Question? Isn't SBFC owned parters by of Crate and Barrel or one of those Home and Bedding Firms? I thought their financial situation was similar to Sahlen, just do it for the game and throw the books and attendance to the side. In that case, they wouldn't be interested in selling like Sahlen.
I hadn't heard that, but you are somewhat correct. According to wikipedia the owners are: Philip D. Murphy - Ambassader to Germany/Former Goldman Sachs bigwig Steven H. Temares - CEO Bed Bath and Beyond Thomas Hofstetter - Managing Partner Points Group LLC.
it was Bed Bath and Beyond I saw. i always thought this group was similar to sahlen. attendance and finances don't seem to matter to them, just the field product.
Yeah. So how can Red Bull get involved? I guess they could have a women's team somewhere completely different from their men's team, but you'd think they would want to have their team play in their privately owned stadium in NJ.
i don't know the demographics of that area. are the red bulls and sbfc in the same city, or new jersey and new york? i'm guessing the redbulls market to their base like the timbers, and sbfc stays with their nice 2500-3000 per game. but you should get a great rivalry (portland vs seattle via ms fishlock and her gestures) between the two, sling shooting fans back and forth.
Red Bull Arena is in Harrison, NJ and SBFC plays in Piscataway Township, NJ. About 40 minutes apart. Harrison is considered to be part of the New York City metro area, whereas Piscataway Township is far enough away to not be part of it. But if they want to put a team in Philadelphia as well as Red Bull in Harrison... that's 3 teams that are very close together. And there was interest from an ownership group in Connecticut. I dunno how they can fit them all in and still expand to other areas with no teams currently. Although, I don't think it's a bad idea to have all those teams within a decent travel distance.
I'm just pulling this out of my backside, but Red Bull could invest in the team without completely buying it out. Re-brand the team, maybe play at their MLS arena. It's only half full for MLS games, so they could let combine the MLS/NWSL matches into one super-match and maybe have about 45 minutes where their stadium sorta approaches full.
On another note; radio interview of Heather O'Reilly and Alex Sahlen coming up at 11:00 this morning: SATURDAY ON KICK THIS: Flash defender Alexandra Sahlen and Boston midfielderHeather O’Reilly will be our guests on Kick This! on Saturday at 11 a.m. on WHTK-AM (1280). You can listen live on whtk.com or anywhere in the world on the iHeartRadio app. The radio program is an hour, and normally the first part is about the Rochester Rhinos men's team - but you never know. Jeff DiVeronica is one of the show hosts. Here is a link to his blog from yesterday and today: http://blogs.democratandchronicle.com/devo/
Traval (distance) is just as important as attendance, in terms of cost vs. revenue, in this league. Yes, you want attendance (for revenue). But you want to minimize travel distance (minimize your cost) as well. Heck, this league seems to be focused on "minimizing" costs right now, more so than "maximizing" revenue. I think that's obvious. The New York Red Bulls franchise and Sky Blue (New Jersey) are 45 minutes apart. You can fit both teams in. They could be rivals in this league, and some of the New York Red Bulls (MLS) fans will go to the women's matches. Heck, some of the Sky Blue fans will attend some Red Bulls matches as well, and vice versa. Having a division, with Boston, WNY, Toronto, Ottawa, Connecticut, Philadelphia, DC, Sky Blue, and New York, would minimize travel (costs) for all those teams. They wouldn't have to get as much attendance to survive (for sustainability), since their travel costs would be kept to a minimum. You can't have all nine of those teams in a division, but two divisions could be made out of it. I still see the landscape of NWSL shaping up like this (over the next few years) .......... Division A Ottawa Fury Toronto FC Boston Breakers WNY Flash Division B Connecticut Philadelphia Sky Blue FC Lady Red Bull FC Division C Washington Spirit Atlanta Carolina Florida Division D Columbus FC Indiana Chicago Red Stars St. Louis Division E FC Kansas City Colorado Dallas Oklahoma City Division F Los Angeles San Diego Bay Area Real Salt Lake Division G Portland Thorns Seattle Reign Vancouver Whitecaps Victoria Just don't know what the names of the divisions will be just yet. But this league is about to TAKE OFF into a whole new dimension. It'll be a super-league league before we know it, with multiple Canadian franchises as well. The WWC being held in Canada in 2015 is actually better for this league, than if it were held in America. Seriously. Now we have two nations seriously investing in this league, instead of one. I once said the dominoes had to start to fall, and fall in alignment for mega expansion to happen. So far, those dominoes are starting to show some motion, but they haven't started to fall down just yet, so nothing is knocking other dominoes over just yet, but hopefully "soon".
I'm wary of mega expansion. You risk watering down the product with so many teams. I think 12 teams would be just fine. Maybe add a Cali team, 2 Canadian teams, and another team in the Midwest like St Louis. People are overlooking the Carolina market as well, a team in Raleigh would draw a huge crowd.
I agree that the NWSL shouldn't go crazy with adding a bunch of teams right away. I'm even skeptical about any expansion in the first few years. The league needs time to establish itself before bringing in more teams. But I disagree that they should go to the Carolinas for expansion. Carolina was one of the lowest drawing teams in the WUSA.
Agreed on the Carolina point. And as much as I would love to see a team back in STL, I don't think they'd draw well either (unless some advertising was actually done). I mean, I thought the atmosphere in Soccer Park was great as it was, but then again i may have had a very skewed view of it, always sitting with Laclede's Army. Also, no point in adding one Cali team unless you can add a second. That's what killed the Pali Blues/LA Strikers joint bid in the first place, no-one nearby to pair with.
Not enough stars in the USA and Canada to cover those teams. And the WPS proved that internationals don't really draw in the USA market. 80% of those teams would like Seattle without its' current starts. Maybe 16 teams with 4 divisions within 5 years. Even with pretty stack teams now, people were complaining on youtube about the sloppy play of seattle and kc.
I think you could have 20+ teams in this league, and a team like Vancouver could still end up with about five non-subsidized players (but Brazil, Columbia, Costa Rica, Haiti, and Mexico subsidized players, would be on U.S. teams, not Canada, while the Canada NWSL teams would have at least 3 Canadian subsidized players on them). Even if you had 20+ teams, the rosters could still look about like this one below, in talent. Here is Vancouver's 2014 expansion team roster (hypothetical realistic example):
I thought it would be interesting to see how scoring so far has gone by NCAA college and conference. I admit, I saw where some of it would come out and it made me happy to do the work. First, however, for the internationals that did not go to school in the US: points for goals 6 plus points for assists 2 for a total of 8. Colleges (points for goals + points for assists): Portland 8 + 1 = 9 North Carolina 6 + 1 = 7 UCLA 2 + 4 = 6 Oklahoma 4 + 0 = 4 Princeton 4 + 0 = 4 Virginia 2 + 1 = 3 California 2 + 1 = 3 Texas 2 + 0 = 2 Santa Clara 2 + 0 = 2 Florida State 2 + 0 = 2 Penn State 2 + 0 = 2 Boston College 0 + 1 = 1 San Diego 0 + 1 = 1 Michigan State 0 + 1 = 1 Florida 0 + 1 = 1 Illinois 0 + 1 = 1 Arizona State 0 + 1 = 1 Conferences (points): ACC 13 West Coast 12 Pac 12 10 Big 12 6 Ivy 4 Big 10 4 SEC 1
Portland Thorns have quite the farm system, with their minor league teams. AAA: North Carolina AA: Portland A: Stanford / Santa Clara
Well, Press had a spectacular goal this weekend in Sweden, plus another goal that was credited to Kirsten van de Ven because of lack of goal line technology . So there's that. O'Hara came pretty close and is sure to break through soon. I wonder when or if we'll see Lindsay Taylor.
Notre Dame didn't make the list either, in fact the Big East Conference didn't make it at all. I just remind myself, however, that there are lots of players other than scorers with goals or assists. It just was a fun little project.
I didn't see it elsewhere so here's the video for the Press goal(s). Her first shot is clearly in but she doesn't get credit. Her second goal is fantastic. The NWSL needs this woman back in the U.S. ASAP.
They are never going to expand to that point. I think its quite possible to see two more teams come in next year because both of them are MLS teams. Vancouver and Toronto. Any expansion possiblities will be focused into getting some sort of MLS involvement because those parks are key. Getting access to them and having the girls play in them will help promote this league. The football line fields only weaken the product, but getting MLS teams onboard would change everything. For instance take a look at Kansas City, they already are filling out their park, if they were to go into a partnership with Sporting KC they could then use their park and share costs between both clubs. More seating capacity and better overall playing envirnment for the players and onfield product for broadcasts. But I do see two more teams joining next year. The Toronto FC ownership is owned of course by the Maple Leaf Entertainment division of Rogers Communications which is a mega billion dollar corporate entity in Canada. They own the Leafs, Raptors and Toronto FC football club. With them they would automatically include a TV deal that could be worth alot of money because they would be broadcast on their sports channels. They basically dominate the Sports broadcast scene in Canada who have a population of 33million, they are the main sport channel there. With them money then can be downstreamed to the other clubs in the NWSL with the crowds they get a Toronto FC they would be profitable and provide good value to Rogers Communications. I just don't think the NWSL executives can ignore an opportunity to bring Toronto into the league next year and this all of course is doable because Portland is showing that an MLS ownership can be successful and be profitable as well. Bringing MLS ownership into the league was the smartest thing the NWSL did.