FC Gold Pride folding

Discussion in 'FC Gold Pride' started by NorthbankHighbury, Oct 31, 2010.

  1. law10

    law10 Member+

    Dec 26, 2007
    Will any creditors take a hit?
     
  2. athletics68

    athletics68 Member+

    Dec 12, 2006
    San Diego & San Jose
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    They announced they lost close to 6 million over two years. I'm sure alot of people are taking a hit on this... which makes me wonder how much the league as a whole has cost investors already.
     
  3. SalsaVerdeFC

    SalsaVerdeFC New Member

    Nov 2, 2010
    Bay Area
    Club:
    FC Gold Pride
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  4. athletics68

    athletics68 Member+

    Dec 12, 2006
    San Diego & San Jose
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  5. law10

    law10 Member+

    Dec 26, 2007
    I have no idea but I think who has lost money on FCGP and how much is relevant to assessing the entire scenario.
     
  6. Eleanor

    Eleanor New Member

    Oct 4, 2008
    I am sad to see the team go for a lot of reasons: The coach, the enthusiasm of the players and front office, the health of the rest of the league.

    I had season tickets in year one (my favorite players went elsewhere in year two, but I still attended several games) and had bought tickets again for year three.

    Thank you Gold Pride for the effort and, to the owners, the investment.
     
  7. basebalfan

    basebalfan New Member

    Nov 20, 2010
    My wife and I attended a few Gold Pride games, thought the whole operation was run very professionally, and were glad to see the hundreds of (in-shape) girls of all ages, from youth teams, cavorting on the field, and looking up to their heroines...., experiences never to forget.
    I have two points: Some bloggers suggested that Marta is to blame for the downfall, 'she took the money and ran'. But they say this about A-Rod, of the Yankees, and the NBA stars: No matter their megamillion salaries, no one forced the owners to pay that much. The salaries are factored into the budget before the season, and the owners are good businessmen or they wouldn't BE owners. If Marta is best in the world, and brings championships wherever she goes, I'm sure she's worth whatever she gets. It seemed every other fan in the stands wore a "Marta" jersey.
    Second, GP says their attendance was dropping. This may have been reversed if they could have hung in there, improved their outreach, etc. But a year ago I spoke with the spouse of an important GP official who told me the team would be okay if they could maintain a 3000 average attendance. By my calculations, this year they averaged 3158, which seems on a par with the rest of the league.
    So there may be other factors which led to their downfall, I don't know.
     
  8. chapulincolorado

    Jul 14, 1999
    McAllen, Texas
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Nat'l Team:
    Mexico
    Sponsors and attendance. Based on the GM interview, sponsorships were not developing and attendance didn't seem like a long term gain. Based on the championship not selling out they took it as one of the signs of a future not boding well.
     
  9. REALfootballRulez

    May 25, 2007
    Club:
    Saint Louis Athletica
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Has there been any update on this? Is FCGP moving to Southern Cali?

    What's with the NeSmith family?? I thought they were committed and they just said earlier in the year that they have plenty of money.

    Why are they now suddenly refusing to put money up when just a few months ago they were passionately supporting FCGP??
     
  10. REALfootballRulez

    May 25, 2007
    Club:
    Saint Louis Athletica
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    They said 5,228 was the attendance for the final and I thoguht capacity at Pioneer stadium is 5,200 so isn't that a sellout?
     
  11. REALfootballRulez

    May 25, 2007
    Club:
    Saint Louis Athletica
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    But the owners KNEW coming in they'd lose money and I thought they all agreed to a 5 year commitment to stick it out before bailing but obviously that's not true.
     
  12. SalsaVerdeFC

    SalsaVerdeFC New Member

    Nov 2, 2010
    Bay Area
    Club:
    FC Gold Pride
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    The update are all the reports from this week: FCGP disbanded/folded, all players are free agents. No SoCal move.
     
  13. REALfootballRulez

    May 25, 2007
    Club:
    Saint Louis Athletica
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Why did the NeSmith family suddenly bail on the team when they were so committed earlier in the year and said they had plenty of money?
     
  14. SalsaVerdeFC

    SalsaVerdeFC New Member

    Nov 2, 2010
    Bay Area
    Club:
    FC Gold Pride
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    No idea.
     
  15. athletics68

    athletics68 Member+

    Dec 12, 2006
    San Diego & San Jose
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    They knew they'd lose money, but no one expected they'd be losing as much as they are. WPS has been a dismal failure in that regard, they seriously underestimated their potential losses and oversold themselves not unlike WUSA just to a lesser degree. I'm sure they had thought they'd be in it 5 years according to the original projected losses.
     
  16. chapulincolorado

    Jul 14, 1999
    McAllen, Texas
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Nat'l Team:
    Mexico
    I am just curious though. IIRC, the initial attendance average that they hoped for did not seem too overblown. I am assuming that just didn't see any change at all in the positive numbers, i.e., have cash loses for five years, but see slowly after Year 5.
     
  17. REALfootballRulez

    May 25, 2007
    Club:
    Saint Louis Athletica
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    It costs about 1.5 to 2 million bucks per year to run a WPS team. These owners are supposed to be liquid enough to handle those losses for 5 years.

    If you deduct team revenues then it may have cost closer to around a million dollars to run some teams which is definitely doable.
     
  18. Cville K C

    Cville K C Member

    Nov 3, 2008
    Collinsville, IL
    Club:
    Saint Louis Athletica
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Sorry that I have been so slow to post here.

    My heart goes out to the fans and everyone associated with FC Gold Pride. Having been through the same last season as an Athletica fan, I had hoped that Saint Louis would be the last city/franchise to go through that. Unfortunately, it has happened again.

    In the two years they were in the league, FC Gold Pride gave us a lot of good memories and highlights.

    To those who worked with Gold Pride or were part of the organization, in spite of a very sad ending, you have a lot to be proud for what was accomplished, especially the 2010 championship season. I wish it could have lasted.
     
  19. athletics68

    athletics68 Member+

    Dec 12, 2006
    San Diego & San Jose
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    No WPS originally expected attendance to be around where it was for WUSA and planned accordingly (approximately 6k a game as I recall). And the lower than expected numbers were followed up with no improvement as you pointed out.
     
  20. REALfootballRulez

    May 25, 2007
    Club:
    Saint Louis Athletica
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    No, they always said 4K to 6K a game and I think most of us knew it would be closer to 4K.

    The biggest reason for the decline in interest in women's soccer is the long hiatus between WUSA and WPS. They averaged 6K to 7K fans a game in WUSA so obviously a lot of fans never came back.

    There should've been a much shorter gap between the 2 leagues like a year or 2 at the most.
     
  21. J Santos

    J Santos Member

    Oct 3, 2007
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  22. casocrfan

    casocrfan Member

    Nov 25, 2004
    San Francisco
    A very interesting and insightful interview. If accurate, NeSmith's responses confirm what many people have said or thought... some bad decisions led to this team's demise mainly due to the inexperience of the owners/front office.

    Buying a championship doesn't build fan loyalty. The Florida Marlins tried this in the 90s and it didn't translate into putting fans into seats. The tone of the interview seems to be "we went out and bought the best players and made a won a championship and nobody cared, so we folded." Building a fan base and fan loyalty goes beyond just winning championships.
     
  23. rtiemens

    rtiemens Member

    Aug 16, 1999
    Virginia
    I don't know, if there is anything a team wants to do to build its fan base is put a quality product on the field. It seems to me the NeSmiths put their best foot forward in that respect last season. The team played, by far, the most attractive soccer in the league. If they had been frugal and fielded a mediocre team to try to "build a fan base over the long haul" its likely that they would be in the very same position they are now. Yes, marketing and other mistakes were made, but they also did a lot of things right, they worked hard to build ties in the community but in the end they found there was no market for their product and there is no prospect for one. That is just the way it is sometimes, and every indication is that is the way it was this time.
     
  24. casocrfan

    casocrfan Member

    Nov 25, 2004
    San Francisco
    The misstep, in my opinion, is trying to do it all in a season. You don't build fan loyalty in one year - no matter how good you are - you build it over years as fans come to love certain players, etc.

    Many people commented on the Marta purchase at the time and said it isn't worth it if the team folds. In the interview the owner admits the team had to cover most of her contract. For me, watching Marta for one season but then losing the local team wasn't worth it.
     
  25. karyn@wps

    karyn@wps New Member

    Mar 3, 2009
    Club:
    --other--
    I just wanted to thank all of the FC Gold Pride fans for your fandom. I attended many of FCGP's games during the past two years and your passion was always inspiring. It's sad to see FCGP go, but I hope all of us can still find ways to support women's soccer in the Bay Area whether it's cheering on the local college teams, the new WPSL team - Bay Area Sol, local club teams, etc.

    Also, I wanted to give everyone a heads up that the FC Gold Pride website is scheduled to come down tomorrow (Tuesday, Nov. 30.).
     

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