CD: MLS Meetings Blog #1- Off To NYC

As the decision nears as to whether or not Sacramento will be awarded an MLS team, Carmichael Dave is traveling to New York City to cover the presentation by the Republic ownership group the the expansion committee. The Drive will air from WFAN in Lower Manhattan Wednesday and Thursday. Look for extended blogs, pictures, and video at KHTK.com this week. 

 

Day 1: 

 

This is kind of weird. 

Once again, I’m going to New York City, and once again a major league franchise is on the line. Didn’t we just do this?

This is different,  I keep saying to myself. And of course it is. To compare the push for MLS expansion in Sacramento to the fight for the Kings is foolish. They’re completely different.

And that’s so awesome. 

5 years ago, we were fighting for the life of our city. Yes, Sacramento would’ve survived without the Kings, but it would’ve sucked. Bigger than Basketball? Damn straight. As promised by pro-arena folks, Golden One Center has been as much about Paul McCartney, Foo Fighters, and Lady Gaga as it has the team in purple. An audit just popped up yesterday drawing a direct line between G1C and a positive economic impact for the city. Suck it, naysayers.

Yes this is different. When we won the fight for the Kings, it would’ve been easy just to stop and catch our collective breaths, so many people who worked their asses off would’ve been fully justified in putting their feet up and letting the world go by for a while.

Nope. 

 The difference this time? Sacramento is no longer the desperate one-horse town wringing its hands that the horse is going bye-bye. Momentum never stopped. Just a few years ago, Warren Smith and friends had open tryouts on a college ball field. Months later, they won the USL title in their first year. Years later, they are on the cusp of bringing a second major league team to the state capitol.

Yes, comparing the Kings fight and this fight is tough, but there are commonalities. Warren Smith passed the torch of ownership to Kevin Nagle, who helped save the day as a first time owner in the Kings bid. In fact, many of the other local owners who helped keep the NBA here have caught the soccer bug as well.

Helping Nagle put the bid together are former Kings executives Kunal Merchant and Ben Gumpert, helping form a team that quite frankly has been down this type of path before. I’m not saying this is an easier path than what they faced with the NBA, but I will say its a completely different feeling altogether.

Confidence. Been there, done that. 

I’ve had the good fortune, as have you, of being a spectator to all of this. I haven’t written a single check, or made one presentation to a board of owners. But like you, I have followed intensely, in hopes of my young kids seeing a massively different Sacramento than I grew up with.

As I write this, on a plane, I feel a cautious optimism about tomorrow. How can you not like The Sacramento Story, one that is being written furiously as we speak?

Yes, tomorrow morning, while most of Sacramento is rubbing the sleep out of their eyes, the Team Sacramento will make their pitch. They’ll tell a story of committed ownership, stadium site control, ahead-of-the-game strategy, and an amazing brand.

Which is great. 

But the secret sauce that will bring it home, the hammer that will make the expansion committee’s eyes really open, is the fans. Time and time again, Sacramento fans show their mettle. Its not that other cities don’t have good stories, and/or even great fans. Its just the Sacramento fans are unique. Fiercely loyal, loud, and seemingly willing to do whatever it takes to get to the next level, whatever level it may be.

Soccer, basketball, doesn’t matter. You can’t stop the progress now. Too late. Like trying to stop a giant snowball halfway down the mountain. There’s just too much momentum.

It’s Bigger Than Soccer Ball. 

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