The bid for a Major League Soccer franchise in Miami spearheaded by Futbol Club Barcelona and local Miami businessman Marcelo Claure took another step forward this weekend with the launch of a website. The website www.miamifcb.com allows fans to sign up as supporters of the Club and to express interest in season tickets. In the coming days the team will also begin taking deposits for season tickets.
"We know Miami is a great soccer town, and now with a potential Major League Soccer coming to town, we think it is a great opportunity to show the world that we deserve a team," said Marcelo Claure, CEO of Brightstar Corp and the lead partner alongside Futbol Club Barcelona. "Our goal is to get over 15,000 fans signed up and over 5,000 season ticket requests in the next week; it is a tall order but we believe the community is fully behind this initiative and will come out to support it."
Mr. Laporta, President of Futbol Club Barcelona,further confirmed that "FC Barcelona is very enthusiastic with the MLS project. It is a very special initiative for our club to be part of. Over the course of many years, we have been looking for an opportunity like this one because it has been our aim was to be present in the American market."
Major League Soccer owners and executives will be meeting in Los Angeles November 21st – 23rd for MLS Cup Weekend, and while no official statement has been issued, there is some expectation that a decision on expansion may be made in the coming weeks. "We need to show the MLS that Miami is the best choice, and the most effective way to do that is by having Miami and all its soccer fans show their support," Marcelo Claure added.
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"We know Miami is a great soccer town, and now with a potential Major League Soccer coming to town, we think it is a great opportunity to show the world that we deserve a team," said Marcelo Claure, CEO of Brightstar Corp and the lead partner alongside Futbol Club Barcelona. "Our goal is to get over 15,000 fans signed up and over 5,000 season ticket requests in the next week; it is a tall order but we believe the community is fully behind this initiative and will come out to support it."
Mr. Laporta, President of Futbol Club Barcelona,further confirmed that "FC Barcelona is very enthusiastic with the MLS project. It is a very special initiative for our club to be part of. Over the course of many years, we have been looking for an opportunity like this one because it has been our aim was to be present in the American market."
Major League Soccer owners and executives will be meeting in Los Angeles November 21st – 23rd for MLS Cup Weekend, and while no official statement has been issued, there is some expectation that a decision on expansion may be made in the coming weeks. "We need to show the MLS that Miami is the best choice, and the most effective way to do that is by having Miami and all its soccer fans show their support," Marcelo Claure added.
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This is great news for MLS. The most promising aspect to it, even more than the Barca brand name being associated with MLS is the cost of a franchise, up from 17.5 million to 40 million in only three years. That's amazing.
I'm very disappointed about the team playing in Florida however. I read in the article that the Barca point man on this project called Florida the most important "city" that the MLS has yet to tap. In fact, MLS has tried, twice. There have only been two totally failed franchises in MLS history, and they were both in Florida, The Tampa Bay Mutiny and Miami Fusion.
The biggest misconception about Florida in terms of soccer is that you look at the demographics and say "there's a huge Latino population, there's huge soccer potential there." That's a failure to distinguish one set of Latinos from another.
Floridian Latinos are overwhelmingly Caribbean. Cubans, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, and fleeing Venezuelans. Those Latinos are literally worlds away from the Mexican Americans going to the Chivas USA games in LA or the one's that filled the Cardinals stadium in Phoenix. Caribbean Latinos are not soccer fans, they're diehards baseball fans.
Even looking outside soccer, Floridians are not viable sports fans for anything other than college football. All teams struggle there.
Hopefully the Barca name and connections to European soccer will be enough the get past these hurdles, but if I was on the Barca Board, I would have looked else where in America.
Interesting thoughts, Cali Socis!
Cali you are off my friend. We have of soccer loving people thst will support MLS.
Today, the Miami area has a sizable community of c of Argentines, Bahamians, Brazilians, Canadians, Chileans, Chinese, Colombians, Cubans, Dominicans, Ecuadorans, French, Germans, Greeks, Guatemalans, Guayanese, Haitians, Hondurans, Jamaicans, Indians, Italians, Mexicans, Nicaraguans, Peruvians, Russians, Salvadoran, Trinidadians and Tobagonians, Turks, South Africans, and Venezuelans, as well as a sizable Puerto Rican population throughout the metropolitan area. While commonly thought of as mainly a city of Hispanic and Caribbean immigrants, the Miami area is home to large French, French Canadian, German, Italian, and Russian communities. The communities have grown to a prominent place in Miami and its suburbs, creating ethnic enclave neighborhoods such as Little Haiti, Little Havana, Little Managua, Little Brazil, Little Moscow, and Little San Juan.
"Anonymous", did you miss anyone? ;)
You also forgot to cite a professional sports team (baseball, basketball, etc) that has not struggled in Florida.
With that said, the above comments were just my thoughts about Barca-Miami. As a FC Barcelona Socis, I only wish everything Barca the best.
In closing, if given an opportunity, I would have advocated for Phoenix, (5th largest city in the country, huge latino pop. etc...) but like Montreal (a site that the Liverpool owner is considering), but for the opposite reason, it would need an indoor stadium.
hello am Ali from Ghana .i also want to join the soccer camp
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