I disagree, AEG has four of the 12 votes in the league... they own the league... wonder what FIFA would say about that... Want someone else to provide, the land and build the stadium and then they want to run the stadium... You'd buy into that as an owner, city, whatever? maybe it's time for the league to fold, because the leage is AEG and AEG is not good for the league, the sport, the American player or the American fan... Sorry, I bought the MLS is getting better story for the last ten years... and as long as AEG runs the league, it will be a nice b-level league where players with balls (not Donovan) will use as a stepping stone to an A league.
Didn't someone suggest a while ago that an appeal should be made to FIFA in regard to AEG's position in [over] this league?
If I was a potential owner looking to invest in soccer and revive this franchise after reading this board I would think twice about it. If things don't work out for whatever reasons and I have to fold/move the team the fans will think it's mostly my fault. They will try to come up with ways to get back at me. I would probably be better off not getting involved in the first place.
Any reasonable businessperson would realize we're all a bunch of hotheads who are caught up in the emotion of losing our team. But the vast majority of fans aren't on bigsoccer. Moving a team will help draw investors to MLS because they now know that moving a team is an option.
I think that any potential owner who can't handle the criticism of a bunch of Internet dweebs doesn't have the stones to make it in any business. Also, any potential owner who can't handle the following basic rules, we don't want as our owner: 1. Be committed to the team and the area -- don't threaten to move the team every offseason. 2. Make the team your top priority -- don't give favorable treatment to other aspects of your business at the expense of the team. Is that so much to ask?
Someone please post something here. I was thinking last night there should be some appeal board we can send this too. MLS is a corporate puppet for allowing a corporation like AEG to own & manage & control multiple teams in the MLS. AEG gets money by building stadiums, hence, expand their "concert" venues. That is ok, its part of capitalism. However, the Bay Area is already saturated with BillGrahamPresents/Clear Channel. AEG realizes that and they clearly just wanted to get out of the area into a "net new" area where they can make more money on concerts. Its about making a BIGGER potential business, not for soccer, but for getting in a untapped or lesser controlled market to expand their concert business. Anyway, I throw my hat in the pile. Anything to get Don Garber removed from office.
I'm not going to read through mega-pages of posts, so this may be reiterating what others have said, but the best revenge is LIVING WELL. I am going to put my efforts into helping anybody who will bring back professional soccer in the Bay Area. I want an MLS team that owes no allegiance to AEG or any other out-of-town entity and that consistently and convincingly kicks ass on any and all AEG-owned or operated teams that dare show up in our house. I want revenge on the field!
Explain again to me what's capitalistic about funding stadiums and concert venues through taxpayer money... And then please explain what's capitalistic about owning a third of a soccer league that loses millions of dollars each year...
You're right. That's what economists call a monopoly or an oligopoly. It's not open-market competitive capitalism. Of course we have a lot of these monopolists who like to tell you they are capitalist and obey the free market. Free for them.
Interesting post. First, if you were an owner, you probably would have assloads of money to burn. So if the team failed, you would cut your loses (sound familiar?) and move on. You'd sell the team or move it but you would no longer be here. No matter what we think, you would have retained your fortune and still live the good life. Our opinions should not matter very much. It is our attendance at the games and purchasing of your team's gear you should be worried about! Second, we would get back at you not through physical harm or anything stupid like that, but in the market place. Say you had a national chain of...cathouses. We simply would stop going. To your particular places, not cathouses in general. That is how we would get back at you. Your cat houses would still be extant, just without our patronage and you would still be raking it in. Third, we're in mourning right now. Nothing is making sense to use and yeah, we are posting some pretty stupid things. It's called the grieving process. Once we come to grips with having out team ripped away from us, we can get back to the business of being rational. Until then, make mine a double!
You're right -- they shouldn't have allowed AEG to obtain operating rights to all those teams; instead, they should have gone with all the others who were lining up to obtain the rights to those teams.
Again, let me bring up the FIFA rule about one corporate entity not being allowed to own/control more than one team in any one league.
Yep, the best way to get back at AEG would be to get an expansion team, get a stadium built, fill every damn seat, kick their team's asses, and chant "FUAEG, FUAEG!"
You seem immune to Bootsy Collins's subtle sarcasm, so let me put it bluntly - there are no people lining up for team rights. Without AEG running most of MLS, there would not have been a MLS.
really, if you wanted to blaim anyone, you should blaim SJSU and your damned corrupt city council. without AEG and Lamar Hunt, there would have NO MLS. none. it's horrible that you lost your team. but if your university or your city council would have cooperated and actually cut back on some of the money that AEG was losing in SJ every year, then you would still have a team. it's that simple. local investors is what MLS wants. AEG and Hunt want to eventually relinguish most, if not all, of their MLS teams to local investor control at some point. who knows, maybe some miracle investor will step up next year, and your city council will get their heads out of their asses and realize that SJ NEEDS a soccer team. there's always 2007 expansion.
Everyone gets that actually....it's just not a reason to do whatever you want and expect people to be grateful and take it without complaint. If they had the patent on a drug and they were shoddy with manufacturing practices and a third of the people that used it thus had their fingers rot off because of it, you don't get to say "Well without them there'd have been no drug at all so who gives a rat's ass that thousands of people lost their fingers over something preventable, just shut up and be happy you had anything at all."
Nobody's fingers are getting rotted off. You aren't any worse off than you were decade ago, and you had the benefit of 10 years of pro soccer.
It's not about me....MLS rotted one of its best fingers right off. It sprouted another elsewhere, but that doesn't mean MLS did an acceptable job of the stewardship of its teams and we can't be mad it was our finger that was the one that rotted off.
Fuc*in' abortions of the devil! AEG!!! Looks like my nephew will have to choose someone else as a Godfather since they'll be in Houston now!