Now this is a Soccer Idea that makes Cent$.

[Rico]

Well.....  I guess it was just a matter of time until a Soccer Mogul hit on an idea that I liked.... This one appears to be something similar to what our Chamber should  have their sites on....

Oh.... I forgot...... They have no performance quota for their pay$$$$$$$$$$$..



Oh well back to the land of Soccer...!!


And finally.... Soccer This....

[sgrizzle]

I could definitely go for that. Now if only they could do an outdoor amphitheater with it as well, then I'd really be excited.

[Porky]

That is awesome and I agree sgrizzle, both would be nice.

[USRufnex]

quote:Originally posted by Rico

Well.....  I guess it was just a matter of time until a Soccer Mogul hit on an idea that I liked.... This one appears to be something similar to what our Chamber should  have their sites on....

Oh.... I forgot...... They have no performance quota for their pay$$$$$$$$$$$..



Oh well back to the land of Soccer...!!


And finally.... Soccer This....

Yeah, I sure wish Tulsa had a local "Soccer Mogul" like St.L's Jeff Cooper or KC's OnGoal LLC... honestly.  Heck, I'll take OKC's Brad Lund/Bob Funk/Express Sports or ANYBODY from Tulsa's Winnercomm to run the team while a local Case/Warren/Hardesty/Adwon type does the development side of things...

This location on the Illinois side of the river for a St Louis MLS soccer stadium is much, much worse than the East Village/East End location Global Development Partners had proposed for Tulsa... the Collinsville, IL location would actually be worse, in my opinion, than if GDP had proposed building their 20k-seat soccer stadium in Sapulpa...

http://mysoccerblog.blogspot.com/2007/01/future-home-of-st-louis-mls-team.html

quote:Collinsville is about 15-miles from downtown St. Louis, Missouri and on Monday the mayor confirmed that the city is negotiating with private investors to bring a MLS club to town. Their desire is to build a stadium at the location of a now defunct amphitheater project (see red arrow on map for the location).

The site is located right next to Interstate 255 and was created as a tax increment-financing district in 2002. Basically the city has been looking to build something at this location for 5-years but has not been able to make it happen.

If this all gels, the future stadium would be very similar to those of other MLS clubs. It would have a stage for concerts, seat around 20,000 and host other non-soccer events through out the year.

Any of that TIF talk sound familiar?... "5-years?"... hmmm... DESCO was from St. Louis... no?

But to blame the Chamber or former-mayor LaFortune for not getting (or not trying to get) this style of development is ridiculous.  Please give examples of out-of-state development attracted by Mayor Taylor and company so far... sound of crickets...  

Back in the summer of 2005, Global Development Partners was the toast of Major League Soccer... they were da' flavah... they'd just hammered out a deal with Phil Anschutz/AEG http://www.aegworldwide.com/01_venues/toyotapark.html to buy DC United for a record $27mil based on having the skills/resume/capital needed to develop a mixed-use/soccer stadium concept for DC's Anacostia.  These people had Gallery Place in their resume and had started a sports-and-entertainment arm-- and it looked like they would be part of the ownership for a Tulsa team.  That's right, Tulsa.  Not Portland.  Or Seattle.  Or OKC.  

This was the best available group to do this kind of project at the time and Tulsa came very close to getting a team in November 2005 up until Jan 2006 (expansion or a relocation of the KC team).  Global didn't do 400-acre suburban-sprawl projects like this one proposed for Collinsville, IL... and still don't... they have much more expertise than the WalMart devlopers who are going to replace them...

I wish it had panned out.  It didn't.  If Global had to scale back their downtown Tulsa plans after going back on their agreement to buy DC United... and instead propose a minor league ballpark as part of Tulsa's development, that still would have been fine... but this incredibly shrinking project is nothing many/any could have predicted back in the summer of 2005.

And, why would it make a difference to the success of a mixed-use project to have a buncha soccer fields next door to a stadium?  Tulsa's made that decision already with the last third-penny tax... and those fields set aside at Mohawk Park will be moved slightly so the proposed 16-18 field complex is able to expand to 32 fields... the soccer field complex is more about politics, not the success of the mixed-use project or the stadium...

Originally posted on another thread, this is MLS's business plan for "mixed-use" approach to ensure financial success and get stadiums built... from former Chicago Fire GM who's currently trying to get MLS in Milwaukee...

quote:No, it's not an outdated approach with stadia in the suburbs. Mixed-use development works in the suburbs, too. There's no single formula for economic success of a stadium. The common theme is that there must be additional revenue streams than just the stadium. Capture of revenues from an urban real estate development near a stadium is still an extremely attractive formula. Harrison, NJ and Washington, DC will have that model. Bridgeview is developing the east parking lot of TP with a waterpark, hotel, shops and restaurants to help fund the stadium. Soccer complexes are another form of ancillary revenue generation that can fund/justify stadium development. Pizza Hut Park used that formula. Colorado used a hybrid of soccer complex and mixed use development. KC and St. Louis are pursuing a similar hybrid model. Toronto is unique in that BMO Field stands alone. It was built inexpensively mainly with public funds and will have year round public usage to help justify the public investment.

It's entirely possible MLS's interest in Tulsa died around the time Lamar Hunt passed away... http://www.tulsaworld.com/sports/article.aspx?articleID=020818_Sp_b1sittler
http://web.mlsnet.com/news/mls_news.jsp?ymd=20061214&content_id=80362&vkey=news_mls&fext=.jsp
http://www.tulsaworld.com/sports/sportsextra/stories/tu_sportsxtra.asp?s=020816_Ne_a1breaki&sp=fb

But that still won't change my mind that Tulsa is a better long-term market for MLS than Denver, KC or Dallas (Frisco, TX)... for the same reasons why the NBA did so well in OKC...