1) The author mentions the vote off the bat, but the visual is important.

2) Do any of the business interests arguing USL should be enough to disregard the overwhelming will of the voters know ANYTHING about USL? https://twitter.com/TheInlander/status/1380996510444306437">https://twitter.com/TheInland...

Spokane would get a USL League 1 team. Sounds nice, right? That’s not the major leagues, that would be Major League Soccer. It’s not even the top of the USL ladder, that would be the USL Championship. USL 1 is the third tier league. It’s existed for two seasons.

In those two seasons 13 teams have played. Two of which no longer exist. Last season had no fans, of course. The year prior, its only “normal” season so far, featured an average attendance under 2,000 (7 home games) and one game that saw a whopping 51 fans.

You know the home team those 51 fans watched? The Toronto FC, a MLS club, JV squad. Sure, it’s a pro league. It’s also a pro league of JV teams for actual pro teams (and even the real pro league is tens of millions of dollars in the red 25 seasons into its existence).

A downtown stadium is a good idea if done right. The voters didn’t think this was good enough when they overwhelmingly turned it down three years ago. If you’re going to argue it is good enough now because of the pro team promise, you should be clear what the pro team really is.