This says that NWSL can't wait like MLS can and maybe the Royals and other parts of Utah Soccer Holdings are sold off in pieces. https://kslsports.com/446857/new-ownership-interest-for-utah-royals-fc-could-move-team-out-of-state/
This is going to get messy The Athletic article referenced in that article (which isn't in the RSL section of The Athletic because...?) makes the following "prediction". "... the path of least resistance, but most pain , for the league: Utah Royals FC ceases operations ahead of the 2021 season and the NWSL has time to properly vet its options ahead of the 2022 season and determine the next ownership group via the expansion process. The players on the Royals would go through a dispersal draft process, and the league would follow the same general protocols as when the Boston Breakers folded ahead of the 2018 season." To be honest, if there isn't an ownership group that can keep the whole club together, this seems the most "just" thing for DLH. He won't make out ahead on the Royals in this scenario. Everything will be sunk money and no chance to recoup. I hope he is stuck with the bag on all of those cars. This seems exactly the same scenario for the Monarchs, too.
Awesome Even Better I was going to switch allegiance to the Royals, if sports is ever "safe" to go to again. My two girls would have more fun at those games anyhow.
It’s my impression that they (all of the media outlets who cover RSL) simply haven’t sourced any significant news that they consider to be reliable. I’m sure there are rumors they are privy to, but won’t publish.
I wonder if DLH hadn't just made his lame apology then become silent, asking the league to 'investigate but take its time' that this might have fallen off the radar a bit. The league could have made a 'mistakes were made and corrective action has been implemented' statement. DLH continues owning the team and all move forward. I'm not saying this would be a moral or ethical approach for the league and RSL, but it might have been effective and we would not be in limbo right now... all in all, I'm fine that we are in limbo. Otherwise, the future looks like the past and that's not good.
Don't even. If DLH is in charge of this shit in 2021, I'm all for moving everything out of state. We deserve better, or nothing at all.
Still, he could have privately kept looking for a buyer without having a hard deadline. A lot of this is in perception and rhetoric rather than actual results. He needs to fire whoever handles his PR.
Yes. Smart money knows that this is a distress sell, motivated seller. So, they are going to wait until they feel they are getting the best price. Hoopla has died now, so the BS money looks to have drifted with the wind. Solid money is waiting until the price is right.
Which is why the Ryan Smith situation, SOLID ********ING MONEY btw, is so frustrating! Ryan knew it was a distressed sell, but DLH was acting like it wasn't. So then then he purchased an ownership share in the Jazz for ~3x more than the whole Utah Soccer properties combined seemingly out of spite (or was at least entertaining both options until actually "negotiating" with DLH), instead of waiting it out. Maybe even more than 3x! since a bunch of sponsorship comes from companies also owned by DLH. And DLH is a notorious asshole, pre-dating RSL.
So we've heard that the Royals are on a different clock than RSL. What about the Monarchs? Does USL wade into this and state a club in their league needs a different owner? Do they just leave it to MLS? Also, the point about so many sponsors being directly tied to DLH cannot be overstated. The new owner(s) is going to have a lot of projects with this club from day one. Because of that, I fear we see a lot of people currently in jobs given time to continue with them. To put it bluntly: Freddy might save his job because the new owner(s) will be dealing with so much other shit
I bet USL doesn't want to lose a team, but the new owner may not want a USL team, especially with the reserves league coming back next year.
The longer the search goes the odds of Freddy staying probably go up in his favor. His return is probably inevitable which means more crap soccer for us. Which may be ok as long as we get to keep our soccer. There is no way Freddy ever becomes an MLS cup winning Head Coach in my opinion. Not a single chance. Not even 1 in a million. So no, there is not a chance.
I for one am hoping that the MLS takes over the sale and that DeLoy can't close by the end of the year. I say that because I think he would sell the team to another city out of spite. The guy has proven his quality and his name will be dragged through the mud for ages for it. Clark Ivory spit on Holladay and now everyone loathes him. The same fate will befall DeLoy if he isn't careful. Unfortunately the sale of the Royals may suggest breaking up the clubs to sell them in pieces. I could care less tbh so long as RSL stays in Utah.
If it could somehow become a "trending" thing during MLS Cup so much that Garber has to talk about it then you've hit it. I believe that happened with the Crew in Columbus. Otherwise, I'm not sure what can be done. We don't have the "MLS Original" thing like the Crew did. We aren't a big enough market to make the league fear losing us. The fans have to be the ones to raise a stink. The problem is DLH has bled us for so long that many (speaking for myself, especially) have lost so much of the emotion that was connected to this club. Numerous times this last season I'd forget the team was playing just to turn it on late in to the game. I used to set my calendar by this club. Short of finding hundreds of millions of dollars, the only real thing the fans can do is draw attention to it. Make a lot of noise in the social media and news space. Build a narrative for how bad the league moving the team out of the area would be. The waste it would be of valuable space in Sandy and Herriman. Sandy would be held holding the bag on the stadium in some capacity, Herriman the same with the academy and Monarchs stadium. The destruction of an academy that (used to) develops national team players. The number of folks that suddenly are out of a job, in an economic environment that is already quite terrible. There is plenty of reason to doubt any of that would actually work, but it's the best we can do.
Make your voices heard my friends. I comment on any and all MLSSoccer.com articles about RSL (all 1 of them) and will continue to be obnoxious on social media. I urge yall do the same.
bringing it up in every article on the league site was exactly what the Crew did. It garnered those fans a lot of support from other MLS fanbases. The hard part here is that the fear of RSL moving isn't anywhere near the same situation as Precourt stating he was going to move the Crew to Austin. That was a known thing. For all we know, the league could be just a signature away (on January 9th) from the Miller Family or someone else in the area taking over the team.