Tom Osborn recently interviewed the four leading mayoral candidates in Tuesday’s edition of the Express-News.

The main question of our interest was…

(Former mayor) Ed Garza failed in his efforts to bring a Major League Soccer team here in 2005. Would you make another run at landing an MLS franchise?

Julian Castro:

I believe there is a market here for professional soccer, but I would have to look at the terms of any agreement and the public investment that would be required.

Diane Cibrian:

I would certainly partner with County Judge (Nelson) Wolff to renegotiate with MLS. But I also think it’s important to add amateur soccer fields. Our community is deficient in the number of soccer fields we have. We have done a better job with the visitor tax to fund soccer fields. Soccer is a great revenue source for the community. It brings in a lot of visitors. Far too many children I know have to leave town to play soccer. San Antonio has a great soccer fan base. MLS for the future should definitely be considered, but I believe we need more fields for youth soccer.

Trish DeBerry-Mejia:

The problem I think we had with pursuing of MLS before is that we had no groundswell of support from an education standpoint, a grassroots standpoint. We have a very active soccer community here. I see it when my son goes to play soccer. It is very, very popular. But I think there is a lot of awareness, a lot of outreach that needs to be associated with it. I think we need community input before we look at something like that. And I think what is also important is that we are so short when it comes to youth athletic fields. Thanks to the extension of the tourist tax, we will have club tournaments here, which is only going to enhance tourism. I think we have to get that done (adding more youth fields) first before we look at the recruitment of a Major League Soccer franchise. I’m not opposed to trying to get an MLS team. We just went about the recruitment the wrong way last time.

Sheila McNeil:

We are definitely looking for good tenants for the Alamodome. That would be a tremendous thing to have. But that decision should really come from the residents of San Antonio. I’m open to whatever is going to help us strengthen our economy and bring revenue to the city, but I would definitely have to listen to the voice of the people, and the same goes with a National Football League team.

It takes an upfront investment to do that. We have so much other work we need to do to enhance the community, but to make that investment now in this economy probably wouldn’t be a good investment. But there is something I think we need to invest in that is going to bring us a return and that’s that 12,000 jobs over at Fort Sam. Embrace them, maximize the opportunity and make those 12,000 jobs 20,000 jobs. Build some housing, build some retail, revitalize the area. Get people a place close to live so we can minimize some of the traffic around the city. That will bring us some opportunities for future investment for other things. After 2011, those 12,000 jobs at Fort Sam will bring us a half a billion dollars in additional spending every year. That’s revenue we can use. So, first things first. Take advantage of the opportunities that are before us right now, then we will have more of the private support we will need. We can bring some more corporations in here and get them all stabilized and working well in the community. That puts us in a better position to support an NFL team.

Click Here to read the full interview.

Tags: Major League Soccer, Mayoral Race, San Antonio