RailHawks Future

Good, I have been a couple of times this year did not hear any more music.

Good to know that that mess is over.

 

Welcome to the board Phil. I believe that the current economic mess has something to do with it. My kids constantly want to go watch the 'Hawks but it costs about $75 for a single outing. So, I have to ration. Ultimately, we need an organization from the ground up. Yes...the TV stations need to promote the Railhawks and the founder of Lulu should do a better job selling our beloved team.

As for MLS, I really do not give a crap. I think the average USL team is a lot more exciting to watch than MLS for the most part. Also, I do not think MLS is sustainable in the Carolinas at the moment. We can hope to get a WPS team to replace courage and am encouraged by the attendance recorded by most WPS teams this year. MLS is full of washed up stars and a few really good players like Donovan. WPS on the other hand has the best female players playing. So, it is no coincidence that soccer fans are showing up.

 

Not true ..... MLS is the best the US has to offer ....except for a hand full that sign in Europe. If not MLS, where are the US star players.

I do agree that the problem is Americans over 40 .....with money advertisers want to reach on TV..... which is what funds the leagues world wide .... did not grow up playing and fans of football.

Soccer became popular with the 25 years olds who began playing at 6. And until the 25 years players become 40 year old parents MLS will not have TV contracts to pay for better players and market the game.

Too bad USL is not used as the reserve league for MLS. If Brian McBride was playing a game to get fitness while recovering from surgery the attenance would be better. Also USL would help develop the young 22 year olds instead of 28 year old players that never made it in MLS and have no future in the game. I think we would like to watch a 22 year old who may play in MLS, Norway League or higher or on the USMNT in a year or two.

 

Now, that is not true. Back in the 70's there were Americans kids watching the NASL and growing up playing soccer. They are over 40 now.

 

My guess is that's because you have an emotional investment in a USL franchise (Go RailHawks). I'm invested in teams in both leagues. Winning is exciting. Losing isn't . The RailHawks are winning.

Without an ownership group, I agree.

Does denigrating a competing product make you feel better about the league you follow? Really? If MLS is "full of washed up stars" what the hell is USL-1 full of? Never-was's? Seriously. Did you really need to go there?

Who is showing up? Did you see the attendance figures for this season? I'm a huge fan of women's soccer. International, professional (just got back from LA and the WPS final), and college (shooting the doubleheader at Fetzer tomorrow). But "fans showing up"? You need to show me your figures.

Look. MLS is the top of the heap in the U.S. USL-1 is on very scary footing right now. And the next standalone women's professional sports league to survive more than a few seasons will be the first. My fear is that the RailHawks may meet the same fate as the Courage did - where the team is fine, but the league failed out from under them.

I hope the USL-1, with it's change in ownership, doesn't implode. I hope we have RailHawks games to go to. I don't need to denigrate MLS to enjoy the RailHawks.

I'd love to have a WPS team come to the Triangle. I've been turning over rocks all over the area trying to help identify owners - anyone with any leads please PM me. But without ownership, there'll be no return of the Courage.

 

Hello. My name is Andy.

 

I don't understand what other option they have. I mean, they can be disappointed by the outcome, but what else can they do? There's not another 8 or 9 teams sitting around to form a new league or anything. Are you suggesting they'd rather not field a team at all under Marcos and the new USL or that Marcos would kick them out of the league just because they originally wanted something else?

 

I agree with this. NO one knows anything about who these people are, and why they bought the league. It's somewhat scary because no one knows what will come because of the buy out. Very strange indeed.

 

Too bad all this is putting the RailHawks best season onto the back burner.

Does anyone know if the league has any rights to the RailHawks name, logo, etc. or is that all strictly property of the team owners?

 

The only way USL can survive right now is as a minor league system to MLS. Not a bad thing IMHO.

 

That's pretty cool that he's throwing out his e-mail and cell number out like that, willing to talk about the situation. Have you e-mailed him Jarrett?

 

Agreed. The idea of the RailHawks being soccer's equivalent of the Durham Bulls could be a pretty good thing.

I’m thinking there's got to be a way to make this work so that everyone is happy, the question is, are we going to see it happen anytime soon?

 

Ultimately, I think this will work out in the favor of the owners, though they may not get everything they want right away. NuRock doesn't have any ground to stand on. They will lose most of their investment if 8 or more USL-1 clubs bolt. PDL and USL-2 is valuable, but would almost certainly follow the lead of USL-1 clubs.

 

Yeah, same here.

Although I wish I had just waited to read his interview in the Indy Weekly... it answered all of my questions in depth.

It's still very cool to see an owner responding to e-mails like that though.

 

Got my reply from Selby yesterday too. Answered some of my concerns about a possible August-May schedule.

 

Doesn't surprise me at all.

I used to work for Selby. He was three or four levels of management above me, but I did work for him. The corporate culture at the company was very open. Doors were rarely closed, and pretty much everyone was approachable.

 

I didn't think this needed its own new thread but I was just looking around on wikipedia this morning...

Maybe we should update the Club Rivalries section with the Montreal history... it seems like every time we play them, something intense is going down. The most memorable game of the inaugural season for me is that 2-2 draw we had with them up there - Worthen had both goals, Maher got ejected, basically good times all around. I guess last year wasn't as bad because they basically owned us but the two games this year have been insanely competitive and you know the game in Cary will be too.

So I wanted to ask - who do you think we've become rivals with? I was skeptical with the Rhinos being our rival from the beginning because it just seemed manufactured out of the Economides thing but I love beating them, especially in Rochester. I know Charleston is our "rival" geographically but I honestly don't mind them at all (except for Sanfilippo's performance at WakeMed this year). So for me right now, I'd have to say our biggest rivals are Rochester and Montreal.