Brushing aside the increasingly obvious conclusion that Noorzai's NDA apparently applies to only certain newspapers, I found the Las Vegas Sun's bloody-ragged bitchiness in this story to be somewhat amusing: Okay, let's dig up Shawn's erroneousness in all it's erroneous glory, shall we?!? (Bold/underlines are my own.) But wait! Maybe this is NOT just a matter of bottom-quintile reading comprehension! Maybe since Noorzai will actually risk the wrath of the NDA Hit Squad to talk to the Vegas Sun, they have a whole new set of facts that completely contradict Shawn's carefully-worded article! Let's see! Oh. But wait! Since he can't read, maybe he didn't understand what Noorzai meant! Let's see.... Oh. Nevermind.
I'm afraid that I have to disagree. The only thing we can conclude from the fact that Noorzai's group did not submit a bid by October 15 is that they chose not to compete for a 2011 expansion team. And that is all we can conclude from it. The headline on his October 16 piece on this topic: "Group Looking at Crew Drops Vegas Bid" - which, as we all know, he probably had nothing to do with writing - is almost entirely inaccurate. And yet, that seems to be the conclusion everyone is supposed to draw. We do not know that the group has "dropped" anything. I have not seen Noozai or anyone associated with him making announcing an intent to bid on a 2011 expansion team. We, most all of us, myself included, assumed that they intended to bid on a 2011 expansion team based on previously expressed interest in MLS. But it is our assumption. There is no evidence of any kind that Noorzai either a) changed his mind about a 2011 bid or b) changed his mind about bringing a team to Las Vegas. Perhaps his plan all along was to see if he can pick off a struggling team in the next few years. Perhaps he thinks he'd rather wait until the next round of expansion. We just don't know, and his lack of action last week tells us only part of a story, not the entire tale. So in fact, while the Las Vegas Hooker Gazette or whatever it is could have been a little less snarky about it, if they were reacting to the headline and not Mitchell's words then it's possible they're entirely correct. More to the point, Noorzai felt it was important to immediately slip a few quotes to a reporter, so that the community out there didn't get the wrong message. SOmething which, frankly, he would only have done if he had a good eason to do so, ie. that he's still in the game. Otherwise, there's simply no reason to issue any kind of a response at all. As for a "selective" NDA, well yeah. Aren't they all?
Point conceded on the headline. Reading Shawn's article, it was clear to me that he was being very specific about 2011, and seemed to go out of his way to hammer that point home, but I can see where the headline betrayed Shawn's words. As for the bigger picture, I totally agree that the lack of an application for 2011 means nothing. I just thought the Sun was being a bit bitchy about Shawn's article when the reporting clearly and repeatedly referenced 2011.
Noorzai's track isn't exactly impressive. Could it be we're looking at a hustle that's just plain tanking?
That is along the lines of what I suspect. Now, if the information I've pulled up on Bloch is correct, he does/did have access to people with money. Witness the corporation he partnered with in Santa Monica who did business on the order of $1-$2billion a year. IMHO, it looks like these guys are similar to "the team," in a tangential sort of way. They broker deals, bring money to the table and make things happen. But as far as managing things to the point of success - I can't say I'm all that impressed.
O.K. so give me the bottom line. It appears that the Las Vegas group is no longer a factor, however there might be somebody else interested? And Crew Holdings would be a bad thing? Give me the bottom line is Columbus moving or what?
But how can they steal a team with no proposed stadium plan as part of a formal bid? What do they "show" to the public to generate excitement when there's no bid? Look at it from Las Vegas' point of view--they would go from not being among the expansion candidates to having a team overnight with nowhere to play (I guess with burnt feet on the turf at UNLV a couple years), no season ticketholders built up, nada.
You don't steal a team, you steal money. From investors who think you are offering up a legitimate chance to own an MLS team.
Noorzai Minority Bid Off Skewer me if you must but I gave up looking for the old thread after 25 pages and just opened a new one. From Shawn: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/sports/stories/2009/02/05/0205crew.html?sid=101 [EDIT: Thank you Mods]
I have to admit, there is a small part of me that wonders what was in the works BEFORE: 1. People caught wind of this and flipped; 2. The local journalists ALSO caught wind of this and wrote pieces about the issue; 3. Massive became the most dominant team in MLS; 4. Causing the Hunt family to take further notice of the team; 5. And come to a few games; 6. And witness firsthand what was happening here; 7. We won the Cup. Did we not even notice our own version of Major League?
BG, your plot reminds me of a lot of the San Jose story from a few years ago, only when we got good, we actually attracted fans.