Well there is a class "EB-1" that allows you to apply based on having "Extraordinary Ability." So they'll basically give you a green card right away if you have a special award (Pulitzer, Oscar, Olympic Medal). So Utsugi and Taylor who have World Cup medals were likely eligible to apply though that, though whether they did or not, I don't know. Fishlock got her green card in 2015, which was 2 years after first coming here, not sure what process she used though.
Utsugi also has an Olympic Silver Medal (2012)! Edit: no, sorry, she hasn't! I had forgotten that she had a fatal injury that year that prevented her from taking part to the Olympics: ACL after a friendly match vs USA in Sweden!
There is no minimum time limit for green cards in the US, it really depends on finding the right immigration lawyer and a willingness of your employer to push for it. As an example, it is not uncommon for foreign players that are starters for MLS teams to get their green cards within a year, sometimes 2, but I know of 1 player that got theirs within 6 months of joining the team.
I noticed that this week Rumi Utsugi wasn't listed anymore in the NWSL injury report, although she wasn't seen in Seattle Reign line-up nor on the bench. Doesn't anyone know if this means that she's at least resumed training? Any idea if she will see the pitch before the end of the season?
She was at the game Saturday night and with the other players who weren’t in the 18. Haven’t seen confirmation she is training, but Vlatko mentioned her in an interview last week (that she was expected to come off the injury list) so My assumption is that she’s training but wasn’t ready for match play.
I certainly hope we get Leslie Gallimore! That would be very good. There do seem to be a lot of reasons to think this could happen.
I guess this is pretty big news. Is this a good thing? Reign FC has entered into exclusive negotiations to sell the club to OL Groupe, the parent company of @OLfeminin. Details here: https://t.co/440zjLu5bn pic.twitter.com/RgUmXDofhm— Seattle Reign FC (@reignfc) November 25, 2019
Torn.. If Aulas puts as much emphasis into the Reign as he has with Lyon Feminin, that could work out great for the Reign. However, being that he's about as far away from Seattle as one can be, I'm a little worried that he'll view it as a side project, or just as a feeder club to Lyon Feminin and the team will reflect that..
Very big news, for sure. Good that the Predmores are still minority owners, but I just hope bridges weren't burned re: buying out the recently-added Raiders + Sounders people. Honestly, even if the Reign become a feeder club for the main Lyon, there's no better club in the world to be feeder to. Lyon's bench could probably be league-winners in most leagues. I could potentially see big-name players that aren't getting the play time they think they deserve to request loans to Seattle. That said, considering crowd sizes and competitiveness, it probably wouldn't be smart to treat the Reign as a feeder team. The only unknown there that might make people pursue the "feeder" aspect is if sponsorships in France are way bigger. (Which I wouldn't be surprised about considering their pedigree.)
I didn't get the feeling that the Sounders people really wanted in, but rather did it out of a sense of civic duty (and an attempt to dodge blame if the Reign failed). Hanauer and Co could have been involved with the Reign from the start, but it was only when the Reign were on the verge of collapse that they stepped in and greased the wheels to get them into Tacoma. That's one of the reasons I'm torn. It could also end up being bad for NWSL if Lyon bench players start playing for the Reign and the Reign dominate NWSL.
I don't think the Reign getting better would stop the strength of NC (or POR) so I think "dominating" NWSL would be very hard to do, especially since I doubt Lyon would send more than two or three players over. And NWSL roster rules might prevent more than that from coming over, too.
Another side note about the "feeder" issue: if I have a good grasp on Aulas' personality, I think he's going to try to organize whatever he can do to win as much as possible. That is, just by pride, I don't think he'll denigrate the Reign's position much at all. I fully expect the Reign to max out NWSL's new Allocation Money with this development.
I just realized that Western Washington is the only place that Aulas can use the Olympique brand. The Ted Steven's Act gives the US Olympic Committee exclusive use of the word "Olympic" in the US. The only exception to that is Western Washington where the Olympic Mountains are. They'll still get a cease and desist letter if they try to name the club "Olympique Washington" or something like that, but they may be able to survive the lawsuit if they want to push it...
They already have plans to build a SSS in Tacoma... I’m not sure what the status of it is, but it isn’t something they need Lyon’s help to get across the line.
Found this from the middle of July: https://www-1.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article232447017.html Looks like it has completed and passed the feasibility study, now it is in the citizen comment and funding phase.
They do if it is only going to be a 5000 seat stadium. That would probably be a sure way for the team to be relocated, stadium is not bigger. Stadium should be designed like the Louisville one is with the ability to add on more seating.
It doesn’t seem that final design on the SSS is complete and other articles had a stadium sizes between 5k-7k. The Reign also haven’t really needed a stadium larger than 5k until this year, so it wasn’t really necessary to include a larger SSS in the feasibility study. There’s also going to be an average attendance where they just move the team to CenturyLink.
Whatever stadium size will meet the Reign’s needs immediately must also take into consideration growth as well. You don’t want to be locked into a small stadium in comparison to the other teams in the league as the league grows.
That's why I added the final sentence. Making the Tacoma SSS scalable makes sense if you view that location as the "final" home for the Reign. I'm not sure that is true. All indications are that the long term goal is to have the Reign play in CenturyLink Field. Obviously it would be horrible to play there if they are only drawing 5k-6k a game, but the hope is that there will be a point where the Reign's attendance is going to be large enough that a move to CenturyLink is necessary. Another point to consider is that the Reign aren't the only team that will be playing in the SSS. The Tacoma Defiance will play a factor in the sizing of the stadium and right now they are drawing less than 3k a game. Obviously the hope is that they too will increase in attendance, but there is going to be a limit to how high they go. If we consider the Tacoma Rainiers, which is a MiLB team owned by the same people that own the Defiance, their average attendance has been between 4.5k and 5.5k for the last decade. We can probably draw some conclusions about that related to how much growth the Defiance can expect in their average attendance.