Tim Sullivan

@TimSullivan714

St. Louis’ bid for a soccer stadium has been blocked at the ballot box. David Beckham’s Miami initiative faces an undisclosed deadline with an as-yet unclear plan. The city council of Charlotte has tabled talks over a tourism tax to bring Major League Soccer to suburban Elizabeth, N.C.

If Louisville gets a move on, says John Neace, it stands to move up in the race for MLS.

“The key for us is coming up out of the ground with that stadium before the other cities do,” the chairman of Louisville City FC said Wednesday morning. “If Nashville has a stadium under construction, and Cincinnati has a stadium under construction and St. Louis has a stadium and Indianapolis has a stadium and we’re still talking about it, we don’t have a chance.”

Neace was standing at the corner of Adams and Campbell Streets, proposed site of Louisville’s new soccer stadium, presently the junkyard of Marshall Auto Parts. The car closest to all of the tailored suits assembled for Wednesday’s announcement was a blue Mercury Tracer with two tires, a smashed windshield and a hard-top bent like a scalene triangle.

Here was a neighborhood in need of urban renewal. Here were five parcels of underused land just east of Louisville Slugger Field, plainly visible from interstate overpasses and fairly aching for improvement. Though a deal is a long way from done – Neace and his partners would have the city purchase the lots they have optioned, then sell it back as development proceeds – the obstacles do not appear to be insurmountable.

Metro Council member Bill Hollander cautioned that issues arising from the KFC Yum Center experience “is one reason we should be particularly careful,” but the early returns from local politicians were generally divided between enthusiasm and euphoria.

Not to spoil the mood, but for Louisville City FC to move up from the United Soccer League to the MLS still figures to be a long, uphill climb. Since no local groups applied before the league’s Jan. 31 expansion deadline, Louisville will not be one of the 12 cities competing for two new teams to be awarded later this year. Neither will Louisville be eligible for a second MLS expansion expected before 2020.

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But if Neace & Co. are to win the long game of getting a major-league franchise, their best chance could be to create a sense of immediate urgency. The sooner Louisville starts, the easier it becomes to get a jump on the competition.

“I believe it’s our time,” Neace said. “Louisville has been passed over or not aggressive enough to get some of these things over the years. Now we have our shot. We just have to take advantage of it.”

That Wednesday’s announcement took place less than 10 weeks after the MLS expansion deadline would suggest some advantage has already been squandered. Though efforts to hasten construction at the Butchertown site could reflect real confidence in Louisville’s MLS prospects, it’s also possible that the lure of major-league status is being used as bait to be switched at a later date.

Illinois-based Gilt Edge Soccer Marketing ranked the top 30 U.S. soccer markets last year based on television viewership, attendance, participation, social conversation and digital search. San Diego (9), San Antonio (11), Raleigh-Durham (19), Sacramento (24) and Phoenix (29) are among the cities that have applied for MLS expansion. Louisville was nowhere on the list.

Yet if recent stadium trends have taught us anything, it is that the ability to get something built can sometimes trump market size, corporate base and discretionary income when a team is looking for a place to land. No amount of artist’s renderings can match the gritty reality of hard hats and bulldozers clearing a construction site.

“It’s a race,” John Neace said. “I believe the Biblical stuff: The last shall be first. So just because we’re the last one (now) doesn’t mean we can’t be the first one. The favorite doesn’t always win the Derby. We’re in a city of longshots ...

“We probably could be a great USL franchise. But why should we? Why not MLS? The reality is if we get a stadium built and we’re selling it out and we’ve got a competitive product on the pitch and we’re beating them, how are they going to look at us and say we don’t belong?”

That's a question for another day and, perhaps, another decade. But you can't win a race without getting started.

Tim Sullivan can be reached at (502) 582-4650, tsullivan@courier-journal.com or @TimSullivan714 on Twitter.