Pawtucket to host USL Championship team starting in 2022

[RhowdyRam02]

I thought about posting this in the PawSox thread because it's so closely related to topics covered there, but figured it would be best to start something new. As part of the $400 million development Pawtucket and Rhode Island announced today, there will be a 7500 seat soccer stadium that will be the home of a USL Championship level team. For those that don't know, USL Championship is the second level of US Soccer, MLS is the first level, but most teams at the USL Championship level don't have affiliations like you see in minor league baseball. They're also planning a hotel, 200 housing units, restaurant and retail options and other amenities. City and state taxpayers would contribute $70-90 million over 30 years with that money coming from sales and hotel taxes generated at the complex. The development centers on 45 Division St., with the stadium directly across the river and the two sites will be connected by a pedestrian bridge. They're also planning development at the Apex site.

At this point there are no plans on what to do with McCoy Stadium once the team moves out after this season. It appears any hope of minor league baseball being played in Rhode Island is dead because Major League Baseball is looking to eliminate up to 40 minor league teams, mostly in the lower levels where there was talk RI would get a new team from.

[RhowdyRam02]

Tying this in to URI, we should be able to have a zone like Pawtucket was given where all sales tax and hotel taxes (if it ever gets built) should be able to be used for us to upgrade our facilities, especially our athletic facilities. Any taxes generated directly on campus and in the Emporium should go to us for capital improvements

[NYGFan_Section208]

Tying this in to URI, we should be able to have a zone like Pawtucket was given where all sales tax and hotel taxes (if it ever gets built) should be able to be used for us to upgrade our facilities, especially our athletic facilities. Any taxes generated directly on campus and in the Emporium should go to us for capital improvements

I'm all for anything that shortens the distance I have to drive to get to a bar...

[RhowdyRam02]

So this project in general is in trouble and the opening of the soccer stadium for March 2023 especially seems to be in jeopardy:

https://www.providencejournal.com/story ... -NLETTER65

[KeaneyBluBallz]

what a waste of time and money this is

[hrstrat57]

what a waste of time and money this is

Word

[NYGFan_Section208]

what a waste of time and money this is

Word

[ATPTourFan]

[RhowdyRam02]

Must be nice!

[KeaneyBluBallz]

what a fucking waste of money

[SGreenwell]

Spending $27M on minor league soccer is as stupid to me as spending $83M on minor league baseball.

[RhowdyRam02]

Spending $27M on minor league soccer is as stupid to me as spending $83M on minor league baseball.

At least with the minor league baseball there was an affiliation, so you'd occasionally get starts coming down from the majors to rehab. There's no affiliation with this minor league soccer, so it's all scrubs as far as the eye can see. A complete waste of money, just to not "abandon" Pawtucket after the PawSox debacle

[KeaneyBluBallz]

38 studios all over again

[ATPTourFan]

[ATPTourFan]

[ATPTourFan]

I actually will go on record to say this will be a success.

[SGreenwell]

The Globe has a pretty good article about this today, with the knife-in graphs about 2/3rds of the way down.

Over a decade ago, Gwinnett County, Georgia, lured a minor-league baseball team from Virginia. The county financed a $64 million new ballpark for the Gwinnett Braves, now the Stripers. Officials promised an economic boom that would pay for itself and revitalize the area.

It didn’t work, (J.C.) Bradbury (an economics professor at Kennesaw State University in Georgia) said. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported as recently as December 2021 that attendance has been disappointing and much of the promised development around the park hasn’t materialized.

It didn’t work because it never works, Bradbury said. He and other economists looked at 130 different studies examining the effect of stadiums on the local economy. The research, posted in February, concluded that “large subsidies commonly devoted to constructing professional sports venues are not justified as worthwhile public investments.”

There’s no reason that Tidewater Landing will be any different, Bradbury said.

“It’s the same old story,” Bradbury said.

The ROI on ballparks and stadiums is ALWAYS bad, even the best case scenarios for pro baseball parks, which at least are full 81 times a year.

[RhowdyRam02]

38 studios all over again

Completely agree. A stadium we don't need for a team nobody was asking for. And because now we're using the funding we were going to use for the development that made the whole thing worth it on the stadium we don't need, we're either going to spend a ton more than originally thought for no good reason or we're not going to get the development to make the project worth it. And this is all happening when we could look to the north and see the development was already an issue in Worcester around Polar Park. Epic failure

[KeaneyBluBallz]

I actually will go on record to say this will be a success.

I will go on record to say 'No fucking way'.

[Puck Frovidence]

From WPRI:

Pawtucket soccer stadium won’t bring in enough tax revenue to cover debt

PAWTUCKET, R.I. (WPRI) – The Pawtucket minor league soccer stadium will not pay for itself on its own, raising the stakes for future phases of a development project that has become shrouded in financial and political uncertainty...

Well worth reading, and an excellent job by Channel 12. I'm very impressed - this is the sort of comprehensive written content we used to be able to count on newspapers for that is now largely absent. I've said from the start that unless they were going after the Revolution, a soccer stadium is an absolute boondoggle. Soccer is barely (and often still not) profitable at the highest levels of professional play in US even after 25 years of heavy media promotion of the MLS. The fact this is being taken seriously by anyone is baffling.

[RF1]

It will still likely never approach the losses of the Dunkin Donuts Center Arena - $28.5M to buy a 30 year old building, some $70M to renovate, and now spending another $8M for a new roof.

[Puck Frovidence]

As already mentioned, challengers in the gubernatorial race are starting to seize on this issue as a way to criticize McKee and other supporters.
Can't say I blame them. From Projo:

Tidewater-gate? Democratic candidates for governor debate the $60M stadium deal on WPRO

"EAST PROVIDENCE — The zingers flew – and along with them an allegation that the $60-million public-financing deal for the proposed Pawtucket soccer stadium reeks of corruption – during a one-hour debate between the Democratic candidates for governor on Monday morning."

That links to an archive of the article in case it goes behind a wall.

Here's the audio of the debate on Spotify:


Or here's a downloadable mp3

[ATPTourFan]

Thank you. Apple Podcasts link:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d ... 0576175223

[TruePoint]

I still think an effort should have been made to lure the Revs to this site. I know the Krafts do not want to invest in the team, which is a shame because I feel like they’re ignoring the potential value of the asset if they would only pay attention to it.

[RF1]

If Kraft builds a soccer stadium, it will be in or around Boston. The rumors this summer centered around the Encore Casino area of Everett. Supposedly Kraft had talks with the mayor of Everett.

[TruePoint]

I’ll believe it when I see it. It’s been almost 30 years of the most minimal investment allowable under league rules.

[RhowdyRam02]

I'm in TruePoint's camp, I'll believe it when I see it. There's always a new rumor where the Revolution will have a new stadium in or around Boston, mostly just to keep fans appeased that they're at least pursuing it. The thing is though, if you're Kraft, unless you get a sweetheart deal it doesn't really make sense for a new soccer specific stadium. You already own Gillette, you already have Patriot Place, why build a soccer stadium with your own money, especially in an area like Boston where it's expensive as hell to build and development around the stadium will be difficult.

If RI was just going to invest $60 million in a soccer stadium we should have gone all the way and tried to attract an MLS team. $60 million for a USL stadium and team brings nothing valuable to the table. As much as I personally dislike watching most soccer and think it's kind of a terrible and boring sport, trading the PawSox for the Revolution with MA would have been a no brainer

[RhowdyRam02]

The season ticket prices for their first year at Bryant's football stadium are out:



First, are the end zone seats going to be temporary, or will Bryant be building new now that they're coming into the CAA?

Second, these prices seem really high for a first year franchise not playing in their real stadium only 30 minutes from an MLS team

[KeaneyBluBallz]

The season ticket prices for their first year at Bryant's football stadium are out:



First, are the end zone seats going to be temporary, or will Bryant be building new now that they're coming into the CAA?

Second, these prices seem really high for a first year franchise not playing in their real stadium only 30 minutes from an MLS team

good luck with that.

[ATPTourFan]

Let's see what happens...

[RAMFAN]

$132 million in taxpayer money to pay for $27 million towards construction costs.Could have found better uses for the money. McKee promised the deal would be tax payer protected. Now taxpayers are 100% on the hook if the team fails to pay bond.

https://www.providencejournal.com/story ... 660271007/

[RAMFAN]

https://www.wpri.com/target-12/not-favo ... ource=t.co

[STC]

This is going to be such a fiasco.

[NYGFan_Section208]

This is going to be such a fiasco.

FTFY, no charge

[STC]

This is going to be such a fiasco.

FTFY, no charge

As I was typing it I was thinking “hmm we’re kinda already there”

[RF1]

Stupid RI state legislators, chief among them Nicholas Mattiello. They could have kept the PawSox with far less money several years ago. They however blew that deal and now have gone all in by overcompensating on a soccer stadium just to save face. The Pawsox were a known commodity that had a proven track record of previous drawing power. They played some 70 dates a year bringing in some 5-600,000 in their glory days. We now get a soccer team that plays in a league which is in constant flux. It is an unknown commodity that will play just 17 regular season games. I myself do not have expectations that this venture will be a long term success.

[KeaneyBluBallz]

this is why we can't have nice things.