http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/11/17/ufnwes117.xml http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/11/17/ufnwes117.xml
Very interesting stuff, Heres another link. This one says a little more. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...all.html?in_article_id=494733&in_page_id=1779
Found the same story on ESPNsoccernet. Sounds like this might actually go down. Anyone know any more info? http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=483070&cc=5901
Well, that's Seattle's replacement for 2009. Good luck to West Ham & let's see where they want to set up shop in USL-1st Division. Also I'm hoping it's not going to be West Ham Utd-USA. Don't get me wrong I'm happy they are coming, but maybe they can try to find something a little more original, or just have it as West Ham then the city.
In case your like me and was thinking this sounds like something that I've heard before, you did. And here I had thought it was because I hadn't had my first cup of coffe yet. I did a quick search and found the info. They announced a partnership between USL and West Ham back in July. Below are links to orginal press release and the thread we had. Press release http://www.altodigital.com/whufc-usa/USL_release.pdf earlier thread https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=577760&highlight=West+hamm
I remember reading about that, but I did not expect them to field a team as soon as this coming year.
No information yet. Immediate speculation out of London was Tampa, but then they learned that its where the league meetings are held I got an email saying Southeast US was speculation.
Found this: West Ham United Football Academy USA, 3000 Northfield Place, Suite 600, Roswell, Georgia 30076 USA Telephone 770 753 0096 Facsimile 770 753 0324 Website www.whufc-usa.com
As a West Ham fan in Jacksonville, which straddles the border of Georgia and Florida, this is a great way to start the day. Of course this means they'll either scrap the idea or set up shop in Oregon, but at least it provides me with momentary happiness.
According to the USL press release, this Jon Conway (wow, RB GK gets around) is in charge of West Ham USA and he is a Georgia guy. Sure WHUSA can setup anywhere they want (Tampa, Phoenix, Fargo etc) but it seems odd that they go to Florida or Pacific NW when their base is in Georgia. Then again, USL is based in Tampa and they have nothing.
The West Ham Academy is based in Georgia, but Atlanta already has a USL-1 team, my bet it's going to be 2009 West Ham Tampa United
I can't imagine the USL approving of a new team in Atlanta. Then add in the fact that the Silverbacks are building there own stadium, and that means - no way this team is in Atlanta.
I think a good question is what city has a stadium in place that they could play in and meets the USL 1 standards? I think that could be used to narrow down the list of potential cities. I think it's great that they are going to develop a team here. But the down side is that they will have to get everything up and running in under 6 months. The easier part will be putting the team on the field. But that's not really enough team to put together a front office, sales plans and actually start selling tickets and sponsorship. So the whole first season your playing catch up. Again, in an ideal world the expansion teams are more like the Railhawks that had over a year to get everything in place.
You are right BB. 6 months is going to be tough, but if they can hire some professionals and load up a sales staff- it could be done. stadiums: They should check the various threads on bigsoccer
I recommend Dads Stadium at Henry B. Plant High School on South Himes Avenue in Tampa, Florida. The stadium is just right for USL1. http://plant.mysdhc.org/
I can think of at least one good ex USL GM that is available and on top of that is a West Ham fan. Here's hoping they do it right, but you can put me in the doubters category. Oh, I think they will put a good product on the field. But think they will bring on mostly soccer/football folks and not enough businss/sales folks. Hopefully they won't take the "Field of Dreams" approach. Which is "Build it and they will come."
Well how long does it take to build a USL specific stadium? I mean if West Ham have the money which i don't think is any trouble they can build a SSS and have it running by 2009