It looks like I was wrong about Amy running the social media. Thankfully, there was another long facebook post today:
But honestly, I've never heard of Moda Health Insurance.. It's website is still under construction, but as near as I can figure, it is a start-up "affordable health insurance" that was created to take advantage of the insurance exchanges that are supposed to be set-up due to Obamacare. But hey, all that matters is the color of their money, right?
The attendance discussion, aspirations, and concerns are really interesting. I'm wondering if Portland has two things going for them that Seattle doesn't quite: (1) the Portland Pilots fan base, a significant part of which is going to be supporting the Thorns (helped by the Sinclair, Kerr, Foxhoven connections), and (2) the Portland Timbers fan base and, related to that, access to that fan base through the Timbers staff due to the Thorns/Timbers common ownership. I initially had wondered whether the Thorns would end up pulling fans away from the Pilots, but now -- and especially after the full house at Merlo for the Thorns/Pilots game -- I think just the opposite. I think each team will contribute to the other's attendance, sort of a synergistic effect. The Washington Huskies have pretty good attendance -- not like Portland's, but still decent. Hopefully a significant number of those fans will be Reign supporters and maybe vice versa. It makes me wonder whether the next stop for NWSL should be Salt Lake. Although BYU is in Provo, they are right up there in attendance for their women's soccer games, rivaling Portland, plus they have the benefit of Salt Lake's Mormon population. If a Salt Lake team were to have common ownership with Real Salt Lake, plus several players from BYU, we might see some of the same synergistic effects we may be seeing in Portland. The other two locations that might have similar synergy, that I can see, are the Bay Area (Stanford, Santa Clara, and Cal have a combined average attendance around 3,000/Earthquakes) and maybe Texas (Texas A&M/TCU/Texas Tech/Texas have a combined average attendance around 5500/Dallas probably but maybe Houston) the question being for Texas whether distances are too great for there to be real synergy.
It would be cool to see Salt Lake get a team. But they are far enough away from California, Pacific Northwest, and Kansas City, so as of now, they won't get an expansion team. Remember, a franchise has to at least be within a few hundred miles of another franchise, for the league to be interested in expanding there (for traveling purposes). It's why California won't get an expansion team, unless there's two teams there. However, Salt Lake is within about 500 miles or so from Denver. Chicago is exactly about 500 miles from Kansas City (and both of them are in the league). So geographically speaking, you may be on to something. A Colorado expansion franchise (in or around Denver), and Salt Lake, may be what this league needs. Then you can start to break them down into divisions. Atlantic Division Washington Spirit Western New York Flash Sky Blue FC Boston Breakers Atlanta Beat (their stadium is fantastic for this league) Carolina Cavalry (another great women's soccer area is located in Carolina) Central Division Chicago Red Stars Ottawa Fury FC Kansas City Colorado Excalibur FC (located in or around Denver, logo has a sword, shield, and soccer ball) Salt Lake Angels (is closer to Denver than to any of the Pacific Division teams below) Dallas Destiny (Texas franchise in Dallas, about 550 miles away from KC) Pacific Division Los Angeles Sol Bay Area Breeze Portland Thorns Seattle Reign Vancouver Whitecaps St. Louis and Philadelphia don't have quite the same enthusiasm for women's soccer as Portland, Seattle, Dallas, Salt Lake, Denver, Kansas City, Chicago, Carolina, Atlanta, Boston, Jersey, Western NY and Rochester & Buffalo areas, etc.
Bay Area Breeze - Didn't Gold Pride say, they couldn't give tickets away to the Bay Area audience2? If Utah has anything similar to Portland, I'd go with them. They are only 700 to 800 miles from port/seattle and los angeles. san fran is 400 from south la.
i may have missed it because i didn't read through the thread. my apologies. but please - if it exists - post the link to the webcast of this game.
Not sure if you mean the game just played or next weekend... The game with the Thorns will be in HD at www.portlandthornsfc.com. If it is like the Timbers reserve games, it will be multiple cameras, replay, good production, and look good if the feed is fed to a tv. There will also be a radio feed on 970 AM and a stream on http://www.freedom970.com/pages/main or through apps for mobile devices.
NWSL Game of the Week: Portland Thorns vs. Seattle Reign - PORTLAND, Ore. -- The NWSL gets its first Cascadia Derb... http://t.co/Olffygkt1l— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) April 20, 2013 FOX Sports and the NWSL have agreed to a 9-match national broadcast deal. Final schedule is TBD, but expect to see Reign FC at least once!— Seattle Reign FC (@reignfc) April 18, 2013