I hope this qualifies as news....Does the Sunday Times from the UK have a reputation for accuracy in reporting?...Anyway, people need a subscription to read the article, which i could not....All I got was this small text from GOOGLE http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2093-896408,00.html "... which Real would crack America by staging biennial tours from 2004, running soccer ... to $25m per year, would involve the Spaniards buying up a franchise in Major ..." If someone could fill in the blanks (paraphrasing the rest of course, no copy and paste), i'd appreciate it....
It could be the same Real info from a while back... they have some US plan, Tour the US, start a youth academy here (ala Ajax) then in 2010 i believe it was start a MLS team in Miami called Real Miami, and it would be a place for retired Real players to go play...thats all the info i remember from reading it before...
If that's really what they said I already don't like their attitude. A place to put their players out to pasture. I think we've had enough of that idea already. I'd rather have an up and coming unknown player from almost anywhere than a player who says "My playing days are over. I'll go to MLS now."
i'm not sure on the questioned article above, but it looks like the same info i saw, it was posted a while back, 2-3 months?...and yes, thats REALLY what they said...a place for former REAL players to go, they would play with the players in the US Real Youth System on an MLS team... almost what chivas is doing except chivas wants to bring 2-3 players from the current chivas (hopefully that doesn't mean their oldest players who want to take a vacation here) and Chivas USA has said they aren't using MLS as a farm team... that is what Real wants to do though, use Real Miami as a farm club and retirement home...and i think the year was 2010 if i'm not mistaken...
I don't get it... There's all these teams (Chivas, America, Man U, Real Madrid, Ajax, etc.) who seem to think that people would be willing to pay money to watch Americans teams run around in their jerseys. Do they really think that thy're so popular that people can't wait to see some kind of World Champion's League of Imitation Foreign Teams? I mean, you got Vergara thinking that just because there's a team in San Diego wearing red and white striped jerseys, that everybody with any relationship to Mexico is going to immediately fill the stadium. And in the process of rallying his thousands of hispanic fans, he's probably going to find a way to piss off every non-hispanic in Southern California and make sure that they'll never want to attend one of his team's games. I have to believe that most of these foreign teams have been getting some kind of very optomistic reports about their US popularity. There's a big difference between a short summer tour by the original team and a forty game season with the imitation team (even with some "retired" players). I believe when push comes to shove we're going to find out how clueless these people really are.
its one thing wanting to put a team in mls (for your kids and old farts), but its entirely another thing being granted a slot.