Re: Somerville Soccer Stadium
This doesn't pass the sniff test at all. You're claiming that the Bills, who are actively seeking to move from Buffalo because they're doing so poorly financially, are not only out earning BOTH NYC franchises (who note, aren't planning AT ALL to move), but out earning them 4-5x?! If that was true, why try to move the Bills? Sounds to me like they're actively the greatest cash cow of all time! I mean hell, you could own a shit team in a shit stadium in a struggling city and earn 4-5x the amount the two teams in NYC make? That's officially the greatest business opportunity ever. It's probably more likely that despite earning a lot less than the NYJs and NYGs, Buffalo has far fewer fans. In that case, we'll need to see the total ad revenue for each, not ad revenue per capita fan.
I'm not claiming anything,
that's all Forbes.
But you misinterpreted the point. The point was that the Bills out-earn the Jets and Giants combined
per fan - but overall value wise, the Bills are a little better than half the value of either "NY" team. The obvious conclusion is that there are less Bills fans out there than there are fans of either NY team, yet the value of each Bills "fan" to the franchise is far greater. Why that is, I can't tell you, but I can suggest that it indicates one of two possibilities: either the value of teams is fixed based on values other than straight population (see the shitty product theory), or the correlation between the two is negative (unlikely.)
This whole argument is getting pretty silly. I know Rhode Islanders feel the need to compensate for their small size, but Providence vs Boston, seriously?
Being the number one team in Providence would still generate less revenue than being the #4 team in Boston. Its the same reason you don't have the Garden State Giants or the NJ Jets. If Providence wasn't so close to Boston sure it makes sense to locate a major sports team there. But it's perpetually in Boston's shadow, and nothing is changing that.
So far, it's only been the Providence opponents who are trying to spin this as a Providence vs Boston thing. I've said and I maintain that the relationship is absolutely like Baltimore and Washington, that this is not competing markets, and that the "move" is not an abandonment of the Boston market. They're absolutely linked markets and linked cities, even if one is much larger than the other.
There is also national, and multinational appeal to consider. Half the people in our country probably couldn't find Providence on a map. I lived in NY and was only aware of it from road signs. Outside this country, probably no one. EVERYONE knows Boston.
They will always be the New England Revolution, just like how New York City's football teams are both the "New York _____" and the MLS franchise is the New York Red Bulls (and Yankees FC be damned those guys aren't changing their name) despite all of them being in Jersey. Nobody outside of this country knows or cares where the Meadowlands or Harrison are, either.
Its the same argument. Either they are moving to Boston/Revere/Somerville or they are staying at Gillette. The only way I could see a move to Providence or another second tier city would be if the city paid for a new stadium. Even then I don't know of the Revs would actually move.
The franchise is literally being choked to death in Gillette. You want to talk about shadows? Instead of leveraging the joint ownership as is done in Seattle, the Revs are suffocating and drowning under the weight of Pats Nation. The Krafts, without whom MLS doesn't exist, are being reviled as the league's very worst owners. In response to this, they appear to have gotten more serious about moving, and yet - somehow - by all accounts, the city of Boston is rebuking them.
Could it be that my point and my argument is actually valid? Maybe it really is the case that the Krafts want to move and Boston doesn't want the Krafts to move in. Maybe the needs of the city come before the needs of a sports franchise, and maybe there will never be a soccer stadium in Boston unless and until the interests of the city coincide with that of the franchise.
And maybe, just maybe, in spite of all that, there's another city that has strong and close ties to Boston. In that city, many of the challenges facing the prospect of new venue space in Boston and of establishing a physical presence and cultural foothold for the soccer team just aren't there. Just maybe, in Providence, the city would be far less resistant to a stadium and far more open to a partnership.
If that's the case, then the "opportunity cost" is not "move to Boston
right now or move to Providence
right now," its actually "move to Providence
right now or do nothing, waiting and hoping that conditions change and the forecast improves in Boston."
And if its the latter, then how long are you willing to wait? Even knowing that very real damage is being done to the Revs franchise and MLS itself by the Gillette arrangement, how many years of no plans and no action and no willingness for a stadium in Boston or any of its border communities are you willing to endure? 10? 20? 30? Indefinitely?
Is Providence such an awful place compared to Boston that you'd rather have the Revs suffering through their 50th year of being second class citizens in their own home before you'd be willing to eat the "opportunity cost" of moving to Providence? How many years of insisting that a move to Boston is definitely going to happen before we're forced to accept that it probably isn't going to happen any time soon?
If you opened a stadium in Providence tomorrow (which would have been easily possible if plans had been in place by 2010) and Boston doesn't become open and receptive to a downtown relocation of the Revs until 2034, the Providence stadium would have seen 20 years of active use before Boston even said "yeah, we've decided we actually want you guys in town after all" - never mind establishing a plan and getting shovels in the ground. And since Providence needs more venue space, the stadium wouldn't need to be torn down even after the Revs were moved out by the start of the 2040 season.
Now imagine what the Revs are going to look like over that same 20 year stretch if they spend every season playing backup to and being overshadowed by the Patriots, with the Krafts making regular overtures to and being summarily rejected by the city, all the while sinking further and further into irrelevancy and dragging MLS down with them.
Is that really better in your mind than allowing them a shot to grow and flourish in Providence, even if temporarily?
I think if Providence wants another professional sports venue then they should try to get the Red Sox to move their AAA affiliate to town or see if anyone local wants to start up an NASL franchise.
Pawtucket is Providence's Somerville. There's no point in moving the PawSox.
Going back to what Mike Ross said in the Globe a few pages back, is there actually anywhere in the Seaport District to put a soccer specific stadium? I think some people just assume that their is more room in the area to put new development but maybe Mike Ross knows something we don't?
You could tear down the Pavilion and put it there, maybe with some adjacent land acquisition and serious help to Silver Line Way.
Other than that? Probably not.
