Expansion Rumors Megathread

[Midas Mulligan]

I'd like to chime in on this as an ex-San Franciscan.

First off, I love SF and I love the IDEA of soccer in the City. But I have been questioning NASL's entrance into SF since there were rumors about it. San Francisco is actually a pretty amazing sports city. But it is a BIG league city. Minor leagues just do not do well there for many reasons. I was a season ticket holder of the San Francisco Bulls. A third tier minor league hockey team. They lasted a year and half (the folded mid season). They played in an oooooold arena on the outskirts of the city called the Cow Palace (lol. But actually where the San Jose Sharks played their first two seasons). It was in a pretty dreadful location. Attendance took a nose dive once the 12/13 NHL Lockout ended. No one had any interest in seeing a minor league team play when the majors were back.

Another huge factor for minor league teams in a place like SF is the cost of living. How are these players on low wages supposed afford a $3.5k/month 2 bedroom apartment? The housing in SF is INSANE right now. Much worse than NYC. The cost of living for everything else is inflated as well. This was a huge issue for the SF Bulls.

Downtown stadium? No. Way. Absolutely not going to happen. Look at how difficult it has been for the Warriors trying to get a Mission Bay location going. And these guys think they are just going to be able to plot a minor league stadium right in the middle of "downtown" SF? San Francisco has a VERY vocal NIMBY population. Especially right now.

There aren't too many great stadium options as it stands. Kezar is the obvious selection right now. They have done a lot of renovations over the last several years and it is a nice little stadium. I do, however, think that people are over exaggerating it's "great location". It is a block away from the N Judah line which is great. But the N in that part of the city can be super unreliable. And I doubt they are going to line them up after games like they do outside of AT&T park. It's a little difficult to get there in a car. You'd have to come from 101 and drive down Fell from the East. Or take 19th to Lincoln from the west. The weather in that part of the city can be pretty bad in the summer as well. SF has some serious microclimates, so thick/wet fog and 50 weather is pretty standard on a summer night. I could see that being a huge deterrent for people to go to the games.

Finally, I never really felt like SF was much of a soccer city. I never met anyone who really talked about the Quakes. There're a lot of soccer leagues, but I don't know if that really translates into fans.

Again, I love the idea of soccer in SF. I would absolutely become a STH if I still lived there. But I just don't think SF has the interest to support it. I REALLY hope they prove me wrong, though!

3.5k a month for 2 bedrooms is much worse than NYC? Sign me up for that kind of worse.

 

[413Blue]

Sheeeeiiitttttt. Come on up to the Western MA area. I just closed on a nice 6 family apartment/house, over 4,000 sqft on close to an acre, with a six car garage and a private lot for about 8 more cars. The mortgage? lol $1400. If only I could find a way to move it to manhattan and make millions overnight. I'll have to settle for a few g's a month.

It still amazes me when I think of my income, and how comfortably I can live up here, and how broke and indebted I would be if I had the same income and lived in NYC. I'm jealous of you fortunate folks who can make it work!

 

[Z4CH3B99]

3.5k a month for 2 bedrooms is much worse than NYC? Sign me up for that kind of worse.

I knew that New York was expensive, but I didn't realize that 3.5k for 2 bedrooms would be considered cheap! Don't think I'll be moving to the city anytime soon.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

I knew that New York was expensive, but I didn't realize that 3.5k for 2 bedrooms would be considered cheap! Don't think I'll be moving to the city anytime soon.

Eh. Depends on where and what kind of place you want. When I moved here in 2006, I shared a 3-br walk-up in an old, not very nice building and the total was $3500. The place was kind of a dump and the bedrooms were tiny. My bedroom had just about enough space for a standard sized bed (not a queen, but a double) and one small chest of drawers (not a dresser, a chest). My closet was just a walled out section of the room that was around 15 inches deep and maybe 2 feet wide.

These days, a ~600-700 sq. ft. 1BR in decent doorman building in a semi-decent part of the city starts at $3200, but can vary wildly. I'd tag that $3200 as the low, low end, likely only available in a building that still has tax credits tied to rent rates.

If you want to check out more info, try this: http://www.mns.com/manhattan_rental_market_report

 

[Z4CH3B99]

Eh. Depends on where and what kind of place you want. When I moved here in 2006, I shared a 3-br walk-up in an old, not very nice building and the total was $3500. The place was kind of a dump and the bedrooms were tiny. My bedroom had just about enough space for a standard sized bed (not a queen, but a double) and one small chest of drawers (not a dresser, a chest). My closet was just a walled out section of the room that was around 15 inches deep and maybe 2 feet wide.

These days, a ~600-700 sq. ft. 1BR in decent doorman building in a semi-decent part of the city starts at $3200, but can vary wildly. I'd tag that $3200 as the low, low end, likely only available in a building that still has tax credits tied to rent rates.

If you want to check out more info, try this: http://www.mns.com/manhattan_rental_market_report

Crazy to think that I bought my first house in Mexico with a bag of cash for less than the rent for a year on a low end New York apartment.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

SFphoto is right that according to at least one source, SF is higher on average than NYC. I wonder what that looks like on a ppsf basis and taking into consideration quality and amenities of the building. I know from my time in DC in 2005 that rent was pretty comparable, but what you got in that 1BR or studio in DC was much, much better than in the city.

http://www.timeout.com/newyork/blog...orhood-is-as-depressing-as-youd-expect-082115

 

[sbrylski]

Eh. Depends on where and what kind of place you want. When I moved here in 2006, I shared a 3-br walk-up in an old, not very nice building and the total was $3500. The place was kind of a dump and the bedrooms were tiny. My bedroom had just about enough space for a standard sized bed (not a queen, but a double) and one small chest of drawers (not a dresser, a chest). My closet was just a walled out section of the room that was around 15 inches deep and maybe 2 feet wide.

These days, a ~600-700 sq. ft. 1BR in decent doorman building in a semi-decent part of the city starts at $3200, but can vary wildly. I'd tag that $3200 as the low, low end, likely only available in a building that still has tax credits tied to rent rates.

If you want to check out more info, try this: http://www.mns.com/manhattan_rental_market_report

New buildings in Long Island City (not Manhattan, but one stop away and a very nice neighborhood) had 1 bedrooms in the $2,500-$3,000 range this year, FYI.

 

[NYCFC_Ajax]

3.5k a month for 2 bedrooms is much worse than NYC? Sign me up for that kind of worse.

Like if I would move to NYC, what would the cheapest normal house be? I guess you could move to suburbs right?

 

[joe]

Define "NYC," "normal," "house," and "suburbs."

 

[Midas Mulligan]

New buildings in Long Island City (not Manhattan, but one stop away and a very nice neighborhood) had 1 bedrooms in the $2,500-$3,000 range this year, FYI.

For the edification of those outside the 5 boroughs, my "city" did not include really anything but Manhattan. I probably only considered below 96th street.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

Like if I would move to NYC, what would the cheapest normal house be? I guess you could move to suburbs right?

Define "NYC," "normal," "house," and "suburbs."

For real...I mean, there are parts of Manhattan that would feel more burbs than parts of Brooklyn or Queens.

 

[Gene]

 

[SFphoto]

SFphoto is right that according to at least one source, SF is higher on average than NYC. I wonder what that looks like on a ppsf basis and taking into consideration quality and amenities of the building. I know from my time in DC in 2005 that rent was pretty comparable, but what you got in that 1BR or studio in DC was much, much better than in the city.

http://www.timeout.com/newyork/blog...orhood-is-as-depressing-as-youd-expect-082115

You also have to consider the infrastructure of NYC compared to SF when you think about cost of living. New York has everything you would ever need steps from your apartment. Public transportation here is very robust. Pretty much the exact opposite in San Francisco. The western part of the city is pretty detached. You need a car to pick up groceries and stuff like that.

 

[LionNYC]

Didn't know where else to post this, but 6 of the 20 current MLS crests have a soccer ball in them. This needs to stop moving forward. Everyone should know that MLS is soccer today.

 

[sbrylski]

Didn't know where else to post this, but 6 of the 20 current MLS crests have a soccer ball in them. This needs to stop moving forward. Everyone should know that MLS is soccer today.

The Jets have a football in their logo. So do a ton of European football crests.

It's not a big deal, it just can't be cartoony and look like this:

 

[Z4CH3B99]

Didn't know where else to post this, but 6 of the 20 current MLS crests have a soccer ball in them. This needs to stop moving forward. Everyone should know that MLS is soccer today.

Only 6 of them have it? I'm shocked that number isn't higher.

Yeah, I don't really pay as much attention to crests. I prefer to analyze the jerseys very closely and conclude that Adidas must have their flunkies design MLS stuff.

 

[mgarbowski]

Seven teams have "football" or "soccer" in their names (counting all the FC and SC variants). To me that's more reductive than have an image of a ball in the logo.

 

[413Blue]

DC United's 1996 logo had THREE soccer balls in it!

 

[Ulrich]

Crazy to think that I bought my first house in Mexico with a bag of cash for less than the rent for a year on a low end New York apartment.

Assume you had a few big & armed thugs walking with you to make sure that bag of cash didn't take a detour with a new-found friends. That's a lot of Benjamins to be carrying around....

 

[Z4CH3B99]

Assume you had a few big & armed thugs walking with you to make sure that bag of cash didn't take a detour with a new-found friends. That's a lot of Benjamins to be carrying around....

First off, I don't nor have I ever had armed thugs at my disposal. Lol

Secondly, there are no pictures of Benjamin Franklin on the Mexican Peso. Lol