbauer, George Best, Johan Cruyff and other faraway heroes to American soil for a few tumultuous but glorious years of what writer Ian Plenderleith dubbed Rock 'n' Roll Soccer in his terrific 2014 NASL history.
in his email, Moffat described director Rachel Violett's in-the-works film about "the game which changed the sporting face of North America." The son and grandson of pro footballers in England played every position, save for goalie, on Hunt's Dallas Tornado squad from 1970 to '77. And he served as the team's director of soccer camps, in which countless North Dallas boys and girls took part.
Moffat said he invited Violett to Frisco last year for one very simple reason: "I want the NASL's story known." The doc, he said, "will cover the league's history and the reasons why the league made the inroads it did before its early demise. A legacy that Major League Soccer has built on."
If you did not grow up here, it's hard to explain how big the Tornado were for a brief and glorious moment. The team had a nickname — the Tors. KRLD-AM broadcast every match; this newspaper, too, reported on every tussle and transaction, giving prominent coverage to a team that played in a nascent league full of "Commies and fairies in short pants," per an infamous, widely circulated quote by a writer whose name has been lost to history.
The team began infamously enough, with a wild world tour of 1967 and '68 that became the subject of a book in 2016. But by the 1970s, in a city where football meant the Cowboys and nothing else, the Tornado were pop and popular enough to merit front-of-the-sports-section stories, especially when the team in 1973 signed former Highland Park High School quarterback Kyle Rote Jr., son of a local legend.
Five years later, Rote's Complete Book of Soccer was published by no less than Simon & Schuster. I still have a copy, along with a child's-sized 1974 home jersey and a plastic Tornado beer mug that sits on a bookshelf in the den. I have no Cowboys memorabilia at all.
Over our Sunday breakfast, Moffat mentioned, too, that he's written an autobiography that doubles as NASL history. He has yet to find a publisher and the book is still a little rough around the edges, but it's nonetheless a breezy memoir — the story of an Englishman who came to Dallas in 1970 with nothing, worked in the Hunt Oil mail room (a "not highly esteemed occupation") and sold vacuums and encyclopedias, left after a season with even less, then returned for good to become attraction enough to get kids like me to drag our folks to Burger King meet-and-greets and soccer camps.
Violett said this week of the NASL players and executives she interviewed that she believes "they were glad someone was doing this." The film, The NASL Project, is about 70 percent finished now.
Violett has her own connection to the league. The former pro tennis player is the daughter of Dennis Viollet, who played for Manchester United, Stoke City and England's national team before he became head coach of the NASL's Tea Men of Boston and then Jacksonville, Fla.
"Over the years, for whatever reason, the NASL has been kind of forgotten," she said. "And it played such an important role in not only putting soccer on a mainstream level for the first time, but putting American pro soccer on a world stage."
Rote once told me that of all his teammates, Moffat was soccer's best missionary in Dallas. Turns out, he still is. Except now it's not just about the playing, but the remembering.
"It's turned into that," Moffat said as we sipped diner coffee and inhaled restaurant smoke like it was 1973. "It's history. It can't be erased. It has to mean something."
Team, fans, mayor hopeful for future of Tampa Bay Rays on Opening Day
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (FOX 13) - Just before the Rays took the field for Opening Day, owner Stu Sternberg said he hopes to have a pitch to make to the city of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County for a new ballpark by the end of summer.
"I wish I had more faith," one fan said on their way into the ballpark. "We can't lose the team, we will never get another team back."
Sternberg and Mayor Rick Kriseman confirmed the two sides met informally on Wednesday.
"We have a good relationship," Kriseman said. "We haven't talked specific numbers at this point and time yet, but we are continuing to talk, and the fact that we are still talking is why people ought to continue to be optimistic."
Kriseman, after seeing a deal for an Ybor stadium die in Hillsborough, has instructed St. Pete city staff to proceed with plans for the Tropicana Field property, with and without a stadium.
"If they didn't care about the community, if they didn't care about baseball in St. Pete, they would not have made the investment they made over the past off-season in the stadium," Kriseman pointed out.
Kriseman indicated part of his job would be to convince them they can make it work attendance-wise on this side of the Bay.
Owner Stu Sternberg spoke to media before the game about hopes for the season and a new stadium.
Now that upgrades to Tropicana Field are done, he says they'll turn attention to funding a new park. He hopes to have an updated plan by this summer.
"It might be great news, it might be awful news. I don't know what it will be. I don't know what it will be. Don't read into that in any stretch," he said. "But we will come and promise an honest assessment by summer and that will be the case."
For fans, the only thing certain is that nothing is. And that feeling makes it tougher to sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."
"I don't think they are going to have a deal, but what do I know?" a fan said.
Morning from across the pond, ladies and gents. Been following you guys since the club partnership was announced and am glad that your season seems to be going well.
I had a few questions, if that’s alright.
How do you feel your season is going?
Has the tie-in had a noticeably positive effect?
How’s Caleb getting on?
(This one might seem silly) If you have a great season, how is the prospect of promotion to a higher league addressed? Is there a promotion/relegation structure to MLS, or is it more like NFL with established teams staying there until they fold or move cities?
Right, that’s about it. Obviously wishing you all the best for the rest of the season and hope we both keep the yellow and green flying high.
Welcome! Glad to have you here...I’ve been watching the few Canaries matches that get broadcast over here...big win at Boro. Been quite a run!
I’m happy so far. Last season was really rough. Four guys retiring mid-season. Spending lots of money, but 12th in the table. No good. This season, we have an identity at least. Solid defensively, press higher up the pitch, focus on work rate, attack with purpose (we used to just hold possession). It’s not resulting in a lot of goals at the moment, but we’ve not lost a game yet. (And we’ve been really bad on the road the last few years, so 4 points out of those matches is great). If we had won at home this week, I’d have been a lot happier.
(and 3.) I think the partnership seems to be fruitful. Way better than one we had with São Paulo a few years ago that resulted in nothing. There’s a lot of social media crossover. I think the exposure to NCFC staff in training here was a good thing. And actually getting a player is progress for us. He hasn’t missed a minute and he’s been really solid. In three out of four games I thought he played that outside CB position in our 3 man backline really well. He’s defended well and is distributing the ball well. Plus he seems like a good kid.
Unfortunately we still don’t have promotion & relegation here. The only way to get into MLS is to buy-in via a process that has nothing to do with results and looks a lot more like bidding to host the Olympics. They may have more spots open in the coming years. Our last ownership group was bidding hard at a point...TBD on this new group. We can qualify for Champions League though if we win the US Open Cup (our FA Cup). Though that would require a hell of a run, I think we’re actually well-suited to do well in it.
Richards definitely has the potential to start for Norwich in the not too distant future. He has settled in quicker compared to other players we have got from abroad in the past. I was most concerned with his physical attributes as the USL can be tough for some young players but he has played really well so far. Of course he is still a bit raw and makes some decision-making errors but that is normal for younger players.
Norwich have been great to watch this year. Farke has done a great job with your squad and I could see him doing well in the Premier League.
Added in season totals through 4 games. There's game by game totals added with a new sheet filled with season totals for each player.
The defensive numbers are through the roof which should be a surprise to no one. There hasn't been too many bad defensive moments for most players on the team. Richards and Morad looked shaky at times in the St Louis game but that's really about it. Fernandes, Ekra, and Steinberger all fair extremely well on the defensive metric as their hustle and effort on the defensive side of the ball has made it near impossible for opposing teams to get chances at troubling McCarthy.
And another no surprise is that there hasn't been much room to reward shooters. Steinberger has sneakily put the best chances at net by proxy of actually putting some shots on target.
Biggest negatives for individual players are Dom Oduro at -7 for passing. He's had a lot of turnovers and even simple passes have gotten away from him. Fernandes dribbling is a -6 for the amount of turnovers he's dribbled himself into.
Player Impact Notes:
As for the numbers from the game against Loudon, dribbling was at a season low of -3 while passing was back in the negative at -2 (week 1 was a -7). Team defending was mostly strong across the board. Oduro found himself in the negative with a needless yellow.
Ekra, Steinberger, and Barry didn't make the same level of impact they have in weeks past, as all three struggled to make a mark offensively.
Hoppenot may've been a -1 for positioning because of too many offsides, but he earned some back with good positioning on the shoulders of the last defender making good deep runs into the attacking zone.
Stat Updates:
Diakite has had 7 tackles, and won all of them. He's had 22 aerial duels, and won 17 of them. Tejada has won 4 of 9 aerial duels which is kinda impressive.
Five guys have played all 360 minutes: Diakite, Richards, Morad, Fernandes, McCarthy.
Morad remains the only 80%+ passer at 84%. Tinari is at 78% in limited playing time. Ekra 76%.
Ekra, Morad, and Diakite are all 50%+ in long pass accuracy.
10 Rowdies players are in the 60-69% range for passing in the opponents half. Morad is the only player at 70+ at 74%. (Taylor is 87 but limited sample size)
Rowdies Home Attendance Thread - Game 2 vs. Loudoun United [3/30]
Attendance Thread
Well...5,893 was the number for Saturday, my friends. Based on what ticket sales appeared to be on Ticketmaster I thought it was going to be a lot more (I thought it would be 6,500+), but still a really good crowd. This is also considering the Lightning were at home (sellout, 19,092 attendance) and maybe even more impactful the Rays were at home on Saturday night at the exact same time (16,010 attendance). I wondered if the ticket staff would prioritize the Rays, but they didn't seem to as we had a pretty strong night. In fact, in the game u/UnSubMatt asked if this might be our best 2nd home game ever, so I looked back at the last five years:
2018: 5,059
2017: 4,326
2016: 4,429
2015: 5,469
2014: 4,670
So...Matt is right. It was the strongest Game 2 we've had in years (possibly ever...I didn't go back that far) - in conditions that would make it challenging to sell tix due to competition. We're also at home the next two weeks. Historically it's tough to sell tickets in three game home stands like this, because there's less turnaround time to get the sales machine up and running. Here's hoping they'll be good ones...
