Milwaukee's MLS Move?
I was reading an interview with former Chicago Fire GM Peter Wilt over at the Fire Blog at The Offside and I had no idea that the guy really landed on his feet when he left in 2005. He's the point man in an effort to bring an Major League Soccer franchise to Milwaukee. Sweet!
Wilt along with other investors formed Milwaukee Professional Soccer, LLC in 2005 with the goal of "developing a 20,000 seat soccer specific stadium in downtown Milwaukee and securing a Major League Soccer team for Wisconsin in 2008."
Bob at the Fire Offside Blog was concerned about how Milwaukee would affect the Fire and asked: "Tell me about your plans for an MLS team in Milwaukee. Do you think this would be a good thing for the Fire? It would create a natural rivalry, but a Milwaukee team would also presumably eat into the Fire’s fanbase and youth catchment area.."
Wilt responded,
Looking at it from another angle I couldn't help but be extremely excited about an MLS team in my backyard. I know that Milwaukee has found itself on the short list a couple of times as a site for expansion, but I always saw that as wishful thinking. In reality, this is a serious push by some serious men.
Wilt has repeatedly mentioned wanting to build a soccer-specific stadium in downtown Milwaukee, possibly near the Bradley Center (the old Park East freeway wasteland) to create a sports entertainment district. I had heard that the Milwaukee Brewers when they built Miller Park, the former city mayor John Norquist was interested in putting the baseball park downtown, but there was a lot of opposition, which is why its out by the old County Stadium site. If Milwaukee's power brokers don't want baseball downtown... does soccer stand a chance?
Either way having MLS closer that Chi-town would be fantastic. One of the things that has limited my interest in the Fire (which I am attempting to amend) has been my inability to get to games. The mere geographical near-ness (is that a word?) to the Brewers has re-light (inflamed, maybe) my previously dim baseball interest light.
I haven't even started on the rivalry implications of a Chicago versus Milwaukee. Chicago as a city totally blows (of course Milwaukee isn't perfect either), but to have a Great Lakes Cup (like Chivas/Galaxy Super Classico or Houston and FC Dallas) would really spice things up.
Plus, I've got the perfect name for the Milwaukee team...
Anybody with me?
- Dan
Wilt along with other investors formed Milwaukee Professional Soccer, LLC in 2005 with the goal of "developing a 20,000 seat soccer specific stadium in downtown Milwaukee and securing a Major League Soccer team for Wisconsin in 2008."
Bob at the Fire Offside Blog was concerned about how Milwaukee would affect the Fire and asked: "Tell me about your plans for an MLS team in Milwaukee. Do you think this would be a good thing for the Fire? It would create a natural rivalry, but a Milwaukee team would also presumably eat into the Fire’s fanbase and youth catchment area.."
Wilt responded,
"I think the cannibalization of Fire fans would be negligible (mostly in Lake County, Illinois which suffered a bit due to the stadium location) as very few Wisconsin fans travel to Bridgeview for games. I do think the increase in attendance for derby games would be significant. We’re making quiet progress north of the border. We needed to be very public the first year to gain support for our partnership with the Wisconsin Youth Soccer Association, which is a landmark deal in American sports. The WYSA will own a small portion of the team and have a seat on our board of directors. There are dozens of partnerships benefits including a commitment to have Wisconsin developed players on our roster. From a business perspective, the exciting part for us is the WYSA’s commitment to build tickets into registrations which will result in the equivalent of 8,000 season tickets through the partnership alone. At this point we need to be stay quiet to avoid premature political angst."
Looking at it from another angle I couldn't help but be extremely excited about an MLS team in my backyard. I know that Milwaukee has found itself on the short list a couple of times as a site for expansion, but I always saw that as wishful thinking. In reality, this is a serious push by some serious men.
Wilt has repeatedly mentioned wanting to build a soccer-specific stadium in downtown Milwaukee, possibly near the Bradley Center (the old Park East freeway wasteland) to create a sports entertainment district. I had heard that the Milwaukee Brewers when they built Miller Park, the former city mayor John Norquist was interested in putting the baseball park downtown, but there was a lot of opposition, which is why its out by the old County Stadium site. If Milwaukee's power brokers don't want baseball downtown... does soccer stand a chance?
Either way having MLS closer that Chi-town would be fantastic. One of the things that has limited my interest in the Fire (which I am attempting to amend) has been my inability to get to games. The mere geographical near-ness (is that a word?) to the Brewers has re-light (inflamed, maybe) my previously dim baseball interest light.
I haven't even started on the rivalry implications of a Chicago versus Milwaukee. Chicago as a city totally blows (of course Milwaukee isn't perfect either), but to have a Great Lakes Cup (like Chivas/Galaxy Super Classico or Houston and FC Dallas) would really spice things up.
Plus, I've got the perfect name for the Milwaukee team...
Anybody with me?
- Dan
posted by Dan at
5:07 PM
4 Comments:
Ok, this is an old post and no one has commented yet. I would love to see an MLS team in Wisconsin! I've been to MLS games while stationed in California... they were completely boring. We were told to sit down and shut up by all the soccer moms when were trying to get rowdy and get into the game. I think Wisconsin would bring more of a european flavor to the games (meaning beer) and people would come out in droves to the games not only because they are fans but because the games are fun! I'm stationed in Germany now and soccer games are almost impossible to get tickets to here, like Packer games. I was thinking a german name like the Bräu Meisters (would put some much needed umph back into Milwaukee's beer brewing) but I gotta say I love the Milwaukee's Best idea. The stadium should be either downtown or somewhere else in Wisconsin I'd say like Madison, Appleton, or Oshkosh. The "Wisconsin Cheddar Headers" Ok, I don't know... But yeah, lets make it happen, I want to go to some games when I come home!
a stadium in appleton or or madison??? are you crazy?! if an mls team is to be launched in wisconsin it will be in one place and one place only: the only city in the state: Milwaukee. there simply needs to be the population density for an mls team to work, or any professional sports team, for that matter. Milwaukee is and always has been a great fit for the MLS, though... there is a very large latin population as well as a diverse segment of other internationals living in Milwaukee: those from the UK, Germany, Russia, Poland, etc. I'm always amazed at how many internationals live and work in Milwaukee.. an MLS team would do better in Brew City than many many of the other current markets-- even better than in larger markets, as Milwaukee has a "culture of soccer" that is more intense than in places like Kansas City, Denver or Chicago. an MLS team in Milwaukee is a no-brainer. there should have been one from the get-go, but the league didn't think about it through very clearly and left a lot of investors high and dry back in the late 90s.
Considering that the stadium would require too much development, its tough to imagine Milwaukee putting forth a serious bid for MLS. I recall the last bid that was presented involved converting the Milwaukee Mile into a stadium, but that proposal was laughable at best.
Partnering with the WYSA is a great step, but I think that any MLS bid would be better served by trying to tap into the existing soccer community, even if it is somewhat small.
I'd LOVE it if someone could step in at the Bavarian Soccer Club (btw: GREAT idea for the name of a team here) and try to build some sort of stadium at or near there. I'd even be happy with a 6-8,000 seater and try to move up to USL.
Yeah, who would ever think a pro team would do well outside of Milwaukee... what if they put a football team in Green Bay? That would never work!
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