Dan Borislaw will be on WHTK "Kick This" radio with Jeff DiVeronica between 11 and noon Eastern Time today - Sat 12/1/12. Most of the show probably will be on men's indoor soccer (Rochester Lancers). find a 'listen live' button on: http://kickthis.com
I scribbled notes from the Dan Borislaw call. I apologize in advance for any mistakes or and any of my miss-interpretations of what I heard. Dan likes the USSF participation, including paying the WNT players, “taking over” running the league, and thinks it will be very good for getting national sponsorships. He likes the selection of Cheryl Bailey as executive director. He thinks 8 teams are too many. He wanted 4 teams each with two venues. This would put 6 WNT players on each team and get the same geographic exposure. He thinks they will lose teams at the end of this season. He dislikes Sunil Gulati. Borislaw said that Gulati involved USSF in this league to save his job to make up for his terrible job with the Men’s team. Dan called him “this idiot, ” and an “oppressive man,” and indicated that Dan was not invited to participate in the league and implied that with Gulati involved, Dan was not interested. He said that the Washington team never called him about using the ‘Freedom’ name. He said he ‘would have leased the name to the team for free;’ he also indicated that the offer was no longer on the table. He said he bought 1,000 tickets for the WNT-China game in Boca Raton for local youth players. He said that if Abby is close to Mia Hamm's record, he will hold 100 back for people from Rochester.
Did Hope win that argument? If it happened? And will Stevens be allowed out of Florida again any time soon?
And if they did stack offense like that, they'd end up with a squad with no D. I mean, maybe they'd consider that balanced. But it'd be a really weird setup. I'd bet on Rapinoe and Sinclair for Portland, but Abby I give 50/50 odds of playing in Rochester instead for that same hometown factor. Sinclair's playing offensive mid these days on the national team, which might change things up somewhat.
who are the top forwards? Morgan - Seattle Fullbach - Portland (Lines didn't want her for his system in the WPS, so what has changed?) Sinclair - WNY Sydney/A-rod - DC or Kansas City Cheney F/AMF A-Rod, if you match her up with the right coach Tancredi I know there is Henderson, Hagen and some others but they aren't the Brandnames at this moment for the league. Mexican Nationals There's a big fall off after the 1st 4, so it would do this league no good to crowd two of them on the same team. You could put Press in with the 4 but she is staying in Sweden, which makes sense, since they didn't let her old club Pali in this year.
I think that's definitely a premature statement, unless you've got a source I don't. She may come back if she feels it'll improve her chances of play with the national team, and particularly if they let her play out the necessary Champions League matches. And again, I think we're more likely to see Wambach in WNY than Sinclair.
The Fullbach Effect doesn't change, no matter the league. You have her come in for couple of games like MJ to pack the house vs 11 games of seeing her 24/7. Sinclair goes back to Sahlen Park, because Lines prefers her in his system. Someone said Press resigned in Sweden, so that's what I'm going by. She's already an alternate. It's up to the new coach to use her scoring talents, or keep her cap-less .
Dan is the most trustworthy person we know. Clearly he would never lie about this, ahem, I mean misspeak. Of course he would also mention the amazing deal he would have given them while on the air to make himself look good, but it is too late for them to take it now. The fact is that "leasing" the name from him would be a huge mistake. There is no way that any serious business person would risk renaming their brand on a favor from a guy with his history. It would only be a way for him to get is fingers in, using a name her never used or wanted in the first place. I know that it was reported by Jeff Kassouf of equalizersoccer that Dan said he was never contacted, so maybe it is true. Of course with the DC United Women being the past Washington Freedom Futures and the owners, coach, etc having history with the Freedom, they probably tried to discuss it with the Hendricks family who still own some percentage of the team and who were the owners that they have a relationship with.
Goteborg is reporting that the contract is close to signed. She has indicated in her blog that she wants to stay there next year to finish the Champions League games. Of course not signed is not signed so anything can happen, but it appears she wants to be in Sweden at least for next season.
I have a hard time believing I am writing this, I have I to broadly agree with newsouth. The league will have to spread out the wealth among all the teams. "Names" will have to play on the Kansas Cities of the league or those teams may be uncompetitive on the field and more importantly in the box office. I am sure the teams and players came into this venture with an understanding of this. While there may be some unbalance among the teams in terms of offenses or defenses, we don't want a repeat of the original Atlanta team again. On Abby subject, with a new home in Portland and her friend (what is she doing career wise?), I don't see her going to New York.
Does anyone know whether Abby actually is planning to live in Portland? I'm from Portland, and I haven't heard one way or the other. I understand that she is a Nike person and that her house is near the Nike campus, so it may be more of a temporary landing pad for when she is out here. I don't think people should read too much into her having a house here, unless they know more than has been published here on BS. On another topic, I suspect we are going to start seeing some top college players leaving early to play in the new league, especially those with WNT aspirations. There's going to be a window of time within which they may have a chance to get into the WNT pool, and their opportunities to get there may be much greater from the new league than from college, especially since college restricts them during the college off-season. If this starts happening, hopefully they will play in the US in the new league rather than leaving the country as many of the top men do.
Do you really think college players will leave early? It seems to me that the league is way too new and insecure. Does it even have a name yet? Without a national team subsidy, salaries are likely to be quite low. While I agree that the league will likely be better competition (not to mention it will actually play by FIFA laws), I don't see student-athletes giving up scholarships for peanuts in a nascent-3rd-try league. Not yet anyhow. Maybe if the thing survives 5 years. Or even 4.
I could be wrong but I am pretty sure her more permanent home is in California. I wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't play for Portland and is put with a team like DC who will need the star-power. In the same way, I wouldn't be surprised if Morgan goes somewhere other than Seattle. I could see her back in WNY.
I agree. There will be little incentive to leave early, unless the ladies just really aren't into school (you might get a few internationals who leave at the end of the fall semester). Even with almost no full scholarships anymore, it makes more sense to get the degree (which is really the smart thing to do for a woman who isn't guaranteed a shot at making a lot of money). It will be interesting to see how they handle seniors entering the league -- if they start practice in February, that makes it tough to finish the last semester without making some concessions.
They're not leaving early. I just don't see it. They'll probably be drafted and can join their respective teams after they graduate. What would be interesting is if Mewis goes to Boston. She could attend some trainings/practices before she graduates since she's already in Boston.
8 teams are too many? I want the league to "gradually" expand to 12 eventually, as the talent pool grows larger from upcoming rookies over the next 2-3 years, plus more internationals, western hemisphere internationals, and any additional young UEFA internationals that want to come over. Shhiiiiit, the talent pool from the 2013 college senior class (aka 2014 new league rookie class) is good enough to boost this league from 8 to 10 teams in total talent alone. And that's just one rookie class alone. I mean shiiiiit, just look at it .... 2014 Rookie Draft Pool F - Maya Hayes (Penn State) F - Katie Stengel (Wake Forest) F - Jonelle Filigno (4th year junior this year, supposed to graduate academically soon) F - Becca Wann (Richmond) F - Hayley Brock (Maryland) (speed, speed, speed) F - Jenna Richardson (Oregon State) F - Laura Weinberg (Duke) F - Amanda Frisbie (Portland) F - Nkem Ezurike (Michigan) F - Rafaelle Souza (Ole Miss) F - Christine Exeter (Louisville) F/M - Kealie Ohai (North Carolina) F/M/D - Crystal Dunn (North Carolina) F/M/D - Courtney Verloo (Stanford) M - Vanessa DiBernardo (Illinois) M - Mandy Laddish (Notre Dame) M - Danica Wu (Ohio State) M - Maegan Kelly (Marquette) M - Jenna Richmond (UCLA) D - Julie Johnston (Santa Clara) D - Kassey Kallman (Florida State) D - Natasha Anasi (awesome defender, may go #1 honestly, ACC defender of the year) D - Mollie Pathman (Dule) GK - Aubrey Bledsoe (Wake Forest) GK - Emily Oliver (Stanford) GK - Kelsey Wys (Florida State) Best draft class ever. Even better than the 2010 WPS rookie draft. They're even with them right now, but with one more year of college left to develop more = better than the 2010 WPS rookie class in a year from now.
Expansion does risk diluting the benefit of the federation taking a load off the payroll, so it'd work best if Canada or Mexico upped their number of funded players, or another federation got in on it. Looking at you, Costa Rica. That said, I think at the current federation funding level going up to 12 at a snail's pace isn't likely to break the bank if things are ok otherwise.
Oh wow, I hadn't even thought of that before.... that's a really good point. I hope this first year goes over well economically for the owners so people are more willing to accept expansion... And yes, it would be awesome if CR got involved!
USADA is federally funded? Disgraceful. (I'll have to speak to my Congreeman about this, etc etc etc.)
My memory/impression that during the WPS, the top draft picks did not go to school for their spring semester, while some of the lesser ones may have gone but taking a break for the March preseason tryouts. If those made a team, they would not finish the semester, but if they did not they could return to school for the remainder of the semester. I think a few players did not join the teams until May, which meant they stayed in school for the full semester. Alot will depend what the pay rates will be for the average player and on the players' schools/coaches' view on scholarships ie use them now or lose them versus there will be money available later. Some seniors may decide its not worth going "pro" .
This is in the best incarnation of the WPS and WUSA. 1 USSF handling the front office. The guys handle moving squads around the world. Plus they are tied into the big money sponsors. 2 Federations are carrying the BIG and BRAND NAMES salaries, which is probably cheaper than flying squads, esp the USWNT, around the world for all those ridiculous camps. Now they have to get a couple of areas in South/Central America to commit. Brasil, Colombia, Costa Rica and maybe 1 other. They are still stuck with covering the Euros. 3 500,000 budget per team seems reasonable, but again, how does that work with the Euros? do they drive teams over the budget. you know Sahlen can handle it but what about the others? But do they need Euros, esp the tight budget teams, if they carry a couple of NT stars, Canadian, Mexican and a couple of hometown girls. On paper this league should be around forever like the W-League and WPSL.
Based on the information available on the new league, the money's not going to be worth giving up a degree for. Finish the degree and go join your team.