Jeff, any luck lately on the new Roughnecks venture?
I really felt like at some point a few weeks after the World Cup, somebody would have shown some serious interest and would have coordinated some kind of effort.... didn't really matter if it included me or not.... money talks, something else walks......
That said, my few meetings last spring/summer with county officials, and with individuals who live blocks from the stadium, and soccer people out at the Empire bar, Fox & Hound, etc., etc., have me feeling positive for this idea at some point in the not-too-distant future... provided the stadium is still standing....
1. SOCCER WAS THE BIG WINNER in the survey Fred Perry offered to citizens over a year ago....
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20091130_16_A1_Drille4583952. People who live in the area of the fairgrounds have, by and large, been very supportive of my desire to attract a pro soccer team to the old ballpark... when educated about the 15-20 home dates required for an NASL team, those people I spoke with really liked the idea and hoped this would leave the stadium available for more concerts and other non-sports events than was the case when the Drillers played there....
3. The pro soccer idea has been politically palatable and desirable to county officials and some of their staff who, alas, would rather passively cheer me on than do anything proactive on their part to attract local investors....
4. League officials from the NASL have been very interested in identifying any kind of financially stable and committed local ownership group to use the old ballpark as home for a pro soccer team... and if the franchise is successful, commit to a soccer specific stadium somewhere in/around Tulsa.... west bank of the river?... Jenks Riverwalk?... East End?....
5. The occasional supportive email to yours truly at TulsaRoughnecks.com... international intrigue, eh?.....
"NASL was lost and all teams are winners of American soccer revived. This is not the time to tulsa?, oklahoma have to unite for the show and memories resurface."cristian keipert, buenos aires argentina 8/9/2010
I've been given enough "atta-boy's" in the last year to really make things depressing for me these days..... when somebody eggs you on to sell the idea of an NASL franchise to folks at the Tulsa Club or
, yet nobody wants to have any "skin in the game," it makes me wonder..... Cameron-Box Sports seemingly has no desire to see pro soccer share the summer media spotlight with the WNBA Shock and the AFL-1 Talons... there was already grumbling of a lack of local corporate support from the Talons' office last spring... my salespitch to Cameron-Box Sports fell flat because they told me the fairgrounds soccer proposition needed "additional revenue streams" -- aka corporate suites, etc... available at the new arena and new ballpark but missing from the old Drillers Stadium....
In the meantime, the same pro soccer league that bought the rights to use "North American Soccer League" including the old logo and last year secured trademark rights to the use the nickname "Roughnecks" for soccer promotion purposes, has recently announced a 2012 expansion team for San Antonio.
http://www.nasl.com/article/san-antonio-name-the-team-contestSo, with the NASL's offices and staff in Miami, FL.... where is Noel Lemon?
And where are the people who could attract interest in a Tulsa Roughnecks team playing at an 11k capacity stadium at the fairgrounds against the Tampa Bay Rowdies in the next few years? It's not like we're trying to bring back the Brooklyn Dodgers?... or is it?
This much I can tell you.... if Tulsa's corporate donors had invested half the money, time and effort they spent in pursuit of a WNBA team at the urging of Kathy Taylor, then paying an expansion fee rumored to be around $6mil..... well, IMHO, an NASL team in Tulsa could have been much more successful due to grassroots support and the potential expansion and marketing of that support....
So, I guess we'll just have to wait for the demise of the Shock or the demotion of the Talons to AFL-2? before the seed money or corporate sponsorships will be there for a high level pro soccer team to come to Tulsa... and by that time, I fear the stadium will be leveled to make way for a Super-sized Chuck E. Cheese with ample surface parking....
/rant.