After years of missteps and restarts, mostly built on solid logic but flimsy funding, the Philadelphia area is approaching the critical mass necessary to land an expansion franchise in Major League Soccer.
As usual, however, the approach is painfully slow, and soccer fans in the region are worried that when MLS hands out a pair of franchises before the end of this year - the last ones it intends to offer for a while - speedier suitors will have already found the back of the net.
"Where we are right now, honestly, is really close to the finish line," said Bryan James, president of Sons of Ben, a local group of soccer supporters that has practiced for the future by attending MLS games in New Jersey and Washington in order to boo those teams. "We're a lot more encouraged than we have been in the past."
In the past, while the size of the Philadelphia market and its strong sports culture make it an attractive fit for MLS, various attempts to land a franchise were tripped up by two missing components: political support for building a midsize soccer-specific stadium, and someone with deep pockets and a thick checkbook to become the local owner-operator.
That has changed now, or is on the verge of doing so.
An investment group headed by James Nevels, outgoing chairman of the Philadelphia School Reform Commission, received the blessing of Gov. Rendell last week to seek support for a stadium built along the Chester waterfront near the Commodore Barry Bridge.
It is possible that blessing was a payback for Nevels' resignation from the commission after repeatedly butting heads with Rendell, although all concerned express shock and dismay that such a thing would be suggested.
For the soccer community, whatever works is fine. Rendell appears willing to get behind some state funding for the stadium as part of an effort to revitalize Chester. Nevels, a well-connected Republican, has also received support from Senate majority leader Dominic Pileggi (R., Delaware), who was once Chester's mayor. So there are players on both sides of the ball for a change.
As for the real money, the Nevels group is getting close to announcing the identity of its principal investor, according to attorney Charles G. Kopp, who is representing the group.
"It's going very well," Kopp said. "I can't say much beyond that right now."
