ROWDIES SALE TO TAMPA BAY RAYS NOW COMPLETED

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https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9r21ml/rowdies_sale_to_tampa_bay_rays_now_completed/

Official Rowdies Sale To Tampa Bay Rays Now Completed

As the transition begins in earnest, exciting changes are planned for the Rowdies roster, front office and fan experience. Beginning on November 3, and continuing during the first Saturday Morning Market of each month, the Rowdies will open Al Lang Stadium to the public for family-friendly activities and live soccer games streamed from around the world on the video board and concourse televisions. More information regarding specific programming will be made available as the date nears.

Roster announcements will be made in the coming weeks.

I'm really anxious about the Rays taking over. I have this nagging fear that the Edward's years will be seen as our golden era. Will we become the Rays ingored litrle brother? Or will we see a oth Joe Cole and Marcell Schaffer? Stadium upgrades? Edwards spent a lot of time growing the brands legend.... A lot of that was predicated on growth to the top of the league or on to MLS. Stu has already said the latter is no longer a goal (or so I've heard). I'm ok with that, I just want the competitve fires to remain!

Everything I’m hearing, they’re excited about the Rowdies and want this team to really compete for titles. Will we see another Joe Cole or Schäfer – don’t know about that, but not sure that’s about the new ownership as much as it is about doing what we need to do to win.

We don’t need to slash payroll, we were breakeven with Edwards Group and there is more resource overlap with the Rays that should make it more profitable. We’ll have to wait and see, but I’m personally really excited about this and I get more excited the more I hear publicly and behind the scenes

Team to change name to the Tampa Bay Raydies

Tampa Bay Devil Rowdies

FC Tampa Bay

Wait...

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https://www.rowdiessoccer.com/news_article/show/962132

ROWDIES SALE TO TAMPA BAY RAYS NOW COMPLETED

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (October 24, 2018) — With the 2018 USL season in the books, a new chapter begins for the Tampa Bay Rowdies, as the sale to the Tampa Bay Rays has been completed.

“Today marks a new era in Tampa Bay Rowdies history,” said Vice-Chairman Matt Silverman. “We are excited to embark on this journey with Rowdies fans from across Tampa Bay, and we look forward to building enduring relationships with Season Ticket Holders, Corporate Partners, and all supporters of Rowdies soccer.”

As the transition begins in earnest, exciting changes are planned for the Rowdies roster, front office and fan experience. Beginning on November 3, and continuing during the first Saturday Morning Market of each month, the Rowdies will open Al Lang Stadium to the public for family-friendly activities and live soccer games streamed from around the world on the video board and concourse televisions. More information regarding specific programming will be made available as the date nears.

“The expansion of the Saturday Morning Market into Al Lang will be an added benefit to an already energized downtown St. Petersburg,” said Vice-Chairman Brian Auld. “It allows fans and citizens access to family-friendly activities during the most beautiful time of the year.”

Roster announcements will be made in the coming weeks, and ticket sales representatives are diligently working to contact Season Ticket Holders to discuss early renewal benefits for the 2019 Rowdies season. For a limited time, fans who place a $100 deposit towards a 2019 season ticket will receive $25 in Rowdies Dollars to be used in the Rowdies Team Store at Sundial St. Pete during the month of December. Fans can call 727-222-2000 for information on ticket offerings.

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https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/9r47do/collins_aims_to_change_perception_of_the_rowdies/

Collins Aims to Change Perception of the Rowdies as he Plans for Future

Personally, Neill's empasis on shifting to younger players is a big takeaway. Development should not be a dirty word and the Rowdies should absolutely be casting a wide net to get players with more upside into the club. Developing successful players can improve a club's reputation greatly. Having TBU Rowdies and the Developent Academy play a part in that is something that would come much farther down the road but it's still imporant. I've heard Neill has a big interesting in continuing to expand that partnership. Here's his answer about the academy stuff that wasn't included in the story.

That's going to be big. Even in my short time, that's one thing I've managed to improve and it's gone from strength to strength. It's been a whirlwind four or five months and I've managed to touch on the TBU and TBU Rowdies side, but I think that's something now in the offseason I'm going to be able to be more involved with. That's a really long term plan, but I think it's important that the people that play there, whether they be 10 or 15, that they feel there's path to becoming a professional at the Rowdies and that they get a sense of what it's like to be a professional, whether it be being involved in training from time to time, whether it be being involved in reserve team matches, or whether it be coming along to watch. Even our coaches are getting more involved in their side of things and going to watch. In such a big country, where it's hard for some of these soccer players to interact with professional players or professional coaches, I think we've got to try and bridge that gap and foster that relationship so that we can be seen to be nurturing the best talent in the Tampa Bay area and even wider than that. It'd be great and in the coming years we'd be producing our own players. I think the fans would really get behind that. That's a long term plan, but one that I'm definitely wanting to help and nurture that with Blake Wagner now that he's at TBU and the other people that are working hard behind the scenes.

Disagree with Neil's view on Taku but his lack of mention of Poku must show he may not be back next season..

I didn’t really have issue with Taku, except that it seemed to take him awhile to get any traction. Huge downgrade from Schäfer, but I thought he was fine.

Would really like to see Bonomo back.

Well written as always. I'm impressed with what Neal said in regards to scouting. Edwards had this habit of looking at the players who burned the Rowdies in previous year and signing them to very mixed results. Sometimes it was just the system they were in, other times it was coaching style. Junior Flemmings comes to mind. He burned us with speed and the classic NYRB flops. Signs with the Rowdies and can't draw a foul to save a life, even as the babybulls once again flopped all over the place. Seriously, thats a tried and true NYRB talent thay use to their advantage. Not sayin I like it or want to see it in St.Pete. just that it didn't transfer with Junior or hexwas asked to play differently. Heinenman and Hertzog come to mind too.

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http://www.theunsubs.com/wp/2018/10/24/collins-aims-to-change-perception-of-the-rowdies-as-he-plans-for-future/4119

Collins Aims to Change Perception of the Rowdies as he Plans for Future

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https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2018/10/22/21/02/20181022-feat-hof-a-hall-for-all-american-soccer-treasure-chest

A HALL FOR ALL: AMERICAN SOCCER'S TREASURE CHEST

Fame is too small a word. It does no justice to what happens here in the National Soccer Hall of Fame, or what’s enshrined in its new walls. The grand opening, on Oct. 21 with the induction of the Class of 2018, was more than fireworks and high-tech wizardry. It was more than the red blazers and speeches. It was surely more than fame. In the Hall that night was decency and integrity. Fraternity and humility. Humor. Family. Gratitude. Mostly, there’s reflection here. It’s a Hall of mirrors.

The weekend began quietly. A ribbon-cutting under a heavy iron sculpture. It’s a player and he’s huge and inverted, flying into a bicycle kick. Motion and solid weight combined. We’ve seen this kick before, maybe on top of our first trophies at soccer camp, like the ones run by Dr. Joe Machnik over there, in the red blazer he got in 2017. Brad Friedel (Class of 2018) used to work those camps as a teenager. And Pele, how many times did he have to shoot and re-shoot his epic bicycle kick for the climax of John Huston’s 1981 movie Victory? And, hey, isn’t that Werner Roth over there (Class of 1989). He was a NY Cosmos teammate of Pele’s (Class of 1993), and he was in the picture too, as the villainous Nazi team captain.

It’s a Hall of Connections. You’ll find them even if you’re not trying.

All night at the North End of Toyota Stadium, where FC Dallas of Major League Soccer play their home games, guests wandered exhibits. That’s Willy Roy (Class of 1989), his face reflecting back off the glass as he admired five of Billy Gonsalves’ eight Open Cup medals, found forgotten in an unmarked Ziploc bag and restored to a high shine. Willy, now 75, never won one, but he scored twice in the Open Cup Final of 1965 for Chicago Hansa. He’s at the Hall with three generations of his family, his granddaughter in an old jersey of the Chicago Sting, the team Willy coached to two NASL crowns.

There’s the Women’s World Cup trophy over there. Olympic medals too. Gold, even. There’s the Dewar Cup, 106-years-old, behind glass in a room full of tables and chairs set as if for a grand wedding reception. And it’s that kind of day, too. That sense of honor drifts on the air. Celebrating something worth the effort. Yes, it’s a Hall of Honor too.

And it’s a Hall of Remembrance. For the inductees of the Class of 2018, they remembered the ones that got them there. Their families in attendance – parents and aunts and uncles and cousins. Old coaches too. Anson Dorrance (Class of 2008) introduced Cindy Parlow (now Parlow Cone). Ed Hynes, son of the late Jackie Hynes traveled from New York to the Hall’s opening. He brought with him the pocketful of coins his dad carried the day he was wounded by shrapnel at the Battle of the Bulge. They’re dented and damaged, like Jackie’s legs were in the fighting. In all, more than 140 players from the old American Soccer League (ASL) served in World War II.

“No one gets here alone and it’s hard not to smile on a day like this,” said Brad Friedel, big as a grizzly bear, beneath a long list of names ringing the rafters. The list immortalizes each and every member of the Hall from its first induction Class of 1950. There’s Alex Ely up there of the old Philly Ukrainians and Archie Stark, as tough a brawler as he was a player. There’s Des Armstrong and Michelle Akers.

Friedel, a titan of the American game, sat at a table with old teammate John Harkes, wearing his red blazer from the Class of 2005. And they’re both a step away from the right boot Paul Caligiuri wore to fire the only goal against Trinidad and Tobago on November 19, 1989 and send the U.S. back to a World Cup for the first time in 40 years. There’s connections around every corner here.

There’s Tiffeny Millbrett, the tiny Women’s National team spitfire, always going a 100-miles per hour trying to find a way to goal that wasn’t there a split-second earlier. She gave the night a touch of humor, always needed in among the remembrances and earnestness. On the way back to her table, she stepped over the ball, built into a glass case in the floor of the banquet hall, that her teammate Brandi Chastain hammered home from the spot to win the 1999 Women’s World Cup. Earlier in the night, former USSF president Dr. Bob Contiguglia (Class of 2018) called that tournament “the most important women’s sporting event of the 20th century.” And he was right.

And it was none other than JP Dellacamera, honored earlier with the 2018 Colin Jose Media Award, who made the call that day in Pasadena. “Goal!” followed by over two minutes of silence meant to allow the moment, the sheer audacious history of it, to wash clean the over viewer. He made the call in Trinidad, in ‘89, too. Connections. Connections. Connections.

There was the color and spirit brought by the scores of veteran – executives and players and reporters – gathered for the 50th anniversary of the old North American Soccer League (NASL). They perched on barstools at the nearby hotel. They back-slapped and carried on and relived those wild days of the 70s and 80s. All of the pioneering, the wacky jerseys, the up-by-the-boot straps grassroots-ness of it all.

If former NASL commissioner Clive Toye isn’t the best storyteller in the world, he’s surely in the running. There’s no MLS without that the NASL, folks. There just isn’t. Sporting Kansas City players gathered for pre-game breakfast in the very same hotel on that very same Sunday, and they did well to shake the hands of those who came before, who pulled off the miracle of making professional soccer a reality in America, filling the old Meadowlands and bringing Pele, the best in the world, to play on American shores. Matt Besler and Graham Zusi are looking in the mirror when they stand before Al Trost and Randy Horton, wild-man defender Bobby Smith, Kyle Rote Jr and Johnny Moore, who can trace his time in the American game back to the old LA Scots, through the NASL and all the way to an executive suite in MLS.

There’s melancholy too, just a little bit around the edges. It’s that last-call sadness, when the tablecloths get pulled away and the day becomes a memory. There’s lingering at the bar, no one quite ready to leave this magical space that hangs like a fog somewhere between then and now. But there’s no need to worry much – there’s space left in that list in the rafters for those yet to join this family of wonder. If you squint hard enough you can see those names coming over the horizon: Howard, Morgan, Lloyd, more even, stretching out as far and long as we care to take care of this American game. It’s a good thing the ceilings are high, because the Hall is forever. It’s for us and those who’ve passed and those who haven’t yet been born.

“’Oh that foreign game’ people say,” remembered Seamus Malin (Class of 2005), with the edges of his Irish accent intact. “But I correct them: ‘no, sir I say. This game here, is American, and it has its own history.” Amen. And that history is here in Frisco Texas as it once was in Oneonta New York. The last glass of champagne is swept up off the bar. A final photo taken in front of the glass cases that protect our game’s treasures. The Hall is quiet now. But it won’t be for long. This Hall is for all. And we, mere mortals, are invited, beginning November 2, 2018 to enjoy its celebration of the beautiful game in America. Go ahead and bask in all that’s reflected there.

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http://www.fox13news.com/news/local-news/cross-bay-ferry-returns-with-new-dock-locations

Cross-Bay Ferry returns, with new dock locations

ST. PETERSBURG (FOX 13) - In just a few days, there will be a new way for you to commute to and from Tampa and St. Petersburg.   The Cross-Bay Ferry service, launched as a trial in 2016, is making a return. 

The ferry can now be seen docked ready to go at its new location on Bayshore Drive across from the Vinoy Hotel.  November 1, it will start making runs from its location in St. Pete to Downtown Tampa near where the water taxis are docked.

The city of St. Pete says this season there will be more service in the evening hours and on weekends.

Mayor Rick Kriseman says, during the trial run in 2016, the ferry's cost paid off, bringing more than $1 million from riders to businesses on both sides of the bay.  It went away in 2017 because Kriseman says he feared it would be politicized in the St. Pete mayoral election.

“Everything we can do to take people off the roads, give people an alternative, especially one that allows them to enjoy the beauty of our two communities, I think it's something we [should] be working on,” Kriseman said.

The ferry will run November through April. Depending on the rider’s age, it will cost around $8 or less.

St. Pete moved its docking location to Bayshore Drive because of construction on the city's new pier.

Tampa, meanwhile, moved the dock from the Convention Center to the Florida Aquarium. City officials there say the change should allow the ferry to continue operating during busy waterfront events.

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https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/24/major-league-soccer-to-let-teams-sell-new-endorsement-space-on-jerseys.html

Major League Soccer will allow teams to sell new endorsement space on jersey sleeves

MLS Commissioner Don Garber tells CNBC the league has approved the sale of a sponsored sleeve patch on club uniforms starting immediately.

The move, confirmed Wednesday, could bring in up to $2 million a year per team, according to sports marketer Chris Weil.

The NBA brings in about $9 million a year per team for selling sponsorship on the front of players' jerseys, Weil says.

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https://sportsday.dallasnews.com/soccer/soccer/2018/10/23/mark-cuban-causes-stir-among-fc-dallas-fans

Mark Cuban causes a stir among FC Dallas fans

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban sent soccer fans crazy, particularly here in the Metroplex, during a Reddit AMA on Saturday. When asked which other sports league Cuban would own a team in if given the opportunity, the Shark Tank star surprisingly mentioned Major League Soccer.

"I think the MLS has the best opportunity outside of the NBA," said Cuban. "Their challenge is that the value of their franchises are growing faster than their revenues which makes it harder to invest in a franchise.

"But I think generally they are best positioned behind the NBA."

This came on the day that MLS Commissioner Don Garber was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Frisco. Much of the talk surrounding Garber's induction focused on his role in flipping the league that was close to folding in 2001, to record revenues and an increasing profile among the traditional big four. I had the chance to ask Garber after his induction for his thoughts on Cuban's comments about the league, with the MLS Commissioner joking that Cuban should give him a call before asking assembled media to pass on his email address.

We did reach out to Cuban for a comment on Monday and he stated it was nothing more than an observation. At the same time, fans began to get excited about the thought of the charismatic Mavs owner buying the Hunt family out of FC Dallas.

Regardless of Cuban's thoughts and intentions surrounding soccer, the Hunt family aren't about to let go of FC Dallas. The Hoops are the last part of Lamar Hunt's soccer legacy still under the family's control. Dan and Clark bought siblings Lamar Jr and Sharron out of Hunt Sports Group, largely to give FC Dallas more spending power. Their decision to commit $40m and 20 years to the National Soccer Hall of Fame at Toyota Stadium, which honors their father as a pioneer of the modern American game, should serve to show that the Hunts are here to stay.

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https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2018/10/24/lots-of-work-remains-on-crew-sc-deal-key-figure-in.html

Lots of work remains on Crew SC deal, key figure in the negotiations says