Well, the impression was at the time that if a buyer couldn't be found for the Washington Freedom, there would be no league in 2011. So they were pretty desperate. Alas, Borislow ended up being a bigger douchebag than anyone had imagined, and the result was just that the suspension was postponed for a year.
It's great advide you gave there Abby. I wish you would heed your own. The amazing things Dan did was taking care of number#1 like you Abby and if that is the only thing you care about, you really really need to look in the mirror.
Yes, but at the time, he was guy with money that signed the papers to abide by rules, do the right thing.... once the stuff was signed, he flipped on the league... You can't vet crazy... I am sure his financial stood up fine. League needs a pych test
I think blaming the league for DB is a little nuts, US Soccer basically FORCED them to take the guy (by requiring a 6th team). If you want to really look, the Federation's behavior in this whole thing has been reprehensible - at every turn they've basically tried to force the league to go under. And when you see that DB paid $0 for the team, people thought he was abrasive, but I'm not sure if anyone thought he was going to completely ignore the agreements he had signed onto, or any objective reality every time he talks "savior of women's soccer??" really? This is kind of a "blame the victim" argument. I also think, they guy was willing to spend a couple of million dollars on women's soccer - that gives him some leeway to be a jerk, move the team, etc. But he crossed a LOT of redlines behind the scenes.
This seems a bit extreme to me. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'd imagine if WPS had been able to show the Fed five owners willing and able to lose a couple million a year for a decade, they'd have gotten an exemption easily, and for multiple years. If I'm the Fed, I'm pretty leery of issuing an exemption and having the league fold in 20 months anyway; and WPS has never yet been strong enough to give anyone any confidence that that is not a possibility. Show me a base adequate to withstand the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and I get a lot more generous. They do have some skin in the game you know, collectively and individually. The folks making the decisions need to make successful ones to keep their jobs, and the institution as a whole has to have some consistency or any unpopular decision is like to generate litigation...
They had to show that to get the exemption, grudgingly, for one. The fed was/is going to move the goalposts however they needed to make it hard but still collect over $1.5 million in non-refundable "performance bonds." They got their money, it seems. You'll have to explain how you think the federation is harmed by a league folding after it's sanctioned. As far as I know, that's never cost any USSF employee their position, or the fed money (I know they spent quite a bit to keep the D2 men's league afloat, and although I think it's unforgivable they didn't step in here, that's a different point from direct actions that cause harm). The fed's only skin is to "grow the game" - any action that harmed WPS' ability to go forward is directly opposed to that IMHO.
I can understand why she waited until now and when you read her blog post she states that now that the surgery is paid for and Dan has no grip on her career it's time to say it. If you were in her position would you want to have your whole career ruined and never play something she truly loves, she just didnt want her career and all of her hard work to go to waste and everything she did was outof love for the game. She wanted to be traded she said that she did but Dan wouldn't. WNY and Philly both offered but Dan didn't let her go. so don't look at Ella or any other player on the team like they are the bad guys the way Dan treated them was clearly uncalled for and he didn't follow other regulations. Plus there will definatly be more stories coming out Ella might have made other teammates tell their side
Also, there's the reader reply on All White Kit by Arnim (I believe one of the principal Chicago Red Stars owners): The gist of Ella Masar's story is credible and it's been clear for along time that it's awaste of time trying to defend Don Borislow (unless you're on legal retainer). We can always be presented with a revelation (kind of like Jack Warner's promised "tsunami in his case against FIFA...- cf Bill Archer if you're interested and don't know what I'm talking about) that will totally turn our opinion around but it's highly unlikely. The rest is just dithering and wishy-washiness - I think John Adams' words about the Continental Congress in 1776 was :"fiddle, diddle, and delay"??? The Internet is sometimes awesome: "piddle twiddle and resolve" (as in "pass resolutions".) Not one damn thing do we solve.
Thanks for linking to it...much appreciated. Here's the podcast for those who might be interested: http://www.wdws.com/audio/2012-02-06/ella-masar-2-6-2012.html
Good interview Brian. In here she starts talking about her nose then says she can't go into too much detail because of some legal stuff that's happening. A few days back after Ella's blog made headlines, I remember reading somewhere where I believe Borislow's response was he didn't want to talk about Ella because of certain reasons. I don't remember where But I'm almost certain I did read it. Could it be that there is a lawsuit pending? Did Ella spend her own money to get the nose fixed and is she trying to recoop that money? Could we see more fallout from this story?
Thanks, bmoline, for doing the interview and providing the link. It's worth listening to, for those interested in the MJ situation. An important detail that wasn't apparent to me previously was that, in the player meeting Ella describes in her blog entry, the World Cup players on the MJ team were not present. They were gone with the team. There were two other players, not among the World Cup group, who Borislow had pulled aside to be his communicators with the team, and they were the ones who advised the others at the meeting about what Borislow had told them to say. Ella also said she has no idea how Borislow knew immediately what was said at the meeting. It's not clear to me she knows for sure that he knew what was said, except that she received a text sending her home during the course of the meeting and believed it was because he knew what was said. That sounds pretty reasonable to me. I'm one of those in the "the place was bugged" camp, although I obviously don't know that for a fact. It's also possible he did not know what was being said and simply sent her the text during the course of the meeting to send a big message to the others as part of a mind game related to the pending grievance, using Ella as the example of his power over them. In addition, I did not get the impression from the podcast -- or from Ella's blog -- that she was blaming any of the MJ players, WNT or otherwise, for anything that happened. She did say that it wasn't important who the players were that carried Borislow's message to the team during the meeting.
very clear when she tweeted this that it took a lot of courage for her to do what she did and knowing that there are players who went through worse.... when/ if other stories come out people will be able to look back and congradulate Ella Masar for starting this by being the first one to stand up and tell her story of what she had to endure in Florida.
Cheers for the link, cute accent when she tries to speak French. Interesting to hear her explaining things as well.
Just looking at the timeline (and I know this has been mentioned elsewhere), she broke her nose in Philadelphia, which had to be either June 18 or June 25. She later played 90 minutes in the July 9th game against Sky Blue at Yurcak. Abby called her the day before the final against Japan which would have been July 16. So I would assume the meeting took place between July 9 and July 16, probably closer to the July 9 date, since it sounded like she was back in Chicago for at least a few days before she was called. Ella said that two players ran the meeting, but didn't want to mention names. You could certainly narrow it down by looking at which players were with the team at that time. I looked at the July 9 active list of 14 players for the Sky Blue game, just for kicks. In my mind, there were only 4 or 5 on that list that would likely be running the meeting. Of course, the thing we will never know is how Dan instantly knew what was said during the meeting and why Ella in particular was singled out by Dan. And without that, it's hard to completely understand what went on. But looking back at the box scores, Ella played 90 minutes against WNY on July 20 and 90 minutes against Atlanta on July 23, plus 59 minutes against Sky Blue on July 27. She also played the second half in the July 30 match against Boston. Press scored three goals in the match against Boston, thus pretty much taking Ella's starting job for good. She later played 21 minutes against Boston on August 6. She also played 90 minutes in the regular season finale against Philadelphia. She didn't see action in the playoff opener, but she also subbed in the 2nd of the semifinal against Philly. So by my count she played in 7 of the 10 matches after the World Cup starting 4 of those matches, for a team that also had Wambach, Press, De Vanna, Huffman, among many attacking options (plus the additions of Washington and Rapinoe). Once Wambach and De Vanna returned from the World Cup and with Press emerging as goal scorer on the pro level, I really don't see where she was slighted that much in playing time. I certainly sympathize with the demeaning way she was treated as an individual, the way her injury was handled, and the way her situation was handled overall, but as far playing time goes, I don't know if she has a major grievance there. I think it was more of a function of who else was available and how they were playing.
I completely agree...I think it was more a matter of the team having an abundance of offensive talent (and a lack of a real coach that knew how to properly manage the subs). But I am really happy that Ella found a good place in France to play, she seems like a quality person.
GK Shannon Myers was Daddy Dan's puppet and betrayer... she was fired because she worked for him and forgot who she worked for... she forwarded the emails and gave testimony (afidavid in the greivence filing)that they came from Dan at his request through her team email
and if this theory is true this could actually be something law enforcement could check if they looked at phone records that is if there is probable cause or enough information that has come out to suggest that this is a very likely scenario that occured
I'm not so sure about that. My understanding the meeting was in his office. I'm not sure there's a Florida law that says someone can't bug his own office. If someone can, then law enforcement wouldn't have anything to do with it.
If you read the blog post from Masar she states "It was mid July and we were all (MagicJack) sitting in our locker room. Dan had called a meeting to give us our options with the grievance being filed earlier in the week." So they were in the locker room of the time of the meeting is what I got as I read it...
Maybe he was hiding in one of the stalls? or, Maybe he was peeking in the girls's locker room through a peep-hole like in the movie "Porky's"?
hahaha who knows anyway you put it some of the things that Dan did were very strange and borderline creepy well actually just creepy especially the Call me daddy line and taking Masar out to dinner with his boys and all we can do is wonder what they did in those TWO days...
wow, you guys are reaching as usual. how about he had his little troll reporting back to him on locker room talk and his troll pointed out massar was the problem child among the girls?. as far as this "daddy" thing, dude thought these women were his u13/14 little jacks. i'm sure his daughters and some of those kids he transports around the country do so at practice or whatever. my friends when i was a kid use to call my grandmother, as if she was their grandmother. now, put a beer in his hand which i saw him with one at about every game his pictures showed up, and you have a liquor loaded millionaire. the house converted to a club house was built for his U teams, not wps team. that's like saying he was spying on the kids.