BIG announcement coming from the LA Blues…i

Kinda wish they had... then when they continued to fail people would have dropped this notion that the LA Aztecs name is gold just waiting to be exploited like the Cosmos name.

 

You're assuming that facts entice people to change their world view.

They don't. At least not here.

 

This is likely it ... but it's possible they are leaking out just "small parts" of a bigger announcement and dragging this out for as much of a PR bump as they can.

 

Eh, it wouldn't have changed everyone's minds but it would have changed enough to have made the exercise worthwhile from our POV. From the Blues POV I don't think any name change is going to save them. They're just changing the name of the ship after it already hit the iceberg... repeatedly.

 

Have any of the other debates been worthwhile from our point of view, do you think? Or are we still getting the same nonsense from these pinheads?

That's funny.

The Blues are a virtual non-entity. They'll be lucky to get an hour out of the news cycle.

No one covers them. Scott French did when he had his ESPNLA blog. That's about it. Straus might mention it.

But it doesn't matter because they don't have the wherewithal to exploit any coverage they do get. They don't know how to sell tickets. They don't know how to market. They may think this will get people excited enough to show up, but it probably won't.

 

I saw they hired Jon Spencer as GM, only to realize it wasn't the former Portland manager, but is, in fact, this guy.

Nothing against this guy (it's unfortunate they keep referring to the former PDL team as "Orange County Blues Star" and not "Blue Star," but at least they have a local GM. He sounds like he's going to concentrate on the technical side (just from this Q&A), which is not their main problem. They've been competitive in three years (making the playoffs twice). They just haven't been able to sell tickets.

 

They hired the wrong guy!?

 

I don't know that the footballer John Spencer or the late actor John Spencer would make a real difference, to be honest. But had they hired the footballer, it would have been evidence they were interested in professionalizing the organization to a greater extent.

 

Today the LA Blues twitter account congratulated the LA Galaxy II for joining USL Pro and added the hashtag "#SoCalRivalry". Says to me they won't be located in Los Angeles anymore.

 

They're not located in Los Angeles now.

 

Some people have been assuming they are rebranding as Orange County, since they play in Orange County, and their announcement logo features orange lettering.

Edit: also they have this tweet:
Los Angeles Blues ‏@LABLUESPROJan 28
We heard oranges are very...refreshing... #NewBluesEra pic.twitter.com/kNoryVzBfO

That certainly implies that their announcement explicitly has to do with "orange" in some way. So, a rebrand to Orange County really seems the best bet.

Their twitter feed just advertised they have open internships, and they CC'd message to the career centers of several universities in and around Orange County. So that makes it seem to me like they are staying in LA.

Though since Real Salt Lake is purportedly interested in starting a USL team in San Diego, I guess it wouldn't be the craziest thing if they just bought the Blues and moved them.

At this point I don't think anything they do will surprise me.

 

Maybe they can get a La Liga team to sink 15 to 20 million into them and they could eventually compete against MLS!









Woops....wrong thread.

 

It's always possible, but frankly I doubt it saves RSL any money or trouble long term to simply form RSD from scratch since they'll be putting their own people in charge and their own players in place if they do it. Seems more likely that LA Blues' big announcement is simply the rebrand to Orange County. Which makes sense with Galaxy coming in and taking the LA moniker for themselves as well (and with the Blues never having actually played in LA County) and now no longer being the sole USL rep of the Greater LA area. Either that or that or they'll announce they just saved 15% on their car insurance by switching to Geico.

 

I think RSL has already done what RSL is going to do, and it doesn't involve the Blues.

The odd part is that having all these (new and potential) teams relatively nearby makes life easier for the Blues just at the point where they're just bleeding out on the sidewalk anyway.

 

Well as long as their sugar daddy feels the need to keep transfusing them as they're bleeding out... Still you'd have to think that eventually he'd want them to stand on their own without basically being a rich guy's subsidized play thing.

Of course that would entail them actually doing something to change their off field fortunes. If I wasn't so cynical I might actually think they were moving in that direction with an OC based rebrand.

 

He said he would do it for three years, and if they were continuing to lose the money they lost in year one (supposedly $800k), he'd have to re-assess. If they're planning to play this year, as it appears, it would seem his re-assessment (if it was done) didn't result in folding up his tent. Perhaps he felt a re-brand would do the trick.

But you can re-brand all you want - unless they're going to stick to a venue, hire people to sell tickets and make an actual effort, it doesn't matter what they are called.

 

Fair point. I should have said brand, not location.

 

Somehow I doubt his re-assessment led him to conclude he's not still losing money like they were before. They're arguably in an even worse place off field now than they were in year 1. But of course plenty of other things changed in USL this past off season that perhaps he decided to stick with it for now... He is, after all, no longer owner of an island of a franchise anymore.

 

Don't know. Startup costs are usually big. Last year they supposedly had a cast of players that were basically NPSL guys, so they may have cut that. I don't know what Naimo was making.

I would have zero doubt they're still losing money, but only they would know how much unless someone like Scott French asked them and they actually stated it. Whether it's as much as before, no one would be able to tell. They're certainly not sending money out the door on sales and marketing.

 

True. Which begs a question as to what their long term goal is then. They're no doubt still losing money and seem unwilling to or incapable of spending money on sales and marketing. But without spending money on that they'll never turn their finances around and will continue to lose money until...?

Seems to me that the whole Blues team is an exercise in pointlessness until/unless they finally decide to put some money into sales and marketing.

 

Who among us can fully understand the thought processes of the wealthy?

 

And the leaked schedule has "TBD" for the site of all Blues home games.

Where else in the OC could they conceivably play, and would it make a difference?

Santa Ana Bowl? I was there once, liked it.