BIG announcement coming from the LA Blues…i

Discussion in 'Orange County SC' started by Flex Buffchest, Jan 10, 2014.

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  1. kenntomasch

    kenntomasch Member+

    Sep 2, 1999
    Out West
    Club:
    FC Tampa Bay Rowdies
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  2. kenntomasch

    kenntomasch Member+

    Sep 2, 1999
    Out West
    Club:
    FC Tampa Bay Rowdies
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    They will play at Cal-Irvine as well, apparently.

    So they are moving 22 miles south.
     
  3. kenntomasch

    kenntomasch Member+

    Sep 2, 1999
    Out West
    Club:
    FC Tampa Bay Rowdies
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    http://www.uslsoccer.com/home/785709.html

    “Our relocation and name change reflect a deeper transition within the team organization to a new level of seriousness about the future of the club,” said General Manager Jon Spencer.
     
  4. athletics68

    athletics68 Member+

    Dec 12, 2006
    San Diego & San Jose
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Wow that logo is a mess. And no big surprise about the name change. We already knew that. Only remotely interesting news is that they're moving to Irvine for good. Anteater stadium is smaller than most NPSL and PDL venues. surprised it even qualifies as a USL stadium.
     
  5. 30King

    30King Member+

    Jul 22, 2013
    Rocklin, CA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Playing at Anteater Stadium- UC Irvine. It has natural grass with a track around it. UC Irvine website says seating for 2500. It appears there are seats only on one side.
    [​IMG]
     
  6. SoccerPrime

    SoccerPrime Moderator
    Staff Member

    All of them
    Apr 14, 2003
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Hold it, so they are closer to Carson now?
     
  7. athletics68

    athletics68 Member+

    Dec 12, 2006
    San Diego & San Jose
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Yep. it's basically a cookie cutter high school field on a college campus. It is about as bare bones as you can get short of it having fake grass and football lines.
     
  8. athletics68

    athletics68 Member+

    Dec 12, 2006
    San Diego & San Jose
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    No they're 6 miles further away from Carson actually. But they're 22 miles south of where they used to play. They basically went from the extreme north of Orange County to the southern half of the county where the "LA" metroplex starts to thin out where I-405 and I-5 meet. It also is a more affluent area in general (Not that Fullerton is poor either).
     
  9. SoccerPrime

    SoccerPrime Moderator
    Staff Member

    All of them
    Apr 14, 2003
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    For some reason I thought they were out in the Palisades and sometimes in Fullerton... odd move.
     
  10. 30King

    30King Member+

    Jul 22, 2013
    Rocklin, CA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    My first thought was that they moved pretty far south, but after giving it some thought, can't think of an alternative location more central for OC (Anaheim). Not that it will matter if they don't drastically step up their marketing.
     
  11. 30King

    30King Member+

    Jul 22, 2013
    Rocklin, CA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Personally, I think they should've stayed at Fullerton. Better stadium, ~better location in OC(?)
     
  12. athletics68

    athletics68 Member+

    Dec 12, 2006
    San Diego & San Jose
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    No it was and is their PDL side that plays in the Palisades. LA Blues always played in Fullerton.
     
  13. athletics68

    athletics68 Member+

    Dec 12, 2006
    San Diego & San Jose
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Definitely a better stadium, albeit somewhat big for a USL Pro side. But it also lacked the track that they now have to suffer with at Anteater Stadium. Downside was their typical 3 digit crowds were swallowed up by it. And while Fullerton was closer to the center of the overall LA area, it wasn't necessarily working for them. And Irvine has some advantages straddling the divide between the heart of Orange County and the south county areas like San Juan Capistrano and San Clemente which while in OC are much more distant from central OC and LA proper. So it's not a terrible move in that regard.
     
  14. Jossed

    Jossed Member+

    Apr 23, 2011
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    Also their women's team plays in Palisades. They merged with another team and rebranded to the LA Blues just a few months ago. So I guess there will still be an LA Blues around drawing tens of fans.
     
  15. ielag

    ielag Member+

    Jul 20, 2010
    It's an excellent location right off the 57 freeway and a couple miles north of the 91. It's an easy drive for people from the L.A. and San Bernardino County border cities (Pomona, Chino, Chino Hills, Diamond Bar, etc. and not too bad for Corona and Riverside since they'd be weekend games.

    But for stadium rent and if they want to promote specifically to the never wander outside the Orange Curtain crowd, Irvine is a good spot.
     
  16. kenntomasch

    kenntomasch Member+

    Sep 2, 1999
    Out West
    Club:
    FC Tampa Bay Rowdies
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    "Want to promote." That's funny.
     
    athletics68 and Offebacher repped this.
  17. kenntomasch

    kenntomasch Member+

    Sep 2, 1999
    Out West
    Club:
    FC Tampa Bay Rowdies
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    #167 kenntomasch, Feb 6, 2014
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2014
    Was, not is.

    As I noted last week, the PDL team will play almost all of its games this year in Costa Mesa, at Vanguard University. The W-League team may still play in Pali, I don't know.

    (And the PDL team played in Huntington Beach last year.)
     
  18. athletics68

    athletics68 Member+

    Dec 12, 2006
    San Diego & San Jose
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I stand corrected. I don't keep as up on PDL happenings as I do the other 4 nationwide leagues so you'd know more than I do about it.
     
  19. athletics68

    athletics68 Member+

    Dec 12, 2006
    San Diego & San Jose
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Well Anteater Stadium is right off the 405 and 73 and very close to the 55, so it's not exactly inaccessible. But yeah moving does cut off any possibility that they could market to the western part of the Inland Empire (not that Blues had done any marketing to date). On the plus side it does make them a more realistic option to market to the more affluent folks along the coast and in southern OC. I mean heck, I could get there now bypassing where the majority of the bad "LA" traffic starts on 5 as you approach 405.
     
  20. dundee9

    dundee9 Member

    Jan 13, 2007
    I know its hard to get support for a USL club. Especially when there are two MLS clubs in the area. But the Blues really didn't understand how to run a pro soccer club. When they decided to go pro and rebrand from Pali Blues to LA Blues their first mistake was playing in OC. When you're a tier 3 soccer club you don't name yourself LA and play in the OC. How do you identify with local soccer fans in the OC when you call yourself LA? Not only that their outreach and marketing was horrible. My friend goes to Cal State Fullerton and he had never heard of the LA Blues.

    Lower division soccer clubs can have success if they follow a more community oriented plan. You're not the LA Galaxy, you're not going to be on ESPN or have your games mentioned in the LA Times. You're not going to get much media coverage at all. So, you have to lay down roots in a community. Open up an academy in that community (pay to play first but eventually a free academy). Sign players from the community. Hold charity events in that community. Brand your club so that it identifies with that community. Do market research on the community your in. Will local soccer fans in Fullerton identify with a team called LA?

    The OC re-brand is the first sensible thing the Blues have done since they became a pro club. Playing at UC Irvine is not though. When I think of Irvine I think of lots of office buildings and warehouses. It's not a city with a high suburban population. How do you lay down roots in a community when you play in a community where nobody lives? Also, the demographics aren't in their favor. Irvine is 9% Latino for one.

    Santa Ana? Anaheim? Much better options.
     
  21. athletics68

    athletics68 Member+

    Dec 12, 2006
    San Diego & San Jose
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    You may only think of office buildings, but you're forgetting Irvine is home to almost a quarter of a million people. Yes it's not as big as Anaheim or Santa Ana, but it's still more that large enough for a team at the D3 level. And as for demographics, why does it have to be Latino to suddenly be a good demographic for soccer? I thought soccer interest was on the rise nationwide?
     
    Flex Buffchest repped this.
  22. 30King

    30King Member+

    Jul 22, 2013
    Rocklin, CA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Cause A68, don't you know, only Latinos attend soccer games. Last Quakes game, I was like the only white guy there.

    Silly me, I thought soccer (and most all other USA sports) were supported primarily by the melting pot middle class with disposable income.

    Stick, meet dead horse.
     
  23. Sam U El

    Sam U El Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 31, 2013
    Seoul Korea
    Club:
    New York Cosmos
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Not to knit-pick but I did notice that the OC Blues' Away Kit looks like the Dayton one. Basically a Nike cookie cutter jersey with a white stripe down the left front side of the jersey. All it looks like they did was change the badges. Just look at thge pictures from the Blues announcement and the Dayton Dutch LIons partnership deal with Nike right below it.

    http://uslpro.uslsoccer.com/
     
  24. athletics68

    athletics68 Member+

    Dec 12, 2006
    San Diego & San Jose
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    You expected the Blues to spend money actually designing their own uniforms rather than using an existing template?
     
  25. Sam U El

    Sam U El Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 31, 2013
    Seoul Korea
    Club:
    New York Cosmos
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I expected them to pick something not already being used by another USL PRO team.... They must have spent it all on the cool badge crest. :)
     

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