....yes? The expansion thread is "elsewhere on this board". That's kinda the point. Does it need to be rehashed in multiple places?
nope. just pointing for those who asked about news. (my "elsewhere" meant that I didn't know if it was mentioned in other than the expansion thread). ...and, as much as I'd prefer otherwise, that wouldn't be a novel occurrence. news has been discussed in more than one place on this board.
FC Kansas City might be sold/relocated to Real Salt Lake: https://www.thebluetestament.com/2017/11/15/16659296/fc-kansas-city-moving-to-salt-lake Half the league would be owned by a professional men's team. Four MLS and one whatever league NCFC plays in next year.
What are people's thoughts on this relocation? This help make the league more stable? Will attendance and sponsorship go up? Will the level of play be similar? WNY to NC was widely accepted as awesome. How about this one?
First of all, IMO, this is not "Expansion". This is "Relocation" so it CAN be discussed here.. Sad for the fans of KC. Also I don't agree with the notion that this news is bad for small market or owners with "shallow pockets". For it to be that way you have to have many MLS teams clamoring to get into the business of NWSL. Sporting KC wanted nothing to do with FCKC even though it was there for them to take. As of right now you will have to have a combination of MLS and non-MLS ownerships. I don't know how deep Red Stars owner Arnim Whisler's pockets are but I do know he loves the game, the women's game and is in it for the right reason. I doubt the Fire want to get involved.
I feel bad for Kansas City, but they were having too much trouble making a go of it, it seems. I expect the move to Salt Lake to be successful. Utah provides good support to women's soccer. The attendance at Utah colleges' DI women's soccer games is very good. Utah has excellent youth soccer for girls, on a per capita basis it's among the top states in the country at producing DI women's soccer players. And demographically, it seems right as an area to provide strong fan support for an NWSL team. For a long time I've felt that it should be a target area for the NWSL.
yeah, Kansas City has the fan base to support the team. Too bad it's ownership was garbage from the beginning.
They seemed to draw well the first season but then they kept moving the team around to different stadiums. Could never recapture what they did the first season.
The NWSL is in discussions with the FC Kansas City ownership group regarding its status and plans for the future. An update will be provided as soon as possible.— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) November 16, 2017 Read between the lines. At this time, FCKC is still a franchise, has not been purchased, and is not relocating to SLC. And yet they felt the need to announce the new franchise in SLC now. If he wasn't putting up a fight, why not just announce that an agreement had been made to sell and relocate the team (even if the sale had not been finalized)? Or why even make the announcement in the first place?
Why indeed? Perhaps because the RSL deal will go ahead no matter what? Perhaps because FCKC doesn't own a franchise (they don't), but only have an agreement with the League to manage a team (they do) and the agreement either has a term limit that is about to expire unless mutually renewed or has provisions allowing the League to terminate it under certain conditions that have occurred (I don't know one way or the other on either of these possibilities), and the League, RSL, and FCKC are negotiating a "hand over." I could see RSL saying, "We're going ahead with a team, we'd prefer to work out a deal with you (FCKC), but we're going ahead no matter what, if you want to keep a team in KC, go ahead."
You can be nitpicky about the specific terminology used all you want, but that doesn't change anything. They obviously can't just terminate the contract and kick him out at this point, or they would have already done so and announced that SLC would be taking over FCKC's place in the league. Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying is happening. So glad you agree with my point of view. If you want to argue I'm being hyperbolic comparing Baer to Borislow, I'd have to say, fair enough (though I did only say that he's trying, not that he will do). But I think it's fairly clear from the way this is being handled that Baer isn't just congenially handing the team over to RSL.
Interesting take on this. I️ haven’t been following the details of this development closely but after some tweets yesterday on social media I’m got an opposite opinion on what is going down. It seems the league or someone must have been shopping the team around and some two weeks ago Sporting KC turned them down. It was then that RSL was approached. This was confirmed by multiple journalists. What I️ can’t reconcile is why would the league try to sell the team if Baer wasn’t on board with it? It’s not like they are doing poorly attendance wise compare to others. Secondly when asked why RSL rushed to make this appointment now when they have no details to share including a team name, Merritt Paulson said they wanted to make the announcement now to start selling tickets while they still work out the legal details. It’ll be quite a leap to make this announcement now if they weren’t sure the deal would go through. I️ seriously doubt there’s a plan b where RSL gets a brand new team as that will require expansion drafts and all that comes with it. With respect to the tweet from the NWSL, my read on that is they were trying to respond as diplomatically as possible to the numerous questions they got about if FCKC is the team relocating with violating any legal boundaries.
I just don't buy that response. They're not actually even selling tickets yet, all you can do is fill out a form expressing your interest and they will contact you after they've figure out ticket pricing... Why not wait until you've figured out ticket pricing so you can start selling tickets immediately if your excuse for announcing it when so unprepared is to sell tickets?
Update: An #NWSL update: FC Kansas City will 100% relocate to Real Salt Lake (roster, picks, etc.), per source.Delay has been FCKC owners not communicating and not signing off. But I’m told it’s about resolved - should be announced in coming days.— Caitlin Murray (@caitlinmurr) November 18, 2017
I notice that the NWSL Almanac for 2017 will be published online soon. It includes stats for every player and team for every NWSL season. Pre-publication cost is 16.95. (P.S. I don't have any monetary or other affiliation with the Almanac.) https://issuu.com/jendesignhouston/docs/nwsasample
x-posted from "Pay Comparison Across Leagues": FIFPro has published the 2017 Women's Football Global Employment Report, a survey of women's football, and it includes info on pay across several leagues. Its not specific (as to a league, country, etc.) but still good info: https://www.fifpro.org/news/fifpro-women-s-football-survey-published/en/ Besides the salary info, there's information in the survey on contracts, country vs club issues, sexual harassment, dual careers, and players starting families.
New York Cosmos Quickest Path Back To World Class Status Is The NWSL http://midfieldpress.com/2018/01/09...-path-back-to-world-class-status-is-the-nwsl/
I saw that, and I was about to post it in the NASL forum. Except that I'm pretty sure O'Brien and Sela have nothing to do with the Cosmos anymore and that Rocco Commisso now owns the team.
....please, please, let this alone kill any talk of the current Cosmos brand coming anywhere near NWSL. There are plenty of NYC-area options in the event that Sky Blue needs to be sold, or even if you just want a second NYC-area team, and the Cosmos should be the last on the list. Not to mention that it's *already* 2018. Aside from the known question mark over Boston, there should be no sales or team shuffling going on that this point. NWSL will NOT be the Cosmos' stop-gap measure if NASL 2018 doesn't happen.
Off topic; but this is the right thread, I think. I just finished Gwendolyn Oxenham's book: "Under the Lights and in the Dark - Untold Stories of Women's Soccer." Twelve great chapters; each its own story. Some may have heard several of the stories; regardless, this is a Great Read. Her writing is really really good and has the right amount of personal touch and "voice." Grant Wahl said "She connects on a deeply human level with the people who are the soul of the global game. I love this book." https://www.amazon.com/Under-Lights...8-1&keywords=under+the+lights+and+in+the+dark