Will the Victory be back for next season?

[pc4th]

http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-worlddigest2&prov=reuters&type=lgns

Controversial Ukraine-born American entrepreneur Dimitry Piterman has sold his majority shareholding in Spanish second division club Alaves, local media reported.

Alaves businessman Fernando Ortiz de Zarate bought the 51 percent stake in the club for 3 million euros ($4.14 million).

Piterman, who was club president, made headlines for his hands-on approach to running the team, frequent sacking of coaches and outspoken criticism of the players.

The Quakes are back. Also, attendance of around 1000 is not even close enough to breakeven. Can the owner afford to lose money year after year? Or will this be the one and only season for the Victory?

I believe an average attendance of around 2000-2500 is needed to operate a USL D1 team.

[HSEUPASSION]

I can only see it working if they move it to Sacramento. I doubt it would still be the Victory either.

[IceFunk]

Very sad, because the Victory FO put VERY little effort in building a brand in San Francisco, and a great group like the 1906 still emerged. If done right, this could be a great franchise, however motivation to do so was low. If every franchise puts as much effort into building a franchise like Carolina has, the USL-1 would be taken more seriously. So sorry Vic fans you have to hear news like this, you are true soccer supporters, and I hope the FO gets things figured out.

average attendance can't honestly vary when trying to decide what supports a USL-1 team. Depends on how much the owner has, and what kind of revenue flows in. At the absolute minimum, yes I believe roughly 2500 to 3000 to operate, however obviously, a healthier crowd would be better.

[Alexi]

I, personally, hope that Piterman wants to have some sort of a "pocket" team to satisfy his ambitions of managing a soccer club.

People like us are playing Championship/Football Manager. People like Roman Abramovich are buying clubs of Chelsea caliber.
Piterman is sort of in between these two categories :)

Possibly he realized that being quite rich, he is still not rich enough to heavily invest in operating of a European club. So, me might have decided to get out of Europe and concentrate on Victory where he can invest relatively low amount (comparing with what operation of Alaves required), can successfully be "de-facto" coach (what he actually likes to do), and actually win something.

That would be the best possible scenario for us.

[Delle Alpi]

Since its still this year I don't care about next year, but since this topic keeps coming up, just because the Quakes are back doesn't mean as much as some of you think its 45 min or more to go to SJ for a game and there are a lot of guys I know who have no intention of dealing with south bay traffic for a game. The Vics have drawn an average of 1000 with zero promotion strictly word of mouth. When I say zero I mean zero we didn't even have color flyers until a couple of weeks ago. If ownership put forth effort they could get the couple of thousand a game they would need, but thats on ownership. I am going to enjoy the rest of this year and worry about the rest later, if they fold I still got the Seals. I am kind of tired of the Quakes argument, its a long drive in that crap traffic to go to a game a week night game after work is just about impossible. The USL can make it here if someone puts forth some effort. Plus USL could be an affordable alternative as MLS prices are far higher, but again it will require an owner not an idiot which is what we have now.

[gv689]

Dimitri does not care about this team. You see him at the games. This team is done, maybe even sooner than you think. Nobody even knows about this team. The Vics are done. You'll see big changes as the season unfolds. Did you notice how there was no security at the last game? No money my friends.

[SL Benfiquista]

DA and gv have hit it on the head, if the Vics future is tied to Piterman then they are as good as gone. If he could rid himself of the team right now, he'd probably do it in a heartbeat. The only hope the Vics have is to find a white knight to buy this team and who is willing to sink some dollars into it and try and build it the right way. Again, SF has proven to be a very tough soccer market so any potential new owner has to be willing to lose some money.

The Vics are obviously now on a shoestring budget, but that makes me only want to root harder for the lads to succeed. These guys are busting their asses out on the pitch while getting zero support from ownership.

[tectonicnight]

just curious: has anybody seen hide or hair of terry fisher? you know, the general manager of the team (he's still listed on the gameday rosters; and BTW, what has he done to ryan suarez--has he eaten him)?

i think i recall seeing him at the first home game. i've recently noticed that discussions here about the front office never seem to mention his name.

is it possible he is no longer with the team due to (what we assume is) the dire financial situation? that would help to explain the lack of an FO presence (what the heck *is* he doing?). maybe other circumstances led to his checking out at some point.

if piterman descends upon us to take an active role in running the club, one would think it would make someone like fisher moot.

[deedougie]

Its too bad cause even without much promotion a bunch of fans have turned out at Kezar this season to watch games.

Unfortunately with the unprofessional atmoshpere at the games (inconsistent security, poor food choices, etc.) I think a bunch of people who could become regulars have been turned off. And once that happens its hard to get them back.

I think with a little promotion and a more professional atmosphere it wouldn't be out of bounds to see at least 2000-2500 people in the stands at Kezar for the games. I know we at the 1906 have tried our best to get the word out as much as possible, and a lot of people have been receptive and even supportive, but even if they do come out for a game a lot don't make it back.

[gv689]

Fisher's there, Ive seen him sometimes. This team is done; these guys are not being treated like professionals. All I see is major changes and lots of questioning in the upcoming weeks.

[yeroc25]

Fisher's there, Ive seen him sometimes. This team is done; these guys are not being treated like professionals. All I see is major changes and lots of questioning in the upcoming weeks.


You seem pretty confident in your predictions. Do you have some inside info:rolleyes:?

[gv689]

No, I have no inside information. I just went to some of the last few practices and the games. 23 Players on the roster and they loan 2 more? Add it up.

[Delle Alpi]

Great chicken little says we are done. I guess thats it. Thanks for saving me trips to the stadium for the rest of season. Don't know what we would do with out your expert analysis.

[falvo]

I'm wondering if Dimitry Pitterman was waiting or hoping that the Lew Wolff wouldn't come thru with his expansion MLS plans? I mean he & Terry Fisher had said when they started the club last year that they still didn't believe or weren't sure if it was going to happen or not. I'm not sure why he wouldn't want to invest in the Quakes project with Lew but he is pretty wealthy and these guys don't really follow the leaders as they like to be at the top of the heap.

As far as Terry Fisher is concerned, he did the same thing with Dan Van Voorhis and the SF BAY Blackhawks. He convinced Dan to start the thing up and then Fisher, either was canned or fished out on his own.

[sko16]

Dimitri... You see him at the games.

What games are you watching?

[deedougie]

I wish I had done better in my Spanish classes but I was trolling the Alavaes boards and to me it sounds like they are talking about Piterman trying to keep control of the Victory.

If I understand right they speculate that the Victory would have to give up colors and names to Alavaes and they joke about the team being named after an animal like many other US teams.

Anyone else speak Spanish? How far off am I?

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=hhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.babazorros.com%2Fforo%2Fviewtopic.php%3Ft%3D1734%26start%3D60&langpair=es%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8

[sangreazul]

I wish I had done better in my Spanish classes but I was trolling the Alavaes boards and to me it sounds like they are talking about Piterman trying to keep control of the Victory.

If I understand right they speculate that the Victory would have to give up colors and names to Alavaes and they joke about the team being named after an animal like many other US teams.

Anyone else speak Spanish? How far off am I?

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=hhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.babazorros.com%2Fforo%2Fviewtopic.php%3Ft%3D1734%26start%3D60&langpair=es%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8

It certainly doesn't look good, that's for sure. What I can deduce from the postings is that Alaves was the owner of the Victory and not Piterman. Having siad that, the new owner wants nothing to do with Alaves and said he will give it as a gift to Piterman. The fans posting said they don't want anything to do with the Victory (mostly because it is a legacy of Piterman)

The last poster (as of 7:41) said that he heard on the news that its a done deal and the Victory are finished, at least the relationship with Alaves.

The comment about the animal is that the guy posted that the Victory should be renamed the San Francisco Pitermans since Americans like their clubs named after animals. Its actually a pretty funny comment :)

[falvo]

It certainly doesn't look good, that's for sure. What I can deduce from the postings is that Alaves was the owner of the Victory and not Piterman. Having siad that, the new owner wants nothing to do with Alaves and said he will give it as a gift to Piterman. The fans posting said they don't want anything to do with the Victory (mostly because it is a legacy of Piterman)

The last poster (as of 7:41) said that he heard on the news that its a done deal and the Victory are finished, at least the relationship with Alaves.

The comment about the animal is that the guy posted that the Victory should be renamed the San Francisco Pitermans since Americans like their clubs named after animals. Its actually a pretty funny comment :)

I knew it was going to be difficult all along in SF becuase San Jose has always since 1974 been the soccer capitol of the entire Bay Area. One thing I want to know however, is why did they even bother in the first place if they didn't want to make a long term comittment?

[SoccerPrime]

So does Piterman still own the CA Victory? Just because he sold Alaves doesn't exactly mean he doesn't own the Victory privately.

sangreazul are you sure that they are not seperate?

[falvo]

So does Piterman still own the CA Victory? Just because he sold Alaves doesn't exactly mean he doesn't own the Victory privately.

sangreazul are you sure that they are not seperate?

I'm wondering that too as they are in two different countries with two entirely different federation rules they would have to follow.