I would normally just post this in the Expansion subforum, but it's an important enough point that I think it deserves mention in this thread: Buried in the recent Equalizer Extra analysis article looking at HOU's and ORL's attendance issues, and whether UTA can change the perception, was this comment: Bad news that LA now seems unlikely for 2019... But if they truly are focused on shoring up the existing franchises, then maybe that's good news for fans in NJ and Seattle. Other comments in the article mention that VWFC has (once again) turned its back on WoSo, and that Barca seems like they won't be in on the LA team (which might explain the delay of a year). The article also compliment the non-MLS ownership of NC and the slow but steady growth from Chicago. I'll post more tidbits (hopefully not enough to seem like I'm subverting the EqEx paywall) in the expansion forum.
Or possibly bad news for fans in NJ and Seattle if you go by the experience of those in Boston and Kansas City last season.
True, but the phrase used was "shoring up", which usually means taking what already exists and making it better where it stands - not shuttering it and replacing it elsewhere. (Heck, Boston wasn't even replaced.) It might be an important distinction that, in both KC and BOS, the move was to find new ownership in each case, i.e. a replacement, not a generic fix, while in both SEA and NJ we're talking more about meeting league standards in terms of field or in player support (or, as was the main point of the article concerning HOU and ORL, bringing attendance back up).
For now, "shoring up" still generally means to reinforce, e.g. by piling earth or sandbags against a wall. In a few years or so, "shoring up" will undergo linguistic shift to mean: The shore is closer to the field now, due to rising ocean levels
Follow-up on this from another article published just earlier today: https://www.sounderatheart.com/2018/8/16/17691736/seattle-reign-memorial-stadium-2019-nwsl-season Memorial Stadium is apparently going to still be in place for 2019 (i.e. Seattle public schools apparently aren't tearing it down just yet) and will be used by the Reign next year, despite failing two of NWSL's minimum stadium standards. So the "worry" for the Reign's franchise stability is punted down the road for a year.
These statements by Predmore, from the article: However, as all are aware, Memorial Stadium has many challenges that make it extremely difficult for us to provide a world-class soccer experience to our players and fans. These challenges also impact our ability to generate matchday revenue at a level consistent with many other teams in the NWSL, which is an issue that we must eventually address. Without diving too deep into the details, I can say that Reign FC is already compliant with all material rules and standards currently in place or planned for implementation through the 2020 season, with two exceptions: the playing surface at Memorial, and Memorial Stadium’s “suitability for broadcasts”. In other words, Memorial Stadium's field sucks, from a player perspective and from a fan perspective. Of particular import is the statement that the "playing surface" doesn't meet standards. Essentially, they're not playing on grass or contemporary soccer turf. They're playing on what we used to call carpet. It simply isn't an acceptable surface. I love the Memorial Stadium location, it's right where it should be. But the field simply isn't good enough, it isn't really a soccer field. It needs to be improved to soccer field level, even if doubling as a football field, or the Reign must move somewhere else. This isn't simply a matter of making it adequate for the players. The field is not attractive for fans, it seriously diminishes the fan experience. Fans should be treated to a beautiful setting (such as the Washington Spirit have, for an example of a non-MLS team) and not to the ugliness that is Memorial Stadium's field.
And anyone that tried to watch the NWSL final between Kansas City and Seattle will attest that it's a terrible location for broadcasting. *Actually, I can't remember if that was Tukwilla or Memorial. Frankly, they're both terrible for TV.
It was Tukwilla. The first SEA-KC final couldn't be at Memorial due to a scheduling conflict, and the second SEA-KC final was in Portland. But yeah, neither one is great for broadcasts.
Speaking of broadcasts. Tomorrow night will be the debut of the new LED lighting system at Sahlen's Stadium at WakeMed Soccer Park. As a still photographer, LED lights are a mixed bag. When they're done well, they're awesome, far better than traditional lights that tend to change in brightness and color temperature as the 60hz power system cycles. PNC Arena, where the NHL Canes and NC State men's basketball team play was one of the first professional arenas to change over (about five years ago). It's very, very well done. When they're done poorly, they're terrible. They can be done poorly in more than one way. Duke's Jack Katz field hockey stadium changed over mid-season a few years ago. The first few games were terrible. It's one thing to put a lot of lights up, it's another to make sure the light is focused properly. This is a problem with traditional lights, too. At Jack Katz, you'd get hot spots that were very bright, but 20 feet away there'd be dead spots. For a sport with continuous action, it makes sports photographer very hard. It's been years since the Washington Nationals moved into their own stadium, but as of last fall, the lights at RFK Stadium were still mostly focused on the old infield. If you watched games at RFK, there's a reason you'd see most of the photographers clustered in the one corner - around home plate. The other problem is that new LED technology is still expensive. While the economies of scale, as long as the energy savings in usage, are making it more affordable, new LED systems that are being installed aren't necessarily bringing more light. By itself, that's not a big problem, but when done in concert with other lighting systems - notably the increase in use of advertising lighting - fieldboards in soccer, ribbon lighting on the apron of stands in arenas and stadiums, and large jumbotrons in arenas - having a relatively weak arena/stadium lighting makes photographer much harder. Notably Wake Forest's LJVM Coliseum was a great place to shoot basketball. A year ago they went LED, but also put full ribbon lighting on the upper deck apron and put in a new scoreboard. The lighting from those completely overpowers the arena lighting, and the colors they cast on everything as the advertising changes from gold to red to blue to green and so on makes photos look terrible. The first generation of LED field boards at the then Home Depot Center in Carson also overpowered the stadium lights. As of right now, Sahlen's has only had video advertising boards for one game in it's 17 years - the USMNT/Paraguay game, so that won't be an issue. My may hope is that they've properly focused the lights so that it's even. Even if the amount of light isn't as great as it was, the photos should look better as the color cast from the older lights will no longer be there.
Another story: http://www.nwslsoccer.com/news/#jim-gabarra-out-as-spirit-coach-and-gm I have a theory, conspiratorial I admit, that Washington has an owner problem. The Spirit were doing great until September 2016 when the owner ordered the national anthem to be played before the game while the players were still in the locker room. This was to prevent players joining Megan Rapinoe in kneeling while the anthem played. The players complained. Whether it was that incident or something else, there was an exodus of players at the end of that season: Krieger, Dunn, and others. The almost champion Washington Spirit became a team of losers in 2917 and 21018. I suppose my opinion that the owner may be the problem is the association in my mind of the Spirit with another Washington team, the Redskins. They also have a terrible owner and they haven't amounted to much since he bought the team. Washington does seem to attract incompetent scoundrels, doesn't it? Just for the record, here's the Spirit player's response to the owner on the anthem controversy. "We are aware you have concerns over events surrounding our September 7 match against the Seattle Reign at the SoccerPlex that have shone a negative light on our organization and league. "We want to share that in the last 48 hours we have met as a team, with coaches, and with ownership. While our primary job is to play soccer, we do not take social issues lightly and we care deeply about the growth and success of the NWSL. "Our team is made up of diverse backgrounds and opinions. In fact, we believe this is a large part of why we have been so successful on the field this season. We come from many countries, ethnicities, and cultures. We proudly support and respect each other as individuals. "We want to briefly respond as a team to the events surrounding our match against the Seattle Reign this past Wednesday. "We respect our owner’s freedom to share his views and we understand his intentions. But as a team we don’t necessarily agree with those opinions or the actions taken on Wednesday evening. "We believe in freedom of speech and expression as long as it’s respectfully demonstrated, even when we don’t agree on every issue. "As a team, we were disappointed we were not informed of the plans for the national anthem or given an opportunity to weigh in on the decision. "We regret that a historic accomplishment for the club was overshadowed by decisions that had nothing to do with the match. The chance to fully celebrate this achievement with our supporters and staff was taken from us. There are so many positive stories that should have been highlighted. It saddens us that these were lost in the moment."
Well, we can quietly wait for the next 9 hundred years to 2917... not to mention the various thousands leading to 21018! Jokes apart, interesting theory, and a reminder that not all NWSL's owners are the same. We have people who seem to create great environments, as in Seattle or Chicago, while others... not so much! (see recent Sky Blue's story or this one you dug out about Washington).
Ever since the anthem incident, I've always been a little suspicious of ownership myself. Lynch's approach to that was one of a petulant child, and it gave him far more negative goodwill than letting Rapinoe get the negative goodwill from her personal detractors. At the same time that happened, I was reminded that the Spirit are the only NWSL to have never held a Pride night, which of course is entirely immaterial to what happens on the field but is another knock (for me) against Lynch. I was suspicious of Gabarra when he was brought on after he didn't impress in NJ, but he *almost* won a championship - before the squad was utterly dismantled. Gabarra's mismangement of the roster has been clear this year in particular, so I'm glad the Spirit have the *opportunity* for a better coach now, but I still also think it's not 100% his fault and management has a good chunk of blame here too - which doesn't make me entirely hopeful that a good coach can fix the Spirit's woes.
As much as I am not a fan of Gabarra, he was instrumental in continuing the women's pro game starting with the WUSA and on until today. I remember when the WUSA folded, Gabarra continued the Washington Freedom and even did a few "tour" games. I remember driving from Chicago to Cincinnati to watch the Freedom vs. Xavier and U of C, I believe, with Heather Mitts as guest player back in something like, 2004.
I made a list of the 2018 performance of NWSL players with at least 5 goals and/or assists in the league. I included their NT performance and any other appearances from after the UEFA Women's EURO. I was quite appalled by how bad Marta is actually doing in 2018. Note that this just represents the attacking players. I would guess that Sauerbrunn would be in the top of the defensive list. The numbers are the minutes per field goal or assist. 1 Sam Kerr 86 2 Tobin Heath 92 3 Lynn Williams 108 4 Megan Rapinoe 119 5 Jessica McDonald 124 6 Alex Morgan 131 7 Yuki Nagasato 150 8 Debinha 150 9 Crystal Dunn 157 10 Lindsey Horan 160 11 Christine Sinclair 167 12 Sydney Leroux 171 13 Jodie Taylor 176 14 Kealia Ohai 180 15 Sofia Huerta 202 16 Rachel Daly 210 17 Katie Stengel 210 18 Christen Press 216 19 Marta 226 20 Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic 236
https://thewatertoweronline.com/trademarks-filed-for-lafc-ladies-and-lvfc-ladies-cbdd98455a2f This is more for the expansion thread but since this is also potential news, I thought I would share this here. Apparently trademarks have been filed for LCFC Ladies and LVFC Ladies this past week. I know that doesn't necessarily mean anything yet but I SHALL REMAIN HOPEFUL........
I wouldn't get too excited about LVFC Ladies... Also, the article points out one problem with LAFC Ladies, but not a second related problem: ...the second problem being that, even if the trademark claim WAS done by the MLS group, they'd really, really run afoul of the same issue that that's forced all of the MLS-operated NWSL teams to use completely different branding (names, mascots, crests, etc.) - MLS is an Adidas league while NWSL is Nike. And the new LAFC team wouldn't be that stupid to actually try that, so I'm guessing it is a third-party getting involved and setting themselves up to be legally decimated. (I guess there is the possibility of the MLS organization gobbling up the trademarks simply to stop anyone else from trying, but that seems unlikely to me, since "LAFC" itself is already covered.)
The NWSL operated by the USSF is sponsored by Nike through their USSF contract. If the NWSL severs its links to USSF (as an operator, not a sanctioning body) all bets are off. I know the adidas/Nike stuff is an annoyance with NCFC/Courage. I assume it's the same with the four MLS owned teams. And as the MLS side of those four teams is the dominant partner, it would make sense that those four clubs as well as NCFC would probably prefer to consolidate on adidas. There is a lot of wasted equipment costs having to service both vendors exclusively.
A big "if", but definitely a fair point! I don't know offhand if USL is definitely and adidas league or lets each team pick its own suppliers, but either way - if NWSL switches an associated with USL as rumored, it would certainly be a big simplification for the MLS-operated NWSL teams and NC.
No they're not. Yes the brand they used is "Astroturf," which is the eponym given to the old carpet turfs. But they installed "AstroTurf GameDay Grass" (with the same E-Layer that CenturyLink had at the time), which has artificial the grass blades of modern day turf. The problem is that it was installed in 2013 with football as it's primary use. So the blades are shorter than the artificial turf targeted for soccer and they have been matted down over the 5 years of usage. So, of course, when compared to Providence Park which gets new state-of-the-art turf every year now (at least according to the last article I read on the topic it said they were getting new turf in both 2018 and 2019), it's going to be very subpar. If the Reign are going to be able to play there next year, but SPS still plans to demolish it after the season, perhaps an option would be to tear out the old artificial turf and install grass for the 2019 season (and maybe also take out the first couple of rows on one side so that they can make the pitch wider).
I see over on Equalizer the commenters are floating a rumor that Marta and Morgan want to leave Orlando. That wouldn't surprise me much. And, as there's also a rumor on this board that a lot of Houston players are unhappy campers, maybe there's a trade in the future. I frankly don't think either Morgan or Marta will bring a huge price. Star power doesn't appear to result in huge attendance increases. I would hate to see Daly or Huerta or Ohai leave Houston, and they would be the most likely to be of interest for M & M -- or one of the Ms.
I know Marta and Morgan are waiting with bated breath for a new Los Angeles team. I bet once an LA team is announced, they'll be gone faster than a Martini at Truman Capote's. Wow I would be through the roof if our future LA team had both Marta and Morgan, that would be a large piece in what I would imagine the greatest woman's team in the World to look like. It would be just like the LA Sol during the good ole times. Wow I was just thinking too, imagine if we got all the former Pac 12 players too like Sydney Leroux and A-Rod and Hallie Mace can join our squad too as the number 2 pick. I'd be in heaven. DARN IT MIA, JUST ANNOUNCE THE TEAM ALREADY!