Professional Soccer Returning to Jacksonville?

[5PointsGuy]

Oh man, I hope this is true. I'd really like to have an MLS team, although the article leads the reader to believe that it would most likely be a minor league team.

http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/400744/matt-soergel/2012-12-07/professional-soccer-returning-jacksonville-possibility

Could a professional soccer team return to Jacksonville? Mayor Alvin Brown Friday dropped broad hints that it’s a possibility.

“There’s a lot of interest. All I can say is, there’s a lot of interest,” he said. “Stay tuned.”

Brown brought the topic up during an interview on an unrelated matter, smiling as he discussed the possibility. While campaigning for mayor, he said he’d like to bring an NBA team to the city, but Friday he said a soccer team is more likely to come first.

“Sooner than later?” he said. “Yes. My sense is that we’ll sooner have a soccer team than an NBA team. You just put more than 40,000 people in the stands?”

Brown was referring to the success in May of the U.S. national team’s 5-1 victory over Scotland at Everbank Field, where the turnout of 44,438 surprised soccer officials. It shattered a state record for an international friendly match and it far surpassed a crowd of 23,971 in Tampa the next month for a U.S. game against Antigua & Barbuda.

That certainly puts Jacksonville in the running for at least more national team games.

The Tea Men of the long-defunct North American Soccer League put Jacksonville on the soccer map in the early 1980s.

Major League Soccer, the top professional league in the country, has been expanding in recent years and has said it wants to continue to do so. But it’s made clear that soccer-specific stadiums, smaller than cavernous professional football stadiums, are needed for any new team.

When told that, Brown smiled confidently. He wouldn’t say, however, whether the city is pursuing an MLS team just yet.

“We may start with a minor-league team, then move up,” he said.

The MLS has already said it wants to put a second team in the New York market, and has set 2016 as a goal for that team’s first game.

“This is our priority in terms of our next expansion, which will be our 20th team,” MLS president Mark Abbott said in a story on the league’s website. “We haven’t made a determination about the timeline beyond that.”

There’s not a single team in the Southeast;  the closest team is more than 700 miles away in Washington, D.C.

Last month, league commissioner Don Garber addressed expansion to the South, fielding questions before the MLS championship game about possible teams in Atlanta, Orlando and Miami. Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank was mentioned as a possible owner in that city, while a minor-league team in Orlando is bidding to join the majors.

The league once had teams in Tampa Bay and Miami, though each folded after the 2001 season.

Submitted by Matt Soergel on December 7, 2012 - 12:13pm

[fsquid]

MLS isn't going to come down here.  Seasons runs into college football, much less the summer months.  Plus, they think the next team is going to be a NY one and the expansion fee is going to be $100 million.

[copperfiend]

A team in the NASL or USL Pro is much more likely.

[Cheshire Cat]

My family would enjoy more soccer here but this is not the kind of announcements I really want to hear from this mayor.  I would rather we find out what the next level is he has taken us to, where are the promised jobs, why is there no deal on the SMG issues, why is the pension situation going from bad to worse etc.  Little issues like these.



Diane

[CityLife]

“We may start with a minor-league team, then move up,” he said.

I'd love an MLS team, but the above statement doesn't exactly sound like its anywhere close to happening. I'm sure MLS would like to see a few years of sustained attendance success in the minors before even considering us as an expansion team.

[danno]

Jax has been unable to support and A League team in the past.  Portland and Seattle who are new to MLS outdrew many MLS teams for several years.

[Tacachale]

We're not on the MLS radar (yet). If and when they expand into the Southeast the smart money's on Orlando; they already have a hugely successful minor league club, as well as an ownership group and a plan to build a soccer-specific stadium.

We'd kill it in the upper-tier minor leagues, though. From what I understand the FC Jax team draws pretty well considering they're all amateur. I'd imagine a team that had a bit of a marketing budget would really take off. Some of those teams in the USL Pro and NASL do pretty well for themselves.

If things go right I could see us with an MLS team in the future.

[civil42806]

MLS will not come here.  Have a lot of good memories of the tea men.  Think me and my dad were one of the few season ticket holders.  if jax could get a minor league team your be great, not sure where they would play though

[Ocklawaha]

Civil, my wife and I were sitting in the stands probably just a few yards from you! Hey and we got to see the great Pelé up close and personal!

I have a different take, I think we'd do quite well with major league Futball, but Everbank Field is NOT the place for the team. You will recall the time when we were packing 15,000-18,000 a game for the Tea Men? Remember they had huge problems with the national media, particularily Sports Illustrated (which I have NEVER purchased since) which openly stated in an article about the flagging league, "In desperation the league has shown it has a sense of humor - they're moving the New England Tea Men to Jacksonville, Florida...) That article went downhill from there and frankly the city should have forced a retraction or apology. The league was failing, the LOS ANGELES franchise (attn: NFL LOS ANGELES Rams, LOS ANGELES Raiders, or LOS ANGELES JAGUARS prophets) at one point was packing in 2,000 people into the Los Angles Memorial Coliseum which seated a tad over 100,000 at that time (it's only 92,516 today). Finally with no star power in Jacksonville short of Peter Simonini, and Lipton Corporation bailing out on the financial end we crashed... but then so did the rest of the league.

Daytona Beaches 10,000 seat multipurpose stadium

I'm thinking (and have for years) that Jacksonville needs a smaller venue stadium somewhere in downtown (LaVilla? OR JEA property?) Taking a page from Daytona Beaches successful smaller stadium a Jacksonville stadium seating 15,000-20,000 would do wonders for our sports promotion. JU, UNF, as well as major leagues in minor US Sports such as Futball, and minor league teams, not to mention things like regional small school championships, ranging from High School to College and Universities. 

[fsquid]

google Memorial Stadium in Charlotte.

[thelakelander]

Ock, JU is proposing a smaller venue on their campus:

The football and lacrosse stadium will seat 4,500 and be available for outdoor track events. The stadium also will have a media area and concession stands. The first phase of the stadium costs $4.2 million. Officials said they don’t know how much the second and third phase will cost.

Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/sports/college/2012-11-30/story/jacksonville-university-plans-new-football-stadium-athletics#ixzz2ER5MYEoC

[Spence]

MLS isn't going to come down here.  Seasons runs into college football, much less the summer months.  Plus, they think the next team is going to be a NY one and the expansion fee is going to be $100 million.

Erring on the side of conservatism, one would be wise to avoid underestimating the persuasiveness, power, means, standing and knowledge of a growing and motivated party who are not easily found, tracked, and traced on paper or electronically.

Duval may have more to offer than geography.

[Adam W]

In all fairness, both of those stadiums are inappropriate for soccer. Yes, you could fit a soccer pitch on them, but the experience of watching a soccer match on them would be pretty poor. They would do as a compromise, I suppose, but they might do more harm than good - they are both surrounded by running tracks and that separates the crowd from the pitch, leading to a boring, disconnected match experience.

One of the central tenets of MLS expansion (which I know we're not discussing Jax getting an MLS franchise here), is the building of soccer-specific stadiums. And that's because people take to the game better when they watch it in a venue that is fit for purpose. The atmosphere is right and it seems much more immediate when it's happening right in front of you. Teams that play in football stadiums are almost doomed to failure (bit of an overstatement).

Of course, the fans have a lot do with it as well - the Seattle Sounders average over 38,000 fans per match at CenturyLink field (which is a football stadium) and the atmosphere there is pretty amazing for an MLS game (from what I've seen on TV, that is).

[fsquid]

FC Dallas's stadium hosts football games to make additional revenue, but it was built as a soccer field first.

[kreger]

Soccer is sexy.