On January 8, 2011 MLS Commissioner Don Garber met one to one with soccer fans at the Marriot Harbor Beach Hotel in Fort Lauderdale. He shared his valid concerns about the South Florida market: Garber said “Miami needs to change its reputation as a market that believes in professional soccer, I’m telling you as a guy who’s sitting in New York and promoting soccer matches, we worry about this market. This is a risky market for international soccer. There is no reason why it should be.”
Well, South Florida has answered Garber’s call. We have done everything he asked us to do.
18,000+ fans came out for the two Gold Cup games At FIU Stadium in Miami.
The Fort Lauderdale Strikers attendance averaged 4,000 per game at Lockhart Stadium and made it to the final of the NASL (Div 2).
The Barcelona and Chivas de Guadalajara game at Sun Life Stadium had the largest attended soccer game in Florida history 70,080 came out to see the game on a Wednesday night.
Over 21,000 showed up during a rain storm to watch the United States v Honduras October 8, 2011 at Sun Life Stadium. We had better attendance than NYC and Los Angeles (Two Major League soccer cities) for a USMNT game.
Mr Garber, South Florida has responded. We’re more than ready to support an MLS team. Second team in NYC… really? Orlando? Not a big enough market. You know the Southeast needs to have an MLS presence and Miami is a top Market MLS can’t continue to ignore. Vamos, bring us MLS. We’d love for it to be the Strikers!
For more pictures and videos of the meeting be sure to go HERE
Also check out the meeting from Burrito the soccer dogs view by going HERE