Yeah, I kinda lost interest. When does the next round of games begin? I looked on the calendar a saw that the first playoff games were on Oct 25. The final is on Dec 9. That's just plain stupid.
Maybe MLS should have sponsored a Loser Cup for all the teams that didn't make the playoffs. A month and a half would be plenty of time for two competitions. They could use existing terminology, maybe, and call it the Supporters Cup.
+1 to diatribes about the FIFA break during the playoffs (end season earlier). +1 to Loser Cup +2 to my bordeaux-based vasectomy recovery
(Still sung with Russian Accent) "On second day vasectomy the Jesus give to me, two aching balls, and hematuria when I pee..."
Hey, can I ask a favor? Does anyone have any photos from the few years that the Gravy Bowl took place? The photos don't come up anymore on the old Gravy Bowl threads. I'd like to add a photo or two on my blog for preservation purposes.
Ricard Velasco pleads guilty to reduced charge of sexual battery. He says he was led to believe she was at least 18. https://www.ksl.com/?sid=46202869&nid=148&title=rsl-player-admits-sexual-conduct-with-minor
Sad story, but best possible outcome given the circumstances. I imagine he's not going to get much compassion from MLS but I wouldn't be opposed to seeing him play for RSL again at some point. Seems like a stupid mistake but not an indication of him being predatory or anything.
This part from the article doesn't add up Attorney Greg Skordas said his client met the girl in a bar and was led to believe she was 18 years old. So did she admit to Velazco she had a fake ID but bumped her age to 18? Come on, man. Given this whole thing I'm not sure playing in this market is the best thing for Velazco. It didn't gain a ton of attention, but signing him back on has a lot of potential issues. I think the club would be wise to part ways. I hope Vealzco can find a club and has success.
So apparently I should have been on here instead of sleeping in on my day off. All of this is fair game for discussion on the RSL boards, but we have an NSR section for a reason. But I am grumbly now. I saw so many posts in the news thread that I concluded we had made a big player move.
When the cat's away, the mice will play..... But if you want, I can start the rumor that we moved Yura to Orlando in exchange for Dom. The Desnews story quotes Waibel, saying "Since Dom's wife Sydney got moved to SLC, he demanded a transfer to the "land of milk and honey" (his own words) and to make it worthwhile, RSL traded Yura to Orlando. Yura later quipped "Finally, I'm back with Jason Kreis, the only coach that really understands me."
I haven’t seen it posted yet but it looks like Utah Youth Soccer is bringing a PDL team to Ogden. Ogden City FC. I know some USL teams have a PDL team as their developmental team. So I could see an Ogden>Monarchs>RSL structure happening. Especially since we don’t have men’s soccer at most of our local colleges (prepares rant for impending UofU announcement)
At one point, RSL talked about forming a PDL team (back in the 2014 timeframe) There are even some old blog posts that talk about (or around) this idea: RSL Development Team Squad Forecast RSL's Future with USL Pro and PDL RSL Fans and Lower Division Teams (Fair warning, I wrote or contributed to these - Caveat Lector)
How RSL got a huge tax break that went unnoticed http://www.sltrib.com/news/politics...huge-tax-break-that-went-unnoticed-until-now/
I'm having a little trouble getting too worked up about this. 700 businesses did the same thing and while none got as big as a devaluation as RSL, they still took advantage of this. I'd like to see an expose on why Vivint Arena is valued at half of the RSL stadium despite being downtown, hosting more dates and it just underwent a taxpayer-funded renovation.
Not to mention the Airline industry is currently screwing over Salt Lake County thanks to some state representatives that passed a new valuation law for them last year. RSL is very much a small drop in the bucket of a very wide spread thing state and nation wide. Still very surprising though. It wont help teams currently looking to build stadiums.
Saying "yeah but what about all those other guys" is not a good defense It is hard for me to believe that DLH would purchase something for 110 million, and then walk back and say "well, its really only worth half that". And yet, this appears to be the case. It appears that someone got screwed. P.S., it is us, Joe Taxpayer, getting screwed for the profit of the few. Privatize the profits, and socialize the losses/expenditures. As I read this, we are essentially financing a soccer team by reducing our education funding. Now the valuation based on earnings/losses maybe at times is a benevolent law that confers stability to our economy. In this particular case, and I suspect in general, the law is being abused. It is being abused by people who could pay, but do not want to. That said, I am not a lawyer so perhaps my interpretation could use some enlightenment. I expect people to follow rules. Perhaps it is naive of me. What is the purpose of having laws if they are not followed? What do the published tax rates mean, if no one follows them? We vote on the rules, for f's sake. its not like a dictator is making them. We. Us. My interpretation of this article is that our authority is being usurped.
According to the county assessor, RSL did follow the rules: The shady part is RSL going back on its agreement with Sandy City to not seek a revaluation of the property. The two groups have since worked out an agreement in which the team is paying Sandy enough to service the bond debt. It's not great, but nobody is breaking the law here. Unless we think someone is lying: either the team, through falsified financials they delivered to the county, or the county assessor in his analysis of the valuation. I'm not ready to ascribe that level of bad action to either, though.