What type of changes do you think is needed or would like to see in the upcoming 2015 USL Pro season?
Stadium change. UCI is not a very good place for Fan Experience. Track Field, Parking ends up costing more than season tickets, for new people the stadium is ridiculously hard to locate. I know people that showed up to the Campus and left since they couldn't find it. I also know people that refused to go due to the parking fees. There is also nothing near UCI, no where to go before and after the game. Was similar when they played in Fullerton but then you were able to tailgate in the parking lot. The good part about UCI was all of the games being there, no hopping around mid season. Despite the Turf and Football lines Santa Ana Stadium is a great place to watch a game. And downtown Santa Ana is super close.
-Get a MLS affiliation, seems like OC Blues is dying on the vine, perhaps this would get them more in circulation. -Upgrade staff, spend money -Venue -Get involved with LAFC ASAP
With new USL rules on No Football lines we may be stuck at UCI for another season. Gotta suck it up and make the best of it. Outside of building our own stadium at Great Park in Irvine (Something like Tucson has, would be perfect) there really aren't any other options. Just Fullerton and UCI. Fullerton is a better stadium and field but the price and CSUF inability to work with us puts UCI as the only option (owner even made an offer on the rights of Titan Stadium to no avail, Not sure what the figures were that were thrown around). The club did see improvement attendance wise playing at UCI but atmosphere is still meh. Upgrade staff and budget for a real marketing plan are the biggest things that need to be done. The current staff works really hard with what they are given but structurally there still needs to be changes. LAFC is an interesting idea, not sure what that would really look like though. Maybe in 2016 players LAFC signs play on loan for the Blues? I wouldn't be surprised to see LAFC come directly into USL 2017. We've had talks of affiliations over the years but none ever came to fruition. We have still mananged to get a fair amount of loans from Seattle and Portland.
It is looking more and more like UCI will again be the home of the Blues. Hopefully the School will be more willing to work with the club this season....Parking fees? At least lower it to $5.
Ownership has definitely been bleeding more $ then they would like. They say they are dropping the Women's side to focus more time and resources on the USL PRO side. I don't see it as giving up (yet) but it should be a warning sign that ownership is not feeling great about the costs of this overall operation. They also prolly see USL PRO as having potential to actually be profitable with the amount of MLS involvement. I still think they need other investors to join the ownership group in order to really compete in this league once again.
Talked to Tom Payne the other day and there are a lot of big changes hopefully coming. Won't get to see too many of them in the 2015 season but hopefully they can be announced. Of course a lot of this is still hush hush since there are still a lot of loose ends to tie up. Hopefully the club will be able to share sooner than later.
I know a permanent stadium location is one. I spoke with one of the Blues reps. My other guesses would be some sort of affiliation with an MLS side, most likely LAFC. I know LA has looked into OC sites for stadiums, so you never know.
If we ever have affiliation LAFC would be the only real option at this point, I don't see NYCFC linking up with a west coast club (Vancouver did with Charleston so I guess its not impossible). It wouldn't be a terrible idea to do the affiliation before LAFCs 2017 season starts. Could have some early signings get play time locally.
This one is more just fixing the crest they rushed last season. But if you count this one as a "different logo" i think we have had a different crest each season. This one needed to be done. I'd imagine we keep this one for awhile.
If they did I'd hope they would keep the Orange County Blues identity. If they straight out became LAFC my support would end. Not that they would care.
Its not so much the Blues organization, If NASL came to town I would definitely have some soul searching to do. The big thing is OC is not LA. I want a club that is willing to claim the community they play in, not play here while claiming to be Los Angeles. Again, not that they would care about my position on the matter. There are stadium talks but I don't know how far along they are currently. Our growth is definitely limited at Anteater Stadium.
http://www.uslsoccer.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=32800&ATCLID=209903729 Monday, February 23, 2015 IRVINE, Calif. - The Blues family continues to expand as Head Coach Oliver Wyss announced today the new Orange County Blues FC coaching staff for the 2015 USL season. This year’s coaching staff includes Braeden Cloutier, Sacha van Der Most van Spijk, Claudio Trabattoni, Mohammad Mohammadi and Technical Adviser Barry Venison. The new coaching staff is diverse, and every member has immense experience.
Thats a big staff for the Blues. Possibly bigger than most USL teams. Maybe they are serious this year. So conspiracy theory here: Sacha van der Most van Spijk is currently the Academy Director for Chivas USA, and will continue there until the end of the Dev. season. Any chance there is some MLS/LAFC influence here?