I don't think soccer experience really matters when you're talking about someone running a league. It's more about marketing, finding capable owners, etc. Downs didn't have an extensive soccer background (had been chair of the bid committee, but his resume was largely in TV as I recall), and I think most people would agree he did as good as a job as you could expect in the mess that is D2/D3 soccer.
Peterson grew up playing American football and was even a free agent linebacker in 1987 with the Los Angeles Raiders.
Seems like a great choice. NASL getting executives in its system with strong MLS track records like Peterson and Stover with the Cosmos is a great sign for the league. With a few strong expansion adds, the NASL could make a leap forward similar to the one MLS took after Toronto joined. Really liked the idea above about courting a few UFL owners to NASL. In particular attracting Bill Mayer to replace his Virginia Beach UFL franchise with a Virginia Beach NASL club is an interesting one. Great market, soccer stadium, owner who didn't like MLS's single entity system. Not sure about Nancy Pelosi's husband and Sacramento ... might be a harder sell since he doesn't have the soccer background that Mayer has with DC United, but there were those articles earlier this year about Sacramento being interested in getting a MLS team. This would be their path to that.
I do like the idea of pro soccer returning to Virginia Beach. I do think that they ripped out the grass field and put turf out there. I am not sure the local gov't types would be too pleases and there would be a uphill PR battle considering what the last regime did. The Norfolk MISL team still around?
I have never agreed with Kenn as many times or to such a high degree in a single thread. Peterson is a great choice with a great pedigree in a) high-level professional sports, b) soccer, and c) promoting a version of 'football' that is not the dominant one in a given geographical area. And he's got something else going for him which stems from all of those plus signs--CONNECTIONS. Any US soccer fan who thinks NFL guys have primarily been bad for our version of the game doesn't know their history. Most of the things people hated most about the early years of MLS came directly from Nike, who had firm relationships with big soccer entities and yet didn't have a clue.
I'm a "pro-union" socialist, but the only "NFL guys" that have been bad for soccer in the U.S. were the NFLPA who used the old MLSPA as a proxy in their preemptive fight against the NFL owners moves towards a more "single-entity" structure. Had the MLSPA won the lawsuit against MLS, LLC I'm pretty sure the league would have ceased to exist almost immediately.
While I think that the new Commish is a good choice - he now has his first opportunity to see show the fans how good he actually is with the Cosmos half season debacle. I hope he makes some statement regarding the Cosmos entry in the near future after his meeting with them. I personally think he should make them wait until 2014.
What Cosmos "half season debacle". I've been busy the last week. Did I miss something? EDIT: Nevermind. Sheesh. Spend a week traveling and working and the world goes to hell.
Listened to the interview with new Commissioner Peterson, thanks for posting it WSW. Main points... Travelling to meet with team owners individually He sees helping teams grow in their local markets as job 1, 2 & 3 Looks to continue expansion of league in a more selective manner based on geography & individual markets The league vision was laid out as focus on local markets and become better promoters of each team, after teams have full stadiums then they will look into other parts like broadcasting. He says the NASL is not focused on MLS relationship right now He likes the split season format
Of course he does, what else was he supposed to say? /devilsadvocate The other points are interesting and I'd say solid goals to work towards.
You look at it that way. I look at it as a guy as a businessman who not only has years of experience in the sports industry, but has had prior experience trying to develop (though in vain) new sports leagues and who's experience in that regard could be a useful asset. The fact is i don't blame him for the UFL, honestly it was a terrible idea at it's conception. There just isn't room in american football (in the fall) for a lower level league. The market is completely dominated by the nfl, and anybody who wants a local team typically roots for the local college team (or the college they came from). If they did what the USFL did in the 80s and made it a league that operated in the spring i think it would have had a better chance of at least being sustainable. If nothing else it would have given players who can't latch on to an NFL roster showcase themselves during the free agency period of the nfl offseason. NFL Europe technically was a failure, but tbh for a failed league in a continent that apparently isn't very supportive of the sport, the last world bowl (and last game of the league) drew an attendance of 48,000+. Pretty impressive imo. And it had average attendances between 16,000- 20,000. I imagine those are numbers that NASL fans would be more than happy with (granted that's probably unrealistic at this time if ever). I don't know if he will do well, but i think these complaints about him being an "NFL" are silly
I'm not sure, how much you people actually know about the NFL Europe but I was there from 1995 to the end. It had a lot of highs (50,000+ attendances in Frankfurt and Duesseldorf) and lows (London, Barcelona,...) but as a league, it was getting more and more successful. I'm not sure, who was responsible for the decisions but someone made the right ones by shifting all the teams (except the very nearby Amsterdam) to Germany where the league was on a good track (average attendances - Frankfurt: 30,000+; Duesseldorf: 25,000; Hamburg: 20,000; Berlin: 16,000 with positive tendency and a very high finish in the final season; Cologne was a bad decision and hopeless though; Amsterdam was doing alright and made sense to keep them around due to their proximity to the other cities)! The reasons for ceasing operations were quite clear. The NFL wanted to promote their brand in Europe not only Germany but teams only had good attendances (and developments) in Germany. Germany on the other hand could not provide a good TV deal to NFL (neither for the NFL itself nor for the Europe branch) since the pay TV in Germany doesn't produce a lot of money unlike in the UK. So, the NFL decided that even though NFL Europe was doing better every season since they focused on Germany they wouldn't proceed funding since the ROI does not justify investment. I'm not sure, if Peterson was the one who made the right decisions but from a business point of view for the NFL Europe, someone did. NFL had different ideas though. And for the ones who believe the NFLE never produced any good players...ever heard about Kurt Warner? I think he won this thing called SuperBowl or something. Not saying, the reason why he got good enough to win is his time in the NFLE but without it he wouldn't have been discovered for the NFL. There are a few others who made decent NFL players! Anyway, without knowing anything about the other stations of his career, I think Peterson might be a good choice for the NASL. Oliver Luck who made Frankfurt Galaxy the NFLE flagship, moved on to Rhein Fire where he did the same wasn't too bad for Houston either, I believe!?
You know the NFL's Chief Marketing Officer, Mark Waller, is a Brit who had no prior football experience before joining the league, right?
Well, great. NFL Europe and the USFL and NFL and what ever other American Footbll leagues you would like to talk about. Great. Congratulations. Were talking, American Professional soccer here. We wills see how well this fellow does with the NASL.
you're right, we'll see how he fares as the commish of the NASL. The guy who kenn was quoting made a silly point though (IMO).
I don't think Kenn really needs help defending himself, but he is not, really not, not even a little bit, comparing the NFL to soccer. That is the very point. He is comparing the relative knowledge of successful executives. The point is that marketing and leading a pro sports league of any kind is very difficult, and there are few people out there who have proven track records in that area. The ones who are successful tend to continue being successful. There are plenty of soccer-crazy execs who have failed, and there are a few execs who were unfamiliar with the game but turned out to be very successful. Peterson brings a lot of knowledge about how to run pro sports, a strong track record, and a lot of connections.
Good new interview with the Commish, he talks about the New York Cosmos and NASL Expansion among other topics : http://www.indyweek.com/triangleoff...on-plots-circuitous-path-to-nasl-commissioner
FourFourTwo piece http://fourfourtwo.com/blogs/therea...r-explains-his-blueprint-for-us-football.aspx
Interesting interview...Peterson continues hitting the points he wants to focus on with the league as: Focus on promoting the teams to fans of soccer - sounds like he wants teams to focus on access to the club and players Good competition on the field and fans that care about the results Filling the stadiums with fans is most important and he wants to see if the league can double ticket sales I think filling the stadiums is really the big thing he keeps mentioning. Teams have to be relevant in their markets and that starts with more fans. I hope he gets his wish that sales double this year.
That is something sales people say, like MLS being a top league by 2020. I am sure NASL will be happy with a nice increase even if it is not double. A 4.5K to 5K would be fantastic IMO, especially if Minnesota and Edmonton can pull 3K+