Real Monarchs: USL Pro affiliate (was San Diego)

I thought the San Diego Freeway was the 405 in El Lay County.

 

it says in the article that Del Loy has a house in Ocean Side... so, yeah, he's putting it by his house.

 

The name applies to both 405 in LA and Orange County and 5 south of the 405 split. but no one in San Diego County refers to it by name like the Angelinos. In San Diego County it is simply "the 5" or 5.

 

Not a good move. Oceanside for those that don't know is the last city on the north end of San Diego county before you hit Camp Pendleton main base and a 20-25 mile gap with nothing but a shut down nuclear reactor and an immigration checkpoint on I-5 followed by Orange County and the beginning of the LA metroplex. It is pretty much as far as you can get on one of the mainline freeways from San Diego proper as possible and still be in the county. The Chargers explored building there a few years back reasoning that they draw fans from both SD and LA being the sole NFL team in SoCal (and the NFL has always been an "all day" sport). But for a USL team... This makes no sense. I'd go so far as to say putting the team in that extreme northern location will kill any hope of this being "San Diego's" team. While at the same time you're not going to draw from LA either.

 

I think you're missing the point of this USL team.

It isn't being built to be an attraction on its own. It is being built to give RSL another location they can utilize. To be part of the RSL pyramid, if you will. I don't think he's going to concern himself with drawing in big crowds to his farm team.

Del Loy can put it wherever the hell he wants. It isn't going to be a profitable adventure. This is his money - let him build a complex by his place.

 

See that I have an issue with then. If he's not in it to grow the game in San Diego, just to host an equivalent to LAGII, where attendance and results don't matter, and poach local players near his beach house then I hope the residents of Oceanside rip him apart. I don't want him mucking up San Diego's chances of getting a real USL team (pun not intended) in the future by placing a half assed team in the county now. Nor do I want him stealing local talent away while giving us no real team in return. We've waited this long for a real team (that's higher than NPSL, no disrespect intended to the USOC bound Flash), we can wait a bit longer.

If however he wants to do this right it could still be a good thing... Though as I said above, choosing O-side as a location is hardly a good first step in doing that.

 

I think you're gripe shouldn't be with Del Loy / USL setup, then.
Your gripe should be with MLS and how nobody has placed a team there yet.

The point of this USL team isn't to be successful on its own basis. It's to make the first team in Salt Lake better. What is being placed there is a farm team. A successful farm team is one that has good players come in, skills developed, and then shipped off.

In an ideal world, Del Loy builds this fantastic club in San Diego proper and it fuels RSL. However, that's not going to be the case. Costs on this thing are going to be of the top priority. Second, apparently, is the location in regards to the owners house.

Del Loy, given his nature as a business man, is going to cut out costs that wouldn't advance the overall goal. Building in a more expensive area - as you propose - is one of them

 

If that's all he's hoping to do, which is essentially what LAGII is doing, then you'll excuse me if I change tracks and hope this whole misadventure fails miserably.

And my gripe isn't with MLS, as they're not the ones placing a USL team in San Diego, DLH is... (and frankly MLS are always using SD as a possible future landing spot for an MLS team so we're obviously on their mind, our TV ratings for national team games assures that).

Also a successful farm team in any other sport doesn't just develop talent, they're also successful in their own right off field as well. Look at MiLB for what an actual successful farm team looks like. They not only develop new talent, they develop their own fans of the team and game as well.

 

I'm not saying they are going to give the middle finger to the prospective fans in the area. They won't be like LAG II in that we won't be sharing the stadium and essentially having a new team right next to the first team.

That said, farm teams don't go out of their way to create a fan-base. They know their place. The Salt Lake Bees do this fairly well. I'd imagine Del Loy is going to run this thing very similar to the Bees. Try and get a small stadium in an area he is familiar with. Utilize them to promote whatever business he has going in the surrounding area, and make sure that their goal from the go is to make the first team in Salt Lake better.

I don't blame you if you don't want to be a fan of the idea. It's the same reason I can never get myself to be a Salt Lake Bees fan. It doesn't matter. Whenever you find a good player/coach/staff member their days are instantly numbered in this setup.

 

The Bees stadium is the second largest stadium in the minor leagues (5th if you include the Mexican league). I don't know if that franchise is the best to use as an example for what you are trying to say. Maybe the Raptors or Owls would fit this idea better.

 

It's not that the players leave or the like that bothers me. In fact I'm a fan of MiLB and a similar application to US soccer. It's the idea that they're not going to try and establish themselves as part of the community and are rather being set up as DLH's beach house plaything.

The only reason I can see that this COULD be a good thing for San Diego is that he's placing them out in Oceanside because MLS has bigger plans for San Diego proper and doesn't want RSL's USL team in the way of things. But that seems unlikely given DLH home's proximity.

 

My first thought too. Go to San Diego proper, or don't.

 

Always sounds good in theory, just like building a stadium in downtown SLC sounded great 8-9 years ago. Of course when you look at the economics of doing so it becomes much less realistic. Let's face it, DLH isn't going to drop $20 million on a project in San Diego proper when he can drop $5 million on the project and have it be a little more north. Like 15 said, this isn't a venture to make San Diego into a USL crazy town, this is a venture to boost the club in SLC by giving it another location in a warm climate area that can host and play soccer year round. And you guys are crazy if you think the Bees are in any way economically successful, they're not. That point was pounded REPEATEDLY during the funding fiasco for Rio Tinto, the Miller group punched through a package to get the Bees stadium financed under the premise that it would revive the south salt lake area economically, it didn't and it won't.

Do I feel bad that San Diego is sort of being used in a disingenuous way? Sure. Would it be better if someone had come along and offered a real project in San Diego proper to develop a USL team for the community? Probably. But it hasn't and now DLH wants to launch his project. I'm not going to fault him for being a shrewd businessman in this project, first and foremost I want RSL to be successful and this only helps with that. I wouldn't want RSL as an organization or DLH as an owner of that organization to spend a boatload of money in a way that could be detrimental to the well being of this franchise. And I do think spending A LOT more money putting an academy, stadium, and USL franchise in San Diego proper vs in Oceanside could put him under a bigger bind.

This is a farm team first and foremost, don't think for a second that because farm teams become interwoven in the fabric of their communities that they are in any way economically successful. They aren't. They are more or less disposable in any way you can imagine. Look no further than the Portland Beavers which were immediately axed in order to make way for renovations to PGE Park/Jeld Wen Field/Providence Park/Whatever the hell they call it these days. The Beavers had a fairly rabid local following and there was quite the kerfuffle when Paulson sold them down the river (with many groups trying feverishly to buy the team and find alternative places for them to play in the Portland area). In the end they've always been a substantial money loser and the Timbers were by far the most importance sports piece to develop.

If San Diegans want someone to bitch about not putting a USL team in proper San Diego then find someone other then DLH. They've had plenty of time to put together a USL franchise there and utilizing the soccer rich area south of LA has long been talked about.

 

Easy answer - it's now Real Ocean(side)

 

Sandy
Oceanside

watch out cities with names that are semi connected to the sea. Del Loy is after you

 

Where does growth happen? Where there is space for it and where population will naturally spill over from congested areas.

What was Sandy/Draper 25 years ago?

I'm not saying this is a booming enterprise to be but sometimes building on the periphery can be one way to nail the location...assuming you've got time to be patient.

Then again, there's Eagle Mountain....(coyote howls in the desolation)

So Skipper's will be our next jersey sponsor? Oh wait, they have nothing to do with actual seafood.

 

...although I'd say they're safe in Delta.

 

Just because the Bees didn't revitalize their area doesn't mean the team is not financially successful. Based on their attendance and their likely overhead, they're one of the more successful teams in MiLB financially. Which is a mistake I think you're making. You're confusing financial success of teams with the reality that minor leagues are far more pliable when it comes to moving teams around ostensibly at the whims of major league interests (both their own sports and as you saw in PDX other sports). The Beavers weren't moved because they weren't financially successful, they were moved because Paulson had a choice to make, his MiLB team or his MLS team at PGE Park, he chose the latter. And it was only after he couldn't find an alternative venue for them in the region that he sold them to their parent club the Padres who moved them out of town. And ironically enough the PDX area got a new minor league team barely a year later when the Yakima Bears were purchased by Portland interests and arranged to move into a brand new park in neighboring Hillsboro.

Fact is most minor league baseball outfits are pretty financially viable (at least in the affiliated leagues). Granted soccer isn't as sure of a thing by any measure right now, and is likely a money loser. But you also only get as much out of an operation as you put in.

 

yes, VERY ironic...

 

I think the biggest difference between MiLB and the MLS/USL proposal is the operating expenses. MiLB salaries are covered by the parent club. The MiLB teams only have to cover the venue costs, operating cost, and other overhead. With the MLS/USL proposal, not all of the players salaries will be handled by the parent (MLS) club. This makes it even more important that the USL franchise is a profitable operation. The USL team will be handling the operating costs, venue, etc., plus a portion of the salaries. This is how I see it breaking down:

• MLS teams have a roster size of 30 players.
• 10 of the MLS roster spots are Off-Budget roster spots. I see these players being contributors to the USL side.
• USL allows a maximum of 26 players.
  
• If the 10 Off-Budget roster spots are applied to the USL team, this means 16 players will have to be covered by the salary provided by the USL team.

The Philly Soccer Page wrote an article on the MLS/USL deal back when it was announced. He speculated the following on salary contributions from the MLS clubs:

If this is true, that means Del Loy is having to find the additional 80% to cover the costs of the player salaries. That's not a small pill to swallow, and doesn't make financial sense to eat just to grow the pyramid within RSL. It would make more sense to affiliate with the new Phoenix USL side and try and infuse the RSL culture into the team if the RSL-USL team is just a money loser. The USL side has to make money in order for this deal to make sense.

 

Yes and no the USL team needs to make money.

The academy doesn't make any money. It requires a good chunk of change to run. The reason its kept? To produce players for the first team that eventually cover those costs. This farm team in USL is the exact same way. If you're doing it right, the money you "lose" with the San Diego team will be made up with the talented players it helps produce. The goal is to make the first team in Salt Lake better - at least it better be.

 

and it's not an MLS team
building an 8K seater that close to downtown would be moronic if you think about it.