Fanaddict, were you there? I would have liked to have said hi. Story and more photos later at www.kenn.com.
I was going to stroll over for the lunch but my job inteverned. I'll probably buy season tix and go to as many games as I can which should be quite a few as it's easy to get to the Pavilion from the CTA Blue Line.
Fanaddict, were you there? I would have liked to have said hi. [/url].[/QUOTE] Yeah I was there. Were you sitting with Fonsos and Andy eating lunch?
No. I was at the other end of the table with a couple people who I later found out are in the investment group. Up near the podium.
Kenntomasch: Remembering I'm not in Chicago, but why was it at a Greek restaurant? Good luck to them. The Sting were a lot more successful outdoors and the Power certainly waned in the later years. Give Steve Ryan credit, the WISL merger, Newark, Stockton/Sacramento, FSW (even though we foot the bill) all adds up to a good direction. Hopefully it won't degenerate again where anyone, and I mean anyone, with 15 bucks and a telephone line could get an expansion team. Sounds like he's doing some sorely needed due dilligance. Probably learnt a lot of lessons from the T-Hawks and Texas fiasco's.
Frank Klopas is a proud son of Greece, the team's offices are in Greektown, and they have some backers, I believe, who are Greek as well. Someone called it My Big Fat Greek Soccer Team. Food was great. Great location for a press conference.
I saw Frank last night on CLTV. They talked about a little about the team and prospective roster. He didn't really drop any names, but it sounded like he already had some players in mind. There are already a couple of Chicago area players in the MISL that would be a good fit. For example Nino DaSilva, and then you also have Jamar Beasley who had a great first season indoors. But I think a bigger challenge will be the off the field development of the team. There isn't a whole lot of time between now and October to sell tickets and sponsorship. I wish them luck,and hope they have a good first season. I probably won't get season tickets, but will attend a few games and maybe organize a couple of groups.
Ryan Futagaki was at the press conference. Jamar Beasley was the MISL's Rookie of the Year. In a normal world, you'd have to give up something to be able to trade for that type player. Obviously, this isn't always a normal world, this soccer thing.
I asked klopas if they would try to get Jamar and he said they would try but we will see. I'm sure Jamar would like to come back to Chicago and live with his brother.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contacts: Jaye Cavallo- MISL Nick Di Benedetto- Chicago Storm 203-222-4900 x12 201-304-2729 jcavallo@misl.net MISL Chicago Expansion Draft Set for June 23 CHICAGO STORM TO BEGIN ASSEMBLING INAUGURAL SEASON ROSTER Westport, Conn. (Monday, June 7, 2004) – The Chicago Storm of the Major Indoor Soccer League will begin assembling their inaugural season roster on Wednesday, June 23, 2004 with the Chicago Expansion Draft, MISL Commissioner Steve Ryan announced today. The draft will commence at 3:00 p.m. (Eastern) and will be conducted via telephone conference. “We are very excited about the upcoming expansion draft,” said Chicago Storm Head Coach and General Manager Frank Klopas. “This is the first step in building a competitive team. We are working hard to be sure that we make our selections wisely in order to start assembling a team of which the community can be proud.” The Chicago Storm will receive Designation Lists from each of the nine current MISL operating teams 13 days prior to the scheduled Expansion Draft (June 10). Team lists will designate a maximum of 11 players as “protected” for that team’s roster (maximum of one (1) goalkeeper) for the 2004-05 MISL season. The players not designated as protected (“unprotected”) are eligible for selection by the Storm, who will draft a maximum of 16 players (two goalkeepers permitted) from MISL rosters. Players selected in the 2004 Amateur Draft are excluded from the Chicago Expansion Draft. Current MISL teams may lose a maximum of three (3) players during the Expansion Draft. Once a player is selected from an existing team, the team will be allowed to return one (1) unprotected player to its protected Designation List. In order to ensure the validity of the Designation Lists, a “Trade Moratorium” will be imposed and effective on June 9, 2004, at 3:00 p.m. (Eastern), 14 days prior to the Expansion Draft and end immediately following the conclusion of the Expansion Draft. The Storm will play their inaugural season in 2004-05 at the UIC-Pavilion, an 8,400-seat arena located at 1150 West Harrison Avenue in Chicago. For more information regarding the Chicago Storm, please log on to www.ChicagoStorm.net. Fans can place a deposit on season tickets starting on June 15 by calling (312) 226-GOAL (4625). The MISL League schedule will be released late next month. The Major Indoor Soccer League is a single-entity organization featuring a coast-to-coast presence with nine teams located across the United States and a tenth team in Monterrey, Mexico. On February 27, the League announced an expansion team in Stockton, CA, set to begin play in 2005-06. On May 4, the League announced plans for an expansion team in Newark, NJ, that will begin play in 2007-08. The MISL is the premier major league of indoor soccer, which played a 162-regular season game schedule that concluded on April 5. The 2003-04 MISL Championship Series concluded on May 1, when the Baltimore Blast won its second consecutive MISL Championship. The teams entered in the MISL are the Baltimore Blast, Chicago Storm, Cleveland Force, Dallas Sidekicks, Kansas City Comets, Milwaukee Wave, Monterrey Fury, Philadelphia Kixx, St. Louis Steamers and San Diego Sockers. For more information on the MISL, visit the League’s website at www.MISL.net. ---MISL--- Jaye Cavallo Director of Communications Major Indoor Soccer League 1175 Post Road East Westport, CT 06880 203-222-4900 ext. 12 jcavallo@misl.net www.misl.net
I found the selection of Hector Marinaro in the expansion draft interesting. He's been a great indoor player, but he's had a few serious injuries of the last couple of years.
I was gonna do it on the 15th but I am trying to finalize how many of us will get tickets together. So far its been 4 atleast maybe up to 7. Futugaki and Marinaro baby!!!
I've heard rumors that there may be interest in former Indiana U and DC United player, Lazo Alavanja to join the Storm. He's also a local guy from Schererville, Indiana.
Lazo is great! That's an awesome acquisition. I'll have to try to make it out to some games whenever I'm in town. Go White Eagles! (That's for Lazo.)
I walked over to the US vs Poland match with a Storm staffer. I didnt' catch his name but he mentioned that he worked in Marketing/Sponsorhip. I had asked him how things were going? It sounds like the player side is shaping up pretty good, with a lot of request from players for try outs. It also sounds like they are working hard on the business side for sponsorship and tickets. He mentioned that they started doing a lot of the work back in December. Does anyone know what their ticket prices are going to be? I know that they were taking ticket deposits. On their site it doesn't list any info about tickets and if you click on the link marked tickets you get taken to the new California team's web site.
Hector Marinaro I am going through soccer fora tonight to double-check my data about the Hector Marinaro situation. The next issue of "Incendiary Words", coming out in September, will have an article by me about the matter. My advantage on this is that we had Paul Garofalo as a breakfast speaker at the United Soccer Boosters Convention in Pittsburgh, PA. earlier this month. P. Garofalo exasperated that much of what Dennis Manoloff scribed (in the column of 13 July) was inaccurate. "It wasn't about health care; it wasn't about camps.", was his most salient line.
Hey pudgy, don't know if you want your name used here, but anyway got any more info on the Storm? Do you think they will sign all the players they drafted? What are your predictions for them from a competitve standpoint this year.What do you think they will average at the Pavillion?How about those foreign players the said they might bring over.