Mayor: Professional soccer returning to Jacksonville a possibility 'sooner than later'

Could a professional soccer team return to Jacksonville? Mayor Alvin Brown Friday dropped broad hints that it?s a possibility.

?There?s a lot of interest. All I can say is, there?s a lot of interest,? he said. ?Stay tuned.?

Brown brought the topic up during an interview on an unrelated matter, smiling as he discussed the possibility. While campaigning for mayor, he said he?d like to bring an NBA team to the city, but Friday he said a soccer team is more likely to come first.

?Sooner than later?? he said. ?Yes. My sense is that we?ll sooner have a soccer team than an NBA team. You just put more than 40,000 people in the stands??

Brown was referring to the success in May of the U.S. national team?s 5-1 victory over Scotland at Everbank Field, where the turnout of 44,438 surprised soccer officials. It shattered a state record for an international friendly match and it far surpassed a crowd of 23,971 in Tampa the next month for a U.S. game against Antigua & Barbuda.

That certainly puts Jacksonville in the running for at least more national team games.

The Tea Men of the long-defunct North American Soccer League put Jacksonville on the soccer map in the early 1980s.

Major League Soccer, the top professional league in the country, has been expanding in recent years and has said it wants to continue to do so. But it?s made clear that soccer-specific stadiums, smaller than cavernous professional football stadiums, are needed for any new team.

When told that, Brown smiled confidently. He wouldn?t say, however, whether the city is pursuing an MLS team just yet.

?We may start with a minor-league team, then move up,? he said.

The MLS has already said it wants to put a second team in the New York market, and has set 2016 as a goal for that team?s first game.

?This is our priority in terms of our next expansion, which will be our 20th team,? MLS president Mark Abbott said in a story on the league?s website. ?We haven?t made a determination about the timeline beyond that.?

There?s not a single team in the Southeast;? the closest team is more than 700 miles away in Washington, D.C.

Last month, league commissioner Don Garber addressed expansion to the South, fielding questions before the MLS championship game about possible teams in Atlanta, Orlando and Miami. Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank was mentioned as a possible owner in that city, while a minor-league team in Orlando is bidding to join the majors.

The league once had teams in Tampa Bay and Miami, though each folded after the 2001 season.

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