Correct. It is a player development line item expense. Galaxy II or Real Monarchs are not going to go away unless they don't fulfill the mission to develop players or they become a huge financial drain for some unforseen reason.
It did sound like the Real Salt Lake owner was telling city officials yesterday that they had some ambitions attendance goals for the Real Monarchs (I know ... it's part of his sales pitch to the city). I know in cities like Portland as well as here in SKC there is a season ticket waiting list (not sure about RSL), but if you hope to sell some season tickets to those groups (add in some ensintives regarding single season tickets being available to Real Monarch season ticket holders before the general public or something like that) you can do a little better than what LAII did this year ... potentially. Either way, it sounded like they were looking to market it and at least attempt to sell tickets to that team unlike some of the "bring soccer and they'll come" type of ticket sale concepts. Having it in a different part of the city can also help reach a few different people ... as well as lower ticket costs (yes, hard to get lower than free in LA ... but I don't think we can assume all MLS2 teams are going to have similar attendance issues as LAII).
While not disagreeing with anything in this post, turning a profit on the USL teams via the game day operations isn't really high on the priority list. If they can get good attendance, they certainly won't sniff their noses at it, but I highly doubt anyone in their operations staff is going to lose their job if the USL team's attendance is dismal, but the MLS team's attendance is good. As Kenn said, their primary goal is player development and as long as they are developing MLS quality players and, maybe, selling some of those players on they will consider the teams to be a success.
The RSL thing is slightly different because they are building a stadium for that reserve team (I know it's not exclusively for that team, it will have other uses), so it's not like they're just playing at a field nearby the existing stadium or in the existing stadium (as LAGII has done). There may be a person or two dedicated or half-dedicated to the DIII team from a staffing perspective, but these types of nearby things will probably largely use the efficiency of having existing infrastructure in place, which makes their business model way different from a Rochester or an Arizona or a Colorado Springs. I'd be far more worried about what I drew if I were Rochester or Arizona or Colorado Springs than I would worry about these MLS O&Os.
Completely agree with this. All I was saying is it sounded as if they may make an effort ... I never heard that out of LA. I also don't know that LA has a long waiting list for season tickets like RSL may have (don't know ... just know that it's this way at SKC and Portland) ... and that if all you had to do to sell a season ticket to a MLS2 venue was to say you'll get priority single game tickets at the MLS1 team then you could probably do a little damage if you had a waiting list ... and that works especially well if that moves you up the line in the "waiting list" for MLS1 games. Completely agree that it's not priority, but that's very little effort to organize that ... with a decent return. May not actually put butts in the seats all the time, but I'd think you could sell a few hundred season tickets that way.
I think the last ten years, between the reserve league and loan guys and whatnot, has shown us pretty conclusively that, with rare exceptions, fan bases aren't really that geeked up about Guys Who Aren't Quite Good Enough Yet.
Very true ... but I'm not assuming that translates 100% to a D3 team. I doubt if ANY MLS teams marketed or even sold tickets to games ... and often times had those games take place on practice fields with few stands (if any). I think it will greatly depend on the situation.
I'm talking about intrinsic interest, also. There is much, much less intrinsic interest - again, with exceptions - in watching players who aren't first teamers. No matter what you do. Once or twice, fine. But over 14 home games? Very few people are going to do that no matter how you market it.
Playoff crowds: Richmond - 2,711 Orlando - 4,855 Sacramento - (wait for it) 8,000 LAGII - 2,478 (a season high) (it was free, I think)
although one would think that number will go back up as MLS operated teams in the same market continue to enter the league.
From what I am understanding about the Real Monarchs is that Owner DeLoy Hansen is expecting a strong turn out for games. And to be fair to his ambitious numbers, the team has had some big turn outs to it's reserve matches this season. A couple have broken the 10k mark I believe, and they were not played before or after the first team match. There seems to be actual interest in the reserves, and at a lower ticket price it could have a good demand especially in the neighboring area of the stadium. Also, I think they seem to be running it as a completely separate team under the Real organization. I mean from a Club President and down as They have named a club president already who apparently has worked for Hansen for a number of years . So they will probably have their own separate staff and FO, but will work in unison (probably for) the RSL FO. Probably a lot like the Arizona academy is run. If done right, they could very possibly break even or even be profitable as they will have their own merchandise and things on top of ticket sales. Hansen wants their games televised as well.
IIRC, Portland actually charged for tickets to reserve matches and still got people to turn up. RSL may get some turnout for Real Monarchs just from being in a better location. In LA, the problem may be that people are willing to drive all the way to Carson for the first team, but not for the reserves. I do think Los Dos would actually draw bigger crowds (and even paying fans) if they played in a better location than Carson.
Real's reserves have played four home matches this year. Three were played at America First Field in Sandy, RSL's training ground, which does not seat 10,000 people. The other was played at Rio Tinto, against Pittsburgh on July 25 and did draw an announced 11,202. I'm skeptical that Utahns, with first-team, Division I soccer in Sandy, will consistently go in large numbers to the Fairgrounds to see their reserves to the point where it's profitable as a standalone enterprise, when very few lower-level clubs have been able to crack that code. Portland has had some big reserve match crowds, too. They've had some big PDL crowds. They've also had some in the hundreds for both. There's nothing particularly magical about either of these places that reserve soccer would be a money machine over the course of 14-15 home matches.
I'd be interested in how many USL contracted players the LA Galaxy II team used on game day rosters throughout the year. If you figure there are 5-6 1st team players that are covered financially under the 1st team, 3-5 Academy players that aren't being paid (the cost of training these players is covered by the 1st team) you're looking at around 7-10 USL contracts ... add in a few more for roster filler. I'm not sure what the finanical hit is per player or anything, and I also don't know how many of those Real Monarch front office personell are paid under the USL bankroll vs the 1st team bankroll, but I'd imagine the number of paying fans for a MLS2 team required to make them "profitable" is much (much may be too strong of a word) less than stand alone USL teams. I'd imagine that in a market where they can create a demand so that there is a season ticket waiting list (there is one here in SKC and one in Portland, there very well could be in Salt Lake too) you could place insentives on moving up that waiting list by purchasing a Real Monarchs season ticket ... and sell a few cheap season tickets to fans willing to go that route to move up the line for getting RSL season tickets ... allow them access to single game tickets to RSL games before the general public, that sort of thing ... I can see them selling 1k season tickets to Real Monarchs, and then averaging 3k or so ... making them a good bet to be profitable (not a money making venture to be sure, but at least not a drain on the RSL bottom line).
The average age of the top 13 players in minutes played for LAGII was 23.3. They appear to mostly have been Galaxy property, but their actual contractual status is open to debate, I guess.
Sorry, you've taught me that I should do my homework before posting in the future. RSL reserves played a game earlier last season against the BYU Cougars PDL team that drew 6,335. I thought it was this year and bigger. That being said, that's 2 good USL level turnouts that happened to be the only 2 in an actual stadium (not America First Field as you mentioned) that were advertised a little. It remains to be seen if they can pull those results over 14 games in a year, but to do it a couple times in the only games they could have is encouraging.
That's a good question. I know that RSL regularly brings in academy players in for reserve matches, but I don't know how that effects them. They still don't get paid, so maybe it's ok? There is a college team actually in the PDL which is BYU Cougars. I'd imagine that those players could still join others sports as college athletes but I'm not certain.
The answer to that question is YES ... they can retain their college eligibility, much like Academy players were allowed to play in MLS reserve league games and remain eligible.
There have been recent NCAA reforms that applied to players who don't go to college right away and are in academies. Apparently "they must be younger than 21 at the start of the current season; they can’t have competed collegiately; they must never have signed as a professional. Additionally, the player must either be from a club’s region, an affiliate youth team or from an MLS affiliate." But outside of that narrow window, it's not whether the player himself gets paid, it's whether the team is professional or not. 12.02.4 Professional Athletics Team. A professional team is any organized team that: (a) Provides any of its players more than actual and necessary expenses for participation on the team, except as otherwise permitted by NCAA legislation. Actual and necessary expenses are limited to the following, provided the value of these items is commensurate with the fair market value in the locality of the player(s) and is not excessive in nature: (Revised: 4/25/02 effective 8/1/02) (1) Meals directly tied to competition and practice held in preparation for such competition; (2) Lodging directly tied to competition and practice held in preparation for such competition; (3) Apparel, equipment and supplies; (4) Coaching and instruction; (5) Health/medical insurance; (6) Transportation (expenses to and from practice competition, cost of transportation from home to training/ practice site at the beginning of the season and from training/practice site to home at the end of season); (7) Medical treatment and physical therapy; (8) Facility usage; (Revised: 4/24/03) (9) Entry fees; and (Revised: 4/24/03) (10) Other reasonable expenses; or (Adopted: 4/24/03, Revised: 10/28/04) (b) Declares itself to be professional (see Bylaw 12.2.3.2.4). (Revised: 8/8/02) That is BYU's varsity NCAA team, just playing in the PDL. They could play for other BYU teams if they so desired, as long as they meet all NCAA eligibility requirements.