From what I am hearing the money due in January for the Academy for this year was paid (least that is what I hear) I addition, the Academy is fully running in terms of training also with an International trip planned for the U18's in April to a tournament in Germany Hopefully this is the confirmation it has been paid, as I am guessing the coaches would not have continued without pay and a trip to Germany would not have been confirmed (though the players have still to pay around $900 for flights it seems - which is odd for an Academy set up I thought?) if the money had not been paid If all correct, then hopefully this is a good sign But cant understand why they dont seem to be carrying on with the U23 set up - from everythign we can see - sold players and dont appeaer to be registered for the league?
It has been paid - we are in touch with the academy - besides - we would have all known if it wasn't by now. So that is a good sign. Seems the new group defiantly is focused on things but yea - i am not sure why they would not do the PDL - we were looking forward to it.
One of the issues with not having the U23 squad is where do the “good players/players with potential” go after U18’s? I just don’t understand the U23 demise – surely that would have been the route for any good U18 players to go to next………….especially if they were not going down the College route As it stands, there will be U18 players at the end of June probably lost to the game unless they manage to get tryouts set up for other teams Just seems crazy if there is ANY SORT of plan to get to the MLS Cosmos will need to build from the Academy/U23 squad to supplement any players bought in for an MLS team Maybe the new owners simply view MLS life too far down the road to worry about a U23 squad at present?
They are tearing up 126th St (adjacent to CitiField) with a vengenance. The sewers are being installed getting the area ready for the redevelopment. Basically the city is going to bankrupt these business with this sewer project. Willets Point wants sewers, they are going to sewers. Surely half way into the project there will most likely be a hold up somewhere and the needed part will be coming from Malaysia. The Malaysian plant will be on strike and the project will linger and linger. These businesses will go bankrupt and the city will start redevelopment sooner than expected. At least this is what the people in the junkyards are saying.
Because there are no colleges that have soccer programs in this country and there aren't dozens of PDL teams that kids that are good enough to play for.. It's a fair argument that the Cosmos would lose their HG claim on any kids that graduate from U-18 this year without a U-23 team to maintain the claim, but claiming that the kid will be lost from the sport is just silly. If they are good enough and are interested in continuing, they'll be entering a college program next fall and will be playing for one of the multitude of PDL teams next season.
There are a number of junior colleges that have soccer programs that a kid that has academic issues can attend. RSL just drafted a JC player, however, given the limited amount of money that MLS teams have scouting in general, they need to be exceptional to get recognized at a JC level, but that doesn't mean they can't attend the JC to get their academics up to snuff to finish the eligibility at a 4 year. I highly doubt any team is going to stop a player that is graduating from their program at the end of the season from trying out for a PDL team. They might stop them from trying out if they have a U23 team of their own, but you just said the Cosmos won't have one, so I'm not sure why that would be an issue. The only concern might be when the U-18 season ends and the PDL season begins. If the U-18 season is still on going during the PDL season, then I could see them stopping a kid from trying out this season, but there wouldn't be anything stopping a kid from trying out next season.
Some interesting pojnts However, not all players will have the academics to go onto College I guess? PDL would be a good option - but does their season not overlap? Academy games will go through to at least June 16th That is then followed by a Showcase and possibly the play offs - so effectively takes them to the end of June? And just checking - looks like most tryouts for PDL teams for the summer 2012 actually happened towards the end of last year or in fact, happening now - so not sure how the Academy teams would respond to a request to a try out for a PDL team............but dont think they would be overly happy! Hopefully I am wrong! Maybe I am wrong, but I thought the PDL league runs from around April to mainly the end of July, with some game sin August? So in effect, they would not be released by the Academy team until 3/4 the way through the PDL season - or have I missed something!!??
Junior Colleges, also known as community colleges, are two year colleges that generally do not have academic standards, or what standards they do have are quite low, and it is quite common for athletes that do not meet the academic standards of a four year college to attend a junior college so that they can get their academic standards up to a level where they will meet the requirements of a 4 year college. Yeah. PDL season starts in April/May, so with there being an overlap the kid would have to drop out of the academy in order to try out for a PDL team for the 2012 season, but they could try out for the 2013 season when those tryouts are held if they wanted.
Just want to point out there are 5 PDL teams in NYC or the relatively close in suburbs. Also there are another 4 ( 5 ? ) NPSL teams in that same area. If the kids are any good, I have no doubt they can find a team to play on.
Educated guess... they sat down, someone from the City said "where were we on this?" MLS says well last time you told us to come back with some potential sites to discuss. They talked about sites, soccer demographics, blah blah blah, and the city said, "that sounds like a logical idea, who's on this", All the folks at the city side of the table say "I don't know, let's go to the files and see what we find." Everyone says how nice it was to see each other again, and there's no further action plan on the part of the city. I truly hope that I eat my words in the coming days or weeks, but I don't think I will.
They paid, disappointed? I see you moved to Jersey City. Well done moving out of that last hellhole you lived in.
Yeah, unfortunately I think this stadium is a bureaucratic nightmare. Sadly I don’t see it getting done for some time, if ever. I know Garber says he is focused on it, but I don’t know how much the city of NY wants this, or how capable the MLS organization is at getting this done. A guy can dream though I guess.
Honestly man, I don't know how this pans out. We are, officially, in the waning days of the Bloomberg Administration. By this time next year, there will be a hotly contested primary going on for mayor, and any large scale development like this is going to be a political hot potato, and no one is going to want to touch it. I mean, only Randall's Island strikes me as a possibility where all hell won't break loose. Honestly, unless it's Randalls Island I think the clock has run out on this, at least for the next three years.
Yep - Jack bell answered some questions on his blog and said he thinks the time has run out for Greenpoint too. Really that leaves only two spots - Flushing and Randals Island.
I tried to comment on TICC forum but I haven't been approved yet. What I don't understand is whose project is this, the Cosmos or MLS?
I think MLS is getting involved out of impatience. They were never involved like this before - i think the failed attempts has pissed them off.
Would it be a refurb of the Athletc stadium (Icahn Stadium) at Randall's or do you think a new build? If the former, that could possibly be done a bit quicker and still leaving it suitable for athletics - running track, etc...............making it multi purpose, which may keep a few people happy If a new build.........................years away
What do you mean? I mean the Cosmos told us a lot but now they are gone. Not sure what you are referring too lol. I had a lot of faith in what Fraga and PK told us. It ws the other ones that I just didnt trust. Remember Dan Cherry last year telling us All Star Break? LOL. The only guys that were straight were Terry and Joe and Terry really only spoke about the Academy and training when he did speak to us.
Fraga told us that MLS was handling the siting of the stadium and negotiations with the city, and that the Cosmos had the financing "lined up". Which is why I've been asking, for almost a year now, why the hell would the financiers allow some other entity control the details of the stadium.
The only assumption I can come to goes back to the meeting we had with Wilpon, Dave Howard and the others a while back. That MLS is willing to kick in capital for the NYC team to happen. That opens the door for a lot of speculation why MLS is kicking in but that is the only thing i can think of.