No way! This one is going to the bitter end. And then I'll start a new one called "San Francisco Deltas 'I Told You So!' Superthread".
Cool. So its 2019! I guess SF can survive a year without a team. The remaining Deltas supporters can enjoy the World Cup next summer.
I think that's the point though... the Deltas don't have any supporters. Their own data shows people who attend their games never seem to come back. There's not much of a fan core you could conceivably call "supporters".
SF Deltas CEO Brian Andrés Helmick joined NBC Bay Area's "Press:Here" this morning http://www.pressheretv.com/go-deltas-wait-who-are-the-deltas/
So he went on local TV BEFORE that low attendance number... I mean credit to him for going on local TV. But it sure didn't have any impact. And repeating the same lines about "transparency", "metric centric", "tech startup mentality", "outside ownership assistance", etc... show they really have no clue. They run their team like a tech startup, not a sports team. I think ultimately that's the biggest issue with these guys... they don't have any passion. This is a cold tech style business venture for them. It's why they're ready to cut and run after six months and had no stomach for losses or clue how to get fans. They don't seem like fans themselves.
Athletics68 I disagree; running a sports team like a tech start up is not their biggest mistake. Their biggest mistake is their inability to change their marketing strategy when it is obvious that strategy is failing. Square peg, round hole.
Lets just agree that they were both mistakes. We're arguing the degree of cock up, but both were mistakes on their part. Among others.
Their biggest mistake was choosing San Francisco in the first place. There has never been a successful soccer club in the city. Ever since professional started in the late 1960's, no pro team ever lasted in SF or Oakland. The SF Gales, Oakland Clippers , Oakland Stompers , the indoor SF Fog, California Victory all folded after a year or two. The amateur teams SF Italian Athletic Club, Concordia , the Scots , the Glens , Greek Americans , El Farolito/CD Mexico and the USF Dons always did well but everyone else failed. As far as Bay Area pro soccer is concerned and since 1974, it's always been about San Jose and the South Bay thanks to Milan Mandaric. Thankfully, he ignored everyone's wish to place a team in the city initially.
The latest 2017 USL v NASL Attendance tracker. SF Deltas has plenty of work to do if they survive to NASL 2018 season......
I had been posting this thing was a pipe dream for the last 4 years since they proposed SF..... https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/nasl-in-san-francisco.1996851/