I heard from someone in the Railhawks organization that they have 2 months to find a buyer. I do hope that someone who looked at buying in the past will come forward now.
All I know is that I saw the headline very early in the morning yesterday. They led with it on: CNN, Fox Sports 1, Fox News, MSNBC. So, of course, I turned over to ESPN to get their take on it. I saw 40 mins of sucking off LeBron James, 15 mins of baseball highlights, a 2 min story about the FIFA scandal with NO analysis, then back to sucking off LeBron for the rest of the hour. What a freaking joke...
Hopefully they do. The Silverbacks already have a difficult future ahead with Atlanta MLS coming and for course Virginia's non starter situation. Losing the Railhawks too would put a real crimp in NASL's southern footprint.
Sucking off lebron sells more ads. Hardly anyone in the general public cares about fifa. Hockey playoff got a lot more water cooler talk in my office than FIFA. And that was mostly some people asking me WTF was going on with FIFA.
Why would you expect this to generate much talk? It's still just soccer related. And like it or not soccer still doesn't sell as much in the US compared to the 4 local sports. I feel like BS and soccer fans in general are sometimes locked in a bubble. Has soccer grown in the US, absolutely and without question. Is it really anywhere near as important socially, financially or culturally as Football, Baseball, Basketball and Hockey... not a chance in hell. Add in the general US tendency to really only care about things happening in the US (and Canada)... Lebron taking his generally nobody Cavaliers team to the NBA finals to face a team that hasn't been in the finals themselves in 40 years in the Warriors is going to be far bigger news in the US than some foreign soccer body most Americans have never heard of, never mind care about, being raided by the FBI. On the plus side though, if not for the US's general indifference to soccer, particularly international soccer, the US might not have raided FIFA in the first place. I mean it's not like we're the first nation to dig up dirt on these guys, but we're the only ones who don't really care about any FIFA backlash against us.
Made the front page of the NY Times and USA Today (granted USA Today was one of the first papers to print soccer scores). One of the local morning DJs were trying to talk about it but he kept calling it fEYEfa. did my head in
Oh it got some play here and there. But it won't be a lingering issue. It's not like US press is going to be covering the FIFA congress with baited breath like the world wide press will be.
So if I'm reading that correctly if they kick Traffic out they have to pay them back for their shares... which effectively kills the league.
I'd think these wealthy owners would ante up and pay them off, which is probably best for the league. Or a single owner could do it.
Could USSF just suspend or ban Traffic from involvement in any USSF sanctioned business? In that event, Traffic would be forced to place their interest into a trust, leading to a likely sale at a relatively bargain price.
NASL’s deep ties with Traffic Sports create serious questions about league’s future http://worldsoccertalk.com/2015/05/28/nasls-deep-ties-with-traffic-sports-create-serious-questions-about-leagues-future/#xsFTDAXjcXxZ95m3.99
An article by Kartik...I will let you decide if the headline is anything more than just hyperbole. Interesting note, apparently Aaron Davidson has been banned from soccer by FIFA.
Aaron Davidson entered a not guilty plea through his lawyer in Brooklyn today. He is free on $5m bond. Lawyer likely telling him to talk.— Kyle McCarthy (@kylejmccarthy) May 29, 2015
Probably quite a bit. And Traffic Sports has a lot of money. They would much rather have him out of jail and away from the prosecutors at the moment.
OK....word is they got this guy dead to rights. He is a lawyer, knows he is screwed, does not want to go to jail....and as a lawyer you gotta think he has hard evidence tucked away to bail his a** out in case something like this were to happen. I CAN'T WAIT!
First one to talk gets the better deal. We've all seen it on TV. I really hope that several of these guys spill their guts and we see a bunch of the FIFA honchos in jail. I also hope that NASL continues to grow and thrive, but I'm not sure how that will work if Traffic goes under.
He'll definitely talk if he understands what's going on. The US is using the RICO Act, the same legal approach used with low level mafiosos to get evidence on the bosses when the mob was running wild. It literally is a game of who talks first/best. NASL's future is going to be interesting if Traffic is gone and Bill Peterson is actually required to do something positive that keeps the league running. The well run teams should survive, but I don't know if the league will.
Yeah, I get the RICO statues, and they've got evidence up the ying yang. Hopefully, we're able to clean up FIFA and their associated minions. Hopefully, this makes NASL a better league, without bankrupting them. The new investors in Miami is a positive move. There are rumors of a few more ownership groups that want to join (Hartford and Hamilton). I'm hoping they can pull it out. They need a west coast team too.