Just read the San Jose Earthquakes news, which leads me to ask you if the reforming of the Earthquakes hurts Milwaukee's bid for a MLS team, or if this has been assumed to happen for awhile now and has no great effect on us considering the MLS never lost it's love for the Bay area... ... Side note, we've formed a group on Facebook (a college networking site, if you don't know) in support of bringing a MLS franchise to Milwaukee and we're currently at 160 members, largest of it's kind on Facebook... We're all pulling for you and you're colleagues, keep up the good work!
SJ is competition in that they secured one of only three stated openings. It's not an issue in the sense that they had already been granted an option, it was assumed MLS would go back there and they're not a midwest market. Unless MLS goes to 18 (which they will eventually), I don't think MLS will put two more teams in the midwest. St. Louis is a possibility, so a team there could hamper Wisconsin's chances. Thx for Facebook info and efforts. My address is http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=519675549 Please add me. Not sure if that link will work or not. If not, just search me. peter Ps: I'll be on WTMJ-AM Monday morning at 7:45 am with Gene Mueller. Don't expect a lot of new info, though as I'll mainly be avoiding questions and talking about Beckham.
I am also a member of the group and have a great question for you. Have you looked into forming a partnership w/ FC Milwaukee? I think it would be great for a bid, could build a stadium easier with all that support, plus we would have the best academy in all of America. FC Milwaukee would be a great name for our team as well.
Youth partnerships will be dictated by the WYSA. We granted them that power as part of our partnership that provides 8,000 season ticket equivalents. If FC Milwaukee ends up being Wisconsin's only US Soccer academy club, then i agree it would make a lot of sense to work directly with them. peter
Have you guys felt any resistance from local coaches/directors? I know there are at least a few who would feel threatened by an influx of new professional soccer players into the area who could potentially take camp and clininc money away from them. In my mind the arrival of a MLS team would be the last nail in the coffin for the Wave. It would be nice to have both, but I don't think it is possible. A lot of their revenue comes from camps. What about Super-Y? It isn't real popular here now, but with an affiliated Milwaukee MLS team wouldn't Super-Y have to be accepted? If there is any kind of academy academy or club it would be Super-Y designated, would it not? FC Milwaukee would not be happy about this I can tell you. Unless I am mistaken, Boro has some Super-Y connection with the Fire. I think at least he would be receptive to MLS... he could be the coach (or assistant). BTW the Rampage is still around and plays in the WASA Majors division. Am I possibly right in thinking that most the big heads of soccer in Milwaukee, figuratively and literally, do not really want an MLS team here? I have experience with most of these guys personally, and they are all concerned about being big fish in a little pond. They also count the money they make by the numbers of kids in their programs. Now they are making kids forego high school soccer to play an extra club season. I think Milwaukee needs an influx of new money and new ideas that an MLS team would bring. The politics here are so bad it is ridiculous.
politics in youth soccer are not unique to Wisconsin. It's a generalization to say all youth CD's are only concerned with their own wallet. Many, not all, see rising water raising all boats. i've seen some opposition - mainly from a few of the old ethnic clubs. When the WYSA partnership vote came down, the support from outstate clubs like Madison, LaCrosse, Wausau and the Fox Valley (that may not benefit from an MLS club as much as local kids) was nearly unanimous. The local support from some of the old club leadership was not there and that was disappointing. The partnership assures the state association decision power in any MLS youth team representation. MLS has newly introduced policies mandating their teams to have a youth development program. The exact nature and makeup of the program will very much be dictated by the state youth association and that can be a good thing as it will take the MLS team out of the middle of the politics (to an extent). peter
Good questions. The EGSC program would likely lose their Fire affiliation unless we negotiated some sort of settlement to allow them to continue. Regarding legality of state associations making decisions regarding the MLS team's affiliated youth representation, those rights would normally belong to the MLS team, but in this case the rights have been ceded to the state association in a legal agreement. The WYSA would only have the rights to determine the affiliated youth representation within their jurisdiction (state of WI) and would not cross state lines in their dominion. peter
P.S. FC Milwaukee's strength is in its girls' program. There's parity state-wide on the boys' side. So for MLS to affiliate exclusively with one club doesn't make sense, unless they (MLS) specifically dictate a particular club for whatever reason. (Forgive me, Peter.)
it is certainly convoluted. i think US Soccer and MLS' most recent academy efforts are heading in the right direction, but will take several years before providing real dividends. was speaking today with MLS Sr. VP of Player Personnel Todd Durbin about this and he indicated that a better way than the current top down (starting Academies with U-18/U-16 and adding younger age groups as time and resources allow) would be bottom up (starting with U-8 and U-10 and adding older ages as the players age). peter
I think the younger you hook 'em (competently hook 'em, that is), the better the odds of securing and holding loyalty, which in my personal opinion, is a big component in the long-term strength of a team or organization. No?
That is true, but for the MLS academy program, the MUCH more important issue is the success of player development, and the benefits of early engagement in quality training environment are critical to long term success. It is ridiculous that a country with our size and diversity....with the highest number of youth soccer participants of ANY country in the world has NEVER produced a single elite world class player. Claudio may be the closest and, while he was very good, was never considered an elite world class player. We must change and i am hopeful that the new US Soccer and MLS player development initiatives will produce those players in the next decade. peter
That is exactly what I meant when I used the term "competently" hook 'em. Any progress lately in your quest for MLS in the Milwaukee area?
There are two basic areas we're working on: stadium and owner. We have made more progress on both fronts in the last couple weeks than in the previous few months, but we still have a ways to go. Still a long shot. peter
Additional MLS Ties First of all I think strategically it is a great decision of the MLS to "align" itself with any league it can to only further strengthen its place within the soccer world stage. Whether friendlies, tournaments or joint partnerships they have done them all and should continue to do so. My question is, while people talk about creating an MLS-2 and having relegation, (which will never ever happen here in the US) why not try and unify everything under one roof and bring the USL into the fold as a feeder league? Maybe the politics are too great, or maybe there is a feeling that it would dilute the MLS brand or there might be dozen other reasons.
Re: Additional MLS Ties USL as a feeder system was tried in the late 90s. Fire was partnered with the Milwaukee Rampage. Our relationship was better than most MLS/USL team set ups, but it was far from perfect. Not having control of coach and player selection and distance from most MLS teams to affiliated teams were the biggest challenges. Fire's partnership with PDL Fire Premier was successful in developing amateur talent, but Fire had no preferential access to those players. Under the new MLS academy system, local players playing on any affiliated PDL team could receive preferential access to the MLS team. Feeder teams must have MLS driven coach, player and curriculum selection in order to maximize effectiveness. Long term, i wouldn't rule out pro/rel totally, but it won't be with USL. If it ever happens, it will be through an amalgamation of MLS and the MFL. peter
Re: Additional MLS Ties If it was far from perfect with Gansler in the late 90's, did it work out any better with Sucevic in the early 2000's, when the Rampage were "borrowing" players like Curtin, Ring, and Capuano (to name three off the top of my head) while on the way to winning the USL League championship? Do you have an accurate count on the number of players that have spent time in both the USL and MLS (down/up or up/down), say, in the past three or four years? Is the USL a lousy organization? Seems to me the USL/MLS exchange avenue works better than any other avenue currently in place. Or maybe I'm just hallucinating.
Re: Additional MLS Ties I'm not trying to answer this one for Peter, however, in my opinion, I'd say that number would be somewhere around 30-40 players, for 12/13 MLS teams.
Re: Additional MLS Ties Boro was more attentive to the Fire's needs than Bob, but with seperate ownership and the USL coach's job security relying on Wins instead of player development, it is understandable that the USL coach won't follow all the MLS team's requests. Re: numbers of USL/MLS players, if you mean players that played professionally in both leagues in the last 3-4 years, Zach's #s are probably about right, though most of those probably were never on an MLS senior roster. If you're counting PDL players, virtually every US college player who makes an MLS roster, played on a PDL team at some point except for a few very young Gen Ad players each year. peter
Re: Additional MLS Ties "USL, MLB, NFL, NBA, IHL, NCAA, etc." (As they say, fixed your quote and broke the thread rule.)
Peter: What are your thoughts on the idea of a stadium at the Milwaukee Mile? Are we really completely out of options for a "real" soccer stadium? Do you really think a team could be successful inside a racetrack?