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September 14, 2007
Playing catch up
It's been a busy week away from the blog, so we apologize for the infrequent updates. Here's a brief wrap of the latest and greatest:
- SSV sent out a message to members yesterday. If you haven't seen it yet, you can find it on the SSV home page.
- The San Jose Business Journal reports that the Earthquakes have hired ticket sales people. Since the article also mentions "team spokeswoman Flor Rivera," we're guessing they've also hired a team spokeswoman. ;-)
- St. Louis and Philadelphia are making strong bids for MLS expansion. The St. Louis suburb of Collinsville, Ill. approved a new, 18,500-seat stadium as part of a $573 million project which would include 1,600 homes, 240 hotel rooms, nearly half a million square feet of retail and office space, and several youth soccer fields. More on the St. Louis effort can be found in this story on MLSnet.com and at St. Louis Soccer United's web site.
As for Philadelphia, that town's Inquirer newspaper reports that "A group of investors say they own the site and have the private financial backing necessary for a Major League Soccer stadium in Chester, and believe they will get the state aid and the league approval necessary to complete the deal in the coming months." Our congratulations to the Sons of Ben, the only MLS supporters' group without a team.
- But wait, there's more. The Chicago Fire has been purchased by Andell Holdings, an LA investment firm. We got a kick out of this quote from Andell CEO Andrew Hauptman: "Who in their right minds wouldn't want to own a sports team in Chicago? It's the global game. We're interested in seeing it grow further in the U.S. and in Chicago."
We think the league will also benefit from the continued divestiture of MLS teams by AEG, one-time owners of the Earthquakes. The sale of the Fire brings their holdings down to two teams, Houston and L.A. AEG sold DC United last year for $33 million.
- Meanwhile, Real Salt Lake's new stadium is taking form, and they've got a webcam showing the progress. Not much to see yet, but there's some steelwork in view.
- We mentioned U.S. Soccer's web site as a good source of Women's World Cup news, and it is. If you're looking for video highlights, though, the place to go is FIFA.com.
Posted by Jay at September 14, 2007 10:32 AM
Comments
You forgot about Kansas City. There was a stadium news about them somewhere. I'm sure you'll find it if you go to their forum on BigSoccer. (Or also in MLS news and analysis.)
Posted by: Will at September 14, 2007 12:23 PM
OK, so here it is:
http://www.kansascity.com/news/columnists/mike_hendricks/story/268260.html
Now the only ones without any positive news are DC United and their Poplar Point which appears to be dead?!?!?!
Posted by: Will at September 14, 2007 12:33 PM
What happened to the team which was stolen from us? Are they anywhere close to construction of their own stadium in Houston?
Posted by: Will at September 14, 2007 12:44 PM
Thanks for the KC link -- that's good news for them.
I don't know about Houston. I'm just waiting for the day that there's a deal for a stadium in San Jose because I think I'll be able to gloat about our deal getting done first. :-)
Posted by: Jay Hipps, SSV at September 14, 2007 12:57 PM
[Our congratulations to the Sons of Ben, the only MLS supporters' group without a team.]
Our congratulations as well to the Sons of Ben. As a former resident of the Philly area, I'm pulling for them.
And congrats as well to the fans of the Quakes on their return to the league.
With respect, however, I would inform you that MLS Phoenix Rising is a fan group in the Valley of the Sun and at last check, our team was missing! :))
Posted by: Peter C, MLSPR at September 19, 2007 12:20 AM