cool marketing tool. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud2txZJ0Gm4"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud2txZJ0Gm4[/ame]
I'm slow on the uptake so this is the first time I'm finding out that the Freedom has been turned into magic jack. This is sad. I thought turning the Metrostars into Soda Can FC was bad. Does anybody know what happened?
http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/...ssional-soccer-opening-weekend-preview-040711 http://www.sportsmyriad.com/2011/02/could-d-c-fans-find-freedom-in-w-league/ (somewhat outdated now)
After ten years, the Hendricks decided they'd put enough money into top-level women's soccer and put the team up for sale. Dan Borislow came along, bought the team, moved it to Florida, and named it after his flagship product. As a Freedom fan, I'm not very happy with him, but from a WPS perspective it was either this or lose the team entirely.
No. As much sense as it would've made to keep a Freedom W-League team going along with its Super-Y teams, that didn't happen. The Northern Virginia Majestics bought territorial rights to the Maryland Soccerplex area and teamed up with D.C. United to form D.C. United Women, which will play in the Plex this summer. There are rumblings of Freedom-ish youth teams, especially since coaches Clyde Watson and Win Puffer are still in the area, but I'm not sure what'll happen with that, And I wonder if the Soccerplex has taken down the "Wall of Freedom" that was established over the past couple of years.
here we go for the mls faithful: dan said he would let the freedom name go if you have youth soccer involved. now, you have one of those powerful mls teams backing a semi-pro team which can become a wps in the future. how about making that call to dan and getting the name back? for a minute he didn't even know if he owned it. isn't that something? after letting his whole marketing thing absorb and watching his u13s, i like the whole magicjack marketing thing. i still would have preferred he use magictalk (sounds a bit smoother). i hope it works out like sahlen. like them or not, those guys are good owner, take care of their players as far as money and housing. i guess sometimes they arent that good with the fans. anyway, getting the sahlen dog, popcorn and soda ready for that show down at 5pm CT, Hot Dog FC vs Sell the Park Out Queens any, ideas on boston's opening day attendance. if they had 6000 people trying to get tickets to their play off game last yr, then who knows?
The Hendricks have apparently gotten completely out of the business of supporting girls'/women's soccer. However, Gabarra, Watson, and Puffer have started a new organization to do a lot of the same youth work that they were doing before under the Freedom banner: http://www.dcelitetrainingalliance.com/Announcements.html Except for the scoreboard and some material on the former office door, all of the Freedom-related insignia and decorations are gone from the Soccerplex. (I was there last weekend for the Kicks Against Breast Cancer match.)
Not only that but they may have lost the entire league since I doubt WPS would've continued with only 5 teams. Isn't is strange how suddenly so many owners lost interest in women's soccer at the same time?? Cooper, Hendricks, the FCGP owners, etc. You would think those dummies would know that the league needed at least a 5 year commitment out of the gate!
In some respects yes and some respects no. He was hot after an MLS team. When he saw that wasn't going to happen and when he started losing money, he dumped both Athletica and newly formed AC St. Louis to a pair of brothers from England who probably didn't have a clue about women's soccer in general and were just trying to get a foothold in US Soccer. The rest is history. So in one respect, once the MLS possibility vanished and Cooper's money (which apparently wasn't as much as he would have people believe) started vanishing, it could be said he lost interest. With respect to the whole issue in general, I just don't think that a lot of these owners knew exactly what they would be getting into and how hard it is to market women's soccer. They were told to expect losses in the first two or three years, but it wasn't until they actually saw it happening that it really hit them how hard this was going to be. The Los Angeles situation was unique in that they let it be known they would be around for only a season or two. But in St. Louis, Chicago, Bay Area, and Washington, it was almost as though the owners didn't realize what losing money was like until they started actually losing money. With a bad economy and very tepid corporate support, the losses piled up quicker than these owners ever imagined. Cooper aside, the Saint Louis corporate community could be largely to blame for not giving more support for Athletica. I know that many people from the Washington area have said the same about the Freedom. At least in Washington's case, I believe the Hendricks family truly cared about women's soccer (not sure if that was the case with Cooper). And unfortunately, these owners are not the super-rich people we see in other professional sports. They have money, but can't afford to keep taking losses year after year, unlike the some professional baseball or football owners.
In the Hendrickses' case, it was 10 years. I was a little surprised they didn't try to stick it out one more year while WPS goes through a massive cost-cutting from an already lean operation, but it's not my money, so it's easy for me to say.
LOL..year after year? Cooper didn't even stick around for the year after ONE year! The ironic thing is just about 4 months before the Athletica folded he was quoted as being critical of AEG for not being an owner for the long haul!! Can you believe that?? Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!! That's why I thought St.Louis was safe for a LONG time to come since Cooper was committed for the long term. You are being far too nice to Cooper. The general opinion of Cooper in St.Louis is VERY low. I've heard people say he lied, cheated, misled, and was too miserly. Mutiple sources confirm Cooper is worth between $100 million to $200 million due to all the TONS of money he got from asbestos lawsuits. So it really shows what a cheapskate he is to not even chip in $2 million for the escrow fund so the Athletica could finish more than just 1 year!
My thoughts exactly. It was rather a shock that they gave up at this point, after being such diligent supporters for so long. Maybe they were upset that Jen Grubb was voted into the Hall of Freedom instead of them.