Don't kill the messenger...I received an unexpected phone call this afternoon from the United Soccer League's Senior Director of Franchise Development, Matt Weibe. The call lasted about 15 mins...
http://www.uslsoccer.com/aboutusl/contactus/166756.htmlMr. Weibe started by stating to me that Tulsa is
"one of ten markets" the USL is very interested in for USL-1 expansion... keep in mind that I'm only paraphrasing what he said based on what I remember from the conversation.
He went on to give his sales pitch that the league averages about 5,000 fans per game... highest attendances are in Portland, Rochester and Montreal with the club in Montreal leading the league at 13k fans per game... that USL-1 is a safer bet financially than MLS... and has solid ownership, some of whom could have invested in Major League Soccer but balked at MLS's single-entity setup...
He let me know that the league admired the "name appeal" of the
Tulsa Roughnecks, implying they would like to see a franchise in Tulsa use the "Roughnecks" brand name...
BTW, three out of the eleven cities in USL-1 (Portland, Seattle, Vancouver) still use the old NASL names -- from a league that collapsed back in '85... here are the teams in USL-1 (the league will be adding a team in Austin, TX next season)...
Atlanta Silverbacks
Carolina RailHawks
Charleston Battery
Miami FC Blues
Minnesota Thunder
Montreal Impact
Portland Timbers Puerto Rico Islanders
Rochester Rhinos
Seattle Sounders Vancouver Whitecaps I was also told that the USL could have granted a PDL level club (amateur) to a group in Tulsa the last two years, but the league refused... basically implying that it was the league's opinion that the Tulsa market could do better -- I think he also mentioned something similar about a USL-2 team, but I don't remember if USL actually denied a formal USL-2 proposal from Tulsa or if the league didn't want to consider any plan going that direction either...
And here's an interesting twist...
Mr. Weibe mentioned the Portland soccer franchise prominently in our conversation and that the Timbers' USL-1 team is actually owned by the same people who own the Portland Beavers AAA baseball club, implying Tulsa could emulate Portland's business model...http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2008/03/31/story4.html?ana=from_rssI failed to ask Mr. Weibe if he had spoken with Drillers' owner Chuck Lamson yet... but wouldn't be surprised if either:
A) Lamson's had a conversation or two with USL.
B) Nothing's been discussed.
C) Chuck Lamson's never heard of the USL.
D) Lamson really could care less about anything involving a sports entity other than the Drillers... and hates soccer. [
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I gotta admit, the idea of the Drillers' organization actually owning/operating a USL-1 team hadn't occured to me...
Pros?/Cons?
Why?/Why not?*****p.s.-- Weibe hadn't heard anything about Jenks' plans for a stadium and didn't know where Jenks was located in relation to Tulsa... so, I gave him some info over the phone and emailed back a reply with info on the River District development.... [
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