Please excuse another rambling post. This is apparently my therapy. I have been trying to figure out why these apparently really nice people would be so clueless about the error of their ways in handling this move. I suppose there are the cynical explanations, which have been getting plenty of air time here, and which could be right I suppose. I am not claiming that those are wrong. And I am certainly not taking issue with the anger: I think this move was handled very poorly and insensitively. But as I calm down a bit, I am leaning toward other explanations of the Rawlins' behavior. I think they wanted to succeed in Austin, and to stay here. That doesn't mean they did all they could have done, but I can't bring myself to judge how others spend their own money. Judging from Phil's comments, he may never have seen the volunteer army as really important stakeholders. He didn't see that group as making the kind of real investment that big money people make. He seems to think that the volunteers were getting a return on investment that was more than commensurate with the investment, irrespective of the future of the club in Ausin. For that reason, he didn't feel any obligation to keep that group informed of problems, or to give any kind of advance warning about a move, or to let us down easy in any sense. This doesn't excuse allowing us all to keep contributing under misconceptions about his plans, misconceptions of which he ought to have been aware. But I doubt that was intentional, or conscious; rather, it was probably not something he thought about since our investment wasn't really that big in his eyes. There's an old saying, "I am what I think; you are what you do." He had a narrative in his own head in which he is working like a dog to make this thing work, spending lots of his own $. We weren't privy to much of that. So he's thinking "Why don't they appreciate what I did? Etc." I think he did probably work hard to make it work. But he really mismanaged one group of stakeholders (by denigrating the value of their stake in his own head). Hence all the anger.
Since you are using this as therepy I offer you my Freudian interpretation. In my experience I think being a fan and being a manager are diametrically opposed. While Kay is obviously a kind-hearted person....Phil is a business man. It's almost like there are two teams, the one the fans support and the one the manager owns. They often struggle for control; and sometimes they work together..like a married couple. At the center of it are the players (or children). Both the manager and fans want what's best for the children but one looks at it from a logical perspective (owner), and the other an emotional (fan). In the end, nobody 'owns' the team. There will be other teams to support and eventually I bet Austin will have a MLS team which would be really cool.
I like your analysis. I think as an explanation for Phil's behavior (which was my goal) it is pretty consistent with my explanation.
I am clearly a little calmer now. I was actually able to sleep pretty well last night. But getting only 4 hours sleep the night before might've had something to do with that. As others that know me already know, I have a tendency to try to see the best in others, and try to be understanding of others' situations. And I have, occasionally, because it's what I do, tried to put myself in Phil's shoes. Not so much in the business aspect, but in the other, stickier aspect of dealing with us. And what I find myself coming up with is two things: 1. He was very busy dealing with the actual business aspects of this move. 2. He was too embarrassed at how badly he misjudged the situation here in Austin to admit to anyone (especially us, who he'd told so many rosy stories) that he was taking the team away. To me, the second is probably the easiest, most simple explanation. And his dismissive comments in the Statesman article easily fit a 'defensive' attitude. Not that I really have any insight into Phil at all. And I certainly don't find the behavior excusable, even if that is what's going on. As to the 'calmer stages of grief', yeah, I think I'm there. My mind isn't dwelling on every little piece as obsessively anymore. I am starting to wonder, though, what I'll do now that I don't have a reason to check the Austin forum several times a day.
I'm only finding all this out now, I thought the IMS article was based on a rumour + the season is over so i didn' delv too deeply into the posts on this forum. Needless to say, I'M NOT IN THE CLAMER STAGES OF GRIEF, nuff said.
btw, if you want to remain in the calmer stages of grief, avoid the Dynamo forum. Some ... um ... person named "bilzy" is adamant that the majority of supporters knew the true situation and this set of events was always Phil's plan. Which I guess would make us pretty darned unscrupulous to say that we didn't. What a delight those Dynamo fans are.
I personally know some of the Stoke lot including the main owners of the club, I don't have any friendship with Phil but I do know people who know him and I know he is a good and caring man. And whilst Phil is smiling and doing the PR thing I know inside he will be very upset. Phil wanted the Aztex's to be a success and clearly that has happened in some measure since he's been with the club but the ending has obviously been a disaster. Those who know what Phil is like will understand this was a very difficult decision for him and his wife given their integration and happiness in the community and the recent success the club has been enjoying in the league. But clearly he had a difficult decision to make whereby he could (seemingly) only get the investment the team needs to be taken to a new level by moving it to a new location. Football can be a odditiy whereby it's a business and for folk like Phil it's a passion too but unfortunately Phil doesn't have bottomless pockets and can't do it alone, I've seen people vastly exaggerating and I've seen him listed as owning a major stake in Stoke in lots of articles (which we all know isn't the case), sure he's a wealthy chap but he isn't able to gamble his whole wealth on a small football team. He said he'd sought funding in the team but rather unsurprsingly given the economy in the US and the propsect it wasn't forthcoming. It's bitter news and it's hard to stomach and I'm sure I'd feel the same as you if the Aztex's were my team but given Phil's integrity and what seems like a reasonable explanation I'm inclined to believe him. With that aside though I do agree this could have been handled much better.
LOL!!! the majority of us feel for you that you lost your team. no need to call all of us out because of 1 or 2 person's opinion or bullsht (same thing). good luck to you guys. hope someone comes to the rescue.
I just set the record straight for bilzy. I have no idea who he/she is, but she obviously had no real contact with the front office, fans, or volunteers.
Fair enough. What a delight that dynamo fan is. Cheese, I think for most of us it's not about the decision any more. In our clear-headed moments, we realize it's Phil's money and he is free to do what he wants with it. It's about the expectations that Phil and Kay cultivated (and then, I guess, forgot to dispel) in those who answered the call to volunteer, and how they were defeated without a word from Phil. I agree that Phil and Kay were great ambassadors of the game in Austin and treated everyone well. It's the HOW part of the departure that stains the memory of the Aztex, at least a little bit, for me. That said, we had a great time. I only wish that if it had to end, the process had been handled very differently.
Well, and I'd say the harm goes a little deeper than that, because I really think they've done significant long-term harm to the game here in Austin. Matthew used the term "salted the earth" a few times yesterday on the radio, and I think that's right. I hope I'm wrong, but I feel like, with as many people as feel burned by this experience, it's going to be a long time, now, before we get back even to the PDL (or equivalent) level of play, which is where we were before the Aztex came along.
If salting the Earth is so bad then why do people sometimes compliment someone by saying, 'He's the salt of the Earth.'?
Wikipedia FTW: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salting_the_earth "Not to be confused with Salt of the earth. Salting the earth, or sowing with salt, is the ritual of spreading salt on conquered cities to symbolize a curse on its re-inhabitation. It originated as a practice in the ancient Near East and became a well-established folkloric motif in the Middle Ages."
I have to disagree that the Earth is salted. To the contrary, we proved that we can attract healthy attendance, have a successful team, and a rabid supporters group at the USL-1 level. Given an owner who is not a turncoat, we showed that Austin can easily support professional soccer.
Having not done any research, my guess is that "He's the salt of the earth" might be a very old phrase from when salt was a precious mineral. OK. I came up with a link, so I did a little research. But not into the phrase.
I truely believe that Phil & Kay are genuinely nice people and have their heart in the right place & really wanted to suceed here in Austin a town they love, its just so very sad its ended this way and (im guessing here) they were embarressed and could not face the people who they befriended knowing they were taking the club away from us.
If so, that would be sad. You may be right, but I tend to think that Phil is strong enough to tackle that sort of communication issue head on if he was so inclined. I am just having trouble deciding why he wasn't so inclined.
Things have been moving fast this week, but better late than never on this. I've got a meeting with Phil at the Aztex office today at 1:00 p.m. I'll see what he has to say and provide feedback on what I can.
I'll be interested to hear your take on this. I just listened to the futbol en vivo podcast. The discussion/dissection reminded me that while it apparently wasn't enough, there certainly was a lot of learning over these last three years about what it takes to make soccer work in Austin. And it seems like about 2/3 of those lessons had been learned and appropriate adjustments made. Too bad we can't keep working on that other third, and instead must go back to zero.
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