When The MLS Entourage Visits Elk Grove, What Will They See?

September 2, 2014 | When representatives from Major League Soccer (MLS) visit Sacramento and Elk Grove later this month, they will un...



September 2, 2014 |

When representatives from Major League Soccer (MLS) visit Sacramento and Elk Grove later this month, they will undoubtedly be given heavy-duty sales pitches on why either city is well-suited to host an expansion team.
Fabian Nunez. 

While we will not know the exact itinerary of the visiting MLS entourage, we are fairly certain they will visit the prospective sites each city will be pitching. For Sacramento, the presumptive sites will include Bonney Field and the Railyard area while Elk Grove's will be its recent purchase of 99-acres along Grantline Road. 

When the entourage visits Elk Grove, one has to believe a portion of the meeting between the MLS, Elk Grove officials and Fabian Nunez will take place at city hall. So if the meeting is held at city hall and then moves to the Grantline Road site, what route will be taken to the site?

As the map above shows, there are a number of different ways the site can be reached from city hall. For the sake of argument, let's take a look at what the MLS entourage will see if they take the most direct route from city hall - along Highway 99 to 10251 Grantline Road.   




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32 comments

Anonymous said...

Hysterical pictorial review Dan. Two lane freeway, propane tanks, unfinished mall, no supporting infrastructure....yeah, I'm sure Kevin Johnson is shaking in his boots. "Our plan" makes us look stupid, inept, self serving and down right hick-ville. Great job council members. What a bunch of buffoons. Don't try to mirror the big boys...we are not them. Be happy with your small city and make sure it thrives...keep the roads free from hazards; keep them moving and not at an "D" or "F" rating. BRING IN THE JOBS! FULL TIME, PERMANANT JOBS...not stadium jobs for minimum wage and no benefits. Bring in CULTURE, ARTS, etc. Get your priorities straight. And get someone else to pay for this land. I don't want to increase my taxes to line the pockets of Fabian and his unscrupulous partners.

Anonymous said...


Trash blowing in the wind,flat, bland, hot, windy sprawling, fast food joints, nail salons, gun stores, smoke shops, vape palaces, strip malls, cheap looking high density low income apartment projects, lack of symphony light opera and ballet, very few upscale restaurants, dollar stores, cookie cutter houses.

Anonymous said...

Mayor Davis better hope they visit here first. Skip the road trip, that's too depressing. Just rent a helicopter, cover the Propane tanks and play ignorance...should be easy enough, probably some farmers hay.

This gets more insane each passing day.

Anonymous said...

Good showing...A city with No Planning Director or Economic Development Director. Just a City Manager and Council member that visited Frisco, TX and can tell the MLS officials how like Elk Grove is to that city, except for the $$$. And don't forget Grace's Coffee...Frisco doesn't even have that. Fresh ground Coffee beans shipped daily from Guatemala.

Mad Hatter said...

Saw a report on KCRA tonight. Elk Grove's bid made about one sentence in their story. I don't think Sacramento is worried about the bid from Elk Grove. They are in competition with Las Vegas, San Antonio and Minneapolis. Sacramento has a prime location at the railyard. The closest entertainment to Elk Grove's is probably the Wrangler Bar on Grantline. I am sure Sacramento is shaking in their boots over this.

Warren Buffets We Aren't said...

Mostly likely the route. They certainly won't go near the "gem" of Elk Grove, Laguna Ridge, also years from being built.

What is going there, they might ask? Answer: "Oh, our civic center but we threw away Zaha Hadid's plans. Not too worry, we only wasted $500K.of the taxpayer's money."

Doesn't that prove what good businessmen we are? We like to contract out for plans and feasibility studies and then toss them. I think we paid $100K to Fabian Nunez for this one. What a bargain, huh?

Anonymous said...

Proud Heritage, Bright Future?

Elk Grove Thriving

A City by the developers, of the developers and FOR the developers!

Increase in armed robberies, assaults and various street crimes

More sprawl

Garish 70 - 100 foot tall lighted signs

Sister city to the Kingdom of Zamunda

Octopus Civic Center

Amusement park right across from single family homes in Madeira "the Jewel of Elk Grove".

Visions of the Olympic Trials.

3,600 units of high density very low and low income housing on the way to "Meridian" (the Southeast Plan Area) - Hood of the future to be known as Mack Road South.

Elk Grove Thriving!

Proud Heritage, Bright Future?

Anonymous said...

Terrible spot for a MLS stadium. Only one major road in/out. No restaurants or other services in the immediate area.

However, it's a great spot for a Big League Dreams sports park and multiple soccer fields for youth. Traffic would be fine as visitors would be coming and going throughout the day and night and not all at one time. Parents, coaches, and kids coming from all over Nor Cal for tournaments would actually stay in hotels and eat at our restaurants throughout town. If you're playing in a tournament at this location for an entire weekend and your hotel is the Hilton Garden Inn on Laguna you'll be eating out at BJ's. You don't need amenities right there like you would for an MLS team. If you live in Sac and you're attending a MLS game would you pull off at Laguna/Bond, stop and eat dinner, then get back on the road to sit in traffic to exit Grantline? Perhaps you will now since that huge sign was approved.

Think smaller city council. Elk Grove had two little league baseball teams play in a regional tournament in Utah. They played each other in the finals. I know some of the parents and they spent big money on hotels and eating out. Bring those events to Elk Grove not MLS. And no, you don't need MLS in order to build the sports fields.

Anonymous said...

Let's just hope the MLS delegation tells Davis and Nunez, thanks, but we'll pass. If not, the competitive fields which are needed by our youth will continue to hang in limbo.

Anonymous said...

This is a GOOD one..from the SacBee this morning...

"Last week, the Elk Grove City Council agreed to spend $4.4 million for a 100-acre rural site near Highway 99. City staff also unveiled a tentative agreement to help Elk Grove investors finance an $88 million stadium with a mix of sales-tax revenue and ticket surcharges. The Elk Grove bid is being led by former Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez."

Guess who those "Elk Grove investors" are? You, me and our children for years to come paying for those Bonds the city placed on our heads and without our vote.

Anonymous said...

.


How much was spent on city staff, management time for this Major League Soccer project?

How much was spent on legal fees for the land purchase and the other aspects of this soccer project?

How much was spent on consultant fees?

Now that the Railyard is in play and is the clear front runner has the City already committed 6 to 7 million dollars on the land purchase?

Can the city back out of the land purchase?

Was the price paid for the land equal to market value or was the price above market value?

Did the city get a creditable appraisal before committing to the land acquisition?



.


CPRA said...

To Anon above: Most of your questions can be answered via records request to the City Clerk's office.

SteveB6509 said...

Thankfully, the MLS won't be choosing Elk Grove It looks like some affiliation with the Kings team will be strengthening and that will close our options. Unfortunately, it will not save us from the money spend on this land.

Connie Conley said...

I just don't get it. A group of have been advocating for a youth sports complex for years now and we were even looking into youth baseball. After years of writing Big League Dreams (BLD), the owner finally had his representative call me. I got the call during a city meeting and I turned the call over to Steve Detrick. Then Gary Davis and I contacted Sportsplex USA as well because we heard that BLD had a pending contract with Folsom.

I am not kidding here. Okay, I have been known to be a bit persistent, and every two months, starting back in 2004, I would send an email to BLD. The reason the owner called me is because the city of Elk Grove didn't respond to inquiries.

We thought we were close to moving this forward. Our group held a town hall meeting, the RFP went out, but Big League Dreams and Sportsplex USA were turned away for an aquatics center -- which the Council never mentioned until the night of the council meeting.

Why go to all the trouble of putting out a RFP when the Council had no intention of using the civic center land for a youth sports complex or a BLD in the first place?

Now we have this land. The proposed soccer stadium does include a soccer complex. Did you hear Pat Hume ask Fabian Núñez if the two could be separated out? I don’t think Pat got a straight answer here. But Pat was clear in that he wants the youth soccer complex to be a priority. He is right. Why wait three to five years for a soccer stadium, if one is built at all, when we have been told in one year’s time the youth soccer complex could be built.

Unfortunately, if there is a push for the soccer stadium, my sense is that Gary Davis will try to get three votes for revenue bonds. That is not right and I have told Gary as much. If this soccer stadium is to be, then it is up to the voters to decide.

Anonymous said...

Vote NO on all bond measures fronted by this city.

They are spending money like it's water.

Elk Grove is becoming a big joke in the Sacramento area.

The MLS deal is dead. The only viable site in the Sac area is at the Railyards.

Stick a fork in it, it's done.

Quit Pi$$ing our tax funds down the toilet.

Anonymous said...

Just maybe the MLS will save us from ourselves.

Billy Bats said...

Anon 9:25 - Your water analogy is so correct. Yes, the city council is draining (get it, the money came from the city's drainage fund account) money away like it is water. And just like the wells drying up in Sheldon, pretty soon our city's money well will dry up. Nice work fellas!

SteveB6509 said...

Thankfully, we can hope that any discussion on bonds will be dead in the next two months. Here's how I would approach 3 of the City Council members:

Jim Cooper - Want a groundswell of opposition against your Assembly run? Go ahead and vote for the bonds. It's irresponsible,

Pat Hume - Hopefully you're financially responsible enough to vote against the use of these bonds for such a difficult development,

Bob Trigg - This could be a legacy issue for you. Hopefully you can see how irresponsible the City is here. Please consider what is best and most responsible for Elk Grove.

I am generally a business friendly person who prefers development, especially done in an intelligent manner. This is a waste of money.

Anonymous said...

And now the city of Elk Grove is holding a meeting on Sept. 22 regarding building an animal shelter.

Where is all this money going to come from?

Good Lord, can the Council just finish one colossal project before taking on three more?

Anonymous said...

As my Dad used to always say, "If you can't run with the Big Dogs you better stay on the porch."

Many of us knew while Mayor Davis was doing his little photo opts,
Mayor Johnson was working behind the scenes and getting it all together. Most likely just the first news release, with more to come. Our Mayor & his cohorts needs to just take Nunez out for a BigMac and see if they can get some of our hard-earned money back.

Dandy Don Meredith said...

"Turn out the lights, the party's over ..."

Bob L said...

This city's reps are actually going to have MLS Veeps come out to our hole-in-the-wall vacant lot, surrounded by nothing but the largest above ground propane tanks in the US, and actually think they have a chance to bring MLS here?

You're all smoking opium!

Hopefully, these MLS folks will speak frankly to our city leaders and tell them we don't have chance and bury this nonsense forever. - Everyone sees the futility and even the embarrassment here except Davis, Cooper and Detrick.

Anonymous said...

Davis, Cooper and Detrick? I thought you were talking about Moe, Larry and Curly?

Anonymous said...

To Anon at 15:01

Don't insult the Howard Brothers like that!

Anonymous said...


Elk Grove is really coming off as being "Hicksville".

Might as well start tuning up the banjos.

Anonymous said...

Don't count on MLS flat saying no. If the deal is sweet enough from the city they might say yes. Sacramento isn't offering a subsidy but if EG is offering to build a stadium at little to no risk to MLS they will consider it even if it's not their ideal location. Money talks! In fact, if MLS considers EG it tells me we're giving away the farm.

SteveB6509 said...

The MLS won't say "no" to Elk Grove until a deal is completed with Sacramento. That would mean (1) the MLS would have to choose the Sacramento region and then (2) they would need to see a stadium deal done. It'll be a couple of years before Elk Grove hears "no".

Anonymous said...

Couple more years for the city to Pi$$ even more money away.

Anonymous said...

I believe SteveB6509 is right. Doesn't our contract also run thru 2016? So we'll keep hearing about this from out city for a while and keep paying the piper for something that we all know will never happen. Actually you could call it "being held hostage" by a contract that maybe keeps us from going forward with any major project until MLS makes a decision.

Thomas A. Anderson said...

Steve B and anon 8:13 - I agree. The city will be held hostage by MLS for as long as possible. From the MLS's point of view, why not keep Elk Grove, and Sacramento for that matter, dangling. They can use this as leverage against other city's competing for the expansion franchises. They will simply hold out for the best deal whether it be Elk Grove or Las Vegas. The MLS has everthing to gain by treating all these city's like mushrooms - keep them in the dark, and feed them s#it.

Anonymous said...

Very interesting.....

http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2014/09/05/new-lead-partner-nagle-on-republics-mls-bid-there.html?ana=e_du_pub&s=article_du&ed=2014-09-05&u=34860207384cfd0109dbe1d73fb33f&t=1409955373

SteveB6509 said...

I don't think we should blame the MLS here. They have been upfront so far. Let's be sure to cast blame where it belongs.

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