We are all Columbus

Sending good chi Columbus' way

Good luck tonight in your battle for most precious metal where sun and grass meet.

Stadiums

ElJefe - Oh yeah, the Hunts, Kroenke, and Hauptman have really distinguished themselves over the years with their brilliant marketing and outreach efforts, so it must be the suburban stadium, right?

BTW, answer me this: If suburban stadiums are "the problem," why does FC Dallas get more people now in their horrible suburban stadium (in one of the fast growing cities in the United States) than they did when they played two miles east of downtown Dallas?

MelbaToast - Yes, they know how to market their teams. We're talking about sports entertainment moguls. Their problems, however, are the product of the MLS 1.5 mindset.

The in vogue thing to do for such moguls in the times of MLS 1.5 was purchase one of ASG's many teams (the Hunts aside), acquire cheap land in a suburb, and place a below-grade, future-expansion-made-easy soccer/concert stadium there. For their desired demographic, they chose suburban Boomer and Gen-X soccer moms and their Millennial kids. The results were sterile, cookie-cutter "family friendly" atmospheres and a group of stadiums that weren't attractive to the less-than-desirables: the urbanites; the rowdy people who drink and swear and make a lot of noise; the people who, if they were too numerous, would surely scare off the precious suburbanites.

It was a marketing strategy that nearly killed the league. MLS 2.0 teams did better to attract the urbanite demographic, and MLS 3.0 teams have seized it.

Learn from history or...you know.

Now, have you asked yourself, 'Why are the business-people in Columbus suddenly so desperate to keep the team?' 5 years ago they couldn't have given less of a shit. The simple answer is: they now use the Crew to attract business and young employees. Likewise, the Crew enable the city to sell itself as progressive: the young demographic in this country is into soccer, thus having a soccer team is cool and attractive. What's cool and attractive to young people, is cool and attractive to businesses.

What would make things even sexier? "We have a downtown soccer stadium." Holy Millennial sploosh!

What would kill the vibe? Suburban shopping center soccer; a total Millennial cock-block.

Believe you me, Hunt, Kroenke, and Hauptman know they messed up by building in Frisco, Commerce City, and Bridgeview. There's nothing they can do now but sell (which they won't do) or wait until their stadiums need replacing. So, they're simply stuck biding their time another decade, at which time you'll see them and the league go into full-on stadium lobby mode. New stadiums in better locations will be built, and with them the whole "rebrand" thing. New crest, new digs, maybe new colors all to disassociate from the epic failures of MLS 1.0-1.5.

Dirty Rats

A fictitious team I think, or maybe a rec league team.

Cool logo nonetheless.

How the Bundesliga puts the Premier League to shame

https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2010/apr/11/bundesliga-premier-league

Why are we talking about a new soccer stadium and not a new viaduct?

http://www.wcpo.com/news/insider/column-why-are-we-talking-about-a-new-soccer-stadium-and-not-a-new-viaduct

Best US cities for millennials are in the Midwest, South, says new study

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/18/best-u-s-cities-for-millennials-are-in-the-midwest-south-says-new-study.html

Deconstructing the American game and the problems so many thought never existed

(thesefootballtimes.co 10-30-17)

For the American game at large from every conceivable angle – nothing is what it seems. A diverse country with vast amounts of resources and a well-established sporting infrastructure has ensured these necessary elements – diversity and resource allocation – aren’t utilised to maximise the American game. From the outside, American football looks like a buzzing and thriving sport. In many ways, that is true. However, looking past the dog and pony show, unsettling elements are at play.

American football requires a shot of truth serum to make headway beyond merely being a participant in world football. That shot might as well be rattlesnake venom because American football is indeed snakebitten.

The prevailing perspective shouldn’t solely focus on the failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. Rather, American football must frame its expectations differently. The more apt conversation should be about why the US is not capable of challenging for the World Cup instead of merely not qualifying. That discussion requires addressing the plethora of issues and the lack of accountability from the top-down.

The US has coupled participation trophies as the ultimate reward instead of actual development in youth sports, mainly football, must own up to some unsettling realities. If qualifying for the World Cup out of CONCACAF, a region designed for the US and Mexico to emerge from, is a standard, then it’s clear mediocrity has become the standard.

It’s not enough to ask whether or not US Soccer – from a federation level – wants to merely participate or if it intends to actually compete on the world’s stage. Here’s why: for the last 25 years, American football fell into a cycle of congratulatory acclaim for triumphs on the men’s side of the game: hosting the 1994 World Cup, setting up Major League Soccer and keeping it afloat, and qualifying for seven consecutive World Cups since 1990. For all the good those milestones did, other countries within CONCACAF  improved too – largely due to the resources available within the US.

The American game finds itself at a crossroads whose intersection is the focal point where questions, accusations and troubling realisations have collided. For the first time in recent memory, issues that continue to hamper development now dominate all American football-centric discussions and debates.

Before change can occur, identifying the ills and shortcomings of the system must be addressed starting with the entities that dictate and run US Soccer, Major League Soccer, and Soccer United Marketing (SUM). This collection people and businesses controlling American soccer’s trajectory look determined to continue to resist the systemic reform and wholesale changes necessary to maximise the potential of American football.

Dissecting and analysing American football is an exercise in madness. Conversations and debates range from franchise models versus fan-owned clubs, playoffs versus single table league standings, promotion-relegation versus a closed system, and the type of athletes that play football to name a few. As relevant or idiotic as those arguments may or may not be, one element continues to be ignored: culture. Culture dictates everything when it comes to a sport like football. 

The United States has no shortage of resources, players, fields, minivans, orange slices and participants. What it doesn’t have is a true culture on a large-scale basis. Vital elements like self-play, recreation games, and street football are not woven into the fabric of society in ways that basketball, American football and baseball are.

From the earliest years, parents and coaches ensure any creativity is coached out of players. Youth tournaments are regionalised and nationalised when competition ought to be localised – an element that has turned a working-class, simple sport into a cash cow, money-fuelled business. By the time a youth player is established, the game functions like a chore or extracurricular activity more than it does a lifestyle. Parents demand results for monies paid to coaches with an eye on results over development.

Football is not part of the every day for enough of American society. Yes, there are pockets and players that live and breathe the game – and in many ways, they are the ones who lose out the most. Not enough kids dribble to the bus stop with a ball at their foot, nor do enough congregate at parks or in the cul-de-sacs across the country to play in unsupervised and unstructured environments. Where other countries have courts dedicated to and populated with aspiring players of all ages and ability levels living, breathing, and bleeding the game, the US continues to lock the gates, post the “stay off the field” signs, and ignore the fundamental aspect and form of football, which needs to start at home.

There is a curious culture associated with the American game. As trendy, enthusiastic, patriotic and hip as it may be, this culture is also misguided. The culture dominating football is a strange coalescence of jingoistic, beer-soaked support that is incredibly fervent. However, no matter how overzealous the pageantry and patriotism may be, the critical element of authenticity isn’t there. Instead, it’s a chop and drop job of ‘mockney’ and capo-led chants spliced with traditional American sports rallying calls shoehorned into the global game. Fans can proclaim their team name and add “till I die” all they want – the dominant culture still lacks the elements that make passion for the game a lifestyle, not a seasonal thing. 

Make no mistake, football is still regarded as a niche sport in the US – this is by design. One has to wonder what would happen football if casual attitudes and platitudes were deprioritised. Accountability – on and off the pitch – would reshape football from the top-down. As it stands, the accompanying media and pundit teams tasked with covering the sport is largely-compromised, fearful of losing access for asking the critical questions of Major League Soccer, the United States Soccer Federation (USSF), and really, of itself.

A lack of accountability and journalistic integrity has helped dictate the tone of a fanbase that is either conditioned to default to a just-be-grateful-football-exists-here stance, thus diverting and convoluting necessary elucidation of the system, national team programs, domestic leagues as outright attacks. It’s this misconception that has driven a pike into American’s fan base and history.

For some, football has always been part of the American sporting landscape with a rich history of the U.S. Open Cup and numerous friendlies, historic games and leagues that warred with other sports and football itself triggering the death knell for the game for extended periods of time. But for others, it truly began in 1994 with the World Cup in the US or perhaps in 1996 when Major League Soccer kicked-off. The disparate points of views are hot-button debates in any noted circle.

Presently, the state of American football should never have been defined by one game, but that’s exactly what happened. The fate or success of the game at-large shouldn’t rest on the shoulders of 11 players and a bullish manager that could not find a way to win when it mattered most, yet this is precisely what is happening.

Discussions revolving around this snapshot risk being disingenuous and ignoring the success and excellence of women’s football, which has been able to make winning a tradition and World Cup triumphs a standard. And there, too, the world is catching up.

Football hangs on tenterhooks as the philosophical clash between the status quo of American sporting ideologies that long baulked at a sport it deems foreign, soft and “un-American”. The complexity of the game is a frustrating case study of clashing philosophies gone awry in such bewildering and unnecessary ways.

There’s more to the American game than the USSF seems to recognise. The federation, with its surplus of funds, resources, labels and influence, governs a sport that is disjointed top-to-bottom. The lack of continuity between the federation and any feeder associations, clubs and leagues has shown that American football’s footprint is defined by warring factions and fiefdoms, all of which are looking out for their own business interests.

We indeed find ourselves in strange times.

The condition of the game has never been falsely greater than at the present. In many ways, the story of American football represents the parable of Daedalus and his ill-fated, arrogant son Icarus in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The wings Daedalus made for himself and Icarus represent the power that comes with harnessing their utility. The United States and the powers at be claim to have the knowledge, infrastructure and the power to be successful.

In the mythological story, the instructions for Icarus were simple: resist the urge to fly too high to avoid the heat of the sun from melting the waxed coated wings and not to allow his level fall too low lest the sea foam to soak the feathers rendering flight impossible. The men’s national team attempted to soar high while dropping its standards far too low. The result was arguably the most ridiculous collapse in American football history.

Peeling back the layers, the inconvenient truth is that the USSF and the men’s national team, composed mainly of players from Major League Soccer, played the tragic character whose hubris clung like a wet cape. The team’s concentration, partly-deterred by a coach’s arrogance before the match, didn’t compete and execute. In more metaphorical terms, it flew too close to the sun and, in so doing, melted the paraffin wax that held its meekly-constructed wings together. American football, not just the federation and the national team, got burned.

On that fateful night in Trinidad and Tobago, along with far too many other performances during this past World Cup qualification cycle, the team was disjointed, unmotivated and unwilling to take control of the contest. As such, the ascension of the American game, the progress of the domestic game and national program that Sunil Gulati, Bruce Arena, scores of MLS pundits and media members, and loyal, league-serving fans claim has reached great heights over the better part of 25 years, seems less impressive.

And so, a quarter of a century and some change after qualifying for the 1990 World Cup – against Trinidad and Tobago, no less – it is American football’s ascension that’s matched by its plummet back to earth in a sobering and shocking reality. The fiery re-entry into an unforgiving atmosphere stings. And this hangover is going to last as long as the behaviours that caused it in the first place persist.

American football is plagued by many things. Revisionist history, protectionist practices, relying on the next youngster to save the American game, depending on a system that makes it possible for predominately affluent families to excel in, are but a few of the myriad of systemic issues. The most egregious issue, however, may be allowing the game to remain in total control by monopolists asserting that the current closed system is the best way. Perhaps two decades ago, that may have been the case – but the times have changed. The football world has grown more intertwined with business, and a generation of Americans are waiting for and wanting for a new system.

As the election for president of US Soccer approaches, the waiting and wanting of a new system will not be enough if Americans are not willing to work for change. The prevailing attitude that the closed system works is not wrong. It does work as a monopolistic business model. As a football model, however, it continues to impose a ceiling on itself. The US game continues to handcuff itself by not prioritising systemic reform.

The inconvenient truth of American football is that it is fuelled by enablers lurking in the shadows. These enablers pounce on every success, taking credit when it’s convenient while masterfully having excuses at the ready for every shortcoming whether it be the “newness” of MLS and a stable league in the US compared to foreign leagues. Again, American football has a richer history than many care to acknowledge, allowing apologists for the current system to baulk at talk of reform.

Elements of Major League Soccer, from the media to messaging, is conciliatory, acting as an effective force channelling faux platitudes and pumping ridiculous narratives such as predicting MLS will be a ‘top five league by 2022’. Moreover, Major League Soccer and its messaging does a masterful job of convincing the casual American fan base that it must relent and submit to a totalitarian system built on centralised control — a bold triumvirate of the power structure of Major League Soccer, Soccer United Marketing (SUM) and the USSF.

American football is a paradoxical fabrication of a sporting ethos at war with itself. A partitioned ‘soccer-first culture’ is no longer silent; it’s aggressive in its expression of dissatisfaction. The overarching, general distaste for football by the mainstream public and media personalities continues to clash with dominant pockets of the game at odds with the stagnation and convolution of the domestic league structure and governance methods.

Many who grew up supporting MLS and football on every level – before the glitz and glamour, television deals, Eurocentric rebrands and a slew of other marketing strategies – have morphed into a subculture demanding change.

Today’s fan, player and coach has access to the global game and a higher standard of play. Where a generation or two ago young players could only dream of watching the best players and teams every weekend, today’s audience sees at a molecular level. The effect places pressure on the domestic leagues, especially MLS, to raise the quality of the product on the pitch.

The debate as to whether Americans like MLS or not is off the mark. Americans prefer foreign leagues over MLS and want the domestic product to maximise its potential and improve. Again, culture is everything. Young players grow up dreaming of playing abroad, not in the US. Ironically and predictably, this leads to a predictable us versus them narrative where MLS fans and the media have twisted the narrative to frame those who criticise MLS as agents that ‘aren’t helping the American game’.

In the US, people have mistaken participation in football for quality. The truth is that the current system isn’t constructed to produce the requisite talent to dominate on the global or regional stage frequently enough. Of course, there are outliers, but it can be argued that those players and coaches developed despite the system, not because of it.

American football is still too off-the-pace with the global standard and mired in false equivalencies to such an extent that its reality is skewed and full of misnomers. The term “academy” and the flippant use of labels creates a false sense of quality. Major League Soccer is not a major league. It’s not nearly competitive enough on the field with top club sides residing in CONCACAF let alone compared to top European and South American teams.

Young players grow up siloed in grandiose categories of lie-ridden semantics that define the cost-heavy family and player-funded youth system. Many actually believe if their club team is called elite, premier or select, that it is, which is not only an outright misappropriation of the perception and terms – it’s a marketing ploy to fuel the industry that is youth football.

Examining why on the men’s side the US failed to qualify for the last two Olympic cycles and the 2018 World Cup is essential and painstaking. Factors such as pay-to-play, affordable and available coaching education, the absence of an open and connected tiered professional system (promotion-relegation), the refusal of the USSF to incentivise and reward player development by way of solidarity payments and training compensation, the reliance of the restrictive collegiate system at a crucial age range, all play a pivotal role. Identifying and listing the obvious and not-so-obvious elements contributing the latest failure of the national team only tells part of the story.

There is enough blame to go around for failing to qualify for the World Cup in such a ridiculous manner. This latest fail point is merely a symptom of attempting to shoehorn a truly global game into a restrictive and Americanised schema. The outright refusal to pump more resources, focus attention, improve education and a put a substantive presence in the country’s underserved communities, be they rural or urban, has resulted in a dependence on the typecast suburban-centric archetype of the American player.

Furthermore, the type of player produced at the US Soccer Development Academy level is technically and arguably tactically more talented and superior than any preceding generation, yet that same type of player has neither the compete level nor the creativity to find a way to win, as evidenced by consecutive Olympic qualification cycles before crashing out against a Trinidad and Tobago team playing for pride.

This fault falls less on the players and more on the system by which these players were produced and promoted. Make no mistake, the system’s business motivations suppress the player and coaching development and total advancement of football on the field. The industry that is American football is predicated on appeasing cheque-signing parents, producing coaches that value results over development, and shielding the sport from true criticism.

Many are asking what is necessary to change the landscape and fortunes of American football and those involved are not asking the wrong questions – they are having the wrong conversation. There is unlikely to be a single solution that operates as a panacea for all the ills and deficiencies of the domestic game from the youth to professional levels. If there is one, it is a truly open system where player development becomes an industry. Where investment in all tiers of the game is not a Ponzi scheme but a truly open and free market. Additionally, incentivising player and coaching development must be key drivers. Creating and fostering football as a cultural pillar is paramount.

So, what does progress really look like?

Looking at Germany, Belgium and even Iceland’s reboots are helpful, and elements of those models can be implemented in the US, however, wholesale copy and paste comparisons will not work. Perhaps shifting expectations to more realistic levels is the first step forward. Instead of labelling anything related to American football as “world-class”, the USSF should aim to make the necessary reformation steps to help the current and future generations.

The American game has been found out. It needs less marketing and more implementation to correct the false sense of entitlement throughout the system. Results-wise, the American standard of play and player is falling behind at the senior level. At the youth levels, be it with the national team or at clubs, American players remain competitive until around the age of 17 or 18. Here, yet another imposed ceiling in the form of a restrictive collegiate system where little-to-no development can occur only hampers coaches and players. Without a cohesive nine-month college system, the 18 to 22 age range continues to be shanghaied.

The most obvious element is the scarcity of professional teams and a professional system that should have no fewer than four or five tiers covering the American landmass; it’s no surprise the American game is at risk of falling further behind.

For all the reported commercial success of Major League Soccer, the standard of play and the standard of the player produced has plateaued. MLS Commissioner, Don Garber, is on record stating that the league continues to lose money year after year. The league’s formation hinged upon many promises, one of them being the development and advancement of the American player and the men’s national team program.

MLS has marginalised the American player in a multitude of ways in the pursuit of commercial success and in an attempt to popularise itself to a subsection of new-to-football fans. For example, if a team had a $30 million payroll in MLS, it’s likely three well-known, ageing, domestic or international players are making $27 million while the rest make peanuts. As hyperbolic as that example may be, it’s what has happened.

Major League Soccer, the NASL, and USL, NPSL, and PDL levels require cohesion. There has to be a pathway between the professional and semi-professional levels for players to improve in. Reform is as necessary as it is unlikely with the current powers at be in place. Football in the United States is a business, and it has run amok.

Time will tell whether the American game can learn and evolve. The best case scenario is taking advantage of the time before the next cycle lest that time take advantage of US Soccer. From a leadership perspective, it must throw the ego out. American football has far too many con men operating as confidence men. The time for change is long overdue. The players, resources and potential exist. The task is recognising that problem exists and addressing it immediately, collaboratively and effectively.

https://thesefootballtimes.co/2017/10/30/deconstructing-the-american-game-and-the-problems-so-many-thought-never-existed/

Temecula FC

Temecula Football  Club is an American soccer club, based in Temecula, california that plays in the NPSL. Founded as Temecula Football Club August 2nd 2013 and plays it's home matches at Linfield Christian or Temecula Valley High School. Temecula Football Club inaugural season was 2014. Nicknamed the Quails. 

http://www.temeculafc.com/default.asp

Lionsbridge FC Named New PDL Club

Virginia-based announced as expansion team ahead of 2018 season

http://www.uslpdl.com/news_article/show/856025?referrer_id=2242498

Still more good posts on BigSoccer

ManiacalClown - I'm just watching you put words in my mouth and laughing, mostly.

whereiend - Sorry, it's difficult to separate the few reasonable individual opinions from the chorus of blind emotional support for #savethecrew.

PodinCowtown - Our support for #savethecrew isn't blind. It's a combination of anger at being lied to so blatantly by Precourt with his assurances of his commitment to Columbus at the same time he was laying the groundwork for a move to Austin. And the puzzlement of moving to Austin, which isn't obviously a better market and where pro soccer has recently failed at the minor league level.

whiteonrice04 - And the league aiding in the lying to fans

AndyMead - Sports is emotional. Soccer doubly so. It's why any of us are still here on BigSoccer when everyone else has left for Twitter or Snapchat or whatever. We can't let go.

HailtotheKing - Here's my question, and it relates to a "belief" of the SupportersUnion:

They believe that OWNERSHIP GROUPS, not cities, submit expansion bids in order to place a team in a certain market ... to wit:

Why is it believed by Garber and Precourt that ATX is a good market when: NOBODY IN ATX DID?

AndyMead - They're smarter than other people?

There are a lot of reasons that second tier cities may not have a local rich guy interested in owning a professional sports team.

The two most successful soccer businessmen in America over the last 30 years live near me, and not once have they shown any interest in taking an ownership stake in any professional sports club - anywhere.

As much as people talk about ROI and "making money" - most people don't own sports teams to get rich. It's a terrible investment. It's important (as Horowitz and Checketts will attest) not to lose too much money, but it's mostly about ego and being an alpha dog.

The "smart money" doesn't buy sports teams. The idle rich, or the uber-rich with idle money, and an ego to feed buy sports teams.

Bringing pro soccer team to Austin, building stadium may trigger vote

(by Philip Jankowski mystatesman.com 11-24-17)

While local soccer enthusiasts might be elated at the news that a Major League Soccer team is serious about making Austin its home, they might have to persuade Austin residents at large to approve bringing the city’s first professional sports franchise.

An election over bringing the Crew SC soccer team — currently based in Columbus, Ohio — to Austin for the 2019 season is becoming a growing possibility as parkland in the core of the city is emerging as a potential location for a stadium that would need to seat at least 20,000 people.

Such a drastic change to parkland would be reminiscent of an effort two years ago to build world-class golf courses in far East Austin, something that the city ultimately said would likely need an election.

While Crew SC owner Anthony Precourt has promised he won’t use taxpayer money to build a facility, the economics would make much more sense if the city were able to provide the land for it free of charge.

To that end, the Austin City Council has ordered the city to research what city-owned land could be used for a MLS stadium, including parkland. Several media reports show that Butler Shores Metropolitan Park has emerged as the most attractive location for Precourt.

The park sits in a choice spot along Lady Bird Lake, just behind the Zach Theatre where Barton Creek empties into the Lady Bird Lake. It also meets Precourt’s goal of having a stadium in the city’s core.

But repurposing the parkland would likely trigger a public election, something Precourt’s lobbyist Richard Suttle said Precourt’s company would prefer to avoid.

Suttle said the company has conducted surveys leading it to believe voters would approve a proposal to bring the team to Austin. But holding an election could threaten Precourt’s desired timeline for a move to Austin for the 2019 MLS season.

Precourt would like to have a site for a stadium picked by Jan. 1 and an agreement with the city in place by the summer. Meetings those deadlines would be difficult if the city held an election in either March or May, and outright impossible if a soccer election were held in November 2018.

“We are not afraid of an election on bringing in MLS to Austin,” Suttle told the American-Statesman. “The only concern I can think of is we have a finite amount of time to take advantage of this opportunity and we would have to evaluate whether an election scenario fits into the scheduling.”

Texas law states that no parkland can be sold at any price without voter approval. Austin’s city charter underlines the law, adding restrictions for leasing parkland as well. A drastic change in purpose for parkland would also trigger an election under state law.

But laws mandating an election are not entirely ironclad. Suttle said a stadium could be considered a parkland use. Concession contracts do permit government land to be used for private business purposes. The city also refused to give a definitive answer to whether an election would be necessary.

Council Member Kathie Tovo, who spearheaded a resolution to search for city-owned land as a possible home for a MLS stadium, said she sees similarities to a previous attempt to build a world-class golf course on parkland in 2015.

Tovo said that when the council was considering building the PGA-level golf courses at Walter E. Long Metropolitan Park, the contract before the council felt like “a way of skirting a vote.”

The plan had firm support from then-City Manager Marc Ott, but stalled after Ott signaled that having an election would likely be the best course of action. In the end, the council opted to request a new master plan for the entire park.

Voters also narrowly defeated a proposal to turn a portion of the park into a hotel and golf courses in 2000.

Tovo told the Statesman the city might be best served by holding an election if the council attempts a license agreement with Precourt for a stadium. She said her resolution asking the city’s staff to identify city-owned properties that could serve as a possible stadium location was a way for the city to get ahead of the likely large amounts of input it would receive if parkland is chosen.

“It was important to me that we approach any consideration of locating a soccer stadium in a way different from the Walter E. Long discussion several years ago,” she said. “I want to make sure that at the outset we discuss whether community benefits outweigh the loss of a public space.”

But Tovo said she wanted to hear what the city attorney’s office thinks about whether an election would be required.

Austin resident Bill Oakey, a retired accountant who blogs about affordability, has researched the laws and said that using parkland for a stadium would “absolutely” require an election. The scale of the project would move it beyond smaller concession contracts, and Oakey said he would support a large-scale, public-private partnership if it brought in revenue for the city’s parks.

“That would be a win-win, but it would have to come with an election,” he said.

And even with indications that voters might support it, Circuit of the Americas Chair Bobby Epstein, who is working to bring a minor league team from the United Soccer League to the track’s land in 2019, said there is always a risk when voters are involved.

“The more hurdles you have to jump over, certainly the more challenging the goal becomes,” Epstein said.

-------------------

http://www.mystatesman.com/news/local-govt--politics/bringing-pro-soccer-team-austin-building-stadium-may-trigger-vote/ymo5qgrdNMXBgebhMEvA6N/

Baltimore Bohemians and beer

(more to come)

Baltimore Bohemians

Vancouver logos

Atlanta United FC logo

2017 - present

Minnesota United FC logo

2017 - present

Toronto FC logo

2007 - present

Philadelphia Union logo

2010 - present

Probably how every Crew fan feels

Crew2112 - I’m getting the impression this league doesn’t want me at their party. I’ve been a loyal friend. I’ve spent $1500/year on Tix for 23 years. I have a closet full of shirts and jackets and hats and scarves. I buy their food and I pay for their app. I can’t give any more money to this league. I’m not a “corporate partner”. I don’t know what else I can do.

 If I’m not welcome at the party, you don’t have to ask me to leave. I’ll find the door. I’ll go to the next party. 

 It’s just a shame that your party is the one that is small and weak and begging for friends.

MLS attendance up, TV ratings lag as US mulls future

(statesman.com 11-17-17)

Major League Soccer's attendance is up and fan interest is booming, even if television broadcasts are far less popular and some young Americans would rather play in Europe.

MLS averaged 22,000 in attendance for the first time in its history this season, ranked among the top seven leagues in the world. The league is set to add a second Los Angeles franchise next year, announce two expansion cities next month and at some point finalize David Beckham's long-pending Miami club.
 

But viewers averaged under 300,000 for nationally televised regular-season matches, fewer than the average for a New York Yankees game on their regional sports network. Several top young Americans, such as Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie, have chosen to forego the MLS to play in Germany and test their mettle in a more demanding environment.
 

And worst of all, the United States — whose roster was filled with MLS stars — failed to qualify for next year's World Cup, ending a streak of seven straight appearances in soccer's showcase.

"We need to use this failure as a wakeup call for everyone associated with the sport at all levels to ensure that we have the right processes and mechanisms and development programs and leadership and governance in place to learn from this missed opportunity to ensure that it never happens again," MLS Commissioner Don Garber said this week. "Part of the maturation of becoming a soccer nation is recognizing that qualifying for the World Cup is not a birthright. It's something you need to earn, and we are unfortunately in the company of some great soccer nations, like Italy and Holland and Ghana and Chile — Copa champions — that have also not qualified."

MLS playoffs resume next week after the international break with the first leg of Conference Championships. Columbus — whose owners are threatening to move to Austin, Texas, in 2019 — hosts Toronto, while Houston is home against Seattle.
 

"MLS and soccer in the United States have made great advances in many areas. But its promoters have found that the abundance of existing legacy sports leagues that have the highest quality of athletes on the planet creates a ceiling on professional soccer in the United States," said Marc Ganis, president of the consulting firm SportsCorp. "It has not, and perhaps never, will supplant any of the major legacy sports unless and until the quality of play and players increases significantly and the U.S. men's team in particular is more competitive and, in fact, wins some of the major international tournaments."

 

Momentum of playoff runs was interrupted because of World Cup qualifying, and the culmination of the league's season competes for attention with the NFL and college football among the wider American sports audience.

"Long-term demographic things like CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) and stuff with the NFL says maybe there is a long slow decline around some of that, but when you're starting from where they're starting, that's going to take a generation," Sounders general manager Garth Lagerwey said. "We'll grow because most of the immigration to the U.S. is from soccer-playing countries and the country is going to grow."

Launched with 10 teams in 1996, two years after the U.S. hosted the World Cup, MLS expanded to 12 but cut back to 10 after the 2001 season. There has been steady growth since expansion started in 2004. Next year's total will be 23, already well over the norm for a first division, and the league is planning to settle at 28.
 

Infrastructure could not be more different than in the early days. The league has 14 soccer specific stadiums, two more renovated for the sport and one built with both the NFL and soccer in mind. Three more soccer stadiums are under construction.
 

Average attendance is up 60 percent from 13,756 in 2000, boosted this year by 48,200 for Atlanta in its opening season. MLS trails only the Germany's Bundesliga, England's Premier League, Spain's La Liga, Mexico's Liga MX, the Chinese Super League and Serie A, with Italy's first division ahead by only 22,177 to 22,106.
 

But that has not translated yet into big television ratings.

ESPN averaged 272,000 for 30 telecasts this regular season on ESPN and ESPN2, and Fox averaged 236,000 for 33 broadcasts on FS1 and Fox. In addition, Univision is averaging 250,000 viewers for its Spanish-language MLS telecasts.

But the Premier League attracts a larger audience, averaging 422,000 on NBC, NBCSN and CNBC, even though many matches are on weekend mornings.
 

"We're not the Premier League," Garber said, pointing out last year's MLS Cup drew 1.4 million viewers on Fox. "The fact that we're able to generate ratings growth across all of our partners here and in Canada, and dramatic growth in Canada, is a positive. So we actually, we and our partners, feel pretty darn good."
 

Player payroll has increased as MLS keeps adding what it calls Targeted Allocation Money. While several older American players have returned to MLS from Europe, many of the teens viewed as the future of the U.S. national team have gone abroad as they emerge from the MLS youth academies, which have been mandated by the league since 2007 and produced more than 250 players with first-team MLS contracts.
 

Pulisic, at 19 already the leading American star, left Hershey, Pennsylvania, to sign with Borussia Dortmund at age 16, able because of his grandfather's Croatian citizenship to play in Europe before he turned 18. McKennie left FC Dallas' academy when he turned 18, signed with Schalke and scored in his U.S. debut this week.

"I didn't want to become one of those guys that started in MLS and said, man, I wonder if I could have made it to Europe," McKennie said. "I wanted to spread my wings and see what I could do over here."

Forward Josh Sargent decided against Sporting Kansas City and is waiting until he turns 18 in February to sign with Werder Bremen.
 

"I think I've just always wanted since I was a little kid to play in Europe," he said.
 

Tyler Adams, who also made his U.S. debut this week, played his first MLS game with the New York Red Bulls last year at age 17 and became a regular this season. Garber says "Tyler Adams probably is playing more minutes today for the Red Bulls than he would if he was not in Major League Soccer."
 

Adams is happy but thinking ahead.
 

"Obviously a goal of mine is to play Champions League one day, and obviously the MLS is working its way to becoming one of the top leagues in the world," he said. "Maybe one day I find myself in Europe. You never know."
 

Sometimes big contracts only stall a career. Matt Miazga left the Red Bulls to sign with Chelsea in January 2016, saw little playing time and didn't get in games regularly until late that autumn during a loan to the Dutch club Vitesse Arnhem.
 

"If your only desire is to go to Europe, there are flights leaving every hour on the hour from JFK and LAX and everywhere in between," said retired American defender Alexi Lalas, now a Fox analyst. "But getting to a place in Europe where you are making good money, where you are playing consistently, where you are learning, where you are valued as a player and as an American player, where you are able to adapt and adjust and live in the other 22 1/2 hours that we often don't talk about, that's whole 'nother story, and there's not a lot of flights leaving that have that on the other end."

With the U.S. soccer community in turmoil following the World Cup failure, some have called for MLS to guarantee playing time for young Americans.

"Our coaches universally believed that that was not the best way to ensure we had the highest-possible product quality to be able to have competitive games and to drive the growth of our fan base," Garber said.

-------------------

http://www.statesman.com/sports/mls-attendance-ratings-lag-mulls-future/BSYpuPNFRGGfaJ8PlH46LP/

More good BigSoccer posts

GoCrew1996 - You guys have already heard through various releases what happened at the meeting. Alex thought that Don/AP would let them know what they could do to keep the team, AP/Don asked Alex what they were going to do to keep the team.
Alex/CP was offended that Don/AP were acting like Columbus owed them something. Meeting lasted 20 minutes.

This Crew team as we know it, is leaving Columbus. Even if Austin rejects the team (unlikely), AP is not keeping it here.

Next step for CP is going to be to try to find potential ownership for a new team. Even then, they still have to convince Garber that it is worth giving us a new franchise (unlikely imo based on how Garber has treated us through the process).

CrewV Man - Oh if that was all it was I would play all day. But it also boosts their "buzz" or "Q rating" social media metrics. And you know they love the metrics.

kgilbert78 - I'm not surprised. Especially given it was in NYC. Amazing they even had a meeting, frankly

Placid Casual - Surprised it lasted that long.

TRUJDUB - Hopefully that’s not what she said

Psycho_Derek - Ok you’ve got 10 mins.
Come on we are one of the original charter teams cities
Ok you’ve got 20 mins but make it a quick 20

Minnman - A few thoughts:

- Retaining this team with Precourt as owner is untenable.

- I never had the impression he would seriously consider selling to local ownership; this seems to have been a scam all along to get a team in Austin.

- I know that MLS seems intent on killing off any kind of a Columbus franchise. If so, we're dead in the water, no matter what local ownership may emerge. We'd also be dead if the team isn't allowed to re-launch w/o needing to pay a $150 million expansion fee. I'd be cool with retaining the club's history, name, colors, and re-launching in a couple of years.

- That said... there's just a whole level of corruption about this, a stink, that we're each going to have to address on personal terms. Is there a way of being in this league, being fans of an MLS team, and feeling proud of that fact? Bill's mantra of 'committed local ownership' seems to be a necessary step toward achieving that. But, even so, the crap we've heard seep out about KC helping to engineer this, the way in which the league, as a hole, is buying into this Austin bullshit. I mean, damn, is this a place where I want to spend my money?

coachchris - Without Garber, this might be possible, but a fish rots from its head. Garber is willing to be dishonest in his dealings with owners, cities, the media, etc. I doubt this will change, but it will be noticed. I figure the fix is in for this week (Columbus and Houston MUST GO!!!!), and that wouldn't surprise any of us. I think it's a wonder that we were in a fair game with Atlanta, and even more so against NYC. It's pretty clear that they are willing to sacrifice any given (small) city's results if they think it gives a bump to revenue, and TV viewership. This isn't the thinking of a competitive league, but rather of a business disguised as one.

I say "Up Yours, MLS". If we get a USL team, I'll support them, and hope that one day, that community based, grass-roots (for real) league can step up and become the UPL (US Premiere League) one day. I can watch Euro leagues until then.

I would so love to see Garber handing the trophy to Columbus, while boos and beer bottles crash around him. XD

SourCream&OnionUtd - IMV these are the questions that will have been waiting at the end of most of the best case outcomes, and they will need answering, even if only privately.

It seems like a best best-case scenario would be one in which the city of San Antonio, Bexar County, and SS&E do not go away meekly and keep Garber and the league embroiled in scandal. Pair that with hopefully a sustained broad-based backlash to what is being done to us, and, fingers crossed, our lifting the cup, and maybe it could be enough to generate calls for new leadership in MLS.

Hopefully, it wouldn't be a case of better the devil you know, but I know I would be thrilled at being part of an MLS without Garber. I'm just not sure I could stomach it anymore so long as he's in charge of Metrics League Soccer.

Jaybir - I  witnessed something several years back (a number of you may have as well) it struck me as odd, but then I never gave it any more thought until recently -

Immediately after PSV acquired the Crew - AP made a brief appearance on the field. It was evidently one of his few visits to this city.

As he was walking off, there was a boisterous explosion of applause for him. And I swear, this is exactly what I saw and my impression -

He was initially startled. Had a frightened look on his face. Then he seemed to figure out the roar was positive and for him. Then he seemed legitimately puzzled for a moment, before sheepishly waving and walking off the field.

I thought to myself, "How odd. Wouldn't he expect us to welcome our new owner?"

He knew from the beginning. He's thinking, "Oh my gosh, these 'fly over' insects think I'm their friend."

And my apologies for the sheep reference.

coachchris - I dunno, Bill, I was thinking "Columbus Revenge" had a cool ring to it, a USL team dressed all in black (black/charcoal numbers as well), whose main purpose would be to eliminate MLS teams from the Open Cup.

Coupe - "This club, and any sports franchise for that matter, should be a sacred community asset. That is how we're going to treat the Crew," he said. "Our goal will be to take the Crew to be one of the standard bearers in the league." (Anthony Precourt)

TKyle - Technicality: Prec***t didn’t specify *for which* community the club is a sacred asset.

This whole thing makes me want to vomit.

Crew2112 - Precourt has never owned a business. He simply inherited a large trust fund. He has no clue how to sell anything or fill out paperwork, much less make relationships. I’m sure he does see it as personal. He waltzed into Columbus willing to give it a try (if only for a little while). He then realized the local community didn’t like him.
This whole episode seems more like he’s a spoiled kid that is taking the ball home because someone made fun of him. There are no “smart” business decisions being made. That is why so many people are confused about this.

jairadballerina - Do you think Austin is going to be able to meet his demands of a "Urban Core" stadium? Any chance Austin City Council tells him to take a hike or only offers him sites outside what he could call downtown?

crewfan-in-columus - They've already moved those goalposts from "Downtown" to "Urban Core" and now to "Potentially East Austin".

CrewV Man - And did anyone see Austin's most recent idea for a stadium site, Roy Guerrero Park. It is out of the downtown area and would destroy a lovely park. So much for downtown stadiums.

Some fan made Save the Crew items

Laurel and Hardy

Don Garber and the Beclowning of MLS

(by Bill Archer bigsoccer.com 11-20-17)

Nothing says "Major, legitimate, world class sports league" like a nationally televised semi-final playoff game where everyone knows that the owner of one of the contenders - along with the commissioner of the league itself - is hoping his team loses. Nothing even remotely like this has happened since Rachel Phelps owned the Cleveland Indians.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Don Garber, who has screwed the pooch so badly in all of this that they're going to start playing soulful Sarah McLaughlin ballads whenever his face appears on screen.

As for Fratboy McTrustfund, the man who, according to the Columbus Dispatch, tried to get the statue of Lamar Hunt removed from the plaza in front of the stadium, his unbelievably creepy hatchet man Dave Greeley emailed someone he thought was MLS communications gerbil Dan Courtemanche just prior to the Halloween game in Mapfre vs. NYCFC that "AP" had told him he would "never set foot in Columbus again".

However, Greeley subsequently told Fratboy that if he didn't show up for his own team's playoff game that his pretense of "even handedness" between CBus and Austin would collapse and everyone would see that the whole "just exploring our options" meme was nothing but a lie.

So "AP" went to the game, heard thousands of people lustily cursing his miserable ass for 90 minutes and, between that and having to watch the team he wanted so badly to see get crushed post a stunning 4-1 victory over a very good NYCFC side, he didn't seem to be having a very good time.

The question now is, will he be back on Tuesday to spend a few more hours in the city he has avoided like genital herpes for the last four years - but which he claims he is "open minded" about - or will he finally admit what everybody knows and he might as well stop lying about.

Either way, Precourt has to take second chair on the Liars Club dais to the man whose lips barely move when Fratboy speaks: "Call Me Soccer Don, That's, Like, So Cool" Garber.

Now I'm sure that you've read that the big problem in Columbus is attendance. It's being pushed behind the scenes every chance they get by the scurrying media peons at MLS as they feed simpleminded stooges like Taylor Twellman his talking points.

As an example, they point out that the Halloween playoff game in CBus only drew 14,000 people. Can you imagine? A playoff game. Just goes to show you.

Well, like they say, you can take your pick who to believe: them or your own lying eyes.

Here, for comparison sake, is the playoff game in Houston the previous night; MLS tells us that there were 15,600 people in attendance:

And here's "14,000" in Mapfre 24 hours later:

Now some people have suggested that they got the number - which not a single player, former player, journalist, fan or anyone who's ever set foot in the place agrees is even close to accurate (one player has said they all thought it looked like "a sellout") - by taking a turnstile count at kickoff since, unbeknownst to anyone, the "management" decided at the last minute that everyone entering the building had to be individually patted down and no, I'm not going to speculate as to why.

As a result, hundreds of fans were still waiting patiently in line to get a farewell crotch squeeze from PSV when the game kicked off.

Now in truth everybody knows that MLS lies about attendance. It's as traditional in The Soccer Don's league as terrible officiating. It's just that normally they OVERstate the turnstile count. In this case, breaking new frontiers of MLS lying, they've clearly UNDERstated it, either by simply making up a low number or by manipulating the timing of the count to suit themselves.

I only mention this because, as far as anyone can tell, Tuesday night's match is sold out. Has been for a week now. Go over to Ticketmaster and see for yourself.

Normally, the league and the team can't wait to issue releases proudly trumpeting a quick sellout, and in fact that's exactly what happened with the evenings' other game, in Houston.

But oddly, even though the game has been sold out for a week now, they've made no announcement at all regarding the game in Columbus. Only a very few people have been cynical enough to wonder out loud whether PSV is holding back a couple blocks of tickets so they can again screw with the narrative but I'd prefer not to think that.

Still, there's something else very puzzling going on:

Those of you who've been to Mapfre/Crew Stadium for big events (Crew Stadium: good enough for 3 national team games and an MLS Cup in the past 2 years but not good enough for "Frat Tony") know that when the regular seats sell out they put bleachers on the stage at the north end and on the patio to the south, letting them sell another 2500 or so seats. They've done it many times in the past.

But for this game they have not done so and refuse to say why, but it's not hard to figure out: setting attendance records at Mapfre does not exactly fit the narrative. You might think that the opportunity to pocket another $250,000 or so from the match would be of interest to a team supposedly struggling to turn a profit, but you'd apparently be wrong.

As long as we're discussing attendance, let's look at something that Andy Loughnane, the Crews's President of Business Operations, told a writer from Business Journal about a year ago:

“We set attendance records, both sellouts and overall season tickets and overall season attendance records, (in) 2014, ‘15 and ‘16."

Wait. What?

But MLS keeps saying that attendance has been cratering, nobody was showing up and the players were getting lonely out there on game day, proving that Columbus "won't support" the team.

Actually, attendance did in fact go down this year, but the primary reason is that MLS and PSV arranged for it to happen that way.

The details are all located here, and it's eye opening to say the least; the team and the league quite clearly conspired to tamp down attendance.

One recent Crew player, who still has numerous front office ties, says that he knows "for a fact" that the team literally "zeroed out" the marketing budget, something any resident of Columbus already knew. No TV, no print, no billboards, no display ads, nothing at all.

It was so bad that a local outdoor advertising company actually created billboards promoting the Crew playoff run on their own because the team wouldn't do it.

Why, if you didn't know better you'd swear that PSV didn't WANT to sell tickets in 2017. Why would that be I wonder.

By now you've probably heard about the meeting in New York last week when the top political and business leaders from Columbus Ohio were finally granted an audience with Don 'Sir Lies A Lot' Garber and his organ grinder's monkey of a BFF, Anthony "Fratboy" Precourt.

Basically, the guys from Columbus had some serious offers to make - downtown stadium sites, millions in corporate sponsorships and an offer to purchase the Crew either in part or in whole among them.

They started the meeting by telling Garber and Precourt that they are committed to doing what it takes to keep the Crew in Columbus and, on that basis, asked them what was necessary to make that happen.

They got no answer.

Instead, displaying an attitude which Grant Wahl rightly characterized as "outrageous", MLS/PSV told them that they should just make an offer. Their view was that Columbus owed them something. This is what Precourt characterized, in a statement which the MLS comm shop released (under a PSV letterhead) before the Columbus contingent cleared the front desk on the way out, as "being willing to listen".

The meeting lasted all of 20 minutes.

Garber and Precourt didn't want this meeting to begin with. They thought they had this whole relocation thing pretty well figured out and when all hell broke loose they didn't know what to do, although one of the options they're NOT considering at the moment is "Not move the Crew to Austin Texas where they average 16 days a year over 100 degrees F.

It's like Qatar without the slaves.

Mostly, Don figures he has the cards, no one can stop him; Seattle majority owner Joe Roth told a supporters meeting that "it's not an owners decision" and "the Sounders have nothing to do with it". In other words, Don and his Monkey have all the authority they need to do whatever they want and what they want is to move MLS' original team to Austin and screw anybody who doesn't like it.

A lot of people are saying the secret here is that if MLS can do this to Columbus they can do it to anyone. It says here that's exactly the lesson Garber wants everyone to take away from this. Do as he says, don't tick him off, or you'll get the same.

Welcome to MLS 4.0: It's Don's league now.

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http://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/don-garber-and-the-beclowning-of-mls.2078908/

NYC FC logo

2015 - present

The Most Underrated Soccer City in America

Real Salt Lake-backed women's pro team designed to be community-driven franchise

(by Sean Walker ksl.com 11-16-17)

When Jennifer Rockwood first arrived in Utah to lead the club version of what would eventually become the BYU women’s soccer team, girls soccer in Utah didn’t even exist at the high school level.

Fast forward to 2017, and the state boasts six Division I college teams, two Division II teams, the two-time top-ranked team in the nation by USA Today HS Sports, and hundreds of thriving club teams. As of Thursday, Utah boasts a top-flight professional women’s team in the National Women’s Soccer League, which Rockwood and her team were present to witness as Real Salt Lake owner Dell Loy Hansen formally introduced the new club to more than 100 fans, supporters, coaches, administrators and media at a press conference at Rio Tinto Stadium. “This is a huge announcement and we are so excited to have our sport that we love so much at the next level,” said Rockwood, who has coached 22 All-Americans and seven MAC Hermann Trophy award nominees. “There will be a bunch of amazing players and role models for young kids, the same that we try to do at BYU. But this takes it to a whole new level.

"Now my girls have more of a dream to play at the next level.”

The excitement came from within the RSL organization, too. "It's been a dream of mine for seven years," Hansen said. "When I got to RSL … I was much more versed in women's soccer than the men's game. It always felt like we needed fairness. We needed to make sure that we got a pro franchise here in Utah, and we moved very quickly." Thursday’s announcement was brought by a beaming Hansen sitting next to other RSL club administrators, like general manager Craig Waibel, chief business operator Andy Carroll and political luminaries like Utah Gov. Gary Herbert and outgoing Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan.

But the biggest impact of the new team will be felt in the community of women’s soccer in Utah, Hansen said.

“To me, this will be their rallying point,” said the Cache Valley native, who has seven daughters. “If you are a man, you can watch the Utes or BYU football or drag races — but I think that for a lot of women, this will be their epicenter. I don’t think it takes a lot of research to think that we need that rallying point in Utah.” NWSL managing director Amanda Duffy came to the league from her previous post with Louisville City FC in the second-division United Soccer League, and she’s seen success from smaller-to-mid-market clubs like Portland, Seattle and New Jersey-based Sky Blue FC. “The community really rallied behind that team (in Louisville), and supports it in a unique way. It’s a community-driven team, and that’s what I see happening here,” Duffy said.

“It’s the community, and having that support behind this women’s team in a way that I think is going to be unique and special and these players and for the league as a whole.”

The new club, whose name, crest and colors will be announced soon, will play its inaugural season at Rio Tinto Stadium in time for the first kick of the 2017 NWSL season. RSL will inherit the club currently known as FC Kansas City, which has been involved in numerous ownership disputes since winning back-to-back NWSL championships in 2014 and 2015. Neither RSL officials nor Duffy would confirm if the club was relocating from Kansas City, folding an existing franchise while adding another one, or some combination of the two. But they did say the NWSL’s 2018 season would begin play with 10 teams across all four time zones — the same number as played in 2017.

“Kansas City is an ongoing conversation that is separate from this,” Duffy told KSL.com.

“We’re continuing to work with that ownership to discuss their status and plans for the future in NWSL. We didn’t want to take anything away from RSL and the wonderful opportunity it is for our league.”

Multiple sources confirmed to KSL.com that the new team will take Kansas City’s spot in the league, though the exact mechanism whereby the move will be made is yet to be determined.

Real Salt Lake becomes the fourth MLS team to back an NWSL program, joining the Portland Timbers, Houston Dynamo and Orlando City SC. The backing from the MLS contingent of NWSL was crucial in getting a deal done for Salt Lake in just 15 days. Just as important was the voice of approval from an unlikely source, at least among RSL fan circles — Timbers owner Merritt Paulson, who also owns the Portland Thorns FC.

“The MLS owners that we have were able to recognize Dell Loy and his team, and they spent a lot of time with Merritt and the group in Portland,” Duffy said.

“Who better to learn from than those who are doing it the right way?”

Waibel admitted that the club’s plan to add a professional women’s franchise was always in the cards since the day he was named club technical director, and later general manager. But he credited Hansen for making the dream a reality so fast — two weeks later, and at least two years ahead of schedule.

“This was always part of the plan,” Waibel said.

“We’re a few years early, but that’s an awesome problem to have. It’s a great issue to deal with when your owner has the ambition that Dell Loy does.” With Division I programs from Provo to Logan, and college soccer programs ranging from St. George to Ephraim and everywhere in between, Utah seems a natural fit for professional women’s soccer. And it gives the burgeoning community an added level of motivation.

“When I was growing up, people would ask me what I wanted to do and I would always say I wanted to be a professional soccer player,” said BYU defender Taylor Campbell Isom, who will enter the NWSL draft in January. “The fact that there was no league was sad to me. But Amanda has done a great job of sustaining this national league, and the fact that my dream is now within my grasp is very exciting.”

Waibel said the team will strive to ingrain itself in the local community, even holding local tryouts for potential players in the organization. RSL’s semipro outfit Real Salt Lake Women will also be involved, though likely as a reserve team or feeder organization for the NWSL club.

The league has not made a formal decision about FC Kansas City, but one source confirmed that the players will likely be given the option of playing in Salt Lake City under the new franchise. Among Kansas City’s roster are U.S. internationals Sydney Leroux Dwyer, Becky Sauerbrunn and Amy Rodriguez. Among the other stars of the league are Houston’s Kealia Ohai, who prepped at Alta High School in Sandy, and former BYU star Ashley Hatch, the 2017 NWSL rookie of the year at North Carolina. The new team could try to find a permanent home of its own, or it could stay at Rio Tinto Stadium — especially with RSL’s second-division side Real Monarchs set to move into the club’s brand-new, multimillion-dollar training facility in Herriman. And if Hansen has his way, Rio Tinto Stadium will fill up with fans of the “other” soccer team in Sandy.

“We’re not going to build a small stadium because they are going to fill a big stadium,” Hansen said.

“We’ve got four months, and we want everyone to recruit their friends. When we open in April, I want to show that we have the loudest, rowdiest team (in NWSL). “We’ll be successful. I don’t even blink at that.”

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https://www.ksl.com/?sid=46199780&nid=857&title=real-salt-lake-backed-womens-pro-team-designed-to-be-community-driven-franchise

North Carolina FC leaves NASL and joins USL

The North American Soccer League (NASL) released the following statement after North Carolina FC's announcement regarding its departure from the league:

The NASL confirms that North Carolina FC has withdrawn from the league. The NASL is proud to have supported professional soccer in North Carolina for five years prior to Steve Malik’s acquisition of the club at the end of the 2015 season. North Carolina FC’s departure from NASL represents the damage caused by the U.S. Soccer Federation’s decision to revoke NASL’s Division II sanctioning for the 2018 Season. The NASL remains committed to pursuing its legal claims to ensure that the future of its players, fans, and clubs remains bright. 

Some BigSoccer posts after news of the meeting in NYC did not go well

Minnman - Can't say I'm shocked. ******** you, MLS. I'll celebrate and cheer on this team for as long as this playoff run takes us. But those mother********ers Garber and Precourt can go to hell. Assuming there's not a miraculous turnaround sometime this winter, I'll be done with the league once this season ends. And, by association, I doubt I'll have too much time for US Soccer. Life's too short for this bullshit. Oddly enough, the blatantly dishonest and corrupt manner in which the league and Precourt have managed this makes the situation hurt a bit less. If this is the future of soccer in America, I don't really want to be a part of it.

Sagz - At one point I thought US soccer would be different

KHT Crew - I said this elsewhere...
How are you showing a “Clear Commitment to Columbus” when you have an effin’ clause to move the team to Austin, TX put in the sales contract?

my kids soccer dad - I have reached this conclusion as well. Our family has supported the Crew specifically, and MLS and US Soccer at every turn in the hope of this country having its own successful soccer culture. As supporters and players, this is the s@!# they pull. Well, they seem completely oblivious that was the only real selling point of their league. We foolishly thought it was "ours." If I want to follow soccer as a neutral observer, I have far better quality options from Europe that are easier to follow than "our" league.

I will pull for the Crew to win the cup, but if Precourt moves them, I am done with MLS and its sibling from hell, US Soccer.

Lichte for Life - MLS is dead to me, long live the Crew

Psycho Derek - If there was promotion/relegation it would be an option to get back to where we were Aka afc Wimbledon

TKyle - This is the despair talking: If we lose the Crew in ML$, and wind up with a Crew USL team (which would probably be Division II, considering the NASL is going down), I would consider supporting it. Hell, there are going to be a LOT of disappointed cities--12 fighting for 4 spots? We'd be in the company of Charlotte, St Louis, Phoenix, Indy, San Diego, and others. Yeah, not Div I, but (perhaps thankfully) not ML$.
It'd be like the Clippers.
AND maybe we'd actually TRY to win the US Open Cup!
(edited to add the Open Cup thing--TK)

svc641 - It doesn't appear Precourt and Garber have anything in Austin. They have no stadium in Austin, no agreement with Austin, there aren't fans in Austin clamoring for an MLS team, and they can barely get anyone to come out for a rally to bring the team there without offering Coors. After tonight's meeting and Columbus' statement, they don't even have any leverage here anymore. Are Precourt and Garber dumb enough to have painted themselves in a corner? What the hell is the end game for them?

I think the Columbus did the right thing in walking away immediately. The move left Precourt and the league without options except to go to a city that has nothing to offer them and has every single problem they complain Columbus has. With Austin they are getting exactly what they have now, it's just going to be more expensive and more of a headache for them. It's a classic cutting of the nose to spite the face.

WhiteHartShame - As far as I understood Precou*t's purchase agreement with the Hunt's required him to keep The Crew in Columbus for 10 years, with one exception, if he wanted to relocate to Austin. How can he "go wherever he wants", am I missing something here? That is why the result of today's meeting put the snake in a corner.

RunSudoSane - I will simply point to one bit of evidence in support of the go anywhere idea. IT"S MLS!

Bill Archer - I agree completely.

This is the town where Schelotto played. McBride. Friedel. Clark. Lapper. John. Hejduk. Mais. Moreno. Hesmer. Oh hell, you can fill in the list yourself. I wouldn't know where to stop.

So we're supposed to replace that incredible legacy with a bunch of undrafted college kids and nondescript Caribbean hangers-on? Find a few Venezuelan league castoffs? Maybe pickup the occasional arthritic Italian 40 year old who blew all his money on hookers and blow and needs a playcheck?

Trot on down to the old stadium to watch our team play the freakin Carolina Railhawks or the Selma Slaveholders?

I don't know about you but there's no way you give me a pat on the head (or a kick in the ass) and tell me to go sit at the kiddie table. I'd rather just skip dinner, thanks.

Bill Archer - I was going to back off on this topic and let it steep awhile but from many of the reactions I'm seeing everywhere - and I'm sorry but I just don't do Twitter after that ugly slime job the guys in Toronto did on me - but please indulge and old guy one more time here:

Just like you, I'm sorry that the principals at the meeting yesterday didn't burst open the doors afterwards, huge smiles all around, hugging and backslapping and singing each other's praises while Don Douchebag popped champagne in the background amid the announcement of a new local owner, a $250 million downtown stadium and $10 million in new sponsorships.

But that wasn't ever going to happen. You know that, I know that. It wasn't even remotely possible.

This is a war, people. A long hard slog. There are going to be ups and down, good days and bad. And it's not going to be over in a week or a month and it isn't going to be settled in one four hour sit down.

So pick yourselves up, get your shit back together after the disappointment of this not being resolved in our favor in a couple hours.

The bottom line is that you're going to need huge brass balls, a thick skin and a shitload of determination and patience going forward. Just don't overreact to either the good or the bad news. Just keep on keeping on.

Go Crew.

Smithsoccer1721 - Tuesday’s game feels like the biggest in the Crew’s history. Maybe league history??

Penn FC