RIP Athletica

To the Athletica fans:

It's difficult to lose the Athletica from WPS and we certainly feel for all of the Athletica fans. Thanks for your support over the past two years.

I wanted to give you a heads up that the Athletica team website is slated to come down tomorrow (Tuesday).

Also, if you haven't heard yet, the Chicago Red Stars have announced that they will honor any unused Athletica home tickets at their games. For more information call 708.496.9500, email tickets@chicagoredstars.com or see http://www.womensprosoccer.com/Home/chicago/news/general/100531-stl-sth-letter.aspx

Karyn Lush
WPS, Head of New Media

 

Karyn, is there any way we'll be able to access any of the pieces in the news archive, i.e. are they being stored somewhere?

 

Give it a year and the WPS will no longer exist. Not enough folks care. Went to a few Red Stars games last year, none this year Would rather watch my kids team play for free. Duh duh duh another one bites the dust.

 

Athletica's site will be archived but it won't be publicly available. If there are articles you'd like to personally reference, it would be best for you to save them now.

 

Why the big hurry? We just learned about this last Thursday and Athletica's records for this year are still going to count. Dead people are buried slower than that.

 

Remember, kids, keep your hands and feet in the car at all times and don't feed the trolls.

 

I agree with Cville and Siberian T. Couldn't you please just leave it up for the rest of this season just for nostalgia purposes and to retreive any info fans might want?

I'm sure you've registered the domain for the entire year anyway. Plus there's always that hope in the future that the Athletica could somehow be revived as long as WPS makes it long term.

 

Hi All,

Thanks for your feedback. There are a number of business factors that have gone into deciding the timing of taking the Athletica site down. We are leaving the Athletica Fan Corner group (http://fancorner.womensprosoccer.com/group/stlouis) and forum up (http://fancorner.womensprosoccer.com/forum/categories/saint-louis-athletica/listForCategory) so that Athletica fans can still engage with each other.

Karyn

 

Well yeah, but.....you can't even get to a player bio or stats. Many of the players are still going to be in the league. The stats still count. WPS is treating them like they don't exist.

 

Hi cville KC - All of the stats are available here: http://www.womensprosoccer.com/Home/standings/archive/2009-archive.aspx

The bios of the players will be moved to their new team. i.e. Solo, Ellertson and Aluko are already on Atlanta's site and Boxx is on FC Gold Pride's site.

Thanks,
Karyn

 

I noticed that when you click on "players" on the Athletica page it takes you to the WPS listing of all players . . . so yeah, that was quick.

 

In regards to the Vaids having their money stolen or embezzled: Either they signed on to some sort of shady deal and put all of their different assets into it. Or, prior to the deal they already had all of their assets in one place and put them on the line in the deal. In either case it demonstrates a clear lack of ability to manage money (you never put all of your assets that are at risk in one place- even me and my tiny 401K are diversified). That reflects on Cooper since he was the one who vetted them and their finances (supposedly). If they really did lose their money then their other business ventures should be hurting. If those businesses are thriving then it means Cooper sold the team to someone who didn't care about it, and thus came last when this so-called-unforeseeable embezzling happened.

So my question to Cooper is: How did the Vaids lose their money? Did they really dump entirely all of their liquid assets into this bad deal? How have their other business ventures been affected? I think an answer to these questions is the only way Cooper can start to clear his name.

The other question would be: When did you inform the WPS of the sale of the controlling share of Athletica? Was it immediate? If it was not immediate, why not?

Seriously, I'd like answers. Until then, I don't think or care if Cooper is sexist or not. The relevant point is that based on the above discussion regarding the Vaids and based on the current state of the NASL Cooper has clearly demonstrated that he is incompetent with regards to running a team and/or league. I'm surprised that this hasn't received more discussion.

 

Thanks Karyn.

 

Ways not to get another WPS team in St Louis:

1) Shun existing professional soccer in St Louis.

Take special note of the June 6 and July 7 games against the Atlanta Beat, which will probably feature the most Athletica expatriates. Neither is a Saturday, unfortunately.

Really? This is the only thing anyone is discussing other than "Cooper/WPS/NASL/St Louis/SportsBilly/The Universe is sexist".

 

I have no idea, I can only say I would not be one of them. Regardless, would that change anything? I believe the reality is that strong support for AC STL can only help the case for bringing WPS back to St. Louis (and I argued the opposite last year to anyone opposed to seeing WPS, although I rarely had to).

But I guess folks can bury AC STL along with Athletica, and spend the next few years patting themselves on the back for evening the score, since they won't have any local pro soccer to watch.

 

Laying this debacle on the fans of the Athletica is pretty low. IF AC St. Louis goes under it is entirely on the shoulders of Mr. Cooper, period.

 

I'm not saying that if AC goes under it is the fault of Athletica fans. I'm only saying that boycotting AC doesn't help Athletica fans get a replacement WPS franchise.

 

Look, if we had no desire to go to an AC St. Louis game before it is highly unlikely we are going to want to go to one now!

 

I'm just saying that boycotting AC STL out of spite isn't helpful for getting another team. I don't think you're a bad person if you don't want to support them. If you refuse to support AC because you think they ruined Athletica, I still don't think you're a bad person, I just don't agree with your logic.

 

The support for AC St. Louis isn't probably going to have one iota of affect on whether WPS ever comes to St. Louis again. First of all, WPS will probably expand to 12 teams at the very most. There are a lot of cities out there that will get a 1st chance before St. Louis ever gets a 2nd chance. We're way back in the line. The best way to get a 2nd chance at WPS was to have an ownership group to commit themselves to the league and not give up the 1st chance.

And if we ever were considered again, WPS is going to first look at ownership. Their going to look for committed ownership, not somebody who's going to leave in a year or foreign investors who don't give a crap about a women's team. They're going to see that neither ownership group that St. Louis had appeared to be overly committed. Then they're going to look at how nobody stepped forward when the emergency happened and how St. Louis was never able to get a jersey sponsor and note that there doesn't appear to be a potential owner that is committed to women's soccer nor does there appear to be much corporate support for women's soccer in the St. Louis community.

Not going to AC St. Louis games isn't going to hurt our chances of getting another women's team. If anything, it might show how passionately some of us feel about this issue, and about the women's team, and make people take notice. Probably not, but maybe. Hell, I basically threw away $150 because I bought an ACStL season ticket and now I'm not going to go anymore.

And besides, the audiences and target markets for the two teams are quite different. I would say that nearly 50% of Athletica's audience was under 18. Maybe 10% of AC St. Louis' is. I was going to go to both, but I'm guessing that those of us who were are a very small minority.

 

I went to both. I will continue to try to go to ACSTL matches, even though I've been to more Athletica games. The reason is because I am a bigger fan of soccer than I am of politics. Some of you are obviously choosing the latter.

 

I'm just stinking to my principles and basing my decision on the information I know.

Look, if you guys want to still go to AC St. Louis games, that's fine. It's your decision. But don't rag on us for holding to what we believe in. I've probably thought this through as much as anyone. I've also done a lot of research on what went down (rather than just absorbing the bs that's been fed to me). And like I said, I've thrown away money on this. Don't throw the playing politics crap in my face or anyone else who disagrees with you. That's called labeling. It's something that's often used by people who feel they are losing their argument. I think you're better than that.

 

"Labeling"? Not especially. I just fail to see what you can gain by cutting off your nose to spite your face. Face it: killing off ACSTL will not bring the Athletica back. In fact, it will ensure that it will never get another chance in this town or anywhere. No, I don't understand how a team with so many recognizable names could have failed so quickly. My guess is that it's due to a combination of mismanagement and the inherent difficulty of succeeding at profits in women's professional sports leagues. Yes, I think every piece of evidence available points to Cooper as a (if not THE) culprit. But if ACSTL goes under, professional soccer of any kind beyond the Lions is probably over in STL for the next 20 years. That's the truth.