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What Happened to the Gamblers?

The New Orleans Riverboat Gamblers, our A-League soccer franchise was sold to Mr. Rob Couhig, owner of the New Orleans Zephyrs. The Zephyrs are our AAA baseball club. Mr. Couhig and his people have turned the Zephyrs into a very successful part of the Houston Astros' farm system. With new ownership comes a new name (The Storm), a new kit (black and white colors), and a new playing ground (Zephyr Field).

What does this mean for soccer in New Orleans? The most significant change is the location of the ground. Instead of Tad Gormley Stadium in City Park, the Storm will play at Zephyr Field in Metairie. This is a good move in more ways than one. For starters, since the Zephyrs offices are at the ballpark, it is only logical to consolidate the administrative duties. Additionally, Zephyr Field has a natural grass playing surface, as opposed to the artificial turf in Tad Gormley.

Another reason why the move to the ballpark will be interesting is demographics. The best crowds for matches at Tad Gormley ran in the 1,500 range. When the Zephyrs baseball club moved from UNO's Privateer Park in the city to the new ballpark, attendance jumped from around 2,000 per game to over 7,000 per game, with peaks of over 9,000. When the Gamblers played the Dallas Burn last year in the US Open Cup at Zephyr Field, the attendance was over 6,000. Was this because the ground is located in Metairie? One of the largest Latino communities in the metro area is in the city of Kenner. Moving to Metairie makes the team much more accessible to an ethnic population that grew up on soccer. Metairie is also home to the largest youth soccer league (Lafreniere Soccer Association). Team management is hoping that the suburban location will also attract these soccer families.

Since the baseball and soccer teams now have common ownership, this also means there will be no competition between the two teams for an audience. The Zephyrs and Storm can't play at Zephyr Field on the same day (logistics of converting the field are too complicated), so when one team is at home, the other will be either off or on the road. This is great for the Storm. There were many a night last summer where there were thousands out at the ballpark watching the Zephyrs while there were barely a thousand of us watching the Gamblers. Another smart scheduling move is that all home Storm fixtures will be played at night. Soccer in the sun can be enjoyable, but not in July. It's just too hot at 1:00pm or 3:00pm.

Minor league sports are about grooming players to move up to the big leagues. The way a minor league team makes a profit is to get people to the ground eating food and drinking beer. The Zephyrs have proven over the last couple of seasons that they know how to promote their games and get people out. This should mean lots of minor league-type promotions (t-shirt night, mug night, etc.) for the Storm as well.

All this and we get to see United and the Rapids! Should be a fun spring and summer.