MLS Expansion: New details on Tampa Bay’s proposed stadium

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http://mlsmultiplex.com/2017/02/21/mls-expansion-new-details-on-tampa-bays-proposed-stadium/

MLS Expansion: New details on Tampa Bay’s proposed stadium

by Nathan Reynolds

With the 12 expansion bids submitted, teams are now focused on improving their chances of viability. A look at the latest on the proposed stadium for Tampa Bay.

The next round of MLS expansion has two spots open, with two more openings to be made available at an unknown time in the future. The bids focus on key ares such as financial support, fan bases, TV market standings, existing franchises, in some cases, and the always popular stadium proposal.

For Tampa Bay the strengths are that the city has supported major league sports franchises for years, and that they have an existing NASL franchise in the Rowdies. However, their current stadium, a former baseball field, would required a much needed face lift to be MLS ready.

Luckily for them, it’s been done recently in Portland and their plans appear ready for approval. Just a little behind the timeline that we recently mentioned for the St. Louis stadium & bid, Tampa Bay completed the first step in the process by having the ordinance language approved.

The group is hoping to land a measure on the upcoming election ballot for the city in early May. The upgrades would be completely financed by the team’s owner Bill Edwards, which eliminates the hurdle of securing public funding. The vote would simply be to allow the team to retain and renovate the stadium for a 25-year period.

Here is a look at the current Al Lang Stadium:

And the proposed designs:

The new designs have the stadium growing from 7,500 seats to 18,000, which would be tied with the MLS minimum. However, considering that minimum is the impressive Avaya Stadium, home of the San Jose Earthquakes, which was awarded last year’s All-Star Match vs. Arsenal, that would not be an issue with the bid proposal.

Stay tuned for more information about the 12 MLS expansion bids, as well as any announcements MLS makes regarding the timeline of awarded the next two franchises.

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http://sports.yahoo.com/news/soccer-chinese-expansion-lightning-bottle-says-barber-122653647--sow.html

Soccer-Chinese expansion like 'lightning in a bottle', says Barber

Alan Baldwin

Feb 21, 2017, 7:26 AM

LONDON, Feb 21 (Reuters) - China's soccer splurge on big-name foreign players is reminiscent of the 1970s North American boom that ultimately fizzled out in failure, former Vancouver Whitecaps chief executive Paul Barber said on Tuesday.

Barber, now chief executive of Premier League promotion hopefuls Brighton and Hove Albion and an influential figure in English soccer, warned that the Super League could go the same way.

"The first two or three seasons it's a bit like lightning in a bottle. It's bright, it's exciting and it's very contained," he told a Sport Industry breakfast meeting.

"It's great to have a top division with ageing superstars, and in China's case not so ageing, but how long and how sustainable is that?"

With the backing of soccer fan President Xi Jinping, China has been on a spending spree on players, clubs and overseas assets over the last two years.

Shanghai Shenhua bought Argentina striker Carlos Tevez from Boca Juniors last December for a reported $88.56 million dollars, making the 32-year-old the sport's highest paid player with a reported salary of $753,000 per week.

Shanghai SIPG spent around 63 million dollars to lure Brazilian Oscar from Chelsea and are paying the midfielder a reported $490,000 a week.

Barber compared China to the example of America in the late 1970s with top players such as triple World Cup winner Pele, at the New York Cosmos, Dutch maestro Johan Cruyff and George Best were lured across with big money deals.

"It was very much like the Chinese scene now...they had some of the best players in the world playing for couple of years, attracting huge audiences, huge money and then within three years it was dead.

"Because there was nothing behind it to sustain it. At the moment it looks very much like that to me," added Barber, who is on the board of the English Football League and represents that body on the FA Council and Professional Game Board.

"But who knows. China is China."

Barber recognised that Chinese clubs had financial clout and government backing but said the best leagues had learned that they were not sustainable without a grassroots structure nurturing home-grown players.

The North American Soccer League (NASL) operated from 1968 to 1984, with popularity peaking in the 1970s when World Cup-winning captains Carlos Alberto of Brazil and West Germany's Franz Beckenbauer also joined the party.

It went into rapid decline in the early 1980s, with loss-making clubs spending an unsustainable amount on foreign players.

Major League Soccer (MLS), founded in 1993, operates profitably with shared revenues and a salary cap.

($1 = 0.9485 euros) (Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Mitch Phillips)

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http://arizonasonoranewsservice.com/major-league-soccer-teams-providing-local-economic-boost-to-state-for-now/

Major league soccer teams providing local economic boost to state, for now

When major league baseball spring training left Tucson in 2010, it left questions for how the town would fill the void. Now, Major League Soccer’s sixth year training here in Tucson that is bringing in the money.

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http://www.fourfourtwo.com/us/features/mls-balance-player-development-domestic-foreign-talent-global-challenge

Global challenge: MLS trying to balance player development, importing talent

Rapid expansion leaves no shortage of roster spots. Winning time in starting XIs, though? That's a higher bar.

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http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/13732/extra-time/2017/02/21/32915312/philadelphia-union-looking-to-hire-chief-tattoo-officer
    
Philadelphia Union looking to hire 'Chief Tattoo Officer'

The Major League Soccer side is looking at a unique way to build team and fan unity.

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http://www.fourfourtwo.com/us/features/targeted-allocation-money-mls-progress-designated-player-analysis

Less flash, more substance: How latest roster investments transform MLS

The Designated Player rule brought the stars; Targeted Allocation Money is allowing for more retention of talent in MLS.

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http://www.sportsvideo.org/2017/02/21/new-mls-club-atlanta-united-fc-finds-rsn-home-with-fox-sports-south-fox-sports-southeast/

New MLS Club Atlanta United FC Finds RSN Home With Fox Sports South, Fox Sports Southeast

Exclusive rights deal kicks off with start of 2017 season next month

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http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/atlanta-united-strike-local-tv-deal-with-fox-sports

Atlanta United strike local TV deal with Fox Sports

MLS expansion franchise gets coverage on Fox Sports Regional Networks.

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http://ussoccerplayers.com/2017/02/san-diegos-mls-expansion-bid-is-more-than-a-stadium.html

San Diego’s MLS expansion bid is more than a stadium

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http://futnsoccer.com/2017/02/21/cantinamx-episode-73-podcast-chat-with-nate-abaurrea-mls-in-san-diego-mls-vs-liga-mx-pppkt/

CantinaMX Episode 73 Podcast – Chat with Nate Abaurrea, MLS in San Diego, MLS vs Liga MX

MLS in San Diego and Chicha to LAFC (49:25)

Major League Soccer has been pushing expansion and San Diego are front runners to establish a club. Nate regals the lads on why it would be a good idea to bring a club to the border town and why Xolos Tijuana are all for the move! As MLS looks to capture the Mexican market the biggest name making the rounds is none other than Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez who is being targeted by new franchise Los Angeles Football Club.

Another sip of the Super Liga Cup

A few years back Liga MX and MLS created a Super Liga cup that failed miserably. Well, they seem to be back at it again with aother joint league tourney. Will this second iteretion work? Ron and Nate talk about tourneys between Mexico and U.S club’s being played as far back as the 1960’s. WTF is a JFK cup and why is this turning into a history lesson albeit an entertaining one.

Promotion and Relegation (1:17:00)

There is a thin line between the love and hate for Promotion and Relegation and the Cantina cast discuss why it will not work for Major League Soccer and why Liga MX’s percentage chart does the trick. There are plenty of valid points from the discussion as the regulars draw a line in the sand and take sides. There is even talk of the New York Cosmos!

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http://tucson.com/sports/local/local-fans-have-one-more-week-to-watch-major-league/article_bbce1366-2557-5961-82e3-16892041e193.html

Local fans have one more week to watch Major League Soccer's best

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http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/roc-nation-signs-first-team-partnership-with-houston-dynamo

Roc Nation signs first team partnership with Houston Dynamo

Jay-Z’s agency to procure opportunities for MLS team and their home stadium.

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http://deadspin.com/mike-piazza-shits-on-st-louis-and-major-league-soccer-1792600356

Mike Piazza Shits On St. Louis And Major League Soccer At The Same Time, Achieves Glory

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http://sportsagentblog.com/2017/02/21/houston-dynamo-select-roc-nation-as-exclusive-agency-of-record/
   
Houston Dynamo Select Roc Nation As Exclusive Agency Of Record

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https://thefloridasqueeze.com/2017/02/09/fort-lauderdale-strikers-on-the-brink-part-1-how-we-got-here/

Fort Lauderdale Strikers on the brink – Part 1: How we got here

February 9, 2017

by Kartik Krishnaiyer

The 2017 North American Soccer League (NASL) schedule was released on Monday and conspicuously absent was the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. The date February 6 was ironic as it was three years to the day from David Beckham’s MLS announcement in Miami, a press conference that occurred at a time where it appeared the Strikers were flying high.

The disappearance of the Strikers, one of the league’s flagship clubs from the league’s 2017 schedule culminates a long drawn out process where the club’s profile slipped and following largely dissipated. Multiple sources tell us that the Strikers ownership had agreed to sell the club to the owners of PDL club FC Miami City, but that the initial offer was rejected by the NASL Board of Governors. A second offer we are advised was either made or is in the process of being made. Even if this offer is (or has been ) approved and the club’s ownership is transitioned, the Strikers will not play in the 2017 NASL Season. Several sources close to the club insisted in January that the public perception of the club does not match reality and that what was being reported publicly and echoed privately by league sources to me was not true. However, with this week’s schedule announcement from the league we can close the door on the “she says, he says” period of this story and analyze how we got here.

While it has been convenient to scapegoat current ownership and management, the problems with the club and the market it occupies are deep and predate the 2014 sale of the club to the Brazilian ownership group led by Paulo Cesso or the 2015 installation of Luis Cuccatti as Managing Director of the club. That’s not to exempt the Brazilian ownership group from responsibility for the club’s (perhaps temporary) demise as mismanagement was a clear issue in 2015 and 2016, but the fundamentals of the club were have never been right even in the best of times.

The club’s previous owners Traffic Sports, an entity later disgraced in the FIFA scandal never quite had the patience to let the brand organically grow or took the time to understand the market.  The momentum of 2011 was lost in 2012 then regained with a new logical community-oriented philosophy in 2013 only to suffer due to budget cuts in 2014. Then the team was sold.

Rewind back to February 17, 2011 – an event on the beach in Fort Lauderdale christened the rebirth of the legendary Strikers – a historic club that between 1977 and the early 1990’s played host to some of the biggest names in global football and was a recognizable community institution. While the spring break parties of the 1960’s may have put Fort Lauderdale on the American map, it was the Strikers that made the city a recognizable global locale – separate, distinct and unique in many ways from the more glamorous and better know neighbor to the south.

In 2011, Traffic’s overall business needed a viable Fort Lauderdale or Miami club as an anchor on greater national and international ambitions for the company. Traffic was in the international sports marketing business with a particular focus on the Caribbean and Latin America – this made having a visible presence in southeastern Florida critical. The current incarnation of the club was founded in 2006 as Miami FC and moved north in 2010. After playing a year in Fort Lauderdale under the Miami FC name, re-branded.  Traffic which had restarted the NASL needed a certain degree of legitimacy to use the name of the legendary 1970’s league that went defunct in the mid 1980’s. But the new Strikers of Traffic with the exception of Tim Robbie, the club President, the links to the original Strikers are non-existent.

In fact, this club is the fourth different professional soccer team to play at Fort Lauderdale’s Lockhart Stadium and call itself the Strikers, and third to feature in the historical alphabet soup of American minor league soccer. The original Strikers were a massive team, operating in an era before the European Union (EU) allowed the free movement of players within the continent (and until Brexit is finalized, in and out of the United Kingdom) and at a time when South Florida lacked big-time professional sports beyond the Miami Dolphins. Recreating anything like the original Fort Lauderdale Strikers, which were a global brand of  serious note is nearly impossible in this day and age, though that reality wasn’t often articulated in a way that could strengthen what never could be more than a nice local niche club in this era. In the pre-EU era, domestic leagues in Europe were just that – chances are if you wanted a challenge abroad you went to the United States.

Despite this reality, the actual success of the club in the local market didn’t matter a great deal to Traffic, though with the late 2012 hiring of “Soccer” Tom Mulroy as team President, an effort was made to engage soccer fans and youth clubs from Homestead to Jupiter. Mulroy’s community work was only piece of what the Strikers needed to do to be successful, but it was something that was executed beautifully, temporarily papering over the cracks that all over the club. In 2013 and 2014, the Strikers engaged locals effectively, growing attendance, interest and media coverage while attempting to create a positive atmosphere at the stadium.

Traffic’s goal with the Strikers was to maintain a viable and legacy-driven presence in a critical market for its business. It was also determined to prop up a league in the NASL that despite being a second division had delusions of competing with Major League Soccer (MLS) the designated first division in the United States. Traffic was invested in the league to such a large extent that they were involved in propping up several other struggling clubs and pushing an NASL vision based almost entirely on deluded hubris and tired nostalgia.

Lack of consistency in focus and philosophy

Traffic Sports in 2011 was committed to a big budget advertising campaign and a high player payroll by D2 standards In 2012, this budget disappeared. In 2013, outside consultants were hired to manage the ticket sales side but were not retained for 2014 when the focus was exclusively on sending staff out to make community appearances. The infrastructure created in 2013 and 2014 by these community appearances was washed away by new ownership in 2015 who had one half-baked and untested scheme after another to draw fans to games and in the process destroyed established community and youth club relationships. In 2016, fiscal austerity on the Greek model was pushed in terms of outreach funding with the ownership foolishly determining that spending more money on players and technical staff was the route to success.

The Strikers appeal based on nostalgia much like that of the New York Cosmos and NASL in general was limited beyond a small niche of fans – and constantly mistook winning for success.

The Strikers management both under Traffic and the more recent Brazilian-based owners overrated the importance of the Strikers legacy to anyone beyond a niche of fan in southeast Florida. This however was not simply a Strikers mistake but one made league wide by the NASL, most notably by the New York Cosmos. In contrast, the Tampa Bay Rowdies, Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers, legacy brands from the original NASL have staked their own claim as vibrant clubs drawing on the historic legacy as a facet of marketing, not counting on it as the primary driver.

Additionally, winning has virtually no correlation to attendance at the lower division level in the United States. Fort Lauderdale is one of only three NASL clubs to have made four postseason appearances, yet attendance and the signing of big-name foreign players never did any good for the club’s bottom line. The ambiance, experience and local ties are what bind fans and a community to a lower-division club.

The evidence at the D2  level in American pro soccer points to attendance having little to do with winning. After all, 90% of the players at this level are not particularly well-known even to hardcore soccer fans. While some names like Joe Cole or Raul may move the needle ever so slightly for a few games at a time, by in large signing expensive, higher-profile players makes no difference in terms of crowd building.

For example, Indy Eleven’s attendance was down this year as the club was better than ever and was within a penalty kick shootout of winning the NASL title. The New York Cosmos struggles at the gate have come despite winning the NASL title three of the last four seasons. Tampa Bay’s worst-ever NASL finish was also their best-ever attendance year. Fort Lauderdale’s best attendance year (in terms of actual turnstile count) was the season the club finished dead-last in the league – every other season the club finished in a postseason position or in the top half of the league. FC Edmonton’s attendance never got an uptick from winning. This is a trend over many years that Tom Mulroy understood and appreciated but the new Strikers’ owners didn’t which led to a record number of people passing through the turnstiles for this version of the Strikers.

A slashing of marketing budget to increase the player and technical staff budget

In the Traffic era, cuts to budgets were felt relatively equally across departments. Budget slashing became an annual rite of passage in-house for Strikers personnel to deal with. But the Brazilian owners did something odd after 2015. The club slashed the front office budget while increasing the funds available for player salaries and scouting. What resulted was a season full of late payments, bounced checks, a midseason stadium move and the lowest attendance in the history of the NASL. Head Coach Caio Zanardi remarkably kept the club competitive and they almost made the postseason finishing with the highest standing of the four Florida clubs that competed in NASL during 2016. But the increase in player budget put a team that was suffering from the lowest attendance in the history of the league on the hook for supporting internationally recognizable stars that did nothing to drive the audience to see the Strikers play. The days of cultivating young local players one of the chief functions for any minor league club had passed – the continued flow of local players or those with ties to Florida through the Strikers was one of the reasons the club  drew fans.

This is what many NASL teams have backwards, blowing money on sexy player names (many of whom are 30-something journeymen) thinking that changes perceptions and drives interest but it just does not. The Strikers are the most glaring example south of the New York Cosmos (who had its own flirtation with disaster this offseason )  of a league that just didn’t understand or accept its place in the soccer landscape.

A weak/fragmented market where selling tickets was difficult

Southeast Florida is arguably the single worst market for American pro club soccer. Sure, Joe Robbie Stadium can be filled when Barcelona or Chelsea come to town, or can even draw 50,000 fans on two days notice for a Liverpool-Manchester United game (which happened in 2014). But when it comes to the domestic game, teams have come and gone, flopped and failed. Meanwhile the local scene is dominated by match promoters and strong youth clubs who have a larger footprint than the local pro clubs can ever hope to achieve. Market fragmentation occurred rapidly in the region. From having a single team in the top four tiers of American Soccer in 2010 (Miami FC which was playing in Fort Lauderdale), the region in 2017 will have NINE clubs playing in the national leagues associated that represent the top four tiers of American soccer nationally and that does not include the Strikers.

For years, the Strikers gave away tickets hoping to capture audience share. The giveaways were so extensive under Managing Director Ricardo Geromel in 2015 that one Reddit poster referred to attendance markups that couldn’t be backed with empirical data as a the “Geromel ratio.” Enter Luis Cuccatti, Geromel’s replacement who realized the value around town of a Strikers ticket was $0 and resolved to fix the problem by ending the giveaways and freebies. Unfortunately for Cuccatti and the Strikers, NASL had admitted in 2016 a new club down the road in Miami, oddly called Miami FC (which remained the legal name of a Strikers-associated LLC…confused? So is everyone else). This new Miami FC gave away tickets at Geromel rate, essentially cannibalizing the market and forcing Cuccatti to eventually relent and give away tickets toward the end of the season. But by that time those accustomed to the freebies had defected to the new shiny object down the road.

It is also true that for the six years the Strikers have played in NASL the hard-core fan base was one of the smallest in the league, even if the club’s official attendance was somewhere in the middle of the pack until this past season. With the club clearly failing, fans weren’t strong enough or organized enough to engage in the types of efforts that contributed to saving fellow NASL clubs that had ownership questions in North Carolina and New York.  The reality of this is that the Strikers by 2016 just didn’t have enough committed fans to engage in the types of campaigns that bring public awareness to failing clubs.

The Strikers are no longer a global brand – and even if they were how does that drive local interest?

The Strikers global cache has been much talked about. Traffic Sports openly boasted about the brand as being global, but in the period where Tom Mulroy ran the club, a local emphasis was delivered. But under the Brazilian ownership, the marketing of the club abroad, using World Cup legend Ronaldo (the other one…) took priority over anything local. The Strikers traveled to China in early 2016 for no apparent reason other than to secure a sponsorship  deal- which never materialized. The team then sent a cobbled together group of youth players to China many of which were not even from Florida over the summer. This was taking place while employees were being paid late if at all, vendors were being stiffed and players checks were bouncing. Meanwhile the clubs rhetoric was about the branding and global relevance.

The whole notion of the Strikers being a global brand is so absurd and thus no need exists for it to be further debunked on these pages.

Bottom line

The Strikers are a lower league club (albeit with a historic name) that thought they were something bigger and better while operating in a terrible local pro soccer market. The club never understood that very few outside hard-core supporters know any of the players or opposing teams. The atmosphere, the ambiance and marketing are what really matter, and drive fans to the venue for an evening out. Several examples of smallish lower division clubs around the country understanding this can be witnessed – The Kingston Stockade FC, Detroit City FC and Chattanooga FC are among the examples to emulate. If shooting for the stars is your goal, you need have a clear plan and final destination in mind as Phil Rawlins did with Orlando City SC just a few hours up the road from Fort Lauderdale – but the Orlando example wasn’t followed either. If turning nostalgia into a modern contemporary and hip event was the goal, the Rowdies have done it far better than the Strikers (or New York Cosmos) and could have provided a model – but that playbook wasn’t followed either.

But the Strikers aren’t dead yet. In part two which will run next week, we will discuss where the club can go from here.

Disclaimer – Kartik Krishnaiyer worked with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers in 2009 (as Miami FC), 2013-2014 and 2016 as well as for the North American Soccer League from 2010 to 2013. He currently works  as the VP of Communications with Boca Raton FC.

In part two, we will discuss where the club goes from here both in terms of ownership and in repairing local relationships that have been damaged.

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https://thefloridasqueeze.com/2017/02/15/fort-lauderdale-strikers-on-the-brink-part-ii-the-ethics-of-the-strikers-demise-ussf-leadership-and-the-future/

Fort Lauderdale Strikers on the brink – Part II The ethics of the Strikers’ demise, USSF leadership and the future

February 15, 2017

by Kartik Krishnaiyer

In part I of our series we gave an overview of the numerous events that led to a point where the Fort Lauderdale Strikers will not participate in the 2017 NASL season.  But the club is not dead yet and are in the process of formulating plans for the future. While for some clubs taking a year off might be a necessary move to rebuild relationships and ramp up operations to a respectable level for the future (recently many clubs in American soccer have taken a year off and returned or dropped a league temporarily) the Strikers are the most extreme case many have seen in this regard – the club needs a complete and total reboot in order to have any chance of even moderate success. How exactly can the Strikers recover and regain lost market share in the congested and fragmented southeastern Florida soccer market? It’s a difficult question that requires a review of some of the events of 2016 that brought the Strikers to the point they currently sit.

While it’s difficult to guarantee big market success in the peculiar system of American closed leagues, and perhaps without promotion and relegation the Strikers cannot truly be successful (I’d argue strongly that the Strikers problems though largely self-inflicted have been exacerbated by the closed league structure in the United States – an irony given that the USA is supposedly a meritocracy yet has the least merit-based sporting system on the planet when it comes to soccer), the club has to function in the confines it finds itself in. Doing so has become increasingly difficult at this stage.

The North American Soccer League (NASL) itself faces a rocky road into the future and under new more practical leadership the league is not in the position to indulge the Strikers mismanagement the way they have in the past. Last season, the league’s other owners floated the Strikers for months after the club had been funded at least in-part by the ownership of the rival Tampa Bay Rowdies.  Considering the amount of money most lower division teams lose each season, becoming responsible for the Strikers financial woes was yet another cost overrun most NASL owners honestly could not afford. Therefore, the league has wisely gone ahead with a 2017 season excluding the Strikers who need to get their house in order.

In the past, NASL took a laissez faire free market approach to governance allowing clubs to essentially spend what they wanted. But the league’s recent brush with death which included the defection of the Tampa Bay Rowdies to the rival USL has made NASL more conscious of club matters. The Strikers as discussed in the first part of this series had fancied themselves as a global brand and over spent on frivolous ideas chasing a dream while not funding the basics for any local market-specific form of entertainment.

Late payment for staff and players was the norm for the club during 2015 and 2016. While the club regularly used the difficulty of moving foreign exchange from Brazil to the United State as justification for the lateness, poor planning and a desire to solicit what amounted to short-term handouts (but long-term problems) from other owners was the actual explanation for the troubles. Time and again the club’s leadership made mistakes – the Strikers went from being a soccer issue or business matter to being a moral dilemma around the middle of 2016 when players, coaches, staff, vendors and everyone else connected with the club could begin to expect late payment or no payment at all. Players who were injured languished according to sources without proper insurance for much of the campaign, while staff had to scramble to find coverage. As of this writing, many vendors and players are still owed money by the club – some are according to sources considering legal action against the Strikers.

Things were so bad at certain points in 2016 that former players tell us they had to use the same kits (uniforms) for two months worth of league games in a row. Typically players are assigned new uniforms for each match and often give away kits to fans and family after each match. With psychological factors conspiring against the club, Coach Caio Zanardi was able to instill a mentality in the club that kept them competitive – even while suffering through mistreatment and uncertainty the team performed admirably on the pitch advancing deeper than any lower division side in US Open Cup including a win at the Citrus Bowl over Orlando City SC.

The US Soccer Federation (USSF), the governing body for the sport in this country and the NASL while bothered by the Strikers situation and mistreatment of players, staff and vendors did not take any action – no mechanism exists in the bylaws of the USSF or the NASL to seize a team from the ownership – however given the egregious example the Strikers in 2016 set coupled similar issues in New York, the NASL and USSF should be working throughout 2017 to put in place protocols to deal with non-payment to players, staff and vendors. It is incumbent on fans, such as the organized Five Points in New York City and media who cover soccer to raise awareness of these issues and force change. All too often, many in the US Soccer press is scared to lay a hand  on the USSF or to question the  leadership for whatever reason (though that policy doesn’t often extend to NASL). Similarly fans are scared in some cases to call out ownership of troubled clubs for fear of losing the team – in hindsight the unwillingness of Strikers supporters to take the types of actions that Cosmos fans did in attempting to get players and staff money that was owed to them was probably due to a fear of losing the club completely. This sort of fear serves as a tacit form of enablement for bad ownership groups. Again, this provides a rationale for why the USSF must take a more active and aggressive role in safeguarding players, staff and troubled clubs.

While the Strikers expenses were covered by first the Rowdies and then the other NASL clubs, the team’s vendors were being left in a lurch and the club was having trouble meeting anything more than basic operating expenses from week to week. Still the rhetoric coming from the club at the very same time was that of confidence and boisterous optimism for the future, particularly as the Strikers represented a “global brand.” But what had become obvious to many was that while the club and brand had some value it didn’t have nearly the worth that the ownership believed it to. A club with one of the smallest supporters bases of any pro club in the US that shares its market with another NASL team, does not fully control its stadium situation, training facility and doesn’t have any tangible sellable assets could not be worth tens of millions of dollars. In fact, it can be argued the ONLY real value the Strikers have is direct admission to NASL rather than paying a $5 million dollar entrance fee for a new expansion side, though a club that is in serious debt is probably not worth anything close to $5 million. Still the Strikers ownership persisted with a high price tag for the club turning of according to our sources as many as a half dozen potential suitors. But without promotion and relegation in American soccer, those who would otherwise be interested are put off – a reality that many simply don’t want to acknowledge. Moreover, despite the claims that the Strikers brand has some magic value as we demonstrated in part 1 the brand equity from the name applies more to global branding than to anything in the local market where nostalgia for the 1970’s does not extend beyond a niche of fans.

The Strikers management kept saying the right things to soothe fans and those who supported NASL in its (since abandoned) quest against Major League Soccer (MLS) – many of  these fans it should be noted supported NASL  for ideological reasons not really related to sporting considerations. But even more galling perhaps was that employees, players, technical staff, season ticket holders, sponsors and vendors made decisions – life altering ones in many cases based on what has since proved to be either wild optimism from the team’s management as to the financial state and potential sale of the club or worse, outright deceit.

While most employees and functions have gradually ceased, the club continues to operate with a bare bones staff and a chief executive. The club at this writing remains under the ownership of the group fronted by Paulo Cesso and managed locally by Luis Cuccatti. A source however states the club could still be sold, but that a possibility of the current ownership group maintaining some control over the Strikers is still in play – with hopes of playing friendly matches in 2017 and returning to NASL league play in 2018.

Any sale of the club however would have contend with the ongoing legal action by Tampa Bay Rowdies owner Bill Edwards which has an early March preliminary hearing.  Sources indicate that the club has debts into seven figures and any ownership group will also need to deal with repairing the club’s reputation locally.

Other challenges include:

    Repairing relationships with vendors. Only so many folks in southeast Florida are involved in the sport of soccer at a professional service level and the club has burnt most of them.
    Relationships with elected officials and others in the political community have to be repaired in short order.
    The club will have to apologize for the clear ethical lapses in the handling of employees and players in order to regain a credible base locally.
    The club will have to prove to the youth soccer community that they have a plan to engage and a long-term SUSTAINABLE vision for the future. Otherwise youth clubs have no incentive to cooperate with the Strikers. Additionally, the club will have to eschew competing with the established strong youth entities.

What will the displaced Strikers fans do?

Many on the outside might simply assume a shift in support to Miami FC might be in order since this is a club in a market with another team in the same league. However, it is entirely possible such a shift won’t occur.  The Strikers fan base has rapidly narrowed in the recent years and those who remain are diehards and Miami FC isn’t the type of organic club many would like to support – a big spending side that showed lots of hubris in its first year and whose presence hurt the Strikers as we discussed in part I. Will they support local amateur or youth soccer clubs such as Weston FC, Boca Raton FC or The Beaches FC?  Some but all certainly might. Retreat to watching European football like so many around the country do, especially since NBC Sports makes the (English) Premier League the most accessible pro sporting league in the US on TV outside of the NFL? Perhaps, but maybe what happens is a whole bunch of fans stop following soccer in the nation’s 4th largest urban area. This should be of great concern to the USSF, but the governing body for the sport in this country has other ideas.

The USSF’s leadership whose alliance with Major League Soccer (MLS) perhaps lets them cheer on the fail rate of lower division clubs, has been a big part of the problem in the past – only a truly open system with promotion and relegation can even partially cure these closed league franchise-based club problems despite moving targets and changes to league standards constantly pushed at the Federation level. Since we aren’t going to get PROMOTION/RELEGATION anytime soon, the USSF must be more vigilant in protecting the welfare of players, coaches, staff and all others associated with the sport in this country. Otherwise the soccer bubble in this country could burst in the near future. The attentive interest of USSF President Sunil Gulati in this winter’s D2 sanctioning mess was a positive sign – perhaps Gulati is now willing to exercise the leadership to not only make rich investors in the sport happy but to also protect players, fans, staff, vendors and others impacted by the abuses in a closed franchise system.

The Strikers certainly face long odds to be successful again. But given the peculiar nature of American soccer where things seem to turn on the dime, ruling the club out from becoming a major player in the future would be foolish. But to have any hope of getting there either the club either needs to be sold or the current leadership of Paulo Cesso and Luis Cuccatti need to learn from the mistakes of the past and mend fences as quickly as possible.

Disclaimer – Kartik Krishnaiyer worked with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers in 2009 (when the club was known as Miami FC), 2013-2014 and 2016 as well as for the North American Soccer League from 2010 to 2013. He currently works  as the VP of Communications with Boca Raton FC.

(Follow link for full article.)

https://thefloridasqueeze.com/2017/01/27/latest-i-4-derby-between-tampa-bay-and-orlando-set-for-march-25-in-st-petersburg/

Latest I-4 derby between Tampa Bay and Orlando set for March 25 in St Petersburg

January 27, 2017 · by Kartik Krishnaiyer

The Tampa Bay Rowdies will open the 2017 United Soccer League season at home on Saturday, March 25 against Orlando City B at Al Lang Stadium in St Petersburg. USL announced today all 2017 home openers, which will be highlighted by the Rowdies match against Orlando. This will be the first renewal of the I-4 derby since 2014, when Orlando City SC played in USL and Tampa Bay in NASL. Orlando leads the overall series 6-0-0 (W-D-L). The Lions “A” team now plays in MLS but the “B” team features many exciting prospects and locally developed players.

As far as rivalries go, this is the most intense in the state of Florida, with both sets of fans taking the matchups extremely seriously. Orlando’s B team has never faced in-state opposition but Orlando’s A team is 9-0-2 overall against opposition from the state of Florida, and in competitive matches is 3-0-1, the lone loss coming last year in the 5th Round of the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup against Fort Lauderdale at Camping World Stadium.

(Follow link for full article.)

https://thefloridasqueeze.com/2017/01/27/what-does-the-times-square-billboard-tell-us-about-the-rowdies-mls-bid/

What does the Times Square billboard tell us about the Rowdies MLS’ bid?

January 27, 2017 · by Kartik Krishnaiyer

Tuesday morning the soccer social media world was abuzz with discussion of the Tampa Bay Rowdies Times Square billboard for the #MLS2StPete bid.  What do we make of the billboard – in a word,

BRASH!

MLS has historically been a league where conformity is king and rocking the boat is seen as a a detriment to the greater good. But Rowdies owner Bill Edwards doesn’t play by those rules. MLS clubs have historically not marketed aggressively out of market, but with MLS HQ in New York City, in addition to a large percentage of the soccer media (though Los Angeles and Miami have a similar concentration of soccer writers/reporters) the billboard seems strategically placed.

Edwards knows he has a historic brand (which has become more of a fad in MLS these days fueled by 70’s nostalgia) and sits in the single largest TV market (per Nielsen) that MLS does not have a club in currently. MLS also knows how Edwards might just react if he isn’t awarded an expansion team with his brash actions in the recent past toward NASL (the league he left) and the Fort Lauderdale Strikers (a club he reportedly attempted to purchase) , MLS execs will need to be careful in how the frame any possible rejection of a Tampa Bay bid. Edwards’ move certainly puts Tampa Bay even more on the radar for many who cover and work in the sport domestically.

In the near future, we will examine the credentials of Tampa/St Petersburg’s strongest competition to join MLS in the near future.

(Follow link for full article.)

https://thefloridasqueeze.com/2017/01/17/mls-returning-to-st-petersburg-this-february/

MLS returning to St Petersburg this February

January 17, 2017 · by Kartik Krishnaiyer

The second annual Rowdies Suncoast Invitational is set to return to the sunshine of St. Petersburg this February, with five Major League Soccer clubs set to compete alongside the Tampa Bay Rowdies.

Al Lang Stadium will host five total matches in the tournament with a doubleheader on Saturday, February 18 and a tripleheader on Saturday, February 25. Along with the Rowdies,  the Montreal Impact, D.C. United, Philadelphia Union, Chicago Fire and Toronto FC of MLS will all play at Al Lang during the competition.

The tournament debuted last season to rave reviews from some of MLS’s biggest stars for the unique atmosphere and playing surface at the Rowdies’ home stadium.

Four of the five MLS teams in this year’s edition of the Rowdies Suncoast Invitational qualified for the 2016 Audi MLS Cup Playoffs, including the reigning Eastern Conference Champion Toronto FC and runner-up Montreal Impact.

Along with their participation in the Rowdies Suncoast Invitational, the Impact will have an extended visit to St. Petersburg for their preseason training camp. During their time in the Sunshine City, the Impact will call Al Lang Stadium home, using the field, locker room and gym facilities alongside the Rowdies.

Tickets range from $15 to $20 in the main stadium bowl to $30 for the Midfielder’s Club and Reserve sections. A ticket includes all matches on a specific day. 2017 Tampa Bay Rowdies season ticket members will receive a complimentary ticket to one of the two matchdays of their choice (2/18 or 2/25).

Match Schedule

Saturday, February 18 – Al Lang Stadium
Montreal Impact vs. D.C. United, 5 p.m.
Tampa Bay Rowdies vs. Philadelphia Union, 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday, February 22 – Joe DiMaggio Sports Complex
Philadelphia Union vs. Montreal Impact – 7 p.m.

Saturday, February 25 – Al Lang Stadium
Toronto FC vs. Chicago Fire, 3 p.m.
Philadelphia Union vs. D.C. United, 5 p.m.
Tampa Bay vs. Montreal Impact, 7:30 p.m.

(Follow link for full article.)

https://thefloridasqueeze.com/2017/01/07/us-soccer-war-temporary-truce-how-it-impacts-florida/

US Soccer “war” temporary truce – how it impacts Florida

January 7, 2017 · by Kartik Krishnaiyer

Five of Florida’s six men’s pro soccer clubs were impacted directly by the ongoing United States Soccer Federation (USSF) sanctioning saga at the lower division level the past three months. In the end the North American Soccer League (NASL) the long-standing USSF-sanctioned Division 2 has lost full sanctioning and now is a provisionally sanctioned D2, while the United Soccer League (USL) which has competed at the Division 3 level the last six years is now also a provisional Division 2. NASL was originally based in Miami but moved to New York in 2014. The sanctioning saga which began in late October led to the type of back-biting and predatory behavior that ultimately is not beneficial for the sport in a country where it is growing but still nowhere near reaching critical mass.

NASL has three Florida clubs, the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, Jacksonville Armada FC and Miami FC. The former two have had financial problems in recent months while the later has been in existence only about 18 months. USL currently has two Florida clubs, the Tampa Bay Rowdies and Orlando City SC B. The Rowdies defected from NASL this past fall with owner Bill Edwards as recently as Thursday referring to the New York-based league as “corrupt.”

USSF’s decision essentially kicks the can down the road for nine months when one league or the other is likely to be designated as the sole D2  for the United States. USSF is being criticized for making the decision they could have on the surface two months ago – however my sources confirm that ownership questions related to New York, Fort Lauderdale and Jacksonville – three NASL clubs prevented USSF from making this decision earlier. The Federation’s delay was designed to give NASL every opportunity to pull away from a potential collapse and to live to fight another day. Had USL been more willing to accept NASL clubs with reduced fees or willing to conform to some sort of hybrid league, the USSF would have made a decision sooner and perhaps killed NASL off as a D2 league.

An option to sanction one or both leagues as “affiliated pro leagues” without divisional designations briefly was considered per multiple sources but didn’t come to pass.

Where does this leave each of Florida’s current USL or NASL clubs? What about both leagues?

Here is a primer:

Orlando City B

With an announced move to the new downtown stadium in Orlando, the Lions reserve team made a proactive move to ensure this team unlike many other USL-based, MLS-reserve clubs meets D2 stadium standards. The “baby Lions” were the only postseason participant among Florida’s pro teams in 2016 and will look to build on that experience.

Tampa Bay Rowdies

The Rowdies controversial move from NASL to USL helped stimulate this crisis. Rowdies owner Bill Edwards is a controversial figure, but he has grown into the soccer business over the three years he has owned the club. Edwards has been able to turn the Rowdies who were weeks away from folding when he bought the club into one of the success stories in lower-division soccer. But his personality which grates on people and his take-no-prisoners attitude grated on many in NASL, a league who benefited directly from his loaning of money to the Fort Lauderdale Strikers over the course of 2016*.

Edwards launched #MLS2StPete in December, and as a club with a robust supporters base in the biggest exclusive D2 soccer market in the US with a downtown stadium, the club couldn’t be healthier. USL being granted provisional D2 status simply justifies Edwards’ move between the leagues. Ultimately few if any other clubs in American lower division soccer have the combination of the right market, right locale, fan base, willing owner and positive vibe that the Rowdies do currently. The Rowdies hyper-local marketing didn’t jive with the culture of NASL driven by the likes of the New York Cosmos, Fort Lauderdale Strikers and Miami FC to be a global player. But in lower-division soccer local trumps national and international and the Rowdies future appears brighter than ever.

Fort Lauderdale Strikers

The Strikers are currently undergoing a sale and are per published reports unlikely to compete in Spring of 2017 at the NASL level. My understanding is that the club could compete in another division with a U-23 or reserve side while retooling/rebooting for the future. Fort Lauderdale had a tumultuous 2017 season despite the near-heroic efforts of Coach Caio Zanardi and his players. the Strikers, one of NASL’s most successful clubs on-the-field since the league began independent play in 2011, has been unable to match on-the-pitch achievements off the field in terms of club sponsorships, merchandise sales, or support. The Strikers were last in attendance in 2016, after leading NASL in attendance among non-MLS bound sides just five years earlier in 2011.

With new owners likely to close a deal next week for the club, a full assessment will need to be done of the local marketplace. The Strikers efforts to be a global brand yielded some success in far-flung locales such as China and Brazil but didn’t do enough to move the needle locally where it really mattered.

Jacksonville Armada FC

The Armada had a similarly tumultuous season to Fort Lauderdale which saw player, coach and staff departures during the season followed up by rumors about finances during the offseason. Jacksonville remains a very viable D2 soccer market but it’s limited in its ability to attract fans from outside a smallish-catchment area because of the presence of MLS in Orlando. Reports state NASL will operate the club while a sale to new owners is complete. The team is likely to play in 2017 according to sources at either the University of North Florida or Jacksonville University after having spent the last two seasons at the Baseball Grounds downtown.

Whomever buys the Armada will inherit a good market and a decent-sized fan base. They also inherit facility and venue issues and a need to grow both ticket and sponsorship revenue to the point where the club could be a sustainable long-term business.

Miami FC

The club which played its first season in 2016, were reportedly the biggest spenders outside of MLS in US club soccer last year. Southeast Florida is a tough sports market and even more difficult one for the American club game. In most large markets be it MLS ones or lower division once the cool/hipness factor of a new club that spends lots of money wears off problems ensue. Miami FC has made a lot of right moves but NASL as a whole has to pull back from its unrealistic ambition of challenging MLS for the foreseeable future, and how that will impact a club that marketed itself as a global brand and beamed live feeds of its matches to 140 countries is anyone’s guess. Also the overall historic weakness of the local market is a problem for this club.

I don’t have great long-term hopes for this club but perhaps this model and not the Rowdies hyper-local one is better? Miami FC has hired lots of capable folks in its front office, but even that might not be enough over the long haul.

USL

Tampa-based USL is a league whose management operates a company that sells franchises to individual owners in markets across the US and Canada. I will state here my personal preference is against this sort of model and way of doing business. I prefer open leagues and owner-driven decision making, not independent businesses selling franchises to local operators. However, USL is much healthier than NASL at the current time, and provides the level of club services and support to its clubs that NASL isn’t even close to matching.

USL demonstrated its club services and discipline with every team sending out similar press releases and graphics packages on Twitter after the USSF decision was announced. NASL, by contrast had clubs bumbling and stumbling around and the league itself sent out a short release long after most USL clubs and the league had made contact with the media.

Right now USL looks an attractive proposition for those owners who will want to mitigate the high costs of doing business in lower division soccer, an industry that has proven through the years to be a loss-leader. However, NASL per my sources has already become more aggressive in seeking expansion teams by undercutting the entry costs to join.

NASL

The cost structure of NASL is out-of-whack for a lower division league. A high-rent New York headquarters which was ostensibly acquired to secure big sponsorships which never materialized is a strong symbol of the wasteful and largely purposeless spending that drove the league to the brink of extinction in the past few months.  NASL’s spending on staff and an elaborate headquarters doesn’t prevent USL from doing more for its member clubs at the league level than NASL. This is both a curse and a blessing because NASL does allow its clubs the type of autonomy which owners prefer but when clubs run into trouble, the league has time and again appeared helpless to ensure smooth operations and timely pay for players, coaches, staff and vendors. A few more problems of this nature next season and it could be all-she-wrote for the league. Additionally, NASL needs to reassess its scheduling, travel, club spending on players/technical staff, TV/streaming video options and long-term vision and goals if they are to continue as a D2 league beyond 2017.

Ultimately my view is it would be good for a hybrid D2 league with NASL’s ideological principles but USL’s business savvy and understanding of the soccer business to prosper. I believe that is what the US Soccer Federation wants as well but unless both leagues are willing to be more mature about things as I articulated on Twitter Saturday morning, we might be in the same place again nine months from now.

*At the time of the Edwards loans and legal action I was serving as the official media contract for the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. Therefore, I am bound to only discuss this loan in terms of what others have posted/written publicly. I cannot analyze the legal action or the loans publicly.

Disclaimer: Kartik Krishnaiyer worked for the NASL from December 2009 to May 2013 and has served in various advisory capacities to the Fort Lauderdale Strikers over the past six years.

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https://thefloridasqueeze.com/2017/01/06/tampa-bay-rowdies-sign-orlando-city-sc-legend-and-fan-favorite-luke-boden/

Tampa Bay Rowdies sign Orlando City SC legend and fan favorite Luke Boden

January 6, 2017 · by Kartik Krishnaiyer

The I-4 derby just got more interesting.  The Tampa Bay Rowdies signed Luke Boden an English left back who had played every season of Orlando City SC’s existence with the club. Boden’s signing with the Rowdies means they have essentially swapped left backs with Orlando City after PC went the other way earlier this week.  From my vantage point Tampa Bay wins out short term with the more finished article but Orlando could have a player in PC with greater upside.

A 28-year old left back, Boden made 45 MLS appearances for Orlando in the past two seasons. He originally joined the club in 2011 and made 95 USL appearances from 2011 to 2014. He was one of eight players to make the transition from the USL to MLS with the Lions. He also appeared in one USL match last season for Orlando City B.

“Luke is a great addition to our team,” Rowdies Head Coach Stuart Campbell said. “He brings a great deal of experience to our side having played in so many matches at both the USL and MLS levels. He’s a reliable defender with a great left foot that will bring a lot of intensity to our side.”

Born in Sheffield, England, Boden came up through Sheffield Wednesday’s academy and broke into the first team in 2006. Boden played for Wednesday from 2006 to 2011, including loan spells at Rushden & Diamonds, Chesterfield and Northampton Town.

Boden moved stateside in 2011 to join Orlando City. In his six years with the club, Boden won three USL Championships and was named to the USL Pro Team of the Season in 2014.

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http://bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/dsport-to-telecast-the-chinese-super-league/articleshow/57277676.cms

DSPORT to telecast the Chinese Super League

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http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2017/02/21/atlanta-united-inks-multi-year-television-deal.html

Atlanta United inks multi-year television deal with FOX Sports South, FOX Sports Southeast