Q and A with Cosmos front office

That quote was what a hypothetical Cosmos fan might have said in response to his question, had that hypothetical fan been interested in a reasoned discussion. Obviously, you're too stupid to have grasped that, and also could not be that fan.

 

i am sorry. is english like your second or third or fourth language or something? that is clearly me saying here are two hypothetical responses Cosmos supporters could have given. the correct, rational, sane and open-minded win over others one and the asinine one that most have decided to go with.

it wasn't me talking in my own voice saying i was a Cosmos fan. seriously. learn to read. you actually comprehending the things that others write/say might actually go a long way to making discussions with you move from excruciatingly annoying to just banal.

 

You know what, you are right, I read your post incorrectly.

I'd like to retract my statement and apologize.

It was an 'in the heat of the moment post'.

 

no problem. accepted.

 

Ft. Lauderdale Strikers fan here. I think I can safely say that the entirety of the NASL would welcome the NY Cosmos into the league gladly. We are hopeful that eventually MLS will allow Vancouver and Montreal to field reserve teams in the league as well. Is this even a remote possibility? Has anyone with the Cosmos organization ever even mentioned the new NASL?

 

They only spoke about a PDL team to funnel their academy players into, as a competitive window.

 

Let's try and keep this forum productive and not get suckered in.

 

So, did anyone ask any tough questions? Like who the investors are or where they would play in 2013?

 

Someone did ask about the ownership group. Basically the question revolved around and hinted at if anyone else was going to join the group.

Joe Fraga, answered very confidently and succinctly, that this is the group for the moment. They have the money and financing in place. Also he mentioned that those on the board had also invested with the company.

Basically, they weren't looking to build it up and then pawn it off to anyone else.

 

Just curious though. What MLS club do you follow? Or do you follow MLS at all? This isn't a stab or anything, but why do you care so much about what goes on with the Cosmos or in MLS?

 

i am a fan of the league as a whole. followed it since 1996 (yes i'm old). but i have never lived within a thousand miles of a team so i don't have an "MLS" team. my other favourite teams were established before MLS existed or from actually going to a game at said team's stadium when i lived in Europe for a while.

the Cosmos aren't my particular concern. tho a team with a solid ownership (like in Kansas City or Seattle or Portland or Salt Lake, etc) in the NYC area and the name/brand recognition of the Cosmos could be a good thing for MLS. it could also be a bad thing for MLS if the ownership are a bunch of yahoos. thus my curiosity about things and wanting to hear for myself what the FO had to say in response to questions. as of now the loudest most prominent voice for the Cosmos FO has been Byrne (who was well meaning but sort of clueless about the realities of MLS) and Cantona (who was just an idiot in general and particularly about MLS). the marketing has been spot on, a retro/modern blend that is perfect. but the details and brass tacks have been mostly bullsh!t spin and empty answers. i was hoping that this Q & A would show that at least some people in the FO knew what was going on, had a firm grasp on MLS reality and had some solid answers to offer. i really don't see how wanting to hear what they had to say for myself and not thru the filter of already won over Cosmos fans makes me a "hater" or whatever.

i do know that should this Cosmos project make it to MLS that from the small sample size of their fans i've come across on their Facebook page and on this forum they are going to make Sounders fans look positively humble and level-headed.

 

OK Nick. But if the stadium will not be ready for 2013, the Cosmos will wait the 2014 date, will play at Columbia University stadium, at Hofstra stadium or .... in NJ ? Only this was my question for the Cosmos guys and I think that it was enough important.

 

well...if you got to know us and not attack us as being cosmos kool-aid drinkers and delusional.. we are pretty cool guys. thats all

 

I keep saying this over and over again, but people are seeing this as a static situation, when it's anything but. When somebody asked "what about the umbro contract" they say "we weren't going to be in the league for a few years, so this allows us to make money until we get into the league. When the time comes, we'll deal with it." When someone asked "what about the LA academy?" they say, "we're not in the league now, so we can have an academy wherever we want, if the league doesn't let us keep it in some form or another, we'll have to give it up".

I mean, the idea that a few folks have that the Umbro contract or the LA academy will be the deal breaker that will prevent the Cosmos from entering the league is preposterous. As they said, they will try to get the league to accept some things they want to do, if the league is persuaded, great. If not, then they'll do what they need to do to get into the league.

 

nobody thinks those decisions will keep them from being in the league. they are decisions that make us question how much they understand the league and how to get into it and how to survive in it.

getting rid of a west academy which they will most certainly have to do upon entering MLS is no big deal. the decision to even set that up as a potential issues shows they aren't as saavy as many would like to think. a real saavy move would have been opening a west academy in an area that has no MLS team that is rich in talent .... say like San Diego, for which they could reasonably argue they should be able to keep as a satellite academy like many other teams have in "neutral" areas (at least until MLS expands, if ever, into San Diego). so the fact they went with the dumbest possible choice for a West Academy (one that is ultimately fruitless in MLS terms at best, and potentially damaging to their relationship with two of the MLS teams/ownership groups) instead of a really clever choice (ie San Diego or some other "free" market tells me and many other people a lot about their leadership and competence.

now sure, this is only ONE instance but is an instance they seem keen on hyping and at first they and their fans tried to act like it wasn't going to be an issue, which now, from what attendees are saying, they've had to admit that "they will jump off that bridge when they get to it".

as for the Umbro thing i couldn't care less. i've always known that until they get an MLS team the new Cosmos would be heavily (if not mostly) about marketing and retro chic and selling shit to dreamy fans of the good old days. no real harm in that as long as they were smart enough to understand and structure it such that it was temporary and was easily dropped upon entry into MLS. what i'd be most curious about is if they in fact set the deal up to have an MLS termination or if when they first signed the deal they thought they might be able to be special and keep Umbro in MLS despite all that Adidas has done for the league. if they thought this they might have a contract that isn't as easy to get out of as they think and it might come with some monetary repercussions. not that it will prevent them from joining MLS, that is just silly, but that it will cost them to terminate the Umbro contract when they join MLS if they didn't plan with the proper forethought. so far i have seen nothing from anybody in the Cosmos FO that proves to me that have/had this sort of intimate understanding of MLS, the humility or the forethought to think like this.

again. none of these things i question are things i think will prevent the Cosmos from becoming an MLS team. they are things that make me question whether or not the current Cosmos ownership will be a good MLS ownership group or a bad, delusional, criminal, arrogant (we know better than everyone who spent 18 years setting this up before we got here sort of arrogance) and clueless ownership group. it doesn't help when some of the front men for this endeavour do nothing to dissuade the neutral from these impression but rather reinforce it (i am looking at you Chinaglia and Cantona).

 

this is very good. but can i make a suggestion. it might be good to label the parts #1 - #20. as of now they are all named the exact same thing and watching them in any semblance of a coherent order is nearly impossible.

 

okay. i will try and watch it that way but i know from my own experience with youtube things don't always show up listed as they were posted so the order may or may not be what was intended or how the evening went.

either way thanks for putting it up.

 

I just watched all the video clips in order. This was a great Q & A session considering there is information they just couldn't share, even if they wanted to. Overall, after watching the footage, I came away feeling more confident than ever that the Cosmos WILL be an MLS team. I was encouraged by some of the things Fraga said. One was his pragmatism regarding the Cosmos being team #20. It was good to hear that if they are not #20, then they try for #21, or #22. It was also encouraging to hear him say that they plan to play their first game as an MLS franchise in their own stadium. Although this is the point I am most skeptical about.

Given that we are already in March of 2011, and there has been no official announcement of the Cosmos being an MLS team yet, no official announcement of a stadium site, only 2 calendar years until First Kick 2013 - is there even enough time to actually build the 40,000 seat wonder they are talking about? I'm not in the construction business, and have no idea how long it takes to actually build a stadium, but I would think that the clock is ticking on this if they want to be ready for 2013.

Otherwise, and all the comments from the detractors notwithstanding; it seemed apparent to me that the Cosmos organization is very serious. After hearing Gio remind us a few times that the academies are free, the marketing push is absolutely necessary to keep them funded. Again, my confidence level is very high that this will all be a reality. The only question is when.

 

Is it possible to break it up into parts...so ppl know the sequential order? I know you've done a million things for the cause, but just asking.

 

Sorry...i didn't see that OleGunner made that request. I think it's reasonable and won't be that hard.

 

first i have to say that Gio is the first spokesperson from Cosmos that i can take seriously and seems to have any clue about how MLS actually works. so that is refreshing to hear.

secondly, what is all of this hype about the academies and them being free? you guys do realize that EVERY MLS academy is free right? all 18 of them? it is nothing special, the Cosmos did not accidentally invent the wheel here people. this is what really sets off alarm bells with me about both the fans and the organization. nobody involved with the Cosmos seems to have a clue what gigantic strides MLS and MLS teams has made in the past 5 years in youth development and the setting up of awesome youth Academies. i can guarantee you that no matter how good the Cosmos think their academy is going to be it won't have anything on the Red Bull, RSL, Vancouver, FC Dallas academies and if you think they have some super magic formula for finding and developing kids that the rest of MLS has just been to stupid to figure out before them you are sadly misinformed and mistaken. for instance Red Bull NY is doing just fine scouring the NYC area for talent and developing it. they have some guy named Agudelo i think maybe a few people have heard of him, that came thru their academy and is now you know, starting for the full USMNT. they have another HomeGrown player on the U20 CONCACAF Championship roster too.

another thing i think that Cosmos fans and the FO (Gio aside) seem clueless about is exactly how you build a good team in MLS (or ways i guess since there is more than one approach). having a good academy and bringing thru some good homegowns is only part of it. signing 2 or 3 DPs (and let's not even get into the minefield it is to sign a good, contributing DP) is only a small part of it. the big part of it is FINDING BARGAINS. scouring the globe to find the Joel Lindperes and Teemu Tianios that can be signed for 80-250K. it is that salary range that MAKES or BREAKS an MLS team. and the college draft isn't going anywhere in importance for a long while. MLS academies can't be everywhere and some talent will still come thru college and not thru academies. being able to draft gems like Tim Ream is essential to success in MLS. so SCOUTING is just a big a key as academies are. and as much as i loved Cantona as a player if he is your Director of Football you guys are doomed because every interview i've heard of him shows he doesn't know the first damn thing about being a Director of Football anywhere much less in something as nuanced and intricate as the single-entity salary capped MLS.

about halfway thru.... more thoughts later.