Remember the year 2005?

The drive to bring Major League Soccer to San Antonio officially got underway Friday as San Antonio Mayor Ed Garza kicked off the effort to secure 5,000 season ticket commitments in 100 days (Aug. 17, 2005).

The season ticket commitments comprise one of three measures the city must take to obtain an MLS team that would begin play at the Alamodome as early as the start of the 2006 season. The other measures are securing an ownership group and finalizing plans for constructing a state-of-the-art training complex, complete with youth fields.

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Remember 2005 a little better now?

The above excerpt was from an article originally published on Major League Soccer’s website 4 years ago. I remember being on that web page, excited for my hometown while living in Houston, Texas.  As a result of then Mayor Ed Garza’s efforts, the ball was finally rolling and things were on track for San Antonio to be the second Texas team in Major League Soccer. The Alamodome would finally have a tenant roughly 4 years after the San Antonio Spurs played their last ball game there.  However, here we are today, 7 years without a team who can call the Dome home.

I know. I know. That will change in a few years, when the UTSA Roadrunner football team will play its first ever home game. Regardless, Mayor Ed Garza was on his way out, with Phil Hardberger slated to take over. Two months later …

…incoming mayor Phil Hardberger said at a news conference that the proposed deal with MLS didn’t make financial sense for the city.

“Goodbye. That’s what I would tell MLS,” Hardberger said.

But MLS officials said goodbye first in a terse letter to outgoing Mayor Ed Garza, a strong proponent of bringing pro soccer to the Alamodome.

The letter, signed by MLS Commissioner Don Garber, said the work of Garza and league officials was undercut by politically driven criticisms that didn’t take into consideration the benefits to the city.

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And that was that.  San Antonio’s last real opportunity to step into the world of professional soccer ended with a blink of an eye.

“This has been changed at the 12th hour due to politics, and it is appalling,” Garber later said in an interview with the San Antonio Express-News.

The letter said the criticisms impeded the effort to sell 5,000 season tickets or recruit local investors, two requirements MLS had set for granting a team in 2006.

San Antonio would have been awarded their second top level sports franchise by pursuing Major League Soccer the proper way and for the cheap. On the flip side, the entire sports nation witnessed Mayor Hardberger and other local officials failed attempt to “steal” an NFL franchise from the City of New Orleans as it was trying to recover from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I digress.

With Mayor Hardberger now out, Julian Castro in, would Major League Soccer even look back in San Antonio’s direction?

In 2011, 18 teams will take the field compared to 12 teams in 2006 when San Antonio would have fielded a team. On top of that fact MLS has been expanding at a faster than normal rate, soccer specific stadia are being built or in the planning stages of being built all across the country.  With that said, the bar is set significantly higher (as well as the price) to get into Major League Soccer this time around.

Major League Soccer may (if the stars are properly aligned) or may not take a look, but does that mean professional soccer is dead in San Antonio? With the Austin Aztex in it’s first season in the USL-1 (United Soccer Leagues) , San Antonio is the only major city in Texas without a professional soccer club.

If San Antonio is to have another opportunity at professional soccer, there will be a need to have a strong ownership group and a willingness to help secure a stadium (preferably soccer specific) for a future club.

If another opportunity does arrive again, be it MLS or USL, hopefully new city leadership under Mayor Julian Castro will see the benefits this time around.

A while back, we published an open letter to MLS Commissioner Don Garber. We will republished it soon followed by a new Open Letter to Mayor Julian Castro.

-Victory or Death -

San Antonio…. I don’t know if a lot of people are aware of this. The San Antonio Spurs are actually bringing a team to San Antonio in the next year or two. That’s been confirmed.

Listen to sound byte: Aztex Coach Adrian Heath on San Antonio in the USL

“That’s been confirmed.”

With the Austin Aztex now confirming that San Antonio will be in the leauge in the next year or two, we now have three credible sources stating that the San Antonio Spurs are indeed looking to bring professional soccer to the Alamo City.

• The first source was the USL itself (see “Confirmed: Spurs Sports & Entertainment in talks with USL”).
• The second source was Spurs Sports & Entertainments Chairmain, CEO, and owner Peter Holt (see “Soccer Stadium Deal stalling Spurs Sports & Entertainment”).
• This latest source of information, thanks to AM 1300 The Zone, brings to center stage a time frame of 1-2 years when San Antonio Soccer fans will have a team to cheer for.

The Austin Aztex Coaches Show on AM 1300 The Zone with coach Adrian Heath runs Wednesday evenings from 6:30 PM to 7:00 PM.

Listen to the entire podcast of last Wednesday’s show: Aztex Coaches Show (May 20, 2009)

Discuss this blog with the Crocketteers on our forum

Tom Orsborn, of the San Antonio Express-News, in Saturday’s edition of the paper has provided us with good information about the state of professional soccer in San Antonio.

Officials from the United Soccer Leagues, Bexar County and Spurs Sports & Entertainment confirmed Friday they have discussed bringing a USL team here within the next several years.

S.A. could see soccer for price of a stadium

The article goes on to suggest that professional soccer will come to San Antonio with the building of a new soccer stadium.  As a soccer fan, although it would be nice to have a soccer specific stadium/arena here, I do not see it as being a necessity for the USL to come to San Antonio. The Austin Aztex do not have one, nor am I aware of where they plan to play in the future.

With the current economic climate in the spotlight, I believe pro soccer can build an army of opponents in San Antonio if it places a prerequisite of a public-funded stadium on the deal.

It would make more sense to build a stadium for Major League Soccer to come back, but even then with the Seattle Sounders sharing their pitch with the Seahawks of the NFL  successfully (so far), I believe the Alamodome can still serve  a purpose. For the USL, I would even think – Alamo Stadium might be an option.

I truly believe for soccer to be a reality in the Alamo City, the powers that be should make proponents for their cause.   A stadium funded by the citizens of San Antonio/Bexar County for a growing sport in the United States may do the opposite.

San Antonio Back In Expansion Race?

As one of Texas’ Major League Soccer teams struggles to remain viable in the face of poor results on the field and even worse ones in the stands, another city in the Lone Star State could be stepping back into the debate on future MLS expansion. San Antonio, the city that flirted with landing a team of their own back in 2005, could again be throwing their name back into the ring, depending on the outcome of the upcoming mayoral election…

…San Antonio has several things going for it that could make it a good fit for an expansion franchise, in my opinion. The estimated 2007 population is 1,328,984, making it the seventh-largest city in America, just behind Philadelphia, a city who was granted an expansion team for the 2010 season.

MLS Expansion Candidate: San Antonio

As long as the ownership group is solid, and the team and city can come to an agreement on getting a SSS built as soon as possible, San Antonio has all the making of a fantastic MLS market…

… Match Fit USA hereby bestows upon the City of San Antonio the rating of five “MFUSAs” (that’s pronounced “ma-fu-sa”) as a potential MLS market.

Would, Could, Should MLS go to San Antonio?

As a former resident and frequent visitor to the Alamo City, I have to say I find the idea appealing to say the least. For all the reasons TJ and Jason cite, San Antonio would be an ideal market…

…It’s (San Antonio) a wonderful place to be. I would love for the place to have an MLS franchise, because its size, Hispanic identity and geographic location make it ideal. So, you go SA. Get that team.

MLS To San Antonio: Version 2.0?

This news is big to me since I was born and raised in San Antonio and I know first hand about the politics that goes around in the city. So it took me a while to think about this and I feel that San Antonio is more suited for USL-1 at this moment instead of MLS due to these factors…

…Besides, USL-1 need new teams to replace Portland & Vancouver in 2011 and San Antonio would be perfect for Texas to have 2 MLS teams & 2 USL-1.

And I for one as a member of Chantico’s Army, the Austin Aztex supporters group, would love to have The Crocketteers on the pro soccer bandwagon rather if it’s MLS or USL-1.

Thought I’d share with you a screenshot of the new and very much improved USL Official Web Site. The new design is light years ahead of its predecessor and in my opinion, ten times what Major League Soccer’s site currently is.

Well done USL… well done.

I can picture San Antonio’s Club under the USL First Division menu item.