MLS is “getting close” to sponsorship deal with respected gaming company

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https://www.bettingus.com/news/mls-is-getting-close-to-sponsorship-deal-with-respected-gaming-company/

MLS is “getting close” to sponsorship deal with respected gaming company

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http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/mls-tv-rights-deal-2022-espn-fox-univision

MLS preparing comprehensive TV rights deal for 2022

North American soccer league reportedly tells clubs to pursue short-term local deals.

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https://afootballreport.com/blog/why-the-us-major-league-soccer-is-on-the-rise

WHY THE US MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER IS ON THE RISE?

THE 24TH SEASON OF THE US MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER

The 24th season of the US Major League Soccer launched only a few days ago with high expectations. The rise of the most prominent national club competition in North America is evident in recent years, and still, the best is yet to come. What has led to such progress considering a sport which was far from a mass public appeal only two decades ago?

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https://stpetecatalyst.com/what-the-claims-in-the-bill-edwards-lawsuit-could-mean-for-other-companies-workers/

What the claims in the Bill Edwards lawsuit could mean for other companies, workers

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https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/axgoe7/former_united_states_u17_mens_national_team_coach/

Former United States U-17 Men’s National Team Coach, Anthony Latronica, Hired as Sporting Director at Tampa Bay United Rowdies

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https://clubs.bluesombrero.com/Default.aspx?tabid=284501&mid=323092&newskeyid=HN1&newsid=279937&ctl=newsdetail

Sporting Director Hired at Tampa Bay United Soccer Club

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https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/axr8ov/lack_of_ambition/

Lack of Ambition?

Hey all,

I’m a casual Rowdies fan and I’ve just started taking an interest in following the team more seriously as well as the league overall. That’s why I made this account, I heard reddit was a good way to interact with my fellow fans.

When I go on facebook I see a lot of the other teams posts and even keep track of the tropics a little bit since I live about in the middle of the two teams. One common thing I see a lot is announcements and intentions at long term plans for the teams. The tropics just released a stadium site render, I know Louisville is working on something as well. The Rowdies brand is iconic and as far as I know, well liked. Why does it seem like these kind of multi season projects are missing from the Rowdies social media presence. Surely the team has ambitions to grow and build up their fanbase, why aren’t these plans better known to the public. Something like stadium intentions could make news and build up a lot of energy around the team, surely that would be profitable for the front office to do.

I know there is new ownership as well, so maybe it’s just too early for them to think that big but it feels like this classic American soccer brand is losing a lot of ground in the national eye to more ambitious cities and projects.

I, of course, plan on making it out to games this season and maybe getting involved with Ralph’s mob, but just wants to share my thoughts and see if some of you more seasoned fans might be aware of the big picture!

COYR! See you at the games :)

This is a fair point.

In previous years we had the carrot of MLS2STPETE dangled in front of us and with that came juicy stadium renderings.

I think most of us wanted to see the Rays ownership group make some sort of splash as a show of intention that something new would change. I think for most of us we are glad to be in safe hands and have a team. I’m not sure that thinking is enough anymore. I still would like to see, as you say, more ambition. Maybe that manifests itself in a long term club plan or maybe it’s something not as detailed. But since taking over I’m not sure we have anything that remotely looks like a roadmap.

With that being said, after these past two seasons, I would like to see a competitive team that challenges for a Cup, or at least makes the playoffs.

There is a question mark around the teams competitiveness and maybe if we are challenging for the cup or even making the playoffs the ownership would be more willing to commit to using that as a selling point. I guess it’s more of a transitional year than a year of a lot of growth. But I think as much as performance on the field puts butts in the seats so does building “hype”.

Others will probably suggest this but I think this year is about building a strong foundation of the things we don’t see on a daily basis such as —- Analytics and business metrics. Making the organization more professional.

I think it's about optimizing resources. Charging where they can (new seating price zones - GA got a lot smaller). While suckling their own teat, using Rays stadium staff to optimize Al Lang staffing operations. Not that it was bad. But the new staff just seemed to be "there" for the night, rather than part of a welcoming soccer specific staff intent on providing a welcoming experience. Again, not that it was bad..... It just was....

Maybe they have a dedicated Rays+Rowdies crew. But if it mirrors my Rays experiences, were going to end up losing some of the Al Lang experience.

Maximizing resources is fine. But the Rowdies experience needs to be its own thing.

I don’t know how to edit it, but the title I used is much more negative sounding than I intended it to be, I just wanted to start a discussion about what the teams big plans might be, not make it sound like there aren’t any!

It's still too early to say anything about the new Rays ownership; they have shown a few new interesting ideas, such as opening up Al Lang up during some of the St. Pete Saturday Morning Markets.

The Rowdies were basically spinning their wheels for the past 2 years with the #MLS2StPete thing and Bill Edwards' health problems; it seemed like that put a damper on things (I might be wrong about this as I don't live anywhere near the TBA).

Bill Edwards did definitely improve things for the Rowdies over the past five years, but it was a good time to move on, as he had done all he could do.

Hopefully as the new USL season finally kicks off the Rays ownership will start stepping things up.

For the first time the Rowdies have all their home games at Al Lang on Saturday nights, which should help with average attendance; we shall see if the Rays ownership can improve ticket sales and media exposure.

The Rays are also giving Neill Collins room to build his own team and hopefully this will produce results; Bill Edwards had a somewhat negative effect in micromanaging these things which did not help.

No reason why Rowdies fans can't do their own things though; I've been doing an open letter writing campaign; I haven't given up on #Rowdies2MLS just yet:

https://supportyourlocalfootballclub.blogspot.com/2019/02/open-letter-february-8-2019.html