LAFC Principal Owner Henry Nguyen yesterday said that he "wouldn't entertain the idea" of the club starting in '17 in a temporary venue, and the permitting and approval process "means that the club had to push its inaugural MLS season" back to '18, according to Jeff Carlisle of ESPN FC. Nguyen said that he "doesn't look at delaying the club's start date as a bad thing, in that it will allow more time for the branding and naming of the club, as well as build in some wiggle room in terms of any potential construction delays." Carlisle wrote despite the one-season setback, the way LAFC "has executed so far is impressive." While NYC FC and David Beckham's group in Miami "continue to look for stadium sites, the club has gone out and secured one just a little more than five months after its formation." There are "obstacles to be sure." Nguyen said that he "hopes by the time the stadium opens, improvements in the city's rapid transit system will make the stadium more accessible." The site currently "remains at the whims of the city's notorious traffic." Nguyen added the LAFC project alone "won't change the economic circumstances of the area, but it can be part of the solution." LAFC President Tom Penn explained that the club's lease agreement with USC is "for 98 years and 'is the equivalent of ownership.'" Penn: "We control 100 percent of what happens on that land, we control 100 percent of the revenues, we take on 100 percent of the risk associated with it." He added that USC "would have some access to the stadium for some varsity women's sports." Penn said that the next 10 months "will be spent preparing the old Sports Arena for demolition and then knocking it down." LAFC next March "expects to take possession of the site for the purposes of starting construction with that phase finishing in time" for the '18 MLS season (ESPNFC.com, 5/18).
DOMINO EFFECT: MLS Commissioner Don Garber said that LAFC's decision to delay its inaugural season until '18 "forced a rethink on the part of the league as to when other expansion clubs would begin." Garber: "It wasn't until recently that we realized that we wouldn't be able to kickoff here (with LAFC) in 2017. Once the decision was made to move to 2018, it has us taking a step back to start thinking about what the rollout of the next couple of teams will be. We don't have an answer to that today. We've got to spend some more time with our new team in Minneapolis and get an understanding of what their timeline is." Meanwhile, ESPN FC's Carlisle notes Garber "indicated that he will be visiting Miami within the next week 'to meet there and try to figure out how to move that project forward.'" That trip "will follow a visit to St. Louis on Tuesday where he'll meet with local leaders to gauge interest in bringing an expansion team there" (ESPNFC.com, 5/19). SI.com's Brian Straus wrote whether Atlanta's MLS expansion team starts alone in '17 "now likely depends on Minnesota." Garber: “We have a number of moving pieces. That’s part of the dynamic with a young sports league" (SI.com, 5/18).
FOLLOW THE NORTH STAR: In Minneapolis, Mike Kaszuba reports negotiators in Minneapolis "may be making progress on a menu of mostly local tax breaks" for an MLS stadium, "even though the proposal appeared dead" yesterday in the closing hours of the legislative session. City Council member Jacob Frey said that local officials and reps for NASL club Minnesota United Owner Bill McGuire have "outlined a package that would include a property tax break for the team." Frey added that a proposal "would include a freeze on property taxes on three land parcels" near Target Field in downtown, where McGuire "wants to build." Frey said the city would extend the its "entertainment and beverage tax district to include the land where the new stadium would be located." But Kaszuba writes with the Legislature adjourning late yesterday, it "remained unclear how soon -- or even whether -- other aspects of a public subsidy package would come together." The move nonetheless "would be the first step to give McGuire’s group a relatively modest public subsidy package" (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 5/19).
