Raleigh is competing with fellow North Carolina city Charlotte for an MLS expansion bid, and some Raleigh soccer fans believe Mecklenburg County commissioners last week "might've tilted the field" in their favor, according to Paul Specht of the Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER. Mecklenburg County commissioners "offered land for a stadium" for a Charlotte team, but they "declined to extend financial support." Charlotte's group "must now rely on the Charlotte City Council, which recently said it wouldn't contribute" more than $30M for the remaining more than $100M. North Carolina FC "saw the Mecklenburg vote as a fatal blow to the Charlotte bid." However, Specht noted Raleigh's MLS bid is by "no means secured." Club Owner Stephen Malik, who wants to move the Cary NASL team to Raleigh, indicated that he has the $150M he "needs to build a 20,000-seat stadium in downtown Raleigh, but he hopes to build it on state-owned land that lawmakers have yet to relinquish" (Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER, 8/5).
TOUGH SELL: In Tampa, Tom Jones wrote it feels like St. Petersburg's bid "to get into the MLS is a long shot." St. Pete Mayor Rick Kriseman last week "floated the idea of Tropicana Field (or the land where the Trop now sits) being turned into a soccer stadium." However, Jones wrote the idea "isn't so much about how great the Trop site is, but how questionable" the USL Tampa Bay Rowdies' Al Lang Stadium site might be. No matter how much money Rowdies Owner Bill Edwards "spends and no matter how swanky Al Lang is dressed up, it always is going to be on the smaller side." Jones: "All this Trop talk seems moot anyway. Considering all the intriguing possibilities for the Trop site, it seems highly unlikely it will ever be used for soccer" (TAMPABAY.com, 8/4).
PUSHING BACK: In Nashville, Adam Sparks noted Vanderbilt Univ. football fans "don't want to share a new off-campus football stadium" with a potential MLS expansion club. The sentiment was "repeated loudly" by any fan "willing to speak on the hot topic" Saturday at Dore Jam, the annual Vanderbilt football fan event. Fans said that they feel "uneasy about the prospect of moving games off campus" (Nashville TENNESSEAN, 8/6).
