USL Pro expansion news, rumor and wishful thinking.

At least they're keeping the team alive and trying to find ownership.

Seems to me particularly at the PDL and NPSl level that teams seem far more intimately tied to their owners as pet projects rather than being true franchises that one buys and sells. Rather the teams often seem to live or die on solely on their owners interest in the team or in running the team. Often leads to strange chain teaming in cities where teams pop up and then die in near consecutive years rather than having a simple ownership transfer happen between owners with one existing team.

Take San Diego at the NPSL level in the last 7 years. You had San Diego Pumitas (2005-7), San Diego United (2008), San Diego Boca FC (2009-present) all in a consecutive order (and in some cases even with some of the same staff), but always a new franchise every time the owner ducked out.

 

That's a very good point.

If you try to sell and can't find another owner, perhaps it says you've overestimated the actual attractiveness of your market and your situation. I have no way of knowing how many of the folded teams attempted to find new owners, how many got saved by new owners, or how many just threw in the towel.

On the other hand, if someone keeps stepping up to invest in a club (the RailHawks are just one example, and the Thunder had many, many owners over the years), it says there's optimism in the market about the product (or a sucker born every minute, one).

That said, the Minnesota Stars have been looking for an actual owner for nearly two years now and one has not been forthcoming. So you never know.

I do believe there's been a gradual changing of the environment, but don't know if you can point to a year when things tipped or if it just happened gradually. Delving deeper into this may show (as I suspect) that there are more people investing in clubs now who actually have the wherewithal to get it done, and fewer fly-by-nighters. It may be that, as the actual potential of the sport has been demonstrated more and more, especially over the last 10 years, it's seen more as something people with actual resources would be interested in.

 

The other thing at play is when existing owners overvalue the brand name and try to sell a team for more than the cost of an expansion franchise.

Frankly, the only reason the team in Cary is still called the RailHawks is probably due to the 11th hour nature of the transition from Wellman to Traffic and USSF-D2 to NASL. The NASL needed the team for sanctioning, and there just wasn't any time to get into a rebranding. Word on the street was that the Wellmans spent at least a year trying to find someone to by a minority stake in the team for more than a USL1 expansion team would have cost. There were talks, but I don't think anything ever got serious. In the end, the name (with the mascot) went for $15k on eBay.

 

New to BigSoccer, so apologies if this isn't the right thread to post this on.
But since this is a USL expansion thread, just wanted to post a few things here ...

Not sure if you guys saw this but news came out of the new team name and new coach:

"USL PRO VALLEY TEAM NAMES COACH REVEALS TEAM NAME"
By Jose E. Garcia, azcentral.com, July 16, 2012
http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blo...aSoccer/166560
Sereno’s director of coaching, Davey Robertson, will coach the Valley USL Pro team that will be named Phoenix City FC, the team’s owners announced today.

And

"New USL Owners Met with LFR1881"
By Garrett Cleverly, azkicksit.com July 16, 2012
http://www.azkicksit.com/new-usl-pro...ach-announced/
Yesterday the La Furia Roja 1881 / The Red Fury 1881′s met with the ownership group of the new USL Pro franchise for a special/exclusive meeting.

Also just wanted to let y'all know that we exist. We, as in, the Phoenix pro soccer club supporter's group, La Furia Roja/The Red Fury 1881. We started the group in anticipation of a team like this. (Twitter: @LFR1881) (Side note: "Phoenix City FC" isn't bad. It's not the best. But it's better than a lot of names they could have gone with that other teams ultimately decided on.)

We had an exclusive meeting with the new ownership group and learned a lot of things that aren't public yet, much of that we posted in our members-only group page on facebook.

A little bit more about us: Our aim is to support this new team (given it actually happens, lol) to the fullest and help the fan base and sport grow in the Valley. We are akin to (well, hope to become like) The Angel City Brigade of the LA Galaxy, Timber's Army of the Portland Timbers, Emerald City Supporters of the Seattle Sounders and Sons of Ben of the Philadelphia Union. Our mission is to create a unique atmosphere at matches -- waving flags, signing, chanting, jumping and creating and unveiling banners/tifos.

We are not hooligans. We adhere to our own code of conduct. To view that and any information and if you are interested in joining us and our cause, check out our facebook page (facebook.com/LFR1881).

Here are a couple of videos of the kind of atmosphere we aim to create once this team begins to play matches: The Timbers Army reacts to the first Timbers goal vs. LA - YouTube and Best MLS fans 2011 - YouTube

We've gone from 20 members to 125 (though, admittedly, not all of them active) in just four months of existence. So we're stupid excited about everything that's happening.

Viva futbol.

 

Great news on your new coach. All the best.

 

Oy.

I was hoping for Sporting AC Phoenix United City Town FC.

 

I like the Phoenix City name (kinda), congrats. And congrats on the former Scottish team coach!

 

That's at least one, and possibly two, too many "Cities."

 

Hey, thanks guys, appreciate it. Buzz is definitely increasing. The owners seem to be good guys. They have some different ideas in their financial plans but sometimes that's good, I guess. Many of us are excited but still also remain a bit skeptical. We've been burned here so many times.

We still don't think they know exactly what they're getting into with this market. It's a very weird market here. There's huge potential but there's also an enormous gap between the potential market and the actual market. Plus, they're off to a bit of a slow start, which isn't good since they've been talking about this for the last two yours. There should have been set plans once the USL announced the Phoenix franchise. You get the feeling that the owners were "OK, what do we do next?" rather than "OK, this is what we're going to do next."

But our supporter's group will be behind them and help in any way possible. We just hope they're prepared to lose lots of money and are in it for the long haul, points we voiced to them in our closed meeting.

And I agree, one too many "City"s. But it's definitely better than a few names I've heard bantered around, like "Arizona United" and there's another team that's trying to build a PDL team called "Real Phoenix." Ugh. The guy running it is a good guy and actually has a great business plan but not-so-great (read: awful) name.

 

I don't see any value in putting "Real" in front of a team. What's the point? At least Houston made an effort to explain "Dynamo," but "Real?" Ugh. "Koninklijk" to follow I'm sure.

 

That's been the ruin of many a team over the years.

Maybe. I'd have to think they have been doing the work behind the scenes, because if they haven't, early April will be here seemingly next week. I don't know what they have shared with you, but I know there are some things that haven't become public just yet that leads me to believe they didn't just sit down with a blank sheet of paper last week. But, like you intimated, time's a wastin'.

Real Phoenix FC, isn't it? Pro futsal, with an eye toward one day maybe, possibly being in the PDL? Fortune favors the bold, as Kreis likes to say.

Now we'll see what Tucson does.

 

They have not done too much behind the scenes. They did tell us a lot during our closed meeting. But I've also been able to gain some knowledge of their inner workings outside of and before that closed meeting from a few different people I know who are working with them.
We told them in the meeting that nine months isn't very long in starting a brand new franchise from scratch. And hinted that they need to get it all going, especially the marketing, which should have already started. (In this day in age, how do you not already have a Twitter, Facebook and an initial website started? It's easy to do. Easy to start. And it will help keep the buzz going instead of the lull they had from the USL announcement until the announcement of the team name and coach.) But here's hoping they hire a great marketing team that does things right. Though I don't know what their budget is for that.

Yes. We suggested that he change the name. But he and his people declined, which is, of course, fine. His money, his team. We were just suggesting, anyohow. But they do need to get a real website. They're on eteamz.com. Screams and reeks of amateurism.

 

That will be the issue.

 

Yeah, I'm guessing their budget isn't too big. I'll put some feelers out there and hopefully get some kind of an answer. (Oh and when I meant website, I meant just a splash page where people can just go to and find them as all the initial new popped up; a simple-enough site with some info, a couple of links to the announcements, maybe a generic contact. But, I digress.)

 

Has Phoenix City come out with a crest/logo yet?

 

Jesus, they just came out with their name and colors, just named a coach, we just had the discussion that they don't have a website or a Twitter or a Facebook page, and you think they have a crest? Holy cow.

 

I thought they might have released it with the name and colors. Sorry.

 

Don't apologize. He needs to not get his panties in a wad.

 

lol, I think that was sarcasm. But I don't know for sure.

 

Hey, if you guys go pro, maybe that'll be enough to get you away from a Nats friendly blowout on TV and to the stadium for the start of the game. That'd be sweet. I'm sure the team would appreciate it.

 

"It places the lotion in the basket."

 

There is a proposal thread to start a "Phoenix City FC" forum in the USL page here: https://www.bigsoccer.com/community/threads/phoenix-city-fc-in-usl-pro.1948394/

for whoever is interested in chiming in and want to back it. I think we need 10 people to post on it in order for the thread to be created?

FC Tucson is still in USL PDL and will be there for the time being until it has the funds to move to a higher league. Their owners do have that goal whether it will be in USL Pro or NASL. But it likely won't happen in 2013.

Phoenix City FC, though, (at least from what we've been all told) will begin play at USL Pro in 2013. The owners paid the 750K franchise fee, so let's hope so. Well ... let's hope that it lasts longer than, I don't know, 50 years?

They have not announced the venue yet.

 

Obviously you're not familiar with Kenn. His panties are pretty much always in a wad. LMAO