MLS: Cash, stadium needed for a Tulsa MLS team

[DadOf8]

I saw this over on Big Soccer and I realized we have a member of this forum that's from Oklahoma. I noticed she didn't comment on Big Soccer so I decided to put it here:


MLS: Cash, stadium needed for a Tulsa MLS team
MIKE BROWN World Sports Writer
03/26/2005
Tulsa World (Final Home Edition), Page B1 of Sports
View in Print (PDF) Format
TOM GILBERT / Tulsa World



Exhibitions continue, like Friday's game that saw the KC Wizards defeat ReAL Salt Lake.
Things have changed since Tulsa was on the bubble for a Major League Soccer franchise. The league expanded from 10 to 12 teams and neither is in Oklahoma.
But University of Tulsa soccer coach Tom McIntosh still considers the city a prime locale for future expansion. It's one reason he continues to bring in MLS teams for annual exhibitions.

"I want to keep pro soccer in the minds of the people of Tulsa," McIntosh said. "I think it's a great sport and I think it would be great for the city. I always thought it was the one arena where we could go and compete with New York, Chica go and Los Angeles and be on the same level."

On Friday night, 1,550 fans braved cold, windy weather to watch two matches at TU's Hurricane Soccer and Track Stadium. The Kansas City Wizards defeated MLS expansion team ReAL Salt Lake 3-1, and McIntosh's Hurricane, a 2004 NCAA quarterfinalist, beat the Wizards' reserve team 3-2.

Two years ago, 14,025 watched the Wizards best the Dallas Burn (now FC Dallas) 3-0 in Skelly Stadium. But thousands of advance tickets were sold to convince MLS officials of Tulsa's viability. But McIntosh said Tulsa needs investors ready to contribute lots of cash, and a new venue.

"We'd have a team right now if we had the stadium and an ownership group," McIntosh said. "The MLS would love to have a team in Tulsa, but we don't have the proper facility here in town, and an ownership group really hasn't stepped forward."

Wizards general manager Curt Johnson concurs. "The marketplace is a good one. It's ready, assuming an appropriate facility and owner can be found," Johnson said. "We had a tremendous crowd when we played there a couple of years ago. Tulsa certainly can be a good marketplace for professional soccer, I believe in that."

It happened before. The Tulsa Roughnecks were one of the more financially successful franchises in the old North American Soccer League, when McIntosh was growing up in the 1970s and '80s.

But it wouldn't be cheap. McIntosh said investors might need $10 million to $15 million to buy a new franchise, and that doesn't include the cost of a new stadium, whether funded wholly or in partnership with the city or other entities.

MLS officials said a new stadium is a must when Tulsa was under consideration in 2003. The league is stressing the move into soccer-specific stadiums as it heads into its 10th season, with a goal of expanding to 20 franchises in the near future.

"We're like any other sport, in that we need appropriate homes for our teams, a place for our fans to rally around and consider the palace locally for their team," MLS commissioner Don Garber told the Tulsa World in 2003. "Our sport is so new that we haven't played in many of our own facilities and we want to expand our own facilities. It's not just a priority, but a necessity.

"We want to represent the sport the way it needs to be represented, with a regulation-sized field and the amenities for our fans. Ideally, we want 20,000-seat stadiums with luxury boxes where the revenue is not controlled by others."

Wizards owner Lamar Hunt decided to put his team up for sale in December after voters failed a November ballot initiative that would have funded improvements at Arrowhead Stadium. Prospective buyers are required to outline new stadium proposals.

Said McIntosh, "This is not Europe or Latin America and soccer isn't going to be successful played in 80,000-seat stadiums, but it can be a successful venture in 18,000- and 24,000-seat stadiums. You can have great atmosphere and you can do a lot of other things with that size of stadiums."

[Mango Jam]

Hey, I was there! It was so flippin... freakin... whatever... COLD!! Great game though, I got to see them play before you guys did!! 👌

It is so hard to get money for a new stadium though because of the 'good 'ol boy' government we have here. They bleed us dry with high sales and property taxes and force more turnpikes on us than any other state and then want us to pay $0.05 more per gallon of gas to fund highway improvements. In 2003, the citizens of Tulsa approved a thirteen year, $0.01 sales tax increase to fund new pocket parks, entice American Airlines to stay and build an 18,000 seat indoor arena, among other things. This will supposedly bring more concerts here instead of Oklahoma City or Dallas, yeah, like they are going to pick here over Dallas, come on. All this while the highway lights are not even on in Tulsa because we can't pay the electric bill? :bucko:

It's going to be an uphill battle but one I'm willing to fight just so I can have a sweet little fan club like The Loyalists.

Thanks for posting this, from what I've heard of BS, I wouldn't like it.

[dysko]

As a Tulsa native... I would just say that there has been talk about MLS in Oklahoma since 1994. Yet, it has never happened. I will believe that something is serious when it happens... fact of the matter is they just don't have an Uncle Dave on their side down there in Oklahoma.

[SoccerPrime]

Its too bad really, it seems there has been and is a lot of support for soccer and MLS in Tulsa.
But like Mango and Dysko said, without a Uncle Dave, its never ever goning to happen.