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As the growth of MLS has happened so has the growth in the number of Soccer Specific Stadiums. Indeed, the fact that we are even here talking about a league is because MLS shifted their business model to one which would demand every club eventually play in a Soccer Specific Stadium or a suitable stadium that they controlled as far as revenue and scheduling.
The second and almost as important reason for the Soccer Specific Stadium had to do with league credibility and presentation of the game.
That presentation has been threatened as of late by Gridiron interests eying these new stadiums with designs of their own.
The first of these was the still(yet to be)born "All American Football League" which planned(plans?) to use Crew Stadium for a Columbus based franchise.
An excerpt:
"The All American Football League apparently is interested in locating a team here in the future, although Columbus is not among the six cities the league plans to debut next April. “The landscape is littered with failed football leagues,” said Ertmann, whose career has included stops in the front offices of the New York Yankees, NBC Sports and Major League Soccer. “(Columbus) is a football-crazed market but it is also a football-savvy market.” "
And.....
" The UFL is looking for stadiums with seating of 30,000 to 35,000 but could play in smaller venues, said UFL Commissioner Michael Huyghue. In Columbus, the league would favor 22,555-seat Crew Stadium over 102,329-seat Ohio Stadium. “We’d rather fill up Crew Stadium every week and grow into the ‘Shoe,” Huyghue said. It’s part of a business model that UFL founders believe will succeed where other startup football leagues have failed.."
Next we had the Canadian Football League Commissioner going public with his ideas to use Toronto's BMO Field as a new home to the Toronto Argonauts.
Now we have this report which includes a statement from Michael Huyghue, Commissioner of the United Football League, a league which plans to play from August through to Thanksgiving (Smack dab in the middle of the most intersting part of the MLS calendar):
The league will run from August to just after Thanksgiving on Thursday and Friday nights. The plan is to begin with eight teams -- although it may start with six -- in markets not served by the NFL, such as Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
On top of those two, Huyghue said markets would also likely include San Francisco and Salt Lake City, Utah, based on feedback from fans signing up to reserve tickets. Orlando, Florida, was a strong East Coast contender, while San Antonio, Texas, appeals to the Hispanic fans that the UFL plans to court aggressively, he added.
While Huyghue said no stadium deals have been officially signed, the UFL has agreements with six stadiums. He said the UFL is talking with Major League Soccer teams about using their stadiums in deals under which the UFL would pay a facility fee and share revenue generated on football game days.
Huyghue said past NFL rivals failed due to overspending, unrealistic expectations and overly gimmicky approaches. The UFL, however, will have a salary cap -- like the NFL -- and is assuming average per-game attendance conservatively at 25,000.
Our view: The North American sports landscape is littered with failed rival Gridiron leagues:
The "World" Football League, the United States Football League, the "World" League of American Football, and the Xtreme Football League.
All of their dreams of competing against or coexisting with the NFL have fallen short of the reality that, the NFL is massive and therefore something you don't want to compete with in most big cities. Likewise college football is massive in most of the markets without the NFL.
Yet that doesn't stop people with more money than brains from trying.
To have another one of these failed ideas ruin the pitches of these new stadiums with gridiron markings and possibly worse (artificial pitches to support the playing of both codes of football without grass dying) during this time when the sport we love is burgeoning would be a major league step backwards. For this to come at this point in MLS's history would be about the worse thing league owner/operators could do from a core soccer fan perspective.
In short: We.Do.Not.Need.This
However while some MLS owners may only see dolllar signs and others which are on the fence may be swayed by your opinion and those of other fans of our game.
For that reason we, in conjunction with the Not On Our Pitch campaign will keep an eye on this story and will post any updates as to what fan actions may develop.
On thing is clear, Toronto is ahead of the curve in figuring out how to fight this. Any interested parties should probably contact the Red Patch Boys to learn how they organized and managed to get a definitive statement from Don Garber on the situation with the Toronto Argos. Here is what he said:
"We wish the CFL all the success in this market," Garber said during the question-and-answer session that followed his state-of-the-league address yesterday. "But we feel very strongly that BMO Field is a soccer-specific stadium."
Well Don, if that is good enough for Toronto then that should be good enough for the league.
One major point missed in that article is that UFL commissioner Michael Huyghue is also one of the investors of the expansion group in St. Louis. That could aid in his negotiations for the usage of Crew Stadium.
I wouldn't panic. Many MLS stadiums are below the 25,000 seats the UFL wants. Only HDC has over 25k.
If they agree to do this then I am done with MLS. Done buying jerseys, done buying season tickets, done subscribing to MLSLive. I'll spend my money on the EPL.
i hate throwball... typical american sport. fat guys bumping into each other and then a stoppage for 1 minute, only to repeat the same thing over and over again.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
No.
My team here in the UK shares its stadium with a rugby team. Come mid-winter the place is like the Somme.
I sympathise with fans of MLS teams who may have to put up with groundsharing an SSS.
On the upside it brings revenue. On the downside gridiron is shite.
I wouldn't worry about this.
I'd put the chances of either league actually playing a game at no higher than 30-40%. Chances of them surviving longer than a year or two are virtually nil.
And if MLSE and MLS want to keep the Argos from playing at TFC's stadium, they could have built the damn thing themselves. Taxpayers spent $45 million CDN to build the stadium - as much as I sympathise with the fans there, when you're playing in a publicly owned facility, you don't get to call the shots.
Why do you use a quote from the UFL to show what the AAFL intends to do?
As for McGlock, have you noticed that all the SSS host high school football and/or lacrosse? Or that Wembley has hosted an NFL game
earlier anon, since the NFL is a typical American sport, maybe you could explain how many other American sports also have fat guys that bump eachother constantly?
I love MLSR, but that article about the UFL is so old. I read that months ago. Although it is the first I heard about th AAFL wanting into Ohio.
Not likely that Crew stadium would ever be used for gridiron, as long as it is controlled by the Hunt family (Owners of NFL's KC Cheifs). The NFL does not look fondly upon rival leagues, and any way that an NFL owner can trip them up, they will do it.
I've done a lot of reading about the UFL, and based on the markets that the UFL is looking into, the only likely SSSs that would be used are HDC and RSL stadium. And let's face it, HDC is not an SSS, it's a multi-use facility.
As for Toronto, I don't really see it happening, since the Argos already have a sweetheart deal at the Rogers Centre (SkyDome), and it would take major construction and reconfiguration to fit a Canadian gridiron field into that stadium.
no need to insult american football to make the point that our stadia are not for a professional football league to use.
bottom line, this won't happen because any new american football league will fail. between arena, college and pro . . . what more do we need?
DMH
Just to point out - all of the linked articles are at least 3 months old, and there has been no news about an August launch...and it's August.
3 months. Hell the Columbus article is from December 2007!
Don't you have some expose on some racist in Columbus to work on?
Wow. Such venom. It seems like a great idea to me. In fact I suggested it some time ago.
http://itaintintramurals.blogspot.com/2008/05/blueprint-for-ufl-success.html
The Stadiums are "Soccer Specific" not soccer only. I was an innugural Crew season ticket holder, but I think having UFL teams play at places like Crew Stadium is a great idea.
It adds a ton of revenue, plus it brings more visibility and publicity to the stadium and indirectly to teams like the Crew. I simply don't see the downside, other than it offends soccer purists.
Now, if playing gridiron hurts the MLS teams in some way (by destroying the pitch or the like) then its a different story. But if it can be done in a way so that MLS teams don't have to play with gridiron lines on their field (I HATE that), then it is a win-win.
Let these "pro" teams try filling big high school or medium-sized college stadiums first.
It they succeed in that regard, well then the talking should begin.
But seriously, if an outlaw football league thinks it's going to fill a 30,000-seat stadium, they're having a laugh.