Right now Seamus and his group are in London for the Olympics - they want ot set up a meeting with us in the next few weeks when they are back from that. So I imagine while the Olympics is going on it will be somewhat quite - unless they can finalize the deal with Hofstra. Im also very curious to hear about their plans for the youth going forward.
Agree Cant wait for more announcements……………..just need to get the Olympics out the way now J Particularly looking forward to the Head Coach announcement as I guess that is when we will start to see some movement in terms of the actual team – names, recruitment, try outs, etc The Youth situation is interesting As you know, their Academy has just been scrapped (returned to BWG) and at that announcement, it was made very clear (by Gio), that there would be no focus on ANY Academy until their MLS status was sorted However, I guess things have moved on from there The biggest issue is the timing, over the next few months All of the Academies will be recruiting during July/ early August, as their season now runs from August straight through to June – a full 10 month Academy season; so most of the good players will be snapped up during that period With a team officially playing in NASL in May, recruitment will need to start soon for the first team and will be interesting to see where the majority of the squad will come from? Other NASL teams Their earlier U23 team MLS players without a team? Existing Academy players Possibly a few Academy players from the Cosmos U18 squad (though now disbanded) Some College players? I don’t know………only guessing! A question on other NASL teams – do they have Youth Acadamies? If you don’t have an academy (or “reserve team”), what happens when a player gets injured and needs time to come back – how does that work? Either way, just looking forward to more announcements and hopefully some momentum picking up again
we need to build from the bottom up. This means investing in a strong youth academy. we shouldn't spend more than we can take in. And in the early years I think the wage budget should remain conservative until the club has a realistic idea on what the finances will be.
Bump. I can't believe the Cosmos fans have fell silent for three whole days. Just wanted to keep this forum fresh. I thought the Drogba to Long Island deal would have been announced. Oh, well, there is always next week.
The Cosmos will no doubt have to build from youth. Maybe the Pele influence might allow a few of the brightest Brazilian youth prospects to come. The first job is to announce a coach and didn't O'Brian say he wanted big names? If its a big name then it must be somebody from Europe. Big money and a New York base would be a great project for any coach!
If the cosmos can finish the season in the toP half of the nasl and get through a few rounds of the open cup I think that's pretty good for a first year team , now what will be key to there success is butts in the seats. 5k is a good start to have by the time they move up to mls of the FO can get 8-10k that's a good platform. What I hope they do is take the rail hawks approach and not sell there home stand rights away to mls sides during the open cup.
The New New York Cosmos 3.0's under Seamus Obrien need to strengthen their connections to Gottschee if they are serious about youth.
I know that under the current Cosmos set up, the relationship with BWG was not good towards the end A number of factors contributed; Lack of on time payments to BWG Coaching style – communication, motivation, etc Some of the Cosmos coaches Cosmos taking players to Germany who were not even Cosmos players (resulting in fines being dished out) And that is off the top of my head So not too sure that BWG will be the option for a youth set up, accepting that Cosmos 3 are a new entity If the relationship can be rebuilt, then great……………but from what I know, that would be a big challenge
if i could clap at your sanity in approval i would. i think the Cosmos are a great brand, if nothing else positive can be said about the past two years the marketing has been hip and pretty effective (i mean especially since there was no team to promote) ... the MLS would be lucky to have it as part of the league and even that sort of marketing savvy would be a good addition to MLS. but this delusion that both some fans and O'Brien seem to have about being NASL and not wanting to join the big bad evil MLS and all of its rules is just patently stupid. MLS is going to put a second team in NYC proper. they are pretty close to a stadium deal in Queens. when that is approved there are only two choices for those who love the Cosmos brand .... it is either going to be the name of MLS20/NYC2 or it is going to fade into oblivion as a LI D2 also ran. those are the only two choices. an NASL team is never going to move to NYC proper, get a stadium built while there is already an MLS team in Queens ... and an NASL team in LI has no future beyond being a nice and hopefully break even lower division team. so those are the choices ... either NYC2/MLS2o is called the Cosmos or the Cosmos become essentially permanent D2 LI also rans. (not that there is anything wrong with a LI D2 also ran). notice i haven't mentioned that this particular ownership group must make the successful bid to get the MLS team ... because they might not (and if the other level of owners, for the most part, in the league is any indication they don't seem very likely to do so) at which point their only option is to sell the brand rights to whoever does get the MLS2o rights because, as pointed out above once there is a MLS20/NYC2 team it will be the dominate force in NYC proper professional soccer and obliterate any other competition ... which would then make the Cosmos brand worthless to its current owners. and for those who keep trying to parse O'Brien's words in some way that wasn't directly derogatory to MLS just stop. his first initial statement was very "we want to get to mls and they don't mind us joining NASL blah blah" ... but that 2nd interview and subsequent interview where he spews out about not wanting to relinquish control of the Brand, wanting to own the player rights and wanting to own the media rights is IN DIRECT OPPOSITION TO THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF MLS. i like most MLS fans hope that they raise the cap, that they stop having any say in player transactions by clubs other than as a clearinghouse, and other small tweaks .. but they are never, in our lifetimes going to abandon the fundamental principles of the single entity league which is collective ownership .. you don't own a "team" ... you own 1/20th of the league and you happen to operate and get the profits from one of it's 20 branch offices. that is just the way it is for at least a few decades. his statements about those 3 principles being exactly what the Cosmos under his leadership does not want to do means ipso facto he does not want to be in MLS ... now he could be lying or posturing but the words a spoken are a direct refutation of the idea that the Cosmos belong in MLS now or ever. i personally think he is lying/posturing/and generally blowing smoke but MLS and its very powerful and very rich owners are not really that keen on blowhards as a rule. the other part of the subsequent statements are also easy to interpret as "we want better for the Cosmos than to be in the measley MLS". the Cosmos TV (back to individual global broadcasting rights) and "global competition" and "competing at the highest level" and not specifically naming MLS means he thinks the Cosmos should and will be in some sort of world super league as the representative of the US/Canada. which couldn't be more delusional if it tried. first of all the entirety of the USSF and every rich and influential soccer person in the US is part of or intimately tied to MLS ... there is no way that O'Brien and his saudi/asian backers has the clout to compete with much less beat out these soccer powers for a spot in any "Global League" or on anything else. the point is the train has left the station ... MLS is the top league in the US ... now and for the next 50 years. NASL is becoming a very nice D2 and how they are improving individually as teams and as a league is good and good for US Soccer. but they are NEVER going to compete as a league with MLS much less overtake them (a few US Open cup victories aside). so you have to choose which wagon to hitch your Cosmos hopes to ... the one that lets them be part of the best in US/Canadian soccer (whatever the rules) by being the name of the MLS20/NYC2 team or the one that sees them become a permanent D2 LI team that while a nice little local pro soccer experience will always be 2nd fiddle to the MLS NYC2 team.
yes all this is probly true and O'Brien is probly just posturing, but for those potential team owners out there who don't like the MLS model the Cosmos and NASL are an opportunity to try to show there is another possibility for pro soccer in the USA. if the Cosmos had the financial backing and wanted to have a payroll of $5-10 million that's spent evenly rather than mostly on 3 players they could do it in NASL, not in MLS. if they wanted to sign independent contracts for TV or merchandise they couldn't do it in MLS. will it happen? unlikely. but it would be a lot of fun to watch...
what you seem to not understand is that it CAN'T happen. because in your fictitious situation, where Cosmos stays in NASL and spends $5-10M on payroll, keep their own brand and broadcasting rights and try to turn NASL into a competitor with MLS (with other like mined owners) you seem to forget that MLS isn't going to just stand by and cede the NYC market to the Cosmos. where would this NASL version of the Cosmos play? because MLS is getting a stadium built in NYC and once that is built the Cosmos can't get one built in NYC too ... so what, stay in LI then .... and how is that going to work out from a perception and fan support and sponsor stand point? who is going to cover, invest, give sponsorship dollars to a D2 team playing in LI while there is a shiny new MLS team in Queens playing in a shiny new stadium? the answer is nobody. you seem to be under the delusion that an MLS20/NYC2 and a NASL Cosmos can coexist on equal footing. they can't ... because either the MLS20/NYC2 team will be named Cosmos (with or without the current ownership attached) or MLS20/NYC2 is called NYCFC or whatever and goes ahead with its stadium in Queens and its place in the top flight with full national broadcasting coverage, national sponsors, total league support and competition against the likes of the Sounders, Galaxy and Red Bull with all of their stars and national press and local press coverage ... at which point who the hell is going to care about a D2 team out in LI called the Cosmos playing against FC Edmonton games only broadcast on webstreams with no national coverage or press or sponsors? and how long is that imbalance sustainable? and in the face of such overbalanced inequality how would such a LI based D2 Cosmos hope to catch up to and surpass a NYC2/MLS20 team and/or drag the NASL along to overtaking or equaling MLS? it isn't going to happen ... any thinking otherwise is simply foolish. for the Cosmos brand it is either MLS or irrelevance.
i'm not delusional. i said it was unlikely. it's not impossible. there are plenty of soccer-loving billionaires in the world. there are more in the Premier League every year, and now at PSG too. not to mention Russia and China etc... sooner or later one will get the notion that they want to try the USA, and the MLS model might not be that appealing to him. the Cosmos could play at Giants stadium, like in the old days... hell they might even sign Diego Maradona Jr.
what? how is a billionaire going to help? a billionaire isn't going to get a 2nd NYC sss built after MLS builds one in Queens. political support for one is a tough hurdle as it is ... political support for a 2nd is basically a non-starter no matter how much money. and that doesn't even take into account that the MLS owners (very rich and very connected individuals) would be actively working against them. so Giants stadium ... seriously? you know MLS tried that ... it failed. it is antithesis to the whole point of being a "NYC" club isn't it ... playing in NJ? and you get no revenue or venue control ... you are at the whims and mercy of an NFL team. how does that help grow your team to be as big as MLS with no stadium revenues? so the billionaire is just going to eat all of the losses for the team? eternal sugar daddy funding? okay, that doesn't solve the problem of who you play? maybe your sugar daddy throw billions at the Cosmos but who are they going to play? FC Edmonton? the RailHawks? is the billionaire sugar daddy going to fund the whole league so the competition and quality of the league is raised everywhere? or are we talking one billionaire sugar daddy per team? and who is going to pay attention? in the media? in the corporate sponsor world? when you are playing in a cavernous Giant NFL stadium (pun intended) with football lines who is going to cover that over an MLS team in Queens at a shiny SSS? especially if you are playing D2 dregs and the MLS team is playing ever increasingly talented D1 teams? and what corporate sponsors are going to hitch their wagon to the Cosmos Sugar Daddies and the 9 Sisters of The Poor? you are talking about a dozen nearly impossible, lets call them highly improable, things happening perfectly for this NASL Cosmos in D2 overtaking the MLS NYC2 team on a total team and league level? in my book that makes it impossible ... perhaps not in the strictest scientific sense of the word but in the true spirit of the word impossible's meaning nonetheless.
That is like saying it is not impossible that Scarlett Johansson in the next two hours will knock on my door and declare her eternal love for me. But let's say I am not planning on it and clearing my schedule. Where you are deluded is the premise that the NASL is a competitor to MLS. It is not. If it were, MLS would sink it like a rock. The NASL is barely our D2 league and their payrolls are around 400k a club. They do not have a salary cap because no club is stupid enough to over spend on talent. These clubs already lose money. Do you think they want to lose more? It is also a league that needs to find owners for a few of its clubs like Minnesota, Atlanta, and Carolina. Let's take care of that before before the Russian and Chinese billionaires come in, okay? One thing I will say is that the Cosmos did lose a lot of the bloom off their rose with this NYC stadium plan going forward. In a way they became irrelevant. All the attention and excitement is on NYC getting MLS #20, perhaps starting play as early as 2014. It puts the Cosmos in a precarious position. No one wants to hear any nonsense about their plans in the NASL and LI. They want to know if they are going to step up and become #20 before another group of rich people do. And if another group beats them, then the Cosmos either try to sell the name or quickly fold. There is no other choice. Something tells me the Cosmos group didn't plan on MLS getting this far with the stadium where they could be breaking ground in early 2013. The next year is going to be interesting.
the Cosmos will most likely be the 20th team. remember what happened when they tried to rename the Sounders the Rebel Alliance or whatever for MLS? didn't happen. there would be a big stink all over the internet if it's not Cosmos. but assuming it's not Cosmos, it's not necessarily the end for them. there are still several more major-league cities in the USA, and several of them are NASL cities. i assume you want to see the Strikers succeed? Miami-Ft. Lauderdale is potentially a great market. Atlanta and Carolina too. and Orlando? once MLS gets to 20 they're gonna hold off expansion for a while supposedly. but if the Cosmos do well in their first year on Long Island and NASL attendance continues to climb (it's up this year minus Montreal, even with the temporary field in Puerto Rico) then those markets in Miami and Atlanta will start to be more attractive. and the Vikings have a monopoly on MLS in Minnesota but don't seem that interested so far. but Minnesota was one of the strongest markets in the first NASL. perhaps the Minnesota Stars could look more attractive to a Russian or Chinese billionaire? 400k is a pittance to a billionaire. and in NASL they don't have to pay a $100 million entry fee. NASL is no competitor to MLS now, but by 2015 it's not out of the realm of possibility. and if i happened to meet Scarlett Johansson i think she'd probly like me
Since the announcement on July 12th, we've heard nothing from the Cosmos management. Is this because of MLS and the news about the NYC stadium? It's been I can't help but feel that the Cosmos management is already messing up a bit. The Cosmos have not kept up any momentum from their announcement that they were joinging the league. This is what PMI did so well for the SA Scorpions and continue to do with the recent stadium naming rights deal with Toyota. I said it before, but I thought they should have hired PMI to take over once they announced the team. I am looking forward to further announcements about coaches, GMs, stadiums, player tryouts and player signings. Even an announcment that they'll have an announcement would be good at this point. It's been about 49 days without anything from the team. Anybody closer to the area have a clue about what's going on in the Cosmos? Are they closer to announcing anything?
a) You know they'd get ripped if they announced they were going to have an announcement later, because, no, most wouldn't feel it would be good at this point. b) Jesus, you're desperate. The fact there is no news doesn't mean there's no team or no plans or no movement. It just means there's no news.
After last year's announcement of a PDL team that never happened, I can't blame him. Personally I'll believe that there will be an NASL Cosmos when they actually take the field. Until then it's just more empty promises of a return of the Cosmos.
Oh Kenn, I love reading your posts but I think you're reading a bit more into my post here. I honestly don't think they'd get ripped for saying we're going to make an major announcment next week or on some future date. I think people who are fans of the team would like to hear something. And more importantly, I'm not desperate. God knows, I'm not that! I happen to enjoy soccer a lot and that's it. I really enjoy D2 soccer for some reason. I want it to succeed regardless of what it's called. IMHO the Cosmos had an opportunity to keep the team in the news and they've wasted it. That is the point. 49 days without any news is a bad plan and they need to do better. As I've said in other posts, the Cosmos aren't guaranteed success just because they are the Cosmos. In addition, I would argue they need to make up for the Paul Kemsley re-launch where they were all style and no substance. I'm asking for substance. I think many of people have been impressed with what the Scorpions and PMI did in the lead up to their first season in the NASL. All I'm suggesting that the Cosmos try to do many of the same things. They kept the team in the news. They made reasons to have press releases. They built fan interest and excitement around the team. I don't think it's too much to ask that the Cosmos management live up to the best run team currently in the NASL. Maybe I'm wrong, but probably not.
Completely agree Why make such a big announcement coming on for 2 months now and then NOTHING That does not make any sense from a marketing, public interest and fan perspective Why announce something 2 months ago if you did not have any follow up announcements or plans to make? It would have been better to wait till they had more concrete news Yet again, they are looking like “all talk no action” IT IS ONLY 7 MONTHS TILL THE START OF THE SEASON!!!!! They need to come out soon with some announcements and get the recruitment process moving!! It would be good to get an announcement on a Head Coach/coaching team and at that point they can then announce how they will formulate their squad Is it going to be named players (would be VERY surprised) Ex College players Players from the disbanded U23/U18 squad (cause they do not have any academy now) Other “Free” NASL players looking for a team Other “Free” or Ex MLS Players They can then start the marketing campaign, once they know where they are going and how their team will be formed But time is tight – 7 months, with no management, no squad, unknown fan base (??) etc, etc But come on COSMOS – sort yourself out………………..yet again!!
Therefore, it is stupid to start a lower division club in any town where MLS is now. Those D2 boys in N. Virginia just don't know what fools they are.
those boys in N Va aren't claiming to want to be playing ream mardrid in some global league and have their own TV network? and yes, even as a minor league team i doubt they are going to succeed so near to DCU.
You're missing the long view. Can a club be denied access to the top flight due solely to its refusal to sell its rights? The Cosmos need not dominate the NY market. All they have to do is become financially stable, draw 10-15K fans per game, and win some D2 titles. That would give USSF the biggest headache it's ever had. What if the Cosmos say they want access to the top flight without selling their rights? What if MLS says no and USSF backs them up? That would make MLS into a cartel that bars the door to competition. The Cosmos' gambit is that in that situation the heat would come down on USSF from above. It matters not if the Cosmos' ultimate goal is to sell out to MLS. If they don't make this play then someday someone else will. Who controls soccer here, MLS or FIFA? It's a question that can be put off only so long as D2 remains weak. If the Cosmos are prepared to wait this thing out more than a decade then they could hold some powerful cards. If they're not the one's to do it then it will be someone else. What will NOT happen is MLS growing into the biggest league in the world and still holding the clout to demand a sale of rights in return for access to the top flight. That would make MLS the big dog on the block and FIFA their bitch. It's not about pro/rel. The question is, can you lock your own competition out of the top flight FOREVER? I think that if the Cosmos (or someone else) come to dominate D2 and push this angle aggressively that it really will lead to concessions from MLS. And so what if they don't get the stadium in Queens? Shoot for Brooklyn 2030. If soccer continues growing like everyone knows it will then there's easily room for a third club in NYC.