Is there any clear description of how the RSL Women will (or won't) fit into the RSL family? It seems like they'd be a solid practice/development option. But I'm just speculating.
It makes sense. It's risky to play young players at the back, especially at CB and keeper. I'm not so keen on the lack of youth in the attack, though. A young, dynamic player can swing a game, even if she doesn't start on a regular basis. I don't see that player on this roster. Maybe Ratcliffe?
LAFC are rumored to be interested in a team. NWSL's commissioner and Merritt Paulsen have both mentioned that there are a number of markets interested in expansion currently outside of LA.
LAFC is supposedly working with Barcelona to get an NWSL team, but I'll believe that when a team is officially announced. Vancouver is the other one mentioned most, but that's a NOPE for me until the Whitecaps show that they can actually treat a women's team with a modicum of respect for once. It depends on the keeper. Smith was on track to have a solid rookie season in 2016 before a knee injury ended her season after less than two games. AD Franch's rookie season saw her lead the league in nearly every statistical category. But those two are exceptions. Ratcliffe has shown flashes of good play, but she hasn't been able to sustain a high level for long. She's better off in a supporting role. This is where losing a player like Groom really hurts.
anyone else find it interesting that MLS would push so heavily for MLS teams to have an academy to first team setup on the mens side with the push of "growing the game" while ignoring the women's side of the game entirely?
I think this is where the USSF, SUM, MLS, and NWSL cloud could stand a bit more alignment. I know there's not as much $ coming into the women's side of the game, but some kind of 'Academy - PDL - USL - MLS'-like path with some organizational push (and maybe money) from USSF and SUM would surely be a good thing.
The leadership of MLS and NWSL are completely different though. MLS has no real reason to push the women's game as a league. It isn't affiliated in really any way. Pushing MLS owners to put their resources into another entity, while noble, isn't really in their own personal best interest. That being said, if more MLS owners continue to start owning NWSL teams, I think there is a synergy there that works. Owners who spend on the men's side with facilities and things, already have the biggest part of the cost out of the way to use the same facilities for a women's team too. It is just a matter of giving them their own space. The same can go for academy systems too. Obviously there is still a cost to adding everything for the Women's game, but if you have already built the infrastructure for the men, the women's costs would mostly just be salary based after that.
That should change next year with expansion especially if they add three expansion teams. Would mean an addition of at least 60 more players to the league. So a lot of this years draft picks could end up on a team.
Just to let everyone know, there is now a Utah Royals thread on the NWSL section of these boards. On the Women's Soccer boards there is also info about NWSL as a whole, single teams, future expansions, NWSL single match-days with their respective games and so on. I am aware that most of the posters here are actually mainly RSL supporters, so you're probably comfortable with this thread: just wanted to make you know that a lot of NWSL (and USWNT) related discussions happen in the Women's Soccer section.
It looks like RSL and the Royals play at the same time on Friday. I know that KMYU will broadcast the RSL game. But will the KSL app stream both games? Could I in theory have the Royals game up on my laptop while I watch RSL on the TV? In a related question, does the go90.com site work for Royals games if you live in Utah, or are residents blacked out because of the KMYU/KSL contract?
I don't see why the app couldn't have both. It's not like I can't watch one thing on netflix on my phone and another on my tv... I haven't tried go90, I'll test that this week and let you know..
Very true. I guess I was just wondering whether the station will be sending commentators to Houston, given the conflict. The more I think about it, though, the more I think that they probably will. I'm sure KMYU had to sign a contract for all the games. Also, DLH would probably be ticked if they decided to leave out any games, given all that he's said about equality.
Hoping attendance at this weekend's game is good (it looks like ticket sales are brisk), but I'm worried about a letdown after the first game. Single game tickets aren't available online yet and the 2nd home game is only about 2 1/2 weeks away. The 2nd game is against Portland, so I'd think they would want to give everyone as much time as possible to get tickets for that one. Hopefully there will be a push to get people out to subsequent games and keep the momentum going.
I wonder if they are avoiding opening up the other games, hoping to sell out the opener first. If other games are open, people might find another date to be better for their first time out. The team wants the first game to set the tone moving forward. A better tone comes from a sell out rather than a run of the mill half full stadium. They do need to get them opened up though. A bounce back promotion of some sort at the game would be a cool idea. As of a few days ago, Trey posted to Twitter that ticket sells to the home opener were nearing 15k.
was just about to say that a bounce back/combo ticket pack would be the way to go with the Portland game. Offer it this week if they don't get above 16k. Hell, tell the people that do attend the game Saturday that they get a $5 or $10 off coupon with their ticket to the next match.
There are school and club promotions for the opener offering $5 tickets for students and $10 for their folks. If they get a good turnout for the first game, they'd be nuts not to follow it up with something similar.
If anything, it would probably make sense to do this for the whole season. Try and get people hooked and used to going to games, then worry about increasing the price later on.
seriously with how low costs are for this league, compared to MLS or even USL, honestly, it makes sense to just try to get butts in the stadium.
I would imagine if you could consistently get 10-15k into the stadium, you'd likely make a killing off of concessions. If they held around 15k, I wouldn't be surprised if they sold more concessions than a normal RSL game. If you can bring your family to a game at $5-10 per person, you're probably more likely to buy something else since you'e spending a lot less to see the game.
Not that I have any idea what the team is expecting, but a 10-15k would be over double last year's average attendance for the league. The Thorns averaged 17K, but the next highest was Orlando with less than 6.2k