Louisville people are not turning out for games.
The chairman of the National Women’s Soccer League’s Racing Louisville FC ownership group, John Neace, is not ruling out leaving the market if attendance at games doesn’t improve in a hurry. Neace has told Louisville business and political leaders that the ownership “will be forced to do something” if the empty seats aren’t filled. Neace said “relocation is not completely off the table”. In May, the franchise’s ownership issued a statement saying it was looking to sell a small percentage of the business to a local group and that the team was not moving. The team is getting about 5,400 people per game in a stadium that seats around 15,000. Only Chicago has had fewer customers in the 16-team league this season.
Louisville has had and does have some major league sports and sporting events. The Kentucky Derby dominates local sports. The University of Louisville has big time football and basketball. The United Soccer League has a franchise in Louisville, a lower-level club, which gets over 9,000 people in the stands per game along with a Triple A Minor League Baseball team and a United Football League franchise. Louisville has not been considered a big-league city since 1899 when the National League dropped four teams including the Louisville Colonels franchise. Major League Baseball has never looked upon Louisville as a market of interest. There are some people in Louisville who would like to get a National Basketball Association franchise although there is no interest from NBA owners. The city hosted an American Basketball Association franchise, the Kentucky Colonels, from 1967 through 1976. The business folded after the NBA didn’t take the market into its league after a so-called merger of sorts. Instead the Colonels’ ownership accepted a $3 million, more than $17 million today, buyout. Right now, all the women’s soccer team’s ownership wants is sellout crowds.
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