Hale Announces New League

I hate to do it because he's a nice guy. His information is wrong 98.8% of the time, but I like him. That's why I hate to be skeptical. I can't speak for Skipper.

 

I never said the whole team filed I said at one time the whole team was hurt hahhaha Maybe this time they can get obama care

 

Seems like people might have missed the about face that Hale did in that Baltimore Sun story.

Same teams as before, I'd take that to mean people didn't bite on the AHL thing and had to go back to the drawing board.

He's managed in a month to go from, "I want to somehow get with a group that's gonna have properly sized arenas and proper capitalization, a sustainable business plan," to straight up just inviting the existing teams in and maybe, I'm guessing, some previous owners. Guess we will see come mid/end of March if he actually has teams lined up or not but considering the current pace of back peddling, I'd be kinda shocked if he had a sustainable group to successfully break away.

 

Well he has had several investors in Baltimore , and he said most of the teams will be new .

 

He was only saying most of the teams would be new back when he was still pushing the AHL thing. If we accept his quotes from that article, he's apparently changed his strategy from mostly new teams and is now focusing on flipping who he can. What references I've seen of outside investors all focused on AHL owners and his change of strategy at least alludes to that failing to take root.

It's also funny as hell (to me anyway) that according to the same article, he's angling to have sole ownership and control of the league, at least initially. But don't worry, if it's successful he's totally going to let other franchisee team owners join in on the league's franchisor role, someday later. That's certainly one way to make sure people don't vote against what he wants.

 

While watching the Heat @ Blast match on Sunday, one of the announcers commented that Ed Hale hosted an AHL owner at the Friday night Missouri @ Blast match. Still not sure how Ed's getting more than 6 teams for the IPL this coming Fall. But, of course, I never worked for the CIA.

 

I don't want to stir the pot; but, all of this keeps making me think of this clip.

 

Right now in the IPL ( Baltimore , ST Louis , Florida ) Harrisburg and Syracuse will follow that's a given,

Expansion ?
Buffalo , Providence , LeHigh Valley , Rochester 2nd Team in Florida

 

I am not sure that Lakeland Florida is the best place for a team....people look at it on a map and see it between Tampa and Orlando and assume it will draw people from both cities but the reality is that most casual fans from either city are unlikely to trek out for anything like this. It seems to be it would have been better to base them in Tampa or Orlando proper. Tampa has a few venues that might have been able to work just as well as the Lakeland Center.

That said, I would go to a few games for sure...

 

Lewis- Can you PLEASE tell me how Harrisburg and Syracuse are a given? Please tell me you are buying both franchises (you and Haines will own more than 50% of the league ! )

You do know they are both close to being up for ... ....... nevermind

Not quite sure you realize but Syracuse has been drawing about 1500-2000 fans. No guarantee Tanner is even coming back, unless the smell of MPS keeps him around for 1 more year

Lakeland , FL ? Yeah right. I lived in Orlando. Lakeland is not a HOTBED for indoor soccer my man.
Hale should have probably told Haines go to Cleveland or Wichita - at least you'd have a few tickets already sold by now... not to mention your nearest rival wouldn't be 1,000 MILES AWAY

Another point... while I completely agree with most of Hale's reasoning with wanting to start a league and try to do things right... NOT inviting the MO and Wave ownership groups because you don't like them is just plain fu**** insane

Not playing 1 of them in the regular season is also fu**** insane .... Matter of fact how about the FISL ..

IMO... Hale knows indoor soccer is on its deathbed.. especially if this new Futal League takes off. We all saw MLS take talent years ago which was the beginning of the end ... now if Futsal takes what little talent is left in indoor.soccer... there you have it.

So he probably feels he's at the end of the rope, and Fu** it .. if I have a few years left I'm doing things my way and you don't want to come with me then go F*** yourself . My 2 cents

 

Harrisburg will have a new investor . Syracuse will be saved somehow. If they Have teams in Toronto, Florida, Buffalo Baltimore , Harrisburg and Syracuse will come with us. Don't be shocked if the Rochester lancers resurface

 

Happen to be a main sponsor currently of the Blast?

 

What is the impedus for St. Louis and the one/two Florida clubs to join a predominately northeast regional league? In the case of StL, each road trip will be a minimum twelve hour bus ride. Also, won't the same issues that resulted in Rochester's demise also haunt the new Rochester, Syracuse, and any other NY club that comes on board?

Even with new owners, what buisness model will allow a floundering Syracuse and Harrisburg to live to see another season in the IPL or the MASL?

Finally, assuming the IPL does not happen for 2016/17, will the Blast play in the MASL next season or did Hale already burn that bridge? He mentioned that the Blast may go it alone, but assures fans "there will be some form of Blast soccer". Will the Blast go outdoors? Or--dare I ask--will they attempt to join the new Futsal thing?

 

No clue what the St. Louis/Florida group is thinking but while that couple likes to start sports teams they haven't been in the indoor soccer game long so who knows.

Yes. No way around it, the laws haven't changed. They might have an easier time to start with but long term they'd be in the same spot.

The only way I could see a switch really helping them is if they have more games against Baltimore and there is a very generous visitor gate share. Maybe they could survive with visiting revenues if they really pinched pennies.

If it really did come down to everything else collapsing around him; St. Louis stays MASL, he can't get anyone to defect, no new teams willing to pony up startup capital... he'd be left with 2 choices. 1) Eat crow and really knuckle under, asking to stay in the MASL. 2) Maybe he could finance multiple teams, potentially all out of the same stadium or another local facility. In theory he could rent facilities at a local indoor complex and run 2 teams out of it. A missed season or two would be a disaster, from both a marketing and ego perspective. I can't see him letting that happen no matter the cost. Personally I think at this point he'd go with #2 but that's just a guess.

 

My St. Louis Ambush sources say that the IPL is definitely happening and US targeting to have 'as many as 14 teams' but around 10 at a minimum. It was described to me as already set up, though it sounds like some teams may join a bit later. No list of city names was mentioned to me, but obviously Baltimore, as well as St. Louis, the Florida Tropics. Syracuse is a likely addition.

Would Hale let in the Missouri Comets? What will Chicago and Milwaukee do? Harrisburg and Detroit don't seem to fit Hale's ideal of robust, well-funded franchises. Dallas has been unstable in ownership. I won't hold my breath about Rochester coming back. They had a bad arena situation & not sure Soccer Sam will want to start over there. Wasn't Sam looking to also start a Florida team? The IPL needs a few more new teams in addition to MASL defections, especially in the East & South.

 

That is correct - Haines will own the Florida Tropics. The Ambush will be managed by a couple who are currently part-owners. Other management and front office staff have been added & promoted recently in Saint Louis, and the Ambush just signed a 3 year extension with their Arena and Mercy health company (their top sponsor). They must feel pretty confident to extend for 3 years, we don't even know what league(s) will be operating in 3 months! The battle lines are drawn between leagues, again. Hale's league is a more viable entity from a legal standpoint but how will the sport as a whole be affected with two competing leagues?

 

The merits of the franchise model versus single entity has been discussed extensively elsewhere on this blog. I refer you to read those discussions. No sense to beat a dead horse here. I hope the Ambush are around for 3 years (or more) but given the strong possibility of two competing leagues, how much confidence is there to be had?

 

Not sure that there will be a big difference with the sport if there is one league or two. The sport hasn't excelled with a single league or multiple leagues, it has only declined. Unless both leagues have clubs in the same markets I doubt competition will be a problem.

 

Chicago is Interested I know that for sure but that does not mean a thing . If Rochester comes back Soccer Sam will not own anything other then the name from my understanding. Yes Soccer Sam is looking in to starting a team in Florida since his has a Vacation home there.

 

If they can agree that the Champion of the MASL and the Champion of the IPL play each other in a best of 5 series to determine a true indoor champion then it would not hurt. It just may help at least get that series on TV

 

Agreed, a IPL vs. MASL Championship would be a donnybrook of a series. Definitely agree that a best-of-three or best-of-five series would make for a compelling event. ESPN would be ideal but regional sports cable seems like a good fit, at the least. I am not a fan of the 'two game plus mini-game' format. Every playoff series should be at least best-of-three.

It would also be awesome if someone could video the owner meetings and interviews of Hale and other individuals to create a documentary/reality show about the controversial new league. Each league might get some revenue if a cable station picked it up. Reality shows have featured crazier topics than dueling soccer leagues. The owner of the mid-2000s St. Louis Steamers actually did produce a reality TV show (local broadcast) that covered the people involved in the team, breaking up with a girlfriend, player interviews, etc. It won't happen now, unfortunately, but I would get my popcorn ready & watch it.

 

The reality show is a great idea

I haven't heard anything about a Providence team, not that I know everybody in the state, but I like to think I would have heard about this

A best of champions series is a great idea for the people on this board, and fans who actually follow the gane, and diehard fans who go to every game and the players. Sadly that number of people numbers somewhere between 500-3000 people.

Dallas is in big trouble, I highly doubt they will be at the Allen Events Center next year.

The only way to get indoor on TV today is to either produce it yourself or produce it yourself. Short of that, the team could produce it themselves. Nobody in charge of sports or programming will put indoor on tv. So that leaves producing it yourself.