Why not Tulsa? Lack of imagination?
World Cup
- Thread starter drboobay
- Start date
Lack of planning and investment by local soccer community.
Too much emphasis on flying Johnny and Tiffany to Vegas, Dallas, and Madrid for travel soccer.
No emphasis on spending that money on facilities that will help Johnny develop as much or more and be there for the kids that follow him.
Tulsa has nothing even remotely close to what would be required to host this event. Indeed many USL2 programs do not.
The list of requirements is pretty exhausting and ridiculous in detail down to measured specifications and minimum standards on everything … down to lawn tools and toilet seats.
The first problem is two international quality pitches that meet telephone book long turf standards, are adjacent, have international television quality lighting, and are within a secured perimeter that meets restrictions both in term of fence height and materials, but also is not see through and meets ingress and egress restrictions. Then you need adjacent training pitches with lower but still high turf standards. Professional lockerroom facilities with wifi capable of reaching the entire complex at 1000mbps. Yada yada.
And … assuming you have such facilities, and only pro clubs and a few colleges will, you can’t use them for thirty days leading up to their occupancy. In the middle of their season.
I would note that several of our confeeence members met the standards at their facilities and were approved including FAU and UNT. Mac isn’t joking around when he says our facilities need significant upgrades to be competitive in conference/recruiting.
OU put in a bid in addition to OKC.
Too much emphasis on flying Johnny and Tiffany to Vegas, Dallas, and Madrid for travel soccer.
No emphasis on spending that money on facilities that will help Johnny develop as much or more and be there for the kids that follow him.
Tulsa has nothing even remotely close to what would be required to host this event. Indeed many USL2 programs do not.
The list of requirements is pretty exhausting and ridiculous in detail down to measured specifications and minimum standards on everything … down to lawn tools and toilet seats.
The first problem is two international quality pitches that meet telephone book long turf standards, are adjacent, have international television quality lighting, and are within a secured perimeter that meets restrictions both in term of fence height and materials, but also is not see through and meets ingress and egress restrictions. Then you need adjacent training pitches with lower but still high turf standards. Professional lockerroom facilities with wifi capable of reaching the entire complex at 1000mbps. Yada yada.
And … assuming you have such facilities, and only pro clubs and a few colleges will, you can’t use them for thirty days leading up to their occupancy. In the middle of their season.
I would note that several of our confeeence members met the standards at their facilities and were approved including FAU and UNT. Mac isn’t joking around when he says our facilities need significant upgrades to be competitive in conference/recruiting.
OU put in a bid in addition to OKC.
I was thinking TU might because the playing field at TU is the best in the state and it's not close. OU and OSU's playing surfaces are nice but don't quite rise to the level. TU's training pitch behind Bama is also a pretty high quality considering it was sort of an afterthought and was only put there because TU was required to put some flood control in place while developing the west side of Delaware. I've refereed a couple games on that pitch and it is easily one of the top 5 grass pitches in the state. But as you state, that pitch has no security around it, no fencing, and access to facilities is non-existent unless they open up the Case Center and perhaps turn the entirety of the Case Center into a locker room/lounge for the month. And the WiFi at TU is great in buildings but not great on the west side unless you're in a building. Outdoor connectivity even on the primary campus east of Delaware is spotty at best. BUT, the internet thing could easily be worked out as TU (or any place that hosts) could set up a private network just for the team for that month).
The crazy thing is, ORU might have a better set up but it would entail closing their fitness center for the month. There are training rooms in the fitness facility, 2 fields side by side, it's gate controlled access and they could easily put the green landscape tarps on each of the fences (think what Southern Hills does any time it hosts a major). They've also got the pool and hot tub/ice tub areas up there. With ORU, the team could be housed at DoubleTree Warren Place. At TU, you're likely looking at them being at the Hyatt or Doubletree downtown (or heck, even the Ambassador and using every room).
I know it's all a pipe dream as I haven't read the phone book length list of requirements but I can't imagine that every check list item is even achievable here with current facilities. Only change would be FC Tulsa developing a stadium/training field plan sort of like Toyota in Dallas on a smaller scale with plans to bid for the NCAA College Cup and hosting USL games or even looking towards a USL 1st Division bid. It would also fit in with their plans for the youth academy, some giant high level tournaments, etc. as TSC's days of hosting that premier event in Tulsa are about the go away.
TU could do that for the primary track and soccer complex.
They probably do if you combine the soccer complex along with some of the grass practice fields that are primarily utilized by football. But actually looking at their campus map the soccer facility is nowhere close to the football practice fields but it looks like they might have 4 grass and 2 turf fields as part of the football complex, it looks like it has a fence surrounding it and the main athletic training facility is right there as well. (2 of the fields look to be on the east side of Gallagher-Iba and behind the wrestling facility, don't know if they're fenced in). My guess is it could work. What won't work in Stillwater are the hotel accommodations at the cowbarn motels. These teams want 5* or pretty close and you're not getting that in Stillwater
TU put all their money into the pitch and not in what is around it. That was supposed to come later and didn’t. There’s stuff over there is original equipment going on over 20 years old.
Correct. The Ambassador would be the closest thing to acceptable hotel facilities and I don’t believe they have 24 hour room service. There are a couple of pages on hotels alone in the bid specs.
And I honestly believe they screwed the pooch on the new scoreboard over there. Should have spent some money to have a video board that they could have used to score track meets and positions and what not as well as possibly do replays in soccer. What they have no is essentially a shinier version of what they had.
And no one is complaining about the pitch. It is the best in the state. I'm sure FC Tulsa is envious of the surface as they've played a couple games on it in preseason and hosted their US Open Cup game there last night.
Seriously the scoreboard at the Bixby HS soccer and track facility is first-class. Full LED board so video capable as well as programmable for multiple sports. I saw another school with a soccer specific facility with a similar set up (unfortunately, can't remember which one right now).
They have tax dollars, a larger donor base, and can issue bonds at more favorable rates.
The cost of such scoreboard versus its annual use is disproportionate. They use their field a lot more. And don’t have things like pitch upkeep to pay for.