Not much to say other than it is Ms. GM, not Mr in Chicago. And yes, I am on the sidelines hoping for the best in Chicago - they are a great organization and an asset to this league!
I agree. Despite our record last year, we actually had an excellent defense. The problem was we were good at keeping the ball out of both team's goals...Losing both Markgraf and now Engen leaves a big gaping hole in the back line. Things still aren't too bad, though, assuming Weber comes back. She's excellent, but never had a place in our already solid back line when she signed with us last season after Athletica folded. But, I mean, I'd still rather have Engen. The thought of letting our first round draft pick from last year go when she was such an asset to the team is simply frustrating. But frustration and the Chicago Red Stars are two terms that are synonymous at this point, so I'm not really all that phased by it anymore.
I was just generalizing. I know Marcia McDermott very well and she is one of my favorite people. I guess I was talking in the terms of what I may do if I was the GM. Thanks for the kind words.
I thought about this last night and it occured to me there may other ways to make this work without depending on new money. What if there are other ways of securing funds to play in the league. What if some players with contracts were released. Mutually of course. This would make more money available for the escrow fund. In other words money that was already committed to payroll can now be committed to what it takes to get into the league. And then deal with signing or resigning players later. In other words let's make sure that we can play next year and then we will deal with how much we can spend on players and what caliber players we can afford. Once fans know that there will be a season then they will commit to buying season tickets. Money will start coming in again. Even sponsors may sign on. Heck, my friend Kool-aide said she will buy a season ticket even though she lives in North Carolina. Did someone on one of these threads say that Engen and Davis have the same agent? Maybe if they let one go they had to let both go. I as a fan would rather see the Red Stars play with let's say not so many stars then not play at all. There would be only 7 teams in the league. There is a huge pool of qualified women soccer players out there. They may all not be an Alex Morgan or Abby wambach, but there's still a lot of talent out there that can play in this league. And Whitney Engen can be resigned after we enter the league for 2011. Get in the league first and then have open tryouts and see who you can get to supplement the players you have now. I'm just speculating. Without knowing anything, this is all we can do. Is speculate. But we hope for good news soon.
decent thought MRAD12 but scraping by just enough money to escrow doesn't secure the team for 2011. they could have already fronted the escrow $ at the last due date. i think the bigger picture is securing long term investment to see the team through 2011 (and beyond). and presumably that is what they are trying to do.
I understand. And I have very little or no knowledge of how or what it takes to own and operate a pro franchise. But here is my deal. I'm willing to bet that season ticket sales are no where near what they were the first year or last season. People (other than me and a few others) are waiting to see what happens before they buy season tickets for 2011. Once we are in, people will buy. As a season ticket holder who has already invested in next season both money-wise and emotional-wise, I want to see us in the WPS one way or the other.
It's not really about season tickets at this point. I'm sure season tickets aren't where they were in season one, but even still Chicago's attendance is still better than most. Season tickets were important for FCGP to try and gather together was because there was no indication of any interest in the team in the Bay Area. Right now the Stars need additional investors to make their escrow payment. The escrow payments were put into place to secure the team through the 2011 season to avoid a SLA situation where the Vaid brothers just stopped giving the team money without any notice or warning, forcing them to fold mid-season. I would imagine that securing this payment to the league would include some sort of proposed budget and player salary cap...so I'm guessing that the money stipulated by player contracts is actually part of the escrow payment.
Its about the future! I am sure they can cover another season if they want to dig deep into their pockets but I would think the current investors are at there Financial point where they need to share the burden. They know that it is going to be another year where they will lose a million or two as a group. What are they seeing when they look into the future is the question? You need trust in the vision of the future to continue to lose millions. If the WPS has such a great business plan why aren't the investors lined up? I listen to the owners and GM's but you don't hear of one big sponsor or investor coming on board. Maybe some of you think I am negative about the league but it comes from this feeling I get from many of the organizations that we should be so grateful that they are providing for us a women's league. They need to see it as how can we provide an entertaining brand of soccer to the soccer fan. They need to develop the brand and market. If you don't believe me believe the lack of investors and sponsors.
that's absolutely the way i see it. it doesn't make sense to me that we should be spitting in the faces of people who are funding a league where people are running around on a field with only soccerbs and luvdagame watching them. you and i and the other meager few who love women's soccer can't support it. there aren't enough of us. that's a simple fact. if all of us fans took a negative attitude and went on strike the world wouldn't suffer too much. i repeat, there are not enough fans even to keep the league afloat. so yes, we should be grateful that a few people are willing to lose money supporting it in the hope of building it up. ???? that's exactly what they are doing. there are just not enough women's soccer fans. repeating it doesn't make it a novel idea. that's exactly what they're doing. the lack of investors proves that they're not developing the brand? that's nonsense. it proves that there is not enough fan and $$ support out in the public. it proves that there are currently not enough soccerbs and luvdagame and ... fanatics available to appeal to. it confirms that building a womens soccer league in the u.s. is one of the toughest, roughest, stupidest things you can do with your petty cash. there are a meager few who are willing to do it, and we should be so grateful that they are providing for us a women's league.
We'll know in a few days. Then CRS fans can move on one way or the other. It's the stalemate and not knowing what's going on is the hard part.
we should be so grateful that they are providing for us a women's league. Sorry just don't buy that...They were and are to make money. They thought they would make money!
not now they didn't. they came in counting how much money they would lose in the first 3 or so years. if the profit and money making could be clearly seen in the 4th (or thereabouts) year, finding investors wouldn't be like pulling teeth. we should be grateful that there are a precious few who are willing to lose money for three years on a poorly supported pro game. let's hope that crs can find another one of those few. if all they had to do was just market the game one wouldn't be so well nigh impossible to find.
I agree with a big chunk of this. Their aren't as many luvdagames and soccerbs as we wish their were. It is hard to accept that most of the world (even the millions of soccer playing females we like to talk about) does not give a rip about something we are so passionate about. I have about come to the conclusion after going against the current and fighting for a lot of years that we are just weird! That said, I do believe that WPS is an entertaining product and if given time, could find an audience and be a worthwhile investment. WUSA did not get that time and it isn't looking great for WPS.
I think at times soccer is its worst enemy. I believe many people in soccer want to believe its the only game and the very best game. We are so interested in demanding all to support and love the game of soccer we forget we need to develop what we like about the game with others. We need to listen to the non soccer fan. We need to listen to the women soccer players. The one question I will ask the players in the WPS is why they don;t watch their own sport. Then I would ask them, then why should others. In that we may start understanding whats missing...
If you follow players' tweets at all you'll find that they do watch soccer. If your next question is "do they watch women's soccer?" well, what coverage of women's soccer would they watch? Their own games? Well, I'm guessing that they do watch film. NCAA women's games? I've seen current WPS players at NCAA games. The Euro leagues? Well, how much Euro women's football do you watch?