11/25/07: An Inside View of Friedel's Academy

[The Blind Pig]

Dynamo would be good fit in SSS - Houston Chronicle (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/5326571.html)
Redeem your bad self with Skee-Ball - KC Star (http://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/columnists/hearne_christopher_jr/story/374152.html)
US Coach showing Leadership Skills - Ft. Worth Star-Telegram (http://www.star-telegram.com/549/story/321961.html)
Bradley proving to be anything but 2nd Choice Coach - Sports Network (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/scorecard/othernews.asp?articleID=216531)


'Soccer Kids' draw Attention - Cleveland Plain Dealer (http://www.cleveland.com/sports/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/sports-3/1195993811306070.xml&coll=2)
Learning Part of the Equation - Cleveland Plain Dealer (http://www.cleveland.com/sports/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/sports-3/1195993810306071.xml&coll=2)
Goal Oriented - Cleveland Plain Dealer (http://www.cleveland.com/sports/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/sports-3/1195983721147030.xml&coll=2)
PSA expected to bring influx of Dollars, Visitors - Cleveland Plain Dealer (http://blog.cleveland.com/sports/2007/11/economic_impact_premier_soccer.html)
Good eating Habits Essential - Cleveland Plain Dealer (http://www.cleveland.com/sports/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/sports-3/1195993810306070.xml&coll=2)
Missing Home can be a Problem - Cleveland Plain Dealer (http://www.cleveland.com/sports/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/sports-3/1195993809306070.xml&coll=2)
Recipes from PSA Chef Ken Sherepita - Cleveland Plain Dealer (http://blog.cleveland.com/sports/2007/11/training_recipes_from_premier.html)

[Count]

Wow. It's great to see this academy really taking off. Hopefully it will be a jumping off point for a few others in the future.

[peledre]

Friedel's academy really marks the next step in the progression of player development in this country. It's quite an interesting generational development that we've seen in the last 20 years.

[Stan Collins]

http://www.cleveland.com/sports/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/sports-3/1195993806306070.xml&coll=2
This is the first player roster.

http://blog.cleveland.com/pdmultimedia/2007/11/soccer_academy_trains_young_at.html
http://www.cleveland.com/sports/wide/index.ssf?psasoccer.html
http://blog.cleveland.com/pdmultimedia/2007/11/future_soccer_stars.html
Multimedia (photo gallery, map, video).

[The Blind Pig]

so...

does the psa remind anyone else of charles xavier's school for the gifted?



friedel is bald

[Sachin]

Would Kasey Keller be Magneto?

[CHI_TOWN_BALLA]

Jokes aside, the academy is reeeeaaallllly nice. I hope that more of those take form for MLS teams.

[The Blind Pig]

Would Kasey Keller be Magneto?

oliver is apocalypse?

howard: cable?

[gnatfan]

That was a really good series of articles. Congrats to the Cleveland Plain Dealer for actually spending time getting the story. And big time kudos to Brad Friedel for getting this off the ground. What a great undertaking.

I think in our rush to "acadamize" soccer, we forget what that means--12-16 year olds get to move away from home, sometimes thousands and thousands of miles away to chase a dream. In Europe, often the distances are not that great--but here--the distances can be huge.

It was interesting that the international kids still waiting for student visa's to come in were being home schooled--they have a clip of that one boy being taught in English and Spanish. Gads--I hope they don't just stick those poor kids in front of a computer all day and think that is an education (Present BS company excluded of course:p)

I wonder if the Amherst high school soccer coach, where most these kids are going to school during the day, has told the academy "Look--I don't even need all the guys all the time. How about you just let me have a few of them for game days? And they don't even have to be the same kids each time!!"

[Bora Fan]

$800k in operating costs?

Shoot - if Friedel can run the center for $800k - I'm all for the USSF scraping Braedenton - and cutting Friedel four $800k checks and asking him to build another three PSA locations (one on each coast plus another one in Texas).

The $30 million in infrastructure costs for the additional PSAs could be covered by three $5 million US Soccer Foundation grants spread out over three years and by each MLS team donating $100k a year for 10 years.

MLS' collective $15 million investment - would give them right of first refusal when signing players from the program - and would also allow MLS to collect a development fee should the player go play for Real Madrid bypassing the MLS option.

With four PSAs in play - we'd be looking at 128 full-time residency kids each year plus countless camps and tournaments and other high level soccer instruction going on.

[Kazuma]

Friedel is a genius. I wouldn't be surprised if the academy and the Crew will link-up and send players for the Crew. (Don't know if this has been done but don't jump on me.)

The articles were great. Took the time to research the place.

I agree with the idea of ditching Brendenton and setting them up around the country.

[peteo]

$800k in operating costs?

Shoot - if Friedel can run the center for $800k - I'm all for the USSF scraping Braedenton - and cutting Friedel four $800k checks and asking him to build another three PSA locations...As quoted elsewhere: "This makes too much sense to be enacted." :o

[BanglaBlue]

"He's been playing the sport since he was 9. His nervousness about coming to America was eased by the fact that his fellow soccer player and friend, Sibu, came with him. The academy recruited both boys.

Some boys said they would rather be going to school in Amherst. They long for the companionship of other students.

"It gets boring sometimes," said Carlos Salcedo Hernandez, 14, from Mexico.

It's unclear how long it will take for the six boys to get their student visas. In the meantime, Carlos is taking classes at Allied National High School - an online high school with headquarters in California."


I hope Brad knows what he's doing with these kids and has hired an immigration lawyer. First of all, I really don't think these kids should be studying (even online) if they don't have a student visa. DHS/CBP generally gives out 6 months in the US to tourist visas - which isn't a long term thing.

Second, getting student visas and enrolling them at the local public schools - which seems to be the plan - isn't viable. Students can do one year at public high school if they pay the full cost of the education to the school. Any more then one year leads to a 5 year ban on entry into the US. If he's gonna pay for them to be at a private high school that's fine on an F student visa.

Anyway, it's complicated and he better get it right or there's gonna be trouble down the road.

[superdave]

I read the articles, and I still don't understand the financials. Maybe I missed it. OK, it's funded by donations. Are these donations totally benevolent? If so, who is giving? And can the model be replicated? If the donations are self-interested or have strings attached, well, that raises other questions.

I'm not bashing this, I just want to understand.

[Bora Fan]

Superdave - I'm a bit with you.

Here's how I understand the financials

PSA cost $10 million to get up and running.

Friedel raised the money himself and from "partners" like Adidas, Gatorade, EA Sports, Soccer Stop, Sunrise Coffee Company, Star Trac, MT Business Technologies, Soccer Ventures, and Hamilton Beach.

The whole shebang operates under the umbrella of a not for profit organization.

The primary goal of the PSA is to offer 32 free slots for elite players who they scout.

Everything else they do as a "not for profit" organization is to generate profits that will cover the cost of the 32 subsidized player slots.

To that end PSA also is heavily involved in running camps, hosting events/tournaments, and selling PSA products (coaching manuals, merchandise, etc.)

At the end of the day - they also acknowledge that they are going to apply for grants which is very revealing - because if they really needed the money they would have applied for grants before building the sucker right? Obviously they got the whole thing up and running without problems - so I suspect their pockets are deeper than expected.

The $800k figure is astonishing though - because between Desmond Armstrong's coaching salary - the cost of the Chef - the two tutors - security - and then the room/board for the 32 residency players - it frankly doesn't seem possible.

I think at the end of the day the $800k figure is really the cost to support the 32 players at $25k a piece.

Salaries for Friedel, Armstrong, the dude from Liverpool, the CEO of the org, the chef, the various fitness/educational coaches, etc. . . are all on top of the $800k figure.

But don't worry folks - they seem to be well on their way to figuring out how to fund all of this.

That's what naming rights are for right?

[Prazan]

I read the articles, and I still don't understand the financials.

Oh good, it's not just me. :)

For any who forget, "not for profit" doesn't mean you don't have to balance the budget at the end of the year, whether through revenue or donations. The articles do show that they will have a revenue stream through renting out the fields for tournaments and running camps, but it certainly doesn't seem possible that that would cover the costs. Is building 5 soccer fields and running a few camps really that profitable? It doesn't seem likely, particularly since there is increasing competition for big youth tournaments now that every new stadium seems to have a bunch of fields nearby for that purpose (Dallas has, the St Louis proposal counts on that revenue, etc.).

From an economic point of view, however, the players are purely a cost. You have to feed, house, and train them yet you receive nothing whether they all become Ronaldinhos or Alan Gordons since foreign players can't sign contracts until they are 18 and Americans would lose NCAA eligibility if they did. I like the idea, but unless sponsors pour large sums of money in every year (and what return do they get for it that they couldn't get elsewhere more cheaply?) I just don't see how it works.

[Sirk]

Friedel is a genius. I wouldn't be surprised if the academy and the Crew will link-up and send players for the Crew. (Don't know if this has been done but don't jump on me.)


The Crew and Friedel have already partnered up. The PSA team (Cleveland United) is now part of the Crew's youth development system (Crew Juniors) and will be renamed PSA Crew Juniors.

[CommonSense]

As much as we all laugh about Friedel's faux-Brit accent, this man is doing more for American soccer than any other Yank Abroad. We need many more acadamies similar to this for US soccer to really take the next jump. Too many children lack the resources required to gain access to the upper echelon of coaching/training.

This developmental academy should do very well in developing our young talent, and hopefully funneling some foreign talent into the MLS and NCAA system. I'm sure they've got the financials pretty well figured out, those facilities look fantastic (and almost complete).

[Bora Fan]

Friedel is also smart enough to know how to position himself to be a player agent going forward after he hangs up his boots.

In otherwords - the not for profit venture finds, develops players - and then when they graduate their loyalty and trust leads to them signing with Friedel or his partners to represent the players abroad.

You have to think that has to be part of the equation no matter how nobel PSA's intentions are.

Otherwise, they would just be handing talented kids to agents who would be making an incredibly quick buck.

PSA transfer revenue each year of $800k or more would pay the operational costs for each 32 kid graduating class.

[Emile]

As much as we all laugh about Friedel's faux-Brit accent, this man is doing more for American soccer than any other Yank Abroad. We need many more acadamies similar to this for US soccer to really take the next jump. Too many children lack the resources required to gain access to the upper echelon of coaching/training.

This developmental academy should do very well in developing our young talent, and hopefully funneling some foreign talent into the MLS and NCAA system. I'm sure they've got the financials pretty well figured out, those facilities look fantastic (and almost complete).

Yes, if he can use all his accented knowhow to its fullest, soon we'll be a soccer superpower on par with England.

:)