Answer. - because it is indoor soccer! Question - why do some MASL teams announce they are returning to the league on a year by year basis, isn't it simply implied? Anyone got a better answer?
https://www.mississauga.com/sports-story/7395072-city-of-mississauga-goes-all-in-on-arena-soccer/ Interesting article about the formation of the Canadian Arena Soccer Association to be based in Mississauga, Ontario, future home of the new MASL Toronto team starting in 2018. Knew Hector Marinaro was Canadian but didn't know he was from Mississauga.
http://www.stlambush.com/news/ambush-announce-personnel-changes The Ambush have removed Tony Glavin from the head coach role and will hire a new coach. Long overdue and very necessary change. Two-thirds of last season's roster should not have even been in the MASL. As Sydney said on Turf and Boards, when will St. Louis sign some decent players? A new head coach with MASL/indoor winning experience is a good start to recruiting better players. Tony completely failed to recruit any free agent players in May, that was probably the point when the decision was made that new coaching was needed.
http://www.maslsoccer.com/news/masl-pursues-new-ownership-opportunities-in-kansas MASL is seeking a "new ownership group for the Kansas City market" What would a summer be without some indoor soccer drama?? Unique.
What what the point of the league issuing a press release on this? I mean why not keep it in house until a new ownership group is found. How can you protect and build your brand when you are the one issuing negative press releases. SMH ON the Plus side of things , This could fill the ST Louis Ambush's Roster and Coaching positions in just a matter of a few phone calls. That is if the owner ship is willing to open its wallets , Milwaukee Wave , Cedar Rapids roster is already stacked , So that leaves Chicago, ST Louis , looking to fill its rosters.
To shake loose an investor. Remember how Milwaukee's guy heard there was a problem with the Wave? Do you think they have this wealth of potential indoor soccer investors and they're busy behind the scenes talking to all of them? Gosh, you get EVERYTHING wrong. But speaking of Kansas City, the moron who said the Sprint Center was a white elephant should read this.
A news article about the Comets recently announced that the team was 'seeking new investors'. Obviously they have not found investors yet, so this MASL announcement is not surprising. The team needs an 'angel investor' to step up pretty quick for the Comets to return this season. I feel bad for Comets fans, I hope something works out and they come back. Looks like the only 'winners' from the owner vs owners lawsuit were the attorneys. Certainly I hope the Ambush can sign some Comets players. But a couple of their better free agents have really good regular jobs in KC so are not likely to move elsewhere. I posted the Comets announcement on the Ambush Facebook page and tagged the owner with 'encouragement' to see if they can sign at least a couple players, if possible. However the Ambush have signed zero free agents so far and are seeking a new head coach, so I am not holding my breath. It is more likely a few guys end up in Chicago, Cedar Rapids, or Milwaukee, though I wouldn't rule out the Ambush eventually signing someone from KC. Brian Roth, the Ambush general manager, used to work for the Comets.
From what I am hearing, Brian Budzinski does not want to move forward with the team. The Likens can not move forward since they have relinquished all ownership of the team to Brad likens. All of this is part of the Lawsuit settlement agreement. The Deadline has past for teams to resign it players and now anyone who is not under contract is a free agent. Rumor has it that several owners in the masl have been approached to keep the comets afloat until a buyer can be found. If not the Comets will just sit this season out. The Masl is already in talks with potential owners. I say the league should approach every owner and have them all step up and own a stake in the comets just to keep them afloat until a buyer is found.
I doubt the MASL has enough money to fully run a team with a well paid roster like the Comets. That idea from Lewis could work, to have at least several other owners loan funds to the MASL to keep the Comets operating at a basic level, and any new owner would be required to repay these loans (with modest interest) upon taking control of the Comets. I do appreciate that the MASL is being fair to the players and allowing them to potentially sign with other teams. That is what should have happened when Wichita quit paying their players and staff during the season and few years ago. Just dissolved the team, if no one stepped up as a new owner, and made them all free agents.
This is why all teams in the MASL should be required to have a surety bond with a $1 Million dollar payout if they can not fulfill the Three year contract agreement. Then the league could take over any team for at least one year.
I agree completely, there 'should' be a required 'bond' or some mechanism to guarantee that a team would be funded to operate for a season if an owner couldn't continue (managed by the league or someone appointed by the league). Indoor soccer just doesn't have the revenues to support such stability. The MASL has improved in several ways in the last year but still no sign of major revenue growth or increase in fan interest. I hope the game gets more popular over time but it is still a fringe sport. Survival of teams is year by year in many cases, unfortunately in this case it involves a winning franchise. It really can be a success in KC if the right owner comes in. Best of luck to their efforts to find an owner.
Here is what I dont get , Sydney pointed this out , Why did the lease issue this press release about the Comets , But not when the same thing happened to chicago. We still have no clue what is going on Chicago
I have always suspected that Sue Black was the 'front' for other 'investors' who didn't want to be publicly identified. Not saying that it was illegal or anything but it certainly didn't seem that Black had enough wealth on her own to run a team without extra money from elsewhere. Yes, I know she took out a loan ( and later got sued for not paying it back on time, but then it was settled). Obviously whatever Black was trying to accomplish didn't work out; the Wave were lucky to survive and find a better owner.
People should not be taking out loans to fund indoor soccer teams. Thats insane. The surety bond idea is good one that all real leagues have, after the surety money is exhausted the league can take extraordinary measures to keep the team afloat. However this is how real leagues do it, MASL cannot begin to be considered a real league in financial terms. The $1 million is going to scare off all investors. Realistically it shoud be $10000-20000 to legally wind down the company.
Well right now the latest is that they are close to a deal to keep the comets in the league. I was told it must be a done deal by 8/1/17. The vetting process is being done now. Over the last 36 years we have seen so many teams come and go then we have seen several just fold in the middle of a season. I have no clue why the league does not require a surety bond when you sign your original 3 year agreement to play. If you want to be a real professional league you need to act like one. Issuing a press release in a negative fashion is not the way to go IMHO.
Sue Black borrowed the money from a local family. She then hired a member of that family to work in the front office in an executive level role. Several months later, she fired that person. yes, fired her. She then defaulted on her payback agreement. It was another person that bailed out Sue Black and paid back the borrowed money. Sue was eventually (quietly) released from the Wave organization by the new owner that came in. She was one of the worst owners to ever be involved with the game. Karma will catch up to that woman some day...
I think this is one of the many examples of a major downfall of indoor soccer over the years. The sport has allowed in owners who didn't really have enough resources to properly fund a minor league team (Sue Black fits this category, and was also an abysmally bad owner, and now is also being sued in Arizona), or allow in owners who should have been screened out by basic background checks (Dion Earl and that Hartford owner being the most notorious recent examples). If the MASL is not requiring these new owners to fund a surety bond (usually sold by an insurance company or bank) to cover one season's worth of reasonable operating expenses/wages in case the owner can't run the team anymore, the MASL is not a real professional league. It is just a loose confederation of 'franchises' who are operating without any real safety net for players, coaches, and staff members of the teams. They (and their family members) are the ones who suffer for having their jobs suddenly end when an owner runs out of money or decides to empty the bank accounts and run off. I acknowledge that there have been some improvements in the last year in the MASL, such as getting rid of that awful online broadcasting platform that never worked and going back to YouTube. However it is still a long path to make indoor soccer actually stand up as a true professional sport, including requiring that players be paid respectable minor-league wages and benefits.
Man i had forgotten about that. Great post. Incompetence - Sue Black Idiocy - Raj Kalra Anyone else name some bad owners?
It was right at 30 years ago. I had bought a large hotel in San Diego Old Town. I knew it would take awhile to get it up to a high occupancy so I went around to the three pro teams in town, San Diego Padres, San Diego Chargers, and San Diego Sockers and told them if they wanted to impress somebody they could put them up at the hotel on me, no charge, but in exchange I wanted some tickets for the maids and maintenance people to their events. The Padres used me, the Chargers used me, the Sockers abused me. They always had 10 or 15 people living there. The Sockers had their owners meeting at the hotel a few months later on the 7th level of the complex. You took a hill-a-vator (tram) to get from the parking garage to the top level but some folks just couldn't figure out how to operate it so when the Sockers investors began showing up I took them from the garage to the top with all of them thinking I was an employees of the hotel. As each ride went to the top they were all saying if Bob Bell thought he was going to get any more money out of them he was dreaming. He ask for $100,000 each from the (dirty dozen) as they were called and got it as I recall. I remember thinking "Wow, what a strong ownership group that 12 people could all come up with $100,000." A few months later the league had their meeting there and I was again the tram operator trying to learn as much as I could about indoor soccer which as it turned out came in handy over the next 25 or so years. When the league meetings ended I went into the unit and gathered up all the notes and agenda sheets then sat down and tried to learn what I could. The L.A. Lazers were run by a guy named Jim Buss. Their numbers didn't look good. They had shown a grand total income of the previous year of $77,000. They had spent more than that on printing. A few weeks later I went to a Sockers Lazers game in the Forum in L.A. Just prior to the game a sort of hippie van pulled into the forum in the tunnel just below where I was sitting. A guy in a beat up old suede it looked like almost cowboy hat got out with a couple friends and I could smell the odor of dope sifting up to my seat from the van. I don't remember who was sitting next to me but they said "There's the owner of the Lazers, Jim Buss. He and his friends follow the team around in their bus smoking dope all the way to the games and back." Shelts, I think he should be in there somewhere.
From 2004 to 2006, the St. Louis Steamers were owned by a guy named Hetelson. He had a partner named Smerconish in 2004 but I think that guy dropped out by the next year. He built a good team on field, they made the playoffs both years. However, he made the costly mistake of moving the team from the more affordable suburban arena in St. Charles to the pricey 19,000 seat Savvis (now Scottrade) center arena. He marketed the team a lot, but mostly to beer drinking hipsters. His ad campaign featuring attractive women and nearly-naked soccer players was very creative but apparently alienated some soccer moms. Attendance was decent but the team (or someone) was giving away tickets to hobos, some of whom ended up scalping the freebie tickets in front of the arena. The game day operation was getting shabby by the 2nd season, a warning sign looking back. The 2nd season in 2006 finished, the team was accepting season ticket deposits for the next season. Two months later, or a few weeks, the MISL announced the team was 'seeking new investors'. Then it folded altogether. I know some fans who made season ticket deposits that year and never got a refund. Teams will fold, we understand that, but it was wrong to not give those deposits back to the fans. So yeah, Hetelson belongs on the lousy owners list. If he had stayed at the suburban arena and dialed back some of that crazy marketing, he could have done better and not run out of money as fast. Saint Louis didn't have a MISL level team again for 7 years after the Steamers were shuttered in 2006.