Dutch Lions sticking around

it appears they will be back for 2012. Looks like they know they have a lot to fix in the off season

http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/s...ns-reflect-on-past-losing-season-1229916.html

I'm HIGHLY skeptical. There were more holes in that story then there were in the DDL defense this past season.

There are so many problems with DDL.

First, they need a different identity.

Second, get rid of this "Dutch" crap. (Not just the identity.) There's nothing Dutch about Dayton, and there will be nothing "Dutch" about Houston.

How many loyal supporters showed up for the finale? 2,000?????

Move the team to Akron, sign all the Akron players not signed by MLS, let 'em wear orange and call them the Akron Dutch Zips! (Sounds like a cigar?)

hell move them into Krenzler Field in Cleveland, The City Stars drew well for this level when they played there. It's also much closer to the other teams in that division the Dayton is. Call then what you want, but the "Dutch" thing is pretty stupid to be honest.

I didn't go to the final game but I'll be surprised if there were 2,000 people there when Dayton couldn't even draw 2,000 for the first game of the season which was also their highest attendance.

A lot of the players signed 3 year deals including Joe Tait so I'm interested to see who stays and who goes. I've been watching Dayton since the beginning and this season was terrible. The losses were bad enough but the sub situation was bizarre. Why not sign a couple players til the end of the season? A lot of teams did this who were in playoff contention, signing a guy for a few months can't cost them a lot.

And now the women's team wants to move up to a fully professional league. Have they not learned anything? This is getting ridiculous not to mention the expansion to Houston.

I love having a team nearby but Dayton needs to take a good hard look at themselves and fix a lot of things before next season. You can't blame everything on a first year coach and new players. I wasn't expecting Dayton to light the league on fire or anything but I guess I was a fool for thinking we'd play better than we did. I'm holding out on getting season tickets for 2012 until I see some improvements.

Obviously Dayton has some money if they can stick around after terrible attendances you'd think they'd get smart and actually use some of that money or things like advertising. I haven't checked Facebook but the DDL twitter page hasn't been updated in over a month and the last tweet was about the women's team.

I'm not surprised DDL defender Joe Tait has left the team and is currently trialing with the Philadelphia Union. He played in a friendly for the Union against Harrisburg and scored a goal.

http://www.philadelphiaunion.com/news/2011/08/recap-union-net-five-second-half-top-islanders-5-3

Any relation to the basketball announcer?

Not unless your announcer is from the U.K. Joe is an international.

officially signed...

http://www.philadelphiaunion.com/news/2011/09/union-sign-english-defender-joe-tait

Good for him but bad for Dayton though I don't blame Tait for leaving I'm glad he is moving up to MLS. I'm really curious to see who stays and who goes when the new season comes around for Dayton. Looks like most of the guys signed 3 year deals but as we've seen with Tait that doesn't mean much.

I drive by their office everyday to work and haven't seen anything, but then again I never see anything going on at their office. I would be completely behind a club in Dayton under a few conditions. They are named after something relevant to Dayton, play closer to downtown or in downtown and not in a high school stadium, and make efforts to show improvement every year. If you want to call yourself a "PRO" soccer club, I expect you to act like one.

However, this organization is run so a$$ backwards and they have no clue as to market or run this team in Dayton that I just can't justify supporting them. So honestly I wouldn't mind if they packed up and left.

Honestly that was my first thought when they announced the expansion to Houston.

I liked the team when they were in the PDL I thought they did well for a first year team but they are so damn ambitious and impatient they had to move up. As I said in another thread there was talk about moving up to USL-Pro halfway through the PDL season I heard it straight from the horses mouth.

I still think getting rid of Silooy hasn't set well with some of the fans. From what I could see he was well liked especially by parents. Apparently he and the club disagreed about how to run the youth academy so he left and now works with DC United.

As for marketing there is none. They don't update twitter or facebook I don't think there is anything in the newspaper but I don't get the Dayton newspaper. I think 95% of their staff are unpaid volunteers or interns. We had a "supporters section" set up by an intern during the PDL season but that disbanded after the intern left. I have to give credit to the guy he worked harder to promote the team than anyone. I believe he was upset when they didn't hire him after the internship had ended the guy really put a lot of work into the team, he almost was their marketing guy.

I'm holding off on buying tickets for next year until I can see some type of improvements. I received season tickets for this past season as a Christmas gift and I feel bad that $90 was spent on such a lousy season/experience. I know I've been quite critical about the team this season but they aren't exactly doing a lot to change my mind. You can only blame new players and a new first team head coach so many times before the excuse gets old.

Sounds like DDL will have a new home/field moving from Bellbrook High School Stadium to West Carrollton

http://www.daytondutchlionsfc.com/c...s-fc/news/623-dutch-lions-secure-own-facility

Article from a local news station says something about renovating the existing stadium with some covered seating and a clubhouse http://www.wdtn.com/dpp/news/local/montgomery/pro-soccer-team-moves-to-WCHS

I've never been to West Carrolton HS all though I have driven by it but all this on HS land???

Look up West Carrollton High School in Google Earth or a map site. It has a good amount of open space to it, and its field (in July 2010 anyway) kinda sucks. In that date, it had a giant patch of sand in the middle.

Interesting the big talk DDL is giving, though. West Carrollton is closer to the center of Dayton, right along I-75 and inside the bounds of its beltline.

Yes it is a much more central location than Bellbrook which was a mess. Bellbrook was literally in the middle of no where. There were nice restaurants and some shopping places off the exit to Centerville/Bellbrook but you had to go past that and through some residental neighborhoods to get to Bellbrook High school which was pretty much in middle of a giant field. West Carrollton is very easy to get to I drove past it all the time while commuting to college in Dayton.

Still some drawbacks to playing in a HS stadium but at least its a more central location and within the limits of Dayton itself.

Surprising news to say the least. West Carrolton has probably the worst field I have ever played on. They will need to do some major renovations to that field and stadium. Its nice to see them moving closer to the city proper, but why are they putting all of this money into another high school stadium? Field-turf installations aren't cheap, neither is putting in 4 high end european grass fields. Any update on their aspirations to build their own stadium anymore?

Overall it's a much better move than playing way out in Bellbrook. They should be able to draw a significantly larger number for their games as this is an easy stadium to get to (assuming the Moraine/Kettering exit from 75 is finished anytime soon). Hopefully they will sell beer at the stadium. Then they will be a real pro team!

You can't sell beer on high school property so I think that is out of the question. A good move though to get away from Bellbrook but yeah another HS stadium. I think its their way of being active in the community. I know they set up some type of partnership with the Bellbrook HS soccer team and area soccer teams. I'm assuming they'll do something with West Carrollton HS soccer maybe new uniforms or goals.

It is a lot easier to get to than Bellbrook which is appealing. I'm curious as to why they left Bellbrook though I'm not complaining about the move. I guess they saw the light that it was too far away.

Kinda mad that the field will be astro turf but then again its a high school stadium so I don't think DDL had much say in that. I think the big issue with their own stadium is where to put it. I think renovating a HS stadium, while not ideal, is certainly cheaper than finding a piece of land big enough for practice fields, stadium, and a club house.

Why doesnt dayton have their own sub-forum?