Ben Olsen: President of Washington Spirit

I wish him the best and hope he succeeds. He is entering a minefield, but I can't think of anyone else better suited to sorting out this mess.

 

Sell the ********ing team, Baldwin.

 

His duties are undefined, but given the chaos in the upper levels of the ownership he might well emerge with some real power to bring order out of disfunction. But I don't see him as the head coach, although the team doesn't have one at present. I don't think the free-spirited Spirit are good candidates for Bennyball.

 

Best of luck, Ben

 

Off the DCU payroll!

 

I'm excited about that because Levien will surely use the money that would have gone to Ben to sign even more talent to add to our embarrassment of riches.

 

or for another South/Central American flop.........................

 

He'll buy another English football team he can ruin.

 

not sure what you mean because if by talent you mean players, well, the coaching staff do not count against the player budget.....

 

new interview out today on The Athletic with him about his new role. Obviously he's only been there for a couple of days, but referring to everything that's been going on as "noise" isn't endearing him to a lot of people.

My guess is he's in even more over his head with this job than he was with the last one

 

Unless his real job is to take a bullet for the ownership.

 

That's what I'm wondering.

I mean...taking that job in this situation got an, "Oh no, Ben. What IS you DOING?"

I've not tuned back in since but if he's calling it "noise" maybe he's getting paid to be the fall guy. But...again...why? Despite all of our critique about his mangerial tenure, he still seems a very liked guy in DC soccer circles. This will likely spend a LOT of that good will.

He couldn't have been that desperate for any job or that hoodwinked by his agent could he?

 

He really wanted to stay in the DC area. This was probably the best football related job that was going to come up anytime soon.

 

I can't help but feel Ben is being used. Whether he knew it or not, he seems to be in the middle of a battle for control of the franchise. Ben is a man of character and he should be able to rise above it all.

 

When a toilet is flushed it is not just the shit that goes down but everything in the whirlpool formed. The NWSL is looking closer at the club.

 

The NWSL is a mess itself from what I've read. The Spirit are just one cog in a dysfunctional wheel that views women as commodity (generally, I'm sure there are some class individuals involved who do not, and maybe not women specifically but just athletes/in general (I mean the whole concept of owning/buying/selling players skeeves me out a bit).

Earlier this year they got involved in a very shady bunch of people and claimed it was helpful to their diversity goal, when quite frankly it was the opposite, it was window dressing/denial. There are a lot of organizations with names that make you think one thing, but you look at the owners/executives and you discover the name is just a cover.

 

Who would have thought that the WNBA would end up being a good deal better at this?

 

Most WNBA teams don't play in NBA arenas anymore.

 

So it's the need for stadium tenants that keeps teams from being shitty to women?

 

There is a quota of shitiness that each area gets with team/club ownership and front offices, With the WFT apparently cleaning up their act, the Spirit moved into the void created.

 

I think the jury is definitely still out on that.

 

Yeah, it strikes me as the Spirit ownership/front office is simply photobombing the WFT's usual WTFery.

Really though, the writing was on the wall ALL OVER the place that this was gonna get super ugly. But Ben signed on. I get the whole "I'd like a soccer job in this area" thing but ugh. Is his wife still a teacher? I mean...that probably doesn't pull enough salary for their family by itself either though...sigh