The investors want a low level franchise in either the USL or MLS.
Can Syracuse, New York become a soccer hub? A group of investors is taking a look at Syracuse as a possible location to become a lower-level member of the United Soccer League’s League One or a member of the lower-level Major League Soccer’s Next Pro. Syracuse is not a big city with just 150,000 people but does have big time college football and basketball programs at Syracuse University and top tier minor league teams in baseball and in hockey. The city last had a soccer franchise in 2004. There are not many details available about the plan to bring a soccer team to Syracuse. The city needs a stadium and the group suggesting that it wants to open up shop in Syracuse apparently has a plan to put a venue in the city’s Inner Harbor area. The group thinks a Syracuse franchise can draw between 2,500 and 3,500 people per game. There doesn’t seem to be a stadium design or a funding mechanism in place for the stadium plan to proceed. The investors also want to build a complex of roughly 10 playing fields at a separate location to be a hub for traveling youth tournaments and training programs.
The United Soccer League is in a major expansion mode. The United Soccer League plans to go “major league”. The USL has been around since 2011 and has been considered a minor league or Division II grouping by the United States Soccer Federation. The USL has 25 franchises, most of them are in smaller markets which would not necessarily be considered major league markets. Syracuse fits into another USL niche. Smaller cities getting lower-level franchises once a new stadium is built. Political leaders think the stadiums will be catalysts for economic development especially with a village surrounding the stadiums. The stadium-game has started in Syracuse.
Syracuse
