Regardless of the Boston disaster, it would have been a wise move to expand rosters this year. The main reason is everyone believes there will be expansion next year and two teams r definitely coming in with a possible third. If that is the case ud want to fatten ur rosters a little bit to prepare for losing players to expansion next year.
This is true. But, I am not sure if on this thread or on another one, someone (@AndyMead , probably) correctly noticed that, although it's true that expanded rosters would be needed, they would also have to be substainable for all clubs with the current financial turnover of the league. It's useless to expand the rosters if this end leading to other Boston-like situations or to the need to find big spenders throwing money into the teams. I agree that expanding the rosters by at last a pair players would be good at the mere sporting-level, but is it really financially affordable?
There r more considerations than just adding $30-40K to the cap. U have to house them and cover insurance, etc. On the other side if uve removed a team at the bottom of the attendance ladder, the increase in revenue sharing for the others probably covers a chunk of it. Another increase would be expected by replacing what Utah will draw compared to what KC drew. I believe Utah has already sold more season tickets than the average FCKC attendance. We don't know if there was a planned bump to the cap anyway. If there was, after increasing pay significantly last year I believe they'd be better off using this years increase to give 18 more soccer players jobs.
This would be great news! Hey, I will contribute (a very humble amount, btw) to get it rolling! Fingers BIG TIME crossed!
Regardless of what happens with the Boston Breakers situation, it doesn't seem to have put a damper on 2019 expansion for the NWSL. Check it out on the Expansion thread.
#NWSL has issued a “no comment at this time” regarding group trying to save the Boston Breakers— Dan Lauletta (@TheDanLauletta) January 26, 2018 At this point, I'm thinking NWSL needs to stick its proverbial head out a little bit and say SOMETHING. The narrative is spinning wildly out of control at this point, and they need to clamp down on it ASAP. Even if it's just "another group has come forward and we're trying to hash out the details on short notice". I don't care if the end result is saving the Breakers for 2018, putting them on hiatus for a year, or officially saying they're gone (whether someone else is replacing them or not). You can say the outcome is TBD, but they need to saying SOMETHING about what's going on. At least make it known that options are available. Control the d*&5$ narrative.
I disagree. Who cares what kind of social media lather gets ginned up. Saying something now doesn't matter long term. If anyone other than an current Boston Breakers player or staffer loses sleep tonight because the NWSL hasn't commented on the situation, that's on the person losing sleep.
I think you should care - if not for the fans or detractors, than for the image this is giving the league. Yes, it sounds like a Barca-led team is on the verge of officially joining, but what of any other expansion interest? What about trying to court new sponsors? What about finding a commissioner? The louder the discussion gets without the league showing control, the less likely outside people are to work with the league on other issues. I'm still confident that the league can probably sustain itself indefinitely with the nine teams it currently has, but I sure would love to see proper growth sooner rather than later. That's not going to happen without proper leadership. There are currently two MLS teams lined up in the expansion pipeline. I'd hate for them to get cold feet now. Granted, a successful first season from Utah could offset any problems viewed from the Breakers situation. But I'd rather minimize collateral damage as much as possible.
I'm with AndyMead. If there are new team operator groups in the pipeline, the way to assure them is by talking to them directly and privately. The way to reassure the players is by letting them know the status of events, directly and privately. Beyond that, I see no need for public statements until there's something of substance to make statements about.
I've been reading as much as I can on what's happening in Boston, following twitters, etc. The one thing that bothers me a little as a season ticket holder of the Red Stars is that it has been mentioned by some bloggers the idea that individual owners may be pushed out as more and more MLS teams come on board. The Red Stars owner has been at this now for 10 years and I would hate to see our team pushed out in Chicago. As long as he is willing to put money into the team, why not? There is a place for individual owners, IMO in the league. Not every MLS franchise wants an NWSL team. I highly doubt the Fire want one. I'm interested in people's thoughts on this subject.
I find it hard to believe that an owner would be pushed out UNLESS they were truly having trouble "keeping up" like it seems the Breakers owners were with missed payments, etc. Rising standards as pushed by MLS owners may make it hard for the independent owners to properly keep up, of course, but I think it's a much bigger problem for Sky Blue and Seattle than it is for Chicago - if only because Chicago shares and MLS venue already. From the outside, it also looks like Chicago also has a great advertising effort, so I think the only thing the Red Stars owner has to probably worry about is a rising salary cap. And if the Red Stars continue to have a large number of subsidized players, that rising salary cap won't be a huge issue for a while. Also, I think that if Chicago is able to "keep up" for several more years, the overall value of the brand will have risen enough to make it easy to encourage new locally-based owners to come on board. Remember, with both KC and BOS, a large amount of effort was put in for trying to find owners that WOULD keep the teams in their respective cities before things fell through and they had to move on to other options. And considering that Chicago is literally USSF's backyard, I find it hard to believe that the Red Stars will leave Chicago even if the current owner is forced to sell majority stake or even sell it completely.
While I like the Chicago Red Stars team, and think the organization has done a super job of putting a competitive team on the field each year, it just hasn't been enough to help improve on their attendance. Like most major metropolitan areas inundated with so many professional sports teams they just don't seem to be getting the kind of attention they deserve. It looks like it is going to require a lot more time and effort, as well as money, to build the kind of following to make it worthwhile. With the NWSL headquarters located in Chicago, it has to be a little strange that the showcase franchise for the league is on the West Coast. So to give a good impression to potential sponsors and investors, do they end up scheduling meetings with them in Portland so they can experience the high energy atmosphere at one of their soccer games.
That's not really here nor there. Heck, I think the only pro league in the states that *does* have its flagship franchise in the same city as its HQ is MLB with the Yankees. Aside from NWSL, most pro leagues are HQ'd in New York City, but in terms of flagship franchises, NFL has the Cowboys and Patriots, NBA has the Celtics and Lakers, NHL has the Bruins and Blackhawks, MLS has the Galaxy, Sounders, and TFC (maybe Atlanta now, and used to have DC in its early years)...
http://equalizersoccer.com/2018/01/...h-the-messy-aftermath-of-the-breakers-demise/ Lots of talk here on the failure to control the narrative properly and the potential fallout for future teams & sponsors.
I think I'm with the others that said I don't see the big deal about the the rushing to make statements on SM. Also, I'm someone who follows a lot of woso chatter and even I don't go to equalizer anymore. It's a cesspool. Some may criticize the league for not notifying the players earlier or even allowing the breakers to partake in the draft. And to those people I'll say look at the FCKC/Utah situation. It takes no more than a week or two for ownership of an NWSL team to switch. From all reports it seems that the Boston situation came down to the last minute. I even saw some positive reports of the situation from the Boston GM. Once it looked like the deal had fell through, the players were notified privately. I don't see no need for a comment on twitter until they had figure out all the details. And even then all it took was just 2-3 days for them to formally comment. That seems reasonable to me. OK so they broke the news on a Sunday but that was a good PR move.
I mean, yes it all happened very quickly - I've said as much on my own Twitter that people shouldn't be faulting NWSL for having to scramble (and I believe participation in the draft was 100% the right thing to do). My main concern with the "narrative" talk is that once the collapse was clear a week later, NWSL stayed mum and all news was coming out via WoSoJournos with contact or from the NWSLPA - it made the league look vacant for a good three or four days of crisis. I understand that they needed privacy to do the dealings, but I don't think it would have hurt them to give the occasional acknowledgement of what the state of the scramble was. (I too ignore the Equalizer comments, but the reporting is still quite good.)
I was very much saddened to see Boston go, but 2018 is shaping up to being a crackerjack season: Houston and Sky Blue will have fresh starts with Pauw and Reddy; Vladko and Laura switched teams and are remolding them; rosters will be bigger; Utah came in as a new franchise/venue/MSL tie; the schedule is balanced (playing each other 3 times); the league will be prepping for expansion in 2019, and A&E/Lifetime have a year experience - hopefully the game kickoff times will improve.
While I won't walk back the stadium comment, one thing I forgot to think about when posting this was actually an interesting attendance footnote. While the league overall had its average attendance fall from 2016 to 2017, Sky Blue had a whopping 21% increase in average attendance last year over previous. It blasted out its previous NWSL record average by well over 400 fans - if Sky Blue can replicate that again for 2018, they'll be above 3k for the first time since 2010. They still need better gameday facilities, but considering how small the operation is, that 21% attendance increase was quite sizable and worth taking note of - the team might not be as close to the chopping block as we might think otherwise.