2012 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup preview/results discussion [R]

Long-term planning? figuring winning the USOC gets you into the CCL, so its worth overpaying to increase the chances of that happening to make the money back there?

Again, if you're not going to beat Atlanta, who's 0-4-4 and -8 goal differential IN THE NASL, do you deserve to be in the Champions League?

Seattle drew 10,017 10,163 and 15,866 to its three Champions League group stage games and 23,433 to its one quarterfinal leg in this most recent tournament. Are those numbers (and we don't know the revenue split in the CCL) worth paying a bad NASL team $150k to get?

Unless their evil plan is to buy up every USOC match where the coinflip doesn't go their way AND the semi AND the final, so they win the Open Cup, get in to the CCL, then they have to go through the whole tournament AND become the first US team to win it so they can go to Japan in December 2013 and play Al-Ahly. That's a pretty long view, isn't it? That's like arranging a marriage between your 5-year-old and the 6-year-old down the block because their progeny might grow up to be millionaires, isn't it?

That number would seem to be something less than 4,500, wouldn't it? I mean, averaging 4,085 at Starfire in the Open Cup tells me there aren't 10k people who prefer it to CLF, does that make sense?

Don't we hear about how CLF has the best atmosphere in American soccer? But not all of you lot up there prefer it?

Well, there's certainly that. Certainly, "because they just felt like it" is a valid reason anybody with money would do anything, and God bless 'em if they are brimming with cash. That's been a rarity in this sport in this country, and I don't begrudge them making a profit.

So "They can and they want to spare you from having to follow a Twitter feed, so here's $150k" is on this side and all the other stuff that actually makes sense is on the other side.

There is one thing, too....if Salt Lake did their deal with Minnesota after Seattle did theirs with Atlanta, now we have one more thing that Seattle can take credit for inventing.
















"I'm just keeding!"

Wow...that's a lot of coin, even for MLS. Guess they're scared of the last place team from a lower league...LOL.

From Atlanta's viewpoint, that's hard to turn down but they certainly flubbed the PR part with their fans. But then again, I've always been perplexed by whoever calls the shots for them. They built a new stadium next to probably the most traveled intersection in ATL (smart). However, they didn't quite finished everything....like bathrooms, locker rooms, paved parking, walkways to get you from the rough gravel parking lot down a steep hill to the stadium (dumb and somewhat dangerous). Not exactly a great fan experience. Then they dropped out of the league for a year. (kinda lost your momentum). As to what they're going to do with the cash, getting better players for this year is nice but next year, how are you going to pay their salary when the temporary cash is gone? If they do get an MLS friendly, the sooner they can get the details nailed down and start advertising, the better. Help people forget about giving away the keys to your house. At the end of the day, the USOC is the Holy Grail to lower league teams and their fans. It’ll be hard to tell how much they’ve permanently damaged their fan base. Making some short term cash might be a good business decision for 2012 but long term; you may have done irreparable harm. Lower league teams survive on being consistent, stable and reducing risk. Slowly build a fan base and avoid anything that might cause you to lose 1 fan.

Was the current ownership involved in building the stadium or was that Latham and the prior ownership? I can't recall.

Two years. Not that they had a lot of momentum, or, at least, it wasn't translating to business success.

Then they should start doing things like actually going to US Open Cup matches if that's the case. Lower league fans simply don't go to these things in any great numbers. And the actual Holy Grail for these teams is profitability or at least sustainability with acceptable losses. Again, we're talking about Atlanta and Minnesota here, one team with no owner and one with half an owner and Traffic, who we are told doesn't want to have as much investment in various teams as it does. (And Wilmington was set to make a deal, which I touched on before.)

Do you think they lost one fan with the port-o-lets or was it two? I think short term, obviously, some people are pissed off, but it's not 5,000 people who are going to be lost to the club forever, I can't see that happening. If you've ever said "Silverbacks 'Til I Die," or any other inane thing like that, you're kind of precluded from letting something like this make you sever ties with the club forever.

I think the long-term, actual harm is far less in numbers and irreparability (?) than some others believe. I wouldn't suggest they make a habit of this, but I guess we'll see what happens in the short and medium term.

well...
didn't Portland do it before they even knew who they were going to play?

So, like many things, Portland is actually better

If Djorn Bucholz got $150,000 from RSL for hosting rights I am gonna kiss him the next time I see him. Then I am gonna be all upset that Nessie won't have a chance of trying to score more money from San Jose in round 4.

RSL wouldn't pay that much for this round. Maybe the final, and maybe (though not likely) the semi, but not this round.

If I had to guess, I'd say RSL probably offered somewhere in the range of 30-50K

Atmosphere isn't the only factor of experience. Starfire is romantic to a lot of Sounders fans in the same way that Reynolds is romantic to a lot of North Carolina State fans: it's home. Many of them love their memories of playing there in the USL, I know there weren't a ton of them and it wasn't for a long period of time, but it was something, and it's something they cherish, part of their identity. Urawa has something similar with Komaba despite playing most of their home games at Saitama Stadium.

The fact that the ownership group understand that connection and gives a nod to those fans by playing the occasional game there is part of the reason Seattle is such a run away success. You can complement pragmatic, economic thinking with romantic human emotion sometimes.

At that amount he'd get a high-five

Hell, if we're going to talk about who invented getting "bought out" of play-in games, that honor goes to Colorado.

the list of things the cRapids invented is not something I'd want to bring up or brag (even jokingly) about...

Well we invented winning the Rocky Mountain Cup for one...

So is this in relation to their shit record outside Jeld Wen?

Latham, Boris and co. built the stadium, and Boris is still on their club website (apologizing) but if there's a new group, fair enough.

I don't disagree with that. Only a hand full of teams get any substantial attendance to any of their games but you'll have to agree, the 1 thing that has the potential of substantially
increasing attendance for at least 1 night is playing the big boys. And I understand your point is a one night stand ain't worth $150K. But I guess my point is that can be an event that may get you to turn X number of casual fans into permanent fans, which in the long run, might be better. No right or wrong and whoever is running the show in ATL sure knows more about their shop than I do.

It wasn't the port-a-johns so much as the goat path you had to traverse up and down the highest hill in ATL besides Stone Mt. I'm sure by now they've hired some pavers and a concrete crew so its probably a mute point. But going up that hill at night after a few brews with cars right off your hip was a bit unnerving. And port-a-potties is a sure fire way to keep your female fans away forever. At the end of the day, I didn't think they enjoyed as much of a bump as they should have when they moved from that shithole DMS to their new home. They seem to be doing pretty well this year attendance wise the few match reports I looked at. Hell, the Battery scrimmaged them in preseason this year and I think they had 4-5K there. So, maybe they're in better hands than I give them credit for.

http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/28/u-s-open-cup-charleston-vs-red-bulls/?ref=sports

TAMPA BAY ROWDIES (nasl) VS. COLORADO RAPIDS (mls) colorado -0,5ah @ 2,0 sbo

Twelve players from Saturday's win travel for Open Cup match.Moor, Kosuke Kimura, Tyrone Marshall, Hunter Freeman, Martin Rivero, Jaime Castrillon, Wells Thompson, Andre Akpan, and Tony Cascio all started against Montreal and made the trip to Florida.Also making the trip are second half substitutes Scott Palguta, Kamani Hill, and Harrison Henao.
SAN ANTONIO SCORPIONS (nasl) VS. HOUSTON DYNAMO (mls)

In years past, tournament play has been a chance for reserves to shine. But with international duty, injuries and the squad taxed after a long May, head coach Dominic Kinnear will have to mix and match as he takes his club west on I-10 to face the San Antonio Scorpions in the third round of the U.S. Open Cup on Tuesday.
Still, the Dynamo boss has no intentions of fielding a weakened side.btw, i am interested in few more games but hart to find squads. DC united looks good agains USL Pro club, quality on their side, they dont need to rest, next game 17 days later while Richmond had 3 games in 5 days. Also DC have just 2 players with national teams

i am interested will DC play with reserves or with best 11

I suspect it'll be a combination. The Capitalists have always prioritized the Cup more than most MLS teams. But The United has been hit with their annual injury 12-car pile up and has a number of players re-gaining fitness. I wouldn't be surprised to see a few of them get minutes. I would certainly expect Branko Boskovic to start in place of Dwayne DeRosario, as DC is trying to figure out if the Montenegrin play-maker will be in their plans.

EDIT: DeRosario and Dejan Jacovik aren't even in Richmond, since they were called up to represent Canada.