Creating the bond between city identity and team

Exhibit A, regarding the new logo for the Portland Timbers, set to join Major League Soccer in 2011:

Creating that bond is, obviously, crucial to ensuring the team's viability.  Considering that the city of Portland has given $31 million to upgrade the Timbers' PGE Stadium, one might suggest that there is a lot of (local) vested interest in the new MLS franchise's success.

The redeveloped PGE Stadium won't be brand new, but it will have 

character, charm, and a downtown location.

Turns out that PGE Stadium - in its various incarnations - is an 85-year-old facility whose eccentricity lies in the fact that it has been used as a football, baseball, and soccer stadium during its lifetime.  Rather than redevelop the stadium to mirror the likes of Red Bull Arena or Toyota Park, the J-shaped, downtown PGE Stadium will rely on a quirkiness that the team hopes will draw on the familiarity of older stadiums and, thus, become the MLS-version of Fenway Park or Lambeau Field.

New Philadelphia-area MLS Stadium almost ready

The stadium, located 15 miles from the center of Philly in Chester, Pennsylvania, is getting close to being completed.

You know what they say about waterfront property.

Even better news according to the MLS Insider blog and the Philadelphia Business Journal, the Philadelphia Union - who will make the new facility, dubbed PPL Park, their home - have sold out their limited allotment of 12,000 season ticket plans for the 2010 season.  I'm certain that a large number of those season tickets have been sold to the fan support group, the Sons of Ben (as in, Franklin), which already boasts over 5,000 members.

The stadium will apparently have a special entrance for the Sons of Ben.

 
The team decided to cap the number of season tickets in the 18,500-seat stadium so that single-game and walk-up tickets could be sold for home matches.  The stadium is slated to debut on Sunday, June 27th, when the Union take on the Seattle Sounders at 5 pm on ESPN2.

And both MLS and the team expect the new building to be filled to capacity throughout the remainder of the home schedule.  Why?  Because the Union - in their two home matches in Lincoln Financial Field - have drawn 34,870 (for the franchise debut) and 25,038 (for a game against FC Dallas last week) fans.

The team has already had good support at cavernous

Lincoln Financial Field.

Seems like a good start for MLS in Philadelphia, but it remains to be seen whether the new stadium will be the locus of job creation and neighborhood revitalization that both the league and team promised.

Major League Soccer Expands into Canada (Again)

Today, Major League Soccer announced its 19th franchise, an expansion team based in Montreal.  Canada's second largest city, however, will not be starting from scratch.  Currently, the Montreal Impact, a club whose existence goes back nearly two decades, play in the the highest minor league division for professional soccer in the US/Canada.  They were champions of that league last season.

Even better for MLS, the Impact already play in a relatively new (opened in 2008) soccer-specific stadium.  That facility, Saputo Stadium, will be upgraded for the switch to MLS in 2012.  Bonus: Saputo Stadium has a natural grass surface.

The Impact will use Montreal's Olympic Stadium (foreground) 

for select home matches.

The Impact's addition to MLS means that when they join the league in 2012, there will be three Canadian-based squads in the league (Toronto FC, Vancouver Whitecaps).  And, already, there is a tense rivalry between these teams (there is a natural city rivalry between Montreal and Toronto), having met in various cup matches and lower-division games.  Moving Montreal and Vancouver to the MLS will only enhance these north-of-the-border rivalries.

In fact, I'm thinking that the tri-city Canadian rivalry could potentially be one of the most contentious in the entire league.  At current moment, the only intense rivalry (described as "these two teams really don't like each other") in MLS is between Chivas USA and the Los Angeles Galaxy (the teams share a stadium in Carson City, CA).  But, when Portland and Vancouver join the MLS in 2011, many expect a natural rivalry to develop between those two cities and Seattle, home of Sounders FC and the largest crowds in MLS.

All of these current and future rivalries overshadow what should be the league's most potent rivalry division with the teams located in New York, New England, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.  Unfortunately, the rivalry between New York and D.C. has never fully blossomed because both teams have struggled in recent seasons.  The league is hoping that New York and Philadelphia could bloom into a "mega-rivalry," but because the Union are in just their first year of play in MLS, a true rivalry will take time.

In all, expansion into soccer-friendly markets and soccer-specific stadiums is a natural evolution for MLS.  Though it remains to be seen whether the Canadian clubs will come to dominate, they will clearly be a boon for the league if only by providing some of the league's most dramatic match-ups.

Production Values to Promote the MLS

Always interesting to see how teams and leagues use video production techniques to make some super-slick videos to pysch up their fan bases and sell tickets.  As far as I've seen, there's been no better video to promote an MLS regular season match than the following viral video for the Chicago Fire (best name in MLS?) against Chivas USA.

That game is tonight at 8.30 p.m.  On the opposite side of the 'slick' spectrum, here's a somewhat strange video for the San Jose Earthquakes.  The 'Quakes host the Colorado Rapids tonight at 10 p.m.

Comparing the two side-by-side makes me think that Chicago's PR team is leaps and bounds above San Jose's, but perhaps it's simply a different choice in style: Aggressive and passionate collective vs. Inclusive and fun-loving individuals?

Can new stadiums propel an entire league?

Just in the past two days, developments for two more soccer-specific stadiums have progressed after zoning and city council approvals.

The Houston Dynamo are moving forward on their plans to build a stadium in downtown Houston and the San Jose Earthquakes have secured redistricting rights to build their own stadium in southern San Jose.  Both projects are estimated to be completed in 2012 and both plan to use private funding.

Houston's new 21,000 seat home would include the team's own practice facilities, a first for the Dynamo after several years of shared field space and locker rooms with the University of Houston.  Currently, the Dynamo play their home games in the University's Robertson Stadium, a 32,000 seat football stadium built in 1941.

Is the blimp necessary?

Renderings of the new Dynamo Stadium, which will be located in

downtown Houston.

Meanwhile, the 'Quakes will build a 15,000 seat stadium - with the ability to expand to 18,000 seats - as long as owner Lew Wolff can procure the $60 million needed to fund it.  He plans to use naming rights and commercial sponsors to help raise the money.

Renderings of the proposed Earthquakes stadium.

Team officials in both Houston and San Jose have

talked about implementing a "European feel" to the stadiums.  

In addition to the new stadium project currently being built in Kansas City, if the stadiums in Houston and San Jose are completed on time, then the 2012 MLS season would feature 18 (including 2011 expansion squads in Portland and Vancouver) teams and 14 soccer-specific stadiums.  These numbers include the 2011 expansion squads in Portland and Vancouver that are redeveloping former stadiums (PGE Park and BC Place).

Roughly $31 million will be used to re-design Portland's PGE Park.

Portland's PGE Park will be a soccer-specific stadium while  Vancouver's BC Place will be renovated with the goal of providing a soccer-friendly space, namely, the league's first retractable-roof stadium.

BC Place, already the recipient of Olympic funds for renovation, will

be further developed to create a better soccer environment.

The teams on the outside of the soccer-specific stadium movement?  The New England Revolution, DC United, Seattle Sounders, and the Vancouver Whitecaps (only technically).  It should be noted, in addition to discounting Vancouver from that list (especially since they have plans to eventually build a soccer-specific stadium downtown), the Seattle Sounders led the MLS in attendance last season and seem to be satisfied playing their home games in Qwest Field.  Last year, they averaged 30,000 fans per game and that number will likely increase this season, as the Sounders recently announced they were able to sell 31,500 season tickets for the 2010 season.  As an aside, tomorrow night's game in Seattle between the Sounders and the Philadelphia Union that will kick off the MLS season - and be broadcast on ESPN2 - is expected to draw upwards of 38,000 fans.

Seattle fans will be out in force tomorrow night.

So, the only teams really left out of the stadium movement are New England and DC.  And yet, that could soon change as MLS commissioner Don Garber grows more frustrated with efforts in DC that have become bogged down in politics.  Interestingly, Baltimore has stepped up to develop a plan for enticing the league's most successful club to the Charm City.

But while Baltimore is an option for United, team president Kevin Payne - responding to Garber's comments - has not ruled out a space in DC or Northern Virginia.  It's likely he fears the 40 mile distance to Baltimore would alienate the team's local, and incredibly loyal, followers.

Overall, it's a novel idea to want to play a sport in stadiums specifically built for that purpose.  Will 2012 be the true beginning of the league - a beginning, mind you, some two decades in the making?  As some have said, you have to start somewhere.