Seamus O'Brien sounds like a man who is planning a steady build up and not an immediate investment into big name players. It sounds like there is no realistic threat of the club going after the likes of Ronaldinho, Kaka or other world soccer superstar names the first season. It's unlikely as well that they'd even invest in some of the bigger American names on the open market like Carlos Bocanegra, Maurice Edu and Brad Guzan. However, it does sound like they want to put a club together than could win the NASL. What should the Year One objectives be for the New York Cosmos? I would say go for winning the NASL and aim for a serious run at the US Open Cup. Imagine the Cosmos coming back and winning a trophy before the Metrostars/Red Bulls ever could! That would be a way to really kick things off with the derby. This would probably take a side on par with the elite MLS teams. What do you think the Year One objectives for the Cosmos should be?
That's a pretty low bar. Aim higher. Let's assume Seamus O'Brien is serious about this initiative and an entirely different man than Paul Kemsley as Don Garber and others seem to believe.
They need to go find a head coach that has a lot of experiance in US soccer circles and a track record of success. Personally I would like to see Colin Clarke or someone like him. He did well in MLS with Dallas and was great in Puerto Rico and now Carolina. So a head coach that has that kid of experiance would be ideal. Let that kind of person start piecing together solid players to form the core of the squad and see if you can use some of this alleged money to try and sign some quality south Americans under the radar that may be tempted to play in NYC and be a part of this Cosmos tradition. Use your local academy contacts to fill out the roster. Off the field they need to try and sell 5000 season tickets, that would be a solid number for the first year and a realistic goal. Sort out the logistics for getting fans to Hofstra and set a goal of 10K fans average attendance. Go for broke in the USOC and aim for a two 2 finish in the league.
I think selling season tickets and then individual tickets and leading the league in attendance has to be their number one priority. Clubs have proven that it is very rare to build attendance over time, you tend to be stuck in the range you debut. How do they do it? God only knows.
I think an important aspect of joining NASL for the Cosmos will be to focus all their energy in winning the Open Cup. I know it will be tough in the first year and I guess this goal should be more for year 2 or three, but I think this competition can be a great asset to the Cosmos. It's the only chance they will get to face MLS squads and most importantly it can give them a birth to the Champions league. This can help bring better players and obviously help attendance and their reputation. Wining the NASL tittle is fine, but IMO winning the US Open Cup is the important competition that will help the brand and the organization grow tremendously. I think of the success the Islanders have gotten because of their Champions league participation and I can only imagine what it will do for the Cosmos. Imagine the Cosmos facing off in the US Open Cup against the Sounders or Galaxy it will be great, but then if they win it, imagine them hosting Mexican clubs. That will be massive. Like i said, year one might be too soon for this goal, but I think they should focus all their efforts soccer wise on the US Open Cup as soon as they can.
On the field? If these guys truly have a massive amount of cash, it could be best spent on the academy rather than "quick-win now with celebrities". The model here is Jong Ajax. Neither NASL or MLS have a limit on how much money one can devote to an academy. So how about a truly stunning american academy that supplies a stream of Donovans and Dempseys to contribute right away and then be sold for allocation money. Trophies aren't won with the best 3 DPs. They are won with the best 20-30 men
I agree, but thats a long term plan. I think the cosmos need to hit the ground running. they need to start winning from dsy one. I don't mean win the whole thing, but make playoffs for sure.
no they don't. They just need to be competitive on the field and do things correctly off of it to gain fans. If you are suggesting that they spend the kind of money on players that other NASL teams can't afford in order to buy trophies then that is a little weird considering the legacy the original Cosmos left by doing the exact same thing. Winning the NASL isn't easy. So far it is proving to be a tough league with alot of parity. Plenty of value there without having the Cosmos coming in and spending ridiculous (by current NASL standards) amounts of money on players that they could instead spend on marketing and infrastructure.
You still need a team now. What good is an academy for the future if you need excitement in the top-level team right now to get butts in the seats? You need to find some good scouts to find budding talent or some veterans who are beyond MLS age but could still contribute at the minor-league level and can provide mentoring to younger players.
Well now my post is a little wasted, my bad. Because by this standard you shouldn't have anything to worry about. Top six teams make the playoffs and yeah, it should be expected for the Cosmos to accomplish at least that much regularly.
I'm not saying they spend like crazy, but they need to spend enough to be a playoff team. This team IMO might not be able to afford to be a losing team. Fielding a competitive team that will make the playoffs isn't a piggy bank breaker.
Glad you mentioned this I just want them to build a team that plays an exciting game and keeps fans coming back. Obviously the rumored location is a challenge for many. Id love to see Gio as a coach. He had his hands on the Gottschee academy and they were playing a good style under his reign. All we can hope for in year one of any league is entertaining competitive soccer. ANything else is a bonus
The notion that this will be anything other than an NASL roster is unhealthy, IMO. There won't be superstars coming to play here in the minor leagues. We should temper our expectations.
Minor league soccer in NY has always been a disaster long list of teams that have come and gone with the latest being FCNY.. Cosmos have to make their games gang buster affordable and convince the masses to keep coming back for more..... they need a draw and they need to really fight for fans returning at the very least every other week.... 1st game will be great attendance but what about after that....thats the real work and the real demon they have to deal with.... They are second division and most players will be well below the level of play of MLS on top of that out in some dump in long island, you need to convince the masses its worth to come back over and over again.... that is the monster on the table they need to figure out... hope it works out
You're right, in a sense: this won't be anything but an NASL roster. But what that means is less clear, because the rosters of NASL teams are so drastically different. I think that the FO has to focus on fielding a very successful team immediately, much like San Antonio has done. Get a very well respected coach with a strong history in the US, and give him lots of money and scouting to put a team on the field. The owners should plan on losing money no matter what in the first season. But spending money early on may help to stem the drop-off in attendance that will naturally occur over the season. More importantly, it may help keep the nostalgia factor from wearing off. The entire brand is based around nostalgia, and if they're not winning games, competing at the highest level, and looking good doing it, they'll be branded as the team that dragged the good Cosmos name through the mud. Do that and you're done. Does anyone know if the team is selling season tickets yet? It would be a mistake not to. There is no time like the weeks immediately following the big announcement to cash in on the immediate hype of the story. If they're not selling tickets yet, they're losing out on money.
Not that I know of yet, but they do have a wait list available: http://nycosmos.com/tickets Apparently, they must be anticipating a mad rush for Cosmos tickets.
"We evaluated the NASL opportunity alongside the MLS opportunity and came to the conclusion that it was the better fit for the business we are in today," he explains, referring to Major League Soccer's restrictive single-entity structure, salary cap, central contract system and revenue share. "Simply put, in NASL we have the freedom to do whatever we need to in a way we would not have in MLS. Our goal is to own our own brand, media rights and player contracts." That the MLS opportunity also came with a rumored $100 million price tag was also a factor. "We realized we would be better off as owners by investing that $100 million capital in our own brand and owning it." http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/st...sl-new-york-cosmos-ready-launch-roger-bennett Is MLS the goal?
Reading that statement i asked the same thing but at the same time - i also know that right now they are new to the NASL and they dont want to just be talking about MLS aspirations. Not sure what the end goal is for sure but if he keeps saying he wants to be on top.....well that really only means one thing.
This article is pretty ludicrous. The good cop/bad cop routine the author tries to play just ends up showing that he hasn't done his homework. The kicker is when he says that O'Brien is realistic, hoping for 15,000 fans per game. I'm not saying the club couldn't draw that. But I am saying that it would take a marketing blitz the likes of which US soccer has never seen.