How Fort Lauderdale Strikers' global ambitions have put NASL club on brink

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2016/09/19/how-fort-lauderdale-strikers-global-ambitions-have-put-nasl-club/

How Fort Lauderdale Strikers' global ambitions have put NASL club on brink

Bob Williams

19 September 2016 • 7:11pm

On a warm spring evening in April 2015, a record crowd of 11,691 - including global soccer icon Ronaldo - cheered on the Fort Lauderdale Strikers at Lockhart Stadium to begin a new era under an exciting new ownership group.

Fast forward to Sept 1, 2016, and just 455 people bothered to turn up to see the North American Soccer League club play a midweek match against MLS-bound Minnesota United.

So what happened? How did this US soccer team with a historic name and one of the world's greatest ever players as its face, suffer such a rapid demise?

So much so that its Brazilian owners are looking to sell after months of turmoil, including regular late payments to players, coaching staff and front-office members.

The Guardian recently looked into this story, but The Telegraph also spoke to a close source to the Strikers to try to shed more light on the club's decline.

Many of the club's problems in the past two seasons can, in fact, be traced back to the Strikers' home match against the New York Cosmos for the opening game of the 2015 Spring Season.

Despite drawing a crowd of nearly 12,000 - smashing their previous record of 7,653, set in September 2013 - most of those who attended the game actually came for free, The Telegraph has learned.

And very few bothered to come back, as the Strikers - under Brazilian owners Paulo Cesso, Ricardo Geromel and Rafael Bertani - began a policy of trying to make the club a global brand while paying little attention to trying to attract the local community to come to matches.