WOW! I feel really bad for the soccer supporters. I hope they get another chances possibly from the NASL.
Phoenix will get another chance but it must come from another ownership and who knows it may come from the NASL.
Or not. The league says Phoenix FC will play in USL Pro in 2014, just not under this ownership group.
I threw it out there last month in a different thread as a strictly hypothetical, but what are the chances the "new ownership group" is an MLS club setting up their own USL side?? Just wondering...
50/50. Everything in life is 50/50. #mrtony (But, seriously, folks, the business model on that is still unproven. We'll see, I guess.)
Agree on the business model being unproven. It definitely seems to be a direction the league is going at this point, though. It'll be interesting to see how many MLS teams that are "rumored" to be setting up their own USL club actually do so.
This clearly is turf protection by the USL side. They know if they abandon Phoenix the NASL will jump in, as they should. Be interesting if this materializes or is just a stalling measure to see if they can find interest.
WOULD YOU STOP? What the NASL "wants" is all well and good, but NO ONE APPLIED FOR AN NASL FRANCHISE FOR PHOENIX. The NASL said it was interesting in having a team in St. Louis, too. The NASL throws out the names of lots of cities. Where's the San Diego team? Where's that? Where is this ownership group just sitting and waiting for the territory to open? You think you couldn't do better than the nimrods who were running this club? If the NASL "wanted" Phoenix, they could put a team here, regardless of whether or not there was a USL Pro team here. This isn't like organized baseball, where there are territorial rights. Where are they going to play? Who's going to be the person with the $20M net worth who will lose a lot of it in Phoenix owning a soccer team? And "cities" don't get awarded soccer teams, genius.
I'm being lazy & don't want to look it up...but didn't RSL have their academy in Arizona, near Phoenix or something like that?
Seattle Sounders reportedly were going affiliate with Phoenix FC. http://www.sounderatheart.com/thefu...ng-usl-pro-affiliation-with-phoenix-fc-wolves
Then the USL season started, the Wolves management/ownership put on a clinic of "How to run a franchise into the ground", and the Sounders politely stopped answering the Wolves phone calls.
Yeah, it is in Casa Grande, which is about an hour drive from Phoenix. I'd rather not have a team in Phoenix than have a Salt Lake run/affliated team. More or less. One of the owners, Tim Thomas, had connections with the Sounders, but the other owners ran him out. That was probably the beginning of the end of the Phoenix FC/Sounders relationship. I don't want to get personal, but I just want to point out a few things about that article. “We are looking at all those cities” does not mean Phoenix was very close to being awarded a team. Just b/c a Phoenix City Councilwoman is involved in a potential group of investors doesn't mean that the council itself had any interest. The writer also does not seem to be in touch with the realities of lower division soccer. No way any soccer team, especially a 2nd/3rd division one, is going to make Cardinals (UoP) stadium their home.
Hopefully the team is officially named Phoenix Wolves FC instead of this Phoenix FC Wolves which is awkward.
Hopefully they remove the word "Wolves" from their name. Naming teams after animals is kind of awkward.
This is great if true. I'm curious about the source, but I'm not expecting you to divulge. I am naturally skeptical of anything on BS and your username, while funny, doesn't help either. It could be worse. Wasn't it originally supposed to be Phoenix City FC? I always assumed Wolves was an homage to Wolverhampton and a reference to the Mexican Grey Wolf which lives in Arizona.
Blue balls has made a few "take it to the bank" announcements in the Sacramento USL thread. We are still waiting.....
And be what Phoenix FC which is kind of boring when you already have an FC Tucson in your state. At least you can call yourselves Phoenix City or Phoenix United if you don't like Wolves. And why is it awkward naming a team after an animal. Its quite common. But wait this is soccer so we have to use conventional British naming patterns. Actually Wolves and Lions are traditional names for soccer teams.
You are right. It's awkward to me, but it is common for American sport teams to have animal names. I think the MLS has done a good job in naming the teams... In my opinion. It's not just British naming patterns, it's the rest of the world patterns. For example?