Philly deal will not deter efforts to bring team to Miami
The likelihood of Philadelphia becoming MLS's 16th team as early as 2010 will not impact efforts to bring a team to Miami, according to Miami Mayor Manny Diaz. On Thursday, Diaz told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that he is in regular communication with MLS about placing a team in a new stadium at the current Orange Bowl site, assuming the league can find investors.
"MLS is looking at us for 2011," Diaz said. "They're looking at us very seriously. I think if we can get a deal [with investors], we'll get a team. [MLS Commissioner] Don Garber and I have been talking for a long time."
Thus far, Mayor Diaz's unveiling of plans to allocate $50 million in public funds for a soccer stadium hasn't produced the person or persons needed to make Miami an MLS city. We're told by the league that there are interested parties, but nothing more.
"I think we'll hear about expansion in St. Louis very soon," Cooper told the News-Democrat. If so, and assuming the Philly deal doesn't collapse, that will give MLS 17 teams in or around 2011. The league will need one more team so it can operate with a balanced schedule. It could be Miami, but only if the money people come forward here before they do in about a half-dozen other cities also seeking a franchise.
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That leaves us here at Miami Soccer Fan to wonder one thing. Where does that leave the soccer stadium? With the possibility of MLS coming to Miami it has been a roller coaster ride. The soccer stadium came out of nowhere to our pleasant surprise. With the years of behind the scenes work by Mayor Manny Diaz. Diaz has been working quietly on our behalf ever since the Miami Fusion left us. The Mayor has done his part with a gift of a stadium.
The city is willing to put up $50 million and an owner/investor would put up the other $50 million. That is a deal that is too good to turn down for some super rich billionaire who loves soccer and Miami. Now the ball is in MLS's court. They say that there are several interested owners, but MLS has been silent about who these owners are. Mayor Diaz now says he has done all he can do and it is up to MLS.
In reading the new Marlins Baseball Stadium Agreement in section 4.11 pages 45-47, the soccer stadium is broken down. Basically it sounds like MLS has until June 2008 to award Miami a team. If it is not awarded by then they will have to wait until after the second anniversary of the baseball stadium completion date, which would be sometime in 2012. I believe it is good news that soccer is mentioned in the agreement. However, if MLS does not act fast then I'm afraid the soccer stadium deal could die.
It is time to turn our attention, as Miami soccer fans, to MLS Commissioner Don Garber. We need to barrage him with emails telling him how much we desire MLS in Miami. If an ownership group does not step up soon we could be another San Antonio. Much hyped and long forgotten. Let's turn our email campaigns attention to Mr. Garber.
Let him hear your voice!
Football might not be the only sport played at FIU Stadium.
At a Miami Sports Commission meeting Jan. 15, Garcia proposed to allow a Major League Soccer expansion team to play rent-free at the stadium. If the MLS decides to play at FIU, it could save Miami-Dade County from spending $120 million on a soccer stadium next to the proposed Marlins stadium on the Orange Bowl site. Read Complete Article...
Delays Are Over: What About Soccer Stadium?
By Pieter Brown
Seven years after the Fusion played its final MLS season at Lockhart Stadium, Major League Soccer returns to Broward County with tonight's friendly between the Colorado Rapids and Real Salt Lake at the new 5,000-seat cricket stadium in Lauderhill.
The game serves as a 2008 preview of the Rocky Mountain Cup rivalry, but it means something entirely different for long-suffering South Florida soccer fans. The stadium will be unfamiliar, but some of the faces won't be, as five former Fusion players return for a nostalgia trip, all representing Real Salt Lake.
Of the five, three still play: goalkeeper Nick Rimando and midfielders Andy Williams and Kyle Beckerman. Two former goalkeepers, Jeff Cassar and Garth Lagerwey, return as assistant coach and general manager, respectively.
"This was two of the greatest years in my life," Lagerwey said of his Fusion stint, 1999-2000. "
MLS may return to South Florida full time in Miami, where Mayor Manny Diaz has committed $50 million to build a soccer stadium at the Orange Bowl site. Read Complete Article...
About 2,000 of Broward's most devoted soccer fans gathered Friday night for an MLS friendly between the Colorado Rapids and Real Salt Lake with an eye on the past and the future.
The venue was the new 5,000-seat oval cricket ground at the Central Broward Regional Park, just a few miles from Lockhart Stadium, where the Fusion last played in 2001 before folding.
Pete Brown of Lauderhill, another in Fusion blue, handed out flyers for a new fan group he is forming called the Miami Ultras. Brown and Julio Caballero of Miami have started a Web site at www.miamisoccerfan.com with the hope of drumming up grassroots support for a team.
Brown and Caballero envision their Ultras becoming a South Florida version of the Sons of Ben, a Philadelphia fan group numbering about 1,200 fans. Philadelphia is expected to be awarded an MLS franchise next week and the Sons of Ben have been considered integral in drumming up support for a new team.
"Seeing what the Sons of Ben did, we would like to model ourselves after that," said Brown, who counts himself among the hearty few from Broward who regularly dives to Tropical Park to see the second-tier club Miami FC. Read Complete Article...
The expansion picture in Major League Soccer has become more focused with the expected announcement of a new team in Philadelphia this week and the release of public documents regarding a proposed MLS stadium in Miami.
South Florida fans hoping to see an MLS team in Miami as early as 2011 got some sobering news in the 55-page baseball stadium agreement presented to the County Commission last week. Wedged on pages 27-29 of a document that provides the legalese for the new Marlins stadium was a time frame that indicates Miami could get an MLS team very soon, much later or not at all. Read Complete Article...
Miami still deserves an MLS team
Way to go, Philly. Congratulations on getting a Major League Soccer expansion franchise. But forgive me for not doing cartwheels upon hearing the news Thursday because, quite frankly, I was jealous and feeling nostalgic for July 9, 1997.
On that day, in an 18th-floor ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, amid much hoopla, a then-infant Miami MLS team was officially named the Miami Fusion. Umbro representatives were there proudly displaying the crisp new team uniforms, with their futuristic cobalt blue and yellow logos. Read Complete Article...
Mapping out MLS’s next expansion
3. Miami – Talk in recent months has been that Miami was gathering pace fast and could be looking good for the 17th franchise. However, the absence of a heavyweight ownership group and a lack of clarity regarding a proposed new stadium dampened the city’s hopes. MLS believes the change in the region’s demographics – more South American and Caribbean influences since the Fusion folded seven years ago – could be a plus if other issues can be resolved. Expansion chances: 25 percent. Read Complete Article
Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
Major League Soccer: The MLS announced Philadelphia as the location for its 16th franchise that will begin play in the 2010 season. The team will play at a new soccer-specific stadium to be built in suburban Chester (PA). Philadelphia had previous outdoor soccer teams in the defunct North American Soccer League-the Atoms (1973-76) and the Fury (1978-80). The MLS has added San Jose as the 14th team for the 2008 season and Seattle will start play in 2009 as the league's 15th team. Expansion talks continue with about ten markets and the league could feature 18 teams by the 2011 season. St. Louis is considered at the top of the list for the league's next team and plans for a new soccer-specific stadium on the Illinois side of the river have been approved. The league would like St. Louis to strengthen the financial depth of its ownership. Miami also has plans for a soccer-specific stadium to be built on the site of the Orange Bowl, but there is no ownership group in place.
- If the MLS adds St. Louis and Miami by 2012, an 18-team MLS could have a three-conference alignment with D.C., Miami, New England, New York, Philadelphia and Toronto in the Eastern; Chicago, Columbus, Kansas City, Dallas, Houston and St. Louis in the Central; and Colorado, Los Angeles Chivas, Los Angeles Galaxy, Salt Lake, San Jose and Seattle in the Western. Read Complete Article...
Five Cuban soccer players went missing Tuesday night after the under-23 team played a key match against the United States, a team official said Wednesday.
The five men, including a goalie and team captain who helped Cuba tie the United States 1-1 Tuesday, are expected to be in Miami by this weekend, said Marcos Ommati, a spokesman with professional soccer team Miami FC.
He said he had not spoken with the players and did not know their whereabouts, but said he had spoken with someone who told him to expect the players.
CONCACAF and team officials did not identify the five missing players. But looking at players' jerseys Wednesday's practice revealed those who were absent: Jose Manuel Miranda, 21; Erlys Garcia Baro, Yenier Bermudez, Yordany Alvarez and Loanni Prieto, all listed as 22-year-olds.
"Tomorrow we have a very important game ... and we are concentrating on that," said Luis Hernandez, president of the Soccer Association of Cuba and the only team official to address the media.
When asked what the team planned to do without the players, Hernandez said, "Win - with the five, without the five - win." Read Complete Article...
For the myriad of professional franchises that have permeated the local sports landscape, only to quickly fade into oblivion, Miami FC is slowly building traction in a fickle market.
''We're here for the long run as a professional team in Miami,'' Luis Muzzi, Miami FC general manager, said Thursday. ``Obviously, this is a very difficult market to capture a fan base, but we believe we are making progress in converting fans to our product.''
In Miami FC's inaugural season, the signing of 1994 World Cup star Romário generated buzz around the new franchise. Dozens of media waited for Romário the day he officially joined the team.
But Romário's stay ended after one season. Zinho, a teammate of Romário's who also joined the playing roster in Miami FC's first season, remained with the Blues through last year. Zinho has been entrusted to fulfill the team's playoff hopes after the Blues missed the 2007 postseason by one point.
''I didn't leave Brazil for a vacation stay here in Miami,'' Zinho said in Spanish. ``I could have easily had an opportunity to coach in Brazil, but I believe in what we are planning to accomplish in Miami.''
''Tropical Park is our home for now, but you don't know what the future will bring,'' Muzzi said. The new stadium at FIU is opening soon and we are aware that a soccer stadium also has been considered for the Orange Bowl site.'' read more...
The prospect of an MLS expansion team playing at a new soccer stadium at the Orange Bowl site in 2011 has grown dim. And barring a sudden show of serious interest from a wealthy investor, it's about to fade to black.
Last December, Miami Mayor Manny Diaz stirred the cobwebs on an otherwise dead soccer market by announcing the city would commit $50 million to build a stadium for an MLS franchise. That money was the bait to lure an investor who would have to pay the remaining construction costs and what is now a $40 million MLS expansion fee.
Thus far, no one has taken the bait and it's unlikely anyone will before the passing of a June 1 deadline set by Diaz. When asked eight days ago by a South Florida Sun-Sentinel reporter if there was any news regarding an MLS team, Diaz replied, "Soccer? Nothing." As for the stadium, Diaz said, "It's not looking good, to be honest with you." read more