RE: [nas] Resurrecting the Florida debate

I wonder if for a sport like soccer, played once a week and with so many European and South Amerinca tourist coming through that area, if it would be possible to tap into some of those folks looking for a footy fix. We are talking about a sport that at this time, if you can just draw a steady 12 to 14K a night---not average in tickert sales but actually draw that many actual bodies each time out---its considered very good support .

I'm not sure I'd equate tourism with fans. One reason Florida has problems supporting their sports teams is because there are a lot of east coast transplants there. East coasters tend to continue supporting the teams they rooted for before they retired and moved south. So when they move to Florida, they'll continue rooting for the Yankees, Red Sox, Jets, etc. That is why the Marlins always market based on their opponents (i.e. "Come see the Marlins when Boston comes to town", etc). You see this to an extent on the west coast too with so many out-of-staters who have moved out here.

Now, as you point out in your post, 20 years from now things will look a lot different. But I don't know that tourism will do a lot for a sports franchise.