Louisville Ups the Ante

[HuffyCane]

Louisville ups the ante for college soccer stadiums.

I cant decide if this is a good thing or a bad thing. The trend is toward USL, D league, and Academy infrastructure, not the NCAA and their practice and play restrictions that hurt development.

Stadio Cardinale

 

[Li'l Eric Coley]

So Louisville has a couple of good years and suddenly they want to invest in a facility like that? Doesn't make much sense to me. The rendering makes it look pretty sweet and I wouldn't say no to it. Tulsa has been on the college soccer map much longer than Louisville, so if Mike Case wanted to get it done, I'd be all about it!

 

[DirtyDanchez]

TU should partner up with the city and build a soccer stadium either downtown or in the Pearl District similar to what they have built in San Antonio.

 

[HuffyCane]

You need to play on campus if you are a college program. While a downtown venue gives an incentive to keep people downtown after work, Tulsa just couldnt bring the numbers of casual sports fans to justify that, at least until the Drillers prove that they will consistently sell out.

TU would be better off partnering up with USL for significant stadium improvements in exchange for a lease of the stadium for game day -- kinda what Frisco did with FC Dallas ... and TU could tout the opportunity to play for a team after graduation that is a couple of hours from two MLS teams and their scouts. The problem there is who has the capital to put up to bring in a development team that will be viewed as amateurs compared to other sports in the area?

But Tulsa has probably missed the boat on that, since KC is partnered up with Orlando already and FC Dallas is its own animal of disorganization.

 

[Chris Harmon]

I would love a soccer specific stadium in Tulsa, whether it was for TU or not. Seeing things like Sunday's MLS Game of the Week, NY Red Bulls at Portland Timbers, with the Portland stadium packed with green shirts chanting throughout the game, gives me hope for the game on a national scale. It would be so awesome to have that kind of passion for the game in all parts of the US. Maybe I'm being unrealistic...but I can dream, can't I?

 

[HuffyCane]

If Des Moines can draw 5,000 for a summer league and talk about a stadium with a straight face, Tulsa should be able to do the same.