Seems like RSL's stadium deal is F'd in the A. Where should the team move? St. Louis? Seattle? Portland?
Well, considering the only problem with RSL is the stadium issue (they have good fan support and local ownership), I would think that if they were to move it would be to a city with a local owner and a concrete stadium plan. All the cities that you mentioned are great soccer markets, but the team's gotta have a place to play. And I don't see why RSL would be in line to move before Kansas City, whose stadium plan appears equally as F'ed, and who are planning to play in a high school football stadium for the next two years. Not to mention that their fan support is probably the worst in the league. RSL playing in front of 16k at Rice-Eccles doesn't hurt the league's credibility in the short term. The Wizards playing in front of 7K on some terrible pitch at a high school football stadium does. If I am representing a club that is in a bidding war with MLS over a player I would be holding up photos of KC's high school football stadium and telling the player "you're going to risk your health playing here??" Or, who knows, maybe they'll be lucky enough to play on a turf field that says "____ High School Panthers" and has a big logo in the middle and grid lines they won't cover. Nothing says major league soccer quite like that... Wizards fans, neg rep away, that is your modus operandi, after all.
I can't vouch for his sobriety however he is correct. Due to the fact that Arrowhead Stadium will be undergoing $330 million of renovations during the next two summers, it will be unavailable to the Wizards. As the new Wizards stadium won't open until 2009 we will be playing at a renovated HS football stadium in the interim.
So the Chiefs will get to play, but the Wizards get screwed like this? Say goodbye to every inch of bargaining power On Goal LLC ever had. They might as well move the team now, because they will look like complete tools if they let this happen w/o a fight
You hadn't heard about this? KC's been saying for months they're going to be playing in a 10k or less HS football stadium for 2 years. Assuming they find one that wants them.
"Bargaining power" includes the power of playing several temporary sites against each other. Those sites will benefit greatly from having the Wizards there, so there's that. As for putting up a fight...did it ever occur to you that they *don't want* to play at Arrowhead? No, probably not.
The question is if they do move will they keep the "Real" moniker? Let's hope not. I want Philly to have a team badly but I want it to be Philadelphia Athletic and with Royal Blue/Yellow colors. (I just always pictured that) But Philly should really be an expansion team. I think RSL to St. Louis makes the most sense. With the Checketts connection to the Blues, plus they could still technically be RSL. I would still support a new team name and color change. St. Louis Gunners - there was a St. Louis Gunners NFL team back in '34 St. Louis Select - Someone proposed it on the STL boards and it sounds good. Sponsor already worked in.
Until/unless this really does become an issue, this is more of a rivalries topic or a general expansion and stadiums topic than for here. Closed.