New soccer stadium for D.C.! (But not the one everyone has been waiting for)
Oct 2, 2012, 10:40 AM EDT
While news of a new baseball / soccer facility in suburban D.C. is exciting news generally for our game, and while it’s intriguing in the North American Soccer League’s growth dynamic, it really is no factor in the capital city’s long-running, long-frustrating reach for an MLS facility.
Well, except for this:
It will pour more pressure on the situation, and heap additional misery on fans of the Black and Red, who are showing their frustration with the organization by staying away in increasing numbers.
(MORE: Dwindling attendance in once-flourishing MLS markets)
Still, good for the soccer supporters in northern Virginia, who will apparently have a snazzy little ground to watch second-tier professional soccer by 2014.
The small ground (somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 in capacity, I can’t quite be sure) will sit about 30 miles West of D.C.
The NASL’s board of governors still must approve a franchise (likely), which could happen by the end of the month.
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- wesbadia - Oct 2, 2012 at 3:59 PM
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There’s a Q&A piece on the Goal Blog from the NYT with David Downes. Interestingly, the NASL has plans on expanding to 18 or 20 teams over the next five years (2018). NY and Ottawa seem like legitimate cities for expansion. The DC suburbs of NoVA? Not so much…
This market seems like a third tier market, something USL-PRO would easily move into. Or, even better, USL-PDL taking advantage of. I do not think the DC suburbs in VA provide enough support for a D2 team. You’re essentially asking the small town of Leesburg (population of 42K) to come out and support a club that, according to NASL, should be getting 5-10,000 fans per game. That sounds like an unbelievable feat.
Even USL-PRO is now targeting larger cities for expansion. Phoenix will have a D3 team in 2013. If Downes chooses to go with the bedroom community of Leesburg over areas like Virginia Beach/Norfolk or Roanoke (to stay in VA), both of which are much bigger markets, then I think NASL fails in the long run.
There are many more ideal markets to expand into than DC suburbs. This sounds like a pipe dream by a developer/owner that has connections to the local area and wants to leave his legacy.
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- Puskás In Boots - Oct 2, 2012 at 4:46 PM
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wesbadia –
Leesburg’s population is irrelevant. The Dulles corridor between Loudoun and Fairfax counties has a population in the hundreds of thousands. Whether this market fits the NASL’s ambitions is a different question, but I have no doubt a team in Loudoun would draw reasonably well.
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- wesbadia - Oct 2, 2012 at 5:19 PM
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Why would fans from Fairfax County drive 25 miles to Leesburg to see a D2 team when they could drive 10 miles to Washington to see a D1 team? There may be a lot of people between Arlington and Leesburg, but Leesburg is on the fringe of that corridor, practically in rural Maryland if it was across the Potomac, or in the Appalachian foothills if to the west or southwest.
FYI, Leesburg is closer to West Virginia than it is to DC. Both attracting DC fans from across the metro area and claiming to be a legitimate club from “DC proper” is far from the truth.
At most, Loudoun FC (or whatever they’re to be called) could represent a portion of the burbs for a D3 or D4 league, but not NASL. I’ll call it now: Downes turns Down DC burbs.
