Club is "looking for investors" - which means they continue to hedge on their debts, retain rights to the club/franchise, avoid bankruptcy court (which can seize a lot of assests beyond the club), and hope for a miracle so they can repeat the same failures next year.
Wasn't former indoor player Paul Kitson their coach at some point? I remember an article where a player was quoted as saying they had to supply their own warm-up and foul weather gear.
Yeah I seem to recall the English coach they hired got arrested. Needless to say that did not get the team off to a good start!
AH--thanks for the history lesson! I did not realize they took over the Mani. I went to a few Dragons matches down at Bowie State. I was disappointed when they folded.
Ruffneck Scarves posted that Crystal Palace Baltimore had stiffed them on an outstanding bill and was basically belly up if that is any indication of the status of the club...
They are much, much, much better off than Crystal Palace Baltimore actually. They've been taken over by four wealthy local businessmen, including this guy: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/specials/rich_list/article3769656.ece
Good for them, they need this Right now they are dead last in the Npower league with only 11 points out of 15 games And hopefully these 4 wealthy local business men still have some pennies for CP Baltimore
CP Baltimore is deader then dead. They still haven't paid the players their last payment and never paid the academy staff. Everyone is already officially released I think. You can be sure they owe a lot more people money as well. Those guys will need to move out of the area and change their names if they ever want to do anything in soccer again unless they pay up what they owe. Said this before - they never even responded to me when I called and emailed about getting refund for season tix b/c of them moving games to soccerplex in MD. Pitiful.
Yeah, I saw that on Ruffneck's Facebook wall a couple of weeks ago too. But your posting it got me thinking about the timing of that transaction. The financial problems of CPB started being reported around June or July, right? Those scarves were used by the club as one of the incentives to get fans to buy season tickets (or to get folks to "like" their Facebook page - see here) But that means those scarves would have been ordered back in March or April. If they never paid that bill (or at least not the bulk of it) maybe they had financial problems before the NASL season even began. Or perhaps they just had horrible financial management practices in general (deferring payments wherever possible maybe?), which contributed to their downfall. Thoughts?
Word on the street is that someone from CPB is at the USL AGM in Tampa this week. Why? I have no idea.
They were apparently at the NASL AGM in Miami this past Sunday-Monday-Tuesday. What that means nobody knows.
I seem to recall that CPB paid for part of the soccer stadium study that should be coming out any time now. I wonder if they are waiting for those results before officially pulling the plug? If the funding is approved they could use that as a carrot for potential investors into the club. But if they are leaving so many people hanging it does not sound very promising.
Yeah but to me they are actually referencing the past seasons member teams. They dont mention Baltimore until the very last paragraph and it is not included in the top list of club sites. I think they included the info because the city is on the list to be a potential World Cup host and it looks more impression for PR if some of the teams listed are in those cities.
I'm also becoming a bit concerned because I've noticed that our local Rockville club, Real Maryland, is not listed amongst the clubs at the USL Pro website. With Palace Baltimore folding and D.C. United committed to playing nothing even remotely resembling soccer (not to mention the Real Maryland youth coach busted for sexually assaulting a minor), this seems to be a dismal period for Wash.-Balt. area pro soccer. I guess I'll be spending most of my Saturdays next summer in Manassas cheering on the NoVa Royals...
IMS says Rochester and Baltimore are mentioned because they have a contractual obligation to the NASL. And its also been heard that Medd was at the meetings and FC Baltimore is his baby (oh boy).