According to the rumors discussed in this thread three expansion bids were on the agenda of the BOG meeting. The meeting is already over, right? And unless I missed it (which is quite possible) there haven't been any announcements regarding an approved expansion bid. Does this mean that all three bids where rejected or that the decision has been postponed to a later date? Or is it possible that they have approved one/several bid(s) and that they want to make the announcement at some later point (for whatever reason)? Does anyone know how they handled the announcements of decisions at BOG meetings in the past?
It depends on what the goals of the meeting were. It could be they were simply hearing the bids, discuss them, but not make any final decisions yet. Even so no matter what the goal was I doubt we would hear anything official yet. That is something I think they would want to plan a press conference to announce the teams in their individual cities. I have little doubt that Miami and Puerto Rico both were accepted at least a week, if not more, before their official announcements. So no I don't think the silence is meaningful at this point.
I checked the Twitter account of the guy who was revealing things but he said that NASL caught on that he was leaking things and shut him down.
As far as I remember, the only time they've announced expansion at the meeting was Jax and OKC which was on the same day. Miami and PR came a few weeks after.
Well, sort of. They stopped the meeting "to internally address information leak", i.e. the naughty person at the meeting who was feeding him the info . Once they discovered he was posting it on twitter, "attendees in the meeting were asked to all turn off their phones". Tsk tsk!
Wouldn't it be great if some of the NASL prospects wanted in, but didn't want to pay the expansion fee?
I don't buy it. Most leagues hold press conferences to announce possible bids to put public pressure on the bids and real groups paying the fees just for a proposal. NASL seems to pay journalists to "leak" rumours just to feign interest and keep the skis pointed down the hill. We can all throw change into the wishing well, but its not the mall that advertises how many wishes came true in their fountains. Cheaper than run of river and wind; journalists blow mills for the pennies in wells...
I see you juts joined....that is just understood around here by all....except maybe one poster. Has been NASL's MO ever since NYC joined.
Oh yes, two completely different organizations cannot possibly run their businesses in different ways. That is why prior to announcing Miami FC they....oh wait they didn't do that prior to announcing Miami. All we had were leaked rumors. Damn, don't you hate when reality doesn't mesh with perception.
His general point is right however. NASL has been notoriously untrustorthy, and cheap headline seeking for quite some time now. Makes one doubt anything they do and say at this point....until it actually happens.
It could be as much different situations as different organizations. With MLS in the same market they may not have wanted to tip their hand. Similar logic might hold in Atlanta.
NASL also has had set backs of announced expansion teams not ever making it out of the gate, maybe some of the ownership groups does not want that to happen. Just like there are splits in regards to Atlanta (keep it alive or not) there may be splits among other things (like suing USSF), maybe some owners did want the media attention and leaked the info, while other owners wanted to keep it secret in case none of the bids is good enough.
Some examples Weak bids getting announced early: OKC, Northern Virginia Bids getting leaked early then disappearing: Hartford, Hamilton Yeah, I could see why NASL would want to keep quiet. Still, I'm mostly curious to see what the deal with Duggan and Detroit is. Maybe his bro the mayor won't push for a stadium without the teaming playing in a higher league? All I know is if USL won't let the guy in, there's got to be something strange going on that the NASL should probably avoid
It's real clear IMO that there are splits in NASL, and fairly large ones at that. At this point however there isn't much reason to believe anything they say until it gets done. Just a super hyped up, over the top version of MLS PR circa 2000-2006. Get it done or "I don't believe a thing you say anymore."
Well they presented a pretty ambitious stadium plan, if approved then they will get a soccer team and then go bankrupt if the details of the deal are correct.
Here's another conflicted report for you: Would-Be Developer Of Hartford Soccer Stadium Has Record Of Embezzlement, Lawsuits
Well maybe this is the reason that the NASL did not announce the group as an expansion team. I would think this also explains why they did not present at the BOG meeting last week.
I don't know why it took public officials in Hartford and the staff of the Hartford Courant so long to uncover Duckett's troubling legal/financial dealings. It was readily available to anyone interested in doing a simple search of public records. I called it 2-1/2 months ago. To wit...
I completely agree Signed, California Victory, Virginia Beach Mariners and a bunch of guys from Puerto Rico.
An old article, but one of the last paragraphs may help explain why Dan Duggan is talking Detroit with the NASL. http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sp...y-fc-wants--move--hamtramck-stadium/71999716/ "The team (DCFC) has had loose talks with a group under Pistons owner Tom Gores, who might be interested in investing in Detroit soccer." The plot may be thickening in Detroit