Fans of the expansion Philadelphia MLS franchise are probably treading a bit nervously after comments attributed to Nick Sakiewicz about the expansion team's stadium project, which was originally set to be ready in time for when the team begins play in 2010.
“I wish we could give you hard commitments today, but we’re not even sure the stadium is going to be built,” Sakiewiecz told the Delaware County Times. “If the markets tank next month, then we won’t build this thing. We’ll be out $15 million and everyone goes home.”
As alarming as those words sound, the full DelCo Times story paints a better picture of posturing politics, some haggling over a tax zone on the stadium property.
That said, the comments sure don't ease concerns over growing rumors about financial instability within the Philadelphia ownership group.
Definitely give the story a read before you go jumping to any conclusions.
What do you think of the story? Are you a worried Philly fan? Think it's just another case of political posturing? Starting wonder if we might see Miami Barcelona instead of a Philadelphia team in 2010? Think it's much ado about nothing?
Share your thoughts below.
Philly Cheese steak in 2011
Miami in 2010
Vancouver in 2011
fc philly boy brings up a great point
How strong is a bid if the area has a failing real estate market. how many people are going to buy tickets to a game when their homes are being repossessed?
VIVA MIAMIFCB says the die hard AFUSIONADO for 2010…the stars are lining up…literally, and we are all excited, MLS stars past and present!!!
You have to love how everyone here takes shots at Philadelphia. I used to think SBI had nothing but classy readers. Have to love MLS fans who want nothing but the league to succeed and then take shots at the 5th largest media market in the country.
Miami is a dump in my opinion and has one of the worst real estate markets in the country right now so don’t be too quick to anoint Miami as a haven for soccer. Same goes for St. Louis which is maybe more crime ridden than Philadelphia.
Hope everyone has a great new year.
If philly ain’t ready than give Ottawa a shot. After all, if you want a team in Canada why not go for the Capital? Ansd the fact that it has tons of soccer players, a soccer community (that packed the U20 championships) and a great per capita income (Plus another huge following accross the river in Gatineau – french Quebec)… Ottawa would make more sense than most of the propposal I have seen above.
Montreal is ready and would be great for MLS
HA-HA! Looks good on ya Philly cream cheeseheads. Now do the right thing for once and drop out of MLS so you can let in a REAL soccer market for 2010: MIAMI!!!
Miami Barca will rule all MLS, BITCHFAGS!!!
Of course Nick Sakiewicz has bad news about a stadium announcement.
The only good announcement he has made about new SSS’s is the first one, when they say they have intentions to build. Since then, it’s been a bunch of “60-90 days” jokes by the message board fanbase.
Its a sad indictment on the USA if a school district has to tax tickets to a soccer game to raise revenue. This type of thing is unheard of here in Australia.
Schools should be funded by the state and federal governments, and not by taxing sports teams. I feel for the people and the kids of chester as it appears to be doing it tough, but dont ask sports teams to do something govts should provide from general revenue.
With financial management like this, no wonder the USA is going broke.
Nick he Dick at it again
He will knock your socks off!!!!
after reading the article it doesn’t appear that there is a major cause for concern but buccini/pollin did rescind their bid for the chrysler plant in newark, de b/c of the credit crisis. so they’re not flush w/cash – prolly not a huge surprise but something to consider…
The Delaware County Daily Times in the Philadelphia area is running a series of articles on events this week that could spell total DOOM for the new team and their stadium deal. Wow. Chaos in the final hours of planning is never a wise idea. But then again I can give you two words why this mess does not surprise me in the least: Nick. Sakiewicz.
-County Not Kicking In Stadium Funds Just Yet – Dec 26
-Stadium developers, C.U. scramble for deal – Dec 30
-Stadium developers toss request for tax exemption – Dec 31
-Editorial: Storm clouds loom on the riverfront – Jan 2
I think you have to put Nick’s comments in context and the tone in which they were delivered. It sounds to me that he was frustrated with the school district and threw the comment out there to get a reaction.
I can’t imagine that with all the folks committed and behind this that they won’t be able to make this happen. A lot of folks will have egg on their faces if the stadium was not built. There are a lot of stake holders here:The Owners, The Mayors of Chester, Philly, The Governor, Senators, Partners, The League and the Sons of Ben.
On the other hand I think what was quoted in the Delco Times is a terrible message to send the fans especially the SOB which have worked so hard to bring MLS to Philly.
My gut says they will get things figured out and the stadium will be built. The worse case is they would bring in an additional investor.
Let Miami go in 2010 then Philadelphia when they get the money issue work out.
I hope Philly does succeed in getting a team, because by the sounds of it they are ready to except the pile of redbull bad luck that we have been trying to sell for so long. Who knows maybe with the season going the way it did this year for the red bulls, and now this maybe things will be shaping up for us and philly will be able to step in as the bad luck team. (knock on wood i hope i didn’t just jinx metro)
Nick is the Alexi Lalas of stadium building.
Its good to see that everyone here actually took the time to read the article in question. Nick’s comment was in response to a Chester school board members stupid comment.
The actual quote:
“All I want is our piece of the action,” said board member Juan Baughn. “I want to be as clear as I can … we need money.”
There is no problem with the stadium, it will be built, the team will play in 2010.
NEWS!!!!! : Philly 2010 in trouble. Bring in Miami nd St Luis or Portland.
I would like to see Miami in 210 then Philadelphia &St Louis in 2011.
Philadelphia is a bad town MLS. No one want to live in that city. Go St Luis.
No to Philadelphia http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=899751
Gaber we want the news Miami 2010 and St Louis 2011.
Gaber come our with the two expansion cities
Miami 2010
St Louis 2011
StL
Hearing things like this paint Don Garbers “expansion fever” in a different light.
At this rate somebody in MLS is going to have ownership problems and places like Portland or Montreal really stand to benefit.
Goodbye Philly . . . hello Miami FCB.
Given this horrific economy, Garber may want to revisit potential franchisers that are gold plated and not as affected by the real estate and stock market bust.
Hello and bienevue Montreal and Vancouver!
I have a deposit down for season tickets and I am not worried at all. This is strictly politics. Most of the funding for the stadium is already sured up. I had a long conversation with a team official a couple weeks ago and he seemed very confident that the stadium would not only be completed but on time. Was he just telling me this to calm my nerves?
Miami 2010
Philadelphia 2011
St Louis 2011
El Paso, Texas Deserves an MLS soccer team. We are a crazy soccer city, take a look at us rich investors. Home of the Sun Bowl and crazy soccer fans. We even support First Division Soccer across our border. Go to http://www.clubindios.com or to our http://www.elpasopatriots.com
It sounds as though Nick is making dramatic statements to increase his leverage in the negotiation with the school district.
But the economy has gone south, and I’d have to wonder how effected the ownership group is by the stock market downturn.
Congrats on your blog, Yves. You and your correspondents are doing excellent work. Big improvement.
Pull yourself together Philly so NY and Angel can come and make you cry 😀
Pull yourself together Philly so NY and Angel can come and make you cry 😀
Get a team in Pittsburgh instead
Ha! Philly sucks almost as much as Nick does!
Philly = Phail
With all due respect, there are numerous businesses involved here between the league and its owners. If one or more of the owners is having financial problems, not too surprising in these times, it may have very little to do with Nick Sack who is just an employee here.
Nick Sack did what he does best.
Sell a steaming pile of crap to those so hungry they’ll eat it off the finest china with a smile on their face.
Shame on Nick, shame on any investment group for taking a risk like this that could hurt the league the same way Miami and Tampa did, and shame on MLS for being so stupid. Again.
At least this philly team phailed before playing. That’s puts a new spin on their tradition of losing.
Well, iStar Financial is almost dead and that’s the company of one of the owners… do they have someone who could step in as an owner in Sugarman’s place?
That’s probably the market-related issue that they are referring to. That and the question of how much debt they planned to use to finance the stadium.
I just wanna say to all the Philly fans, I called it i called your stadium was in trouble and that Nicko Shits would blow smoke until the last minute…he can’t be trusted.
That said, i do hope it works out the prospect of kicking a philly teams arse just down the pike in a real stadium was pleasing to me.
I read the interview with Nick Sakiewicz on the Sons of Ben site, and they are announcing seating plans at the end of January and have sold more than 6,000 season tickets. Plus, they have bookings for more than 30 events at the stadium outside the Philly MLS matches.
That doesn’t sound like a project that is going to halt over a dispute with a school district.
Sakiewicz comes across as a pretty gruff character and he probably got pissed off and just said this as a negotiating stance because the school district wanted more than he was willing to give.
I wouldn’t worry about it.
Besides, who else is going to hire Nick Sakiewicz? He seems like a complete jerk so he’s got to make this thing work because it’s not as if anybody else is going to be pounding on his door to hire him.
Doesn’t Sakiewiecz just rock! lmao…
People we are in bad economic times. I thinks that MLS should let Miami in 2010 and then Philadelphia in 2011 or 2012.
NY
If this doesn’t get built I’m really going to be disappointed. I go to school in Philly and didn’t really get into soccer until I arrived on campus freshman year. I’m from New York but I’ve been holding out for this team to be the team I support in the MLS… but if this doesn’t happen I guess I’ll have to settle for either Toronto or NYRB… which isn’t the plan. Hopefully this guy is blowing smoke just so he can look like Superman saving the day when the stadium finally goes up.
Thanks for the updates Ives!
Hahaha, welcome to the Metro’s life.
i hope the stadium goes through because i really can’t wait to wholly despise a team in mls.
Interesting. I put a deposit down on season tickets, and got a call from the Director of Ticket Sales a few months ago. It was basically an introductory call, and he had mentioned that season ticket prices would be set, and sent out, November (December latest). I hadn’t seen, or heard anything from them, since that call.
Just this week I was wondering if they were having any issues, or simply decided to delay sending out season ticket pricing, due to the economy. Now after seeing this article, I guess I am now an officially worried Philly fan…
Philadelphia will be ok. I do think Miami will will start in 2010.
Jimmy hit it right on the head. Plus, Metro fans know that Sakiewiecz = epic failure. If this really has any merit to it, I’m afraid the Barca Miami bid might come into play in 2010 after all. Troubling indeed.
I think this was purely posturing to try and force the tax exemption on the school district. Supposedly that had to be in place by that very evening. He was using strong language to try and muscle him.
I’m willing to take bets that there will be more than 18 teams by 2011 though.
Hey Ives,
Why not let Vancouver step in for 2010? We have an existing stadium in Swanguard that when expanded for the 2007 Fifa U-20 world cup seated 10,000, plus BC place rennovations in place to change that into a soccer friendly facility as of 2011. The economy hasn’t been hit as hard in Canada either.
Also, since Montreal pulled out of the MLS expansion race isn’t Vancouver the #1 candidate from Canada? Does MLS really only want 1 Canadian team? We already have a great rivalry with Seattle Sounders FC. We get plenty of visiting Seattle fans at Swanguard when the Sounders come here.
what do you think? Viable alternative?
Thanks,
Mark
Sakiewiecz has a history in this league and I’m surprised that people still believe anything that comes out of his mouth. Almost always it is hyperbole and bombast. I don’t consider this statement as reliable.
I wonder if Montreal just reentered the fold? They want someone to step in right away with all the criteria for the “Philadelphia” expansion price….Montreal seems like a perfect fit