Major League Soccer continues its stunning growth by the addition of new clubs, stadia and lucrative financial deals. As a league it has thrived in what is over decade of service now and as a brand of entertainment. I urge anyone to catch a game in person, via any media outlet or talk to anyone associated with the league whether it be fan, executive or player and they will tell you how sensually stimulating it has become up and down the country. To run what is a worldly sport in an American style and fashion isn’t easy. Teams are in my opinion, at least more franchises than anything else. They can be rooted up and relocated if the league chooses to do use if something runs foul. A concept in soccer to the rest of the planet seems very foreign. What isn’t a foreign are teams that go defunct or dissolve. The Tampa Bay Mutiny, Miami Fusion and Chivas USA are casualties of this North American soccer system. As much good the MLS has done, by allowing these clubs to fall by the wayside and not figuring out how to save them, they ultimately failed in that respect. In Europe bad clubs do get dissolved but that’s because teams are ran privately by businessmen with the leagues only operating as shepherds. Bad business decisions by private owners lead to horror stories like the one we see in Italy with Parma and over in England with Portsmouth. Major League does allow private ownership of teams but in the end they are really good protectors of their brand and does allow for parity among the teams making sure the league is balanced. Which is a healthy trend in all major league sports in the United States which makes for good for viewing. Everybody gets a Lebron, everybody gets Cam Newton, everyone gets a David Villa despite the market they play in. Markets in pro sports in America count for a lot. Texas, New York and California gets oodles of attention. Naturally because they hold the most Metropolitan cities and thus hold the most TV wise rights and shares and all types of mumbo jumbo that they taught me in college in my media classes at university. Essentially that’s why we are here to talk about one of those big markets and a big team that is coming to Major League Soccer. In October of 2014 MLS announced that Los Angeles Football Club will become part of the league set up come 2018. As mentioned above LAFC will be entertaining us in 2018, a full two years from now and will have to watch Atlanta United Football Club take the leap first into MLS. The Georgian side are set to enter the fray in the not to far off 2017. Anything I could stir up would be pretty superficial simply because there isn’t much content to go on at the moment on the club! Which will make this post short and sweet. Word is the California outfit are looking to build a $250 million stadium in in the Los Angeles area which no doubt will be caldron of color when it is completed . Tom Penn, Henry Nguyen and Peter Gruben according to various sources head up the ownership group. Vincent Tan the same guy who owns Welsh side Cardiff City and Belgian side KV Kortrijk also is a co-owner in the LA venture. Tan is best known for trying to undo almost 117 years of footballing tradition by trying to change the home colors of Cardiff from blue to red. An effort that didn’t sit very well with the Welsh locals. So it’s a good thing this newly founded club doesn’t have domestic misnomers to fret about for Mr. Tan. Aesthetics aside LAFC has some very eye catching affiliates they can can hang their hat on. Basketball legend Magic Johnson, actor/comedian Will Ferrell and soccer icon Mia Hamm all investors. Los Angeles Football Club seems like a cool thing to do and it kinda reminds me of the Brooklyn Nets in the NBA. A trendy looking, clean and edgy looking team that is in an enclave in a big market (New York) trying to give it’s more establish neighbor (New York Knicks) a bloody nose. There is no doubt that LAFC is trying to cut into the LA Galaxy’s shares and they are using there new vibe and energy to wow a city that expects to be dazzled. As for the colors and crest I’m personally a sucker for black and gold but I feel for an artistic city like Los Angeles a wing emerging out of an “A” is a little lazy. I expected a little more flair especially from a west coast club. All around I hope LAFC’s birth can bring a real hate to the LA area something to rival Portland and Seattle’s beef. I look forward to when the Galaxy and the “Black Gold,” meet. LAFC
New day! New series. I’ve got a little momentum going and I’m going to capitalize on it. I won’t be too wordy on this one. This article will be pure and factual. “The Club,” will be my way to highlight great league based teams and for this post I wanted it to be really special. There is a clear lack of Women’s football on my website and I want to increase the numbers. So why not kill two birds with one stone? In this segment I will be bringing to you the viewer, the familiarity of a very special Ladies’ soccer side in the form of the ultra popular and successful Seattle Reign Football Club. I’m extremely excited and a little nervous to showcase this new category on my site simply because I just want to get it right and do these wonderful institutions a good service. Reputation is everything these clubs have massive ones so I will do all in my power to safeguard them. So without further adieu I bring to you “The Club!” Formed in November of 2012 the Seattle Reign make up what is currently a nine club National Women’s Soccer League. A league in which itself has only been in existence since around the Reign’s formation in 2012. When a club and the newly minted league was announced it was Bill Predmore who would be the owner of franchise. The colors of the club are described as white, platinum, royal blue and midnight black. A combo that does lend a regal touch. The majesty however comes in the crest. Like Ajax of the Netherlands, Olympiacos of Greece and the Kaizer Chiefs of South Africa, Seattle Reign FC boast a herm or an image of a human head. The Reign have chosen a beautiful image of a crowned queen or monarch which ties in with the name of the club. A name that taken from city’s first women’s professional sports team. A defunct basketball team that plied it’s trade in the American Basketball League. The NWSL outfit calls Memorial Stadium her home and since the inaugural season of the league back in 2012 the Seattle side has amassed two NWSL Shields. The most recent coming in the 2015. As with all American Northwest rivalries between Seattle and Portland they are hotly contested and the Reign’s beef with fellow NWSL side Portland Thorns FC is no different. When these two tangle there is the usual flair and intensity with passions shared on both sides. What’s not shared however is the affiliation that with Major League Soccer. The Thorns are connected to the Portland Timbers of the MLS however the Reign are not joint to the hugely successful Seattle Sounders due to the fact that Sounders have their own women’s team. A team that ply their trade in theUnited Soccer LeaguesW-League. What the Seattle Reign do have is the support and certainly the players the current roster boast some sublime players. Ladies like Wold Cup winners Hope Solo and Megan Rapinoe. Who arguably the the best in their positions in the game. I’m also a huge fan of creative midfielder Kim Little. The Scot puts in some dynamic performances in front of the Reign’s Royal Guard at home and on the road. A player with wonderful balance and dribbling skills. I understand that rosters change that is the nature of American sports and also soccer but with those I just mentioned I’m hard press to find a better spine in women’s soccer States side. The NWSL is a very young league but already we are seeing a trend of dominance from Seattle Reign. Those two NWSL Shields in three years just shows there is something there. The Seattle Seahawks, Seattle Mariners, Seattle Sounders and even the now defunct Seattle SuperSonics were and are champions of their respective disciplines. There is a great platform for pro sports in Washington state, as evidence in the list of champions above. There is no doubt that the Seattle Reign will carry on to lift that great Pacific city.
Somewhere in Brooklyn at my 9 to 5 about a few months ago I had the pleasure of meeting a friendly Austrian traveller. He told me how much he loved New York City while I replied by saying Vienna looks like a charm. To move the story along it has to be said we were in a NBA store. So the eventual topic of basketball came about. He is a foreigner and let’s be honest their fascination with basketball is not like the average American fan of the game who is more like a cross between a moose in musk and a jaded ex wife. His fandom was innocent. He was excited to be in a NBA arena (if you haven’t figured out where I work by now you may be dense). We talked about basketball...my knowledge of the game kind of overwhelmed him and he tentatively backed into a zone of comfort and said he was a more of a football (soccer) man as a way I guess to gain a little advantage in a scenario that was not even threatening. I had no problem with talking about soccer and allowing him to feel maybe a little superior and comfortable after all I am in the service industry to offer comfort is my mo’. Problem with that is that he picked the wrong black guy to talk soccer with. Our Austrian friend said he was from Innsbruck but supported FK Austrian Wien. Here is where I wish writing some how allowed people to see the story unfold in pictures because words fail to do convey his reaction when I came with my response. He said in his Germanic laced English. “Yes I love love my Wien!” I simply looked at him and in my bland Baritone voice said.”I prefer Sturm Graz.” I don’t if it was the fact that I was black, living in America or I worked for a basketball team but he was shocked. Our conversation got serious I mention to him it’s a shame Andreas Weimann has not been able to kick on and that David Alaba’s injuries real curtailed his career so far. I even threw a little Andreas Herzog factoids for good measure. The man was impressed but I struck a nerve with him when I mentioned something. Somehow the New York Red Bulls entered this footballing frenzy between the two of us and it definitely tempered his tone. It was like watching a blacksmith taking magma laced piece of iron and setting into a vat of ice water from the most northern fjord. Our footy friend said he hate the Red Bull. Well with that I knew to only offer him Gatorade if he was in need of liquid energy...but all jokes aside I knew what he meant. I know Red Bull Salzburg of Austria was seen as marketing tool for a big cooperation and how its seen to be a blot to some in Austria on their league, a symbol of unwanted modernization in a traditional sphere which is European soccer. Patrick (that was our traveler’s name by the way) echoed what I had thought when he said “In Europe we do not like franchising like America!” Ironic that he said that in a NBA arena which was the home of a newly minted NBA team the Brooklyn Nets. A team he was raving about just a few minutes ago. It got me thinking. Why are people not just in Europe but in the Americas, so against a and I use these terms loosely “farm or commercialized,” team? I happen to go to my fair share of New York RedBull games and I’m demonized by some of my friends for it...simply because the team is attached with a major cooperation and it’s root the New York/New Jersey MetroStars has been shushed away into the background. If you've ever gone on some Major League Soccer or local soccer forums the hate is venomous! Especially for the New York teams. The common term around the snooty circle of this newly found soccer bravado is “plastic.” Many claim the Red Bulls and their new crosstown rivals Manchester City’s American appendage New York City Football Club are not “real,” clubs because of their branding and new found history does not fit into the traditional. The strange thing is the concept of these type of teams popping up isn’t new. If you just scroll up you would see the iconic crest of Ajax. One of the most treasured teams in all of world football but if one knows what one is looking for the Ajax in the photo isn’t the one I speak off. I am referring to the Ajax of Amsterdam the great European power. The crest on display belongs to her feeder/farm side Ajax Cape Town of South Africa. Now I don’t live in South Africa and as hard as I try I don’t know how South African football fans feel about Ajax of Cape Town. I simply don’t know and I won’t speculate. The question I would direct to people who are opposed to these types of symbiotic relationships is if they think if these new “farm,” teams help anyone? Ajax Cape Town came about due to the merger of two football clubs in the city. Seven Stars and Cape Town Stars in 1999. Ajax solidified the union by financing and instilling her philosophy and the club was born. Ajax Amsterdam placed a huge emphasis on youth and player development offering the children of locals to join a professional side not only in their own neighborhood and country but also a shot to ply their trade in the Netherlands. A reward for the most ardent students. By all accounts it is a formula that works. Go ask Everton’s Steven Pienaar. A South African kid that joined their ranks. A guy who would say and I’ve read quotes of him saying that he did not have the easiest of childhoods. A man who joined Ajax Cape Town then moved on to Amsterdam and then to the promise land of the Barclays Premier League. He isn’t the only South African boy whose dreams came true because of this Dutch outpost club. Ajax Amsterdam over the years have plucked the likes Thulani Serero who has been incorporated into their system as I speak. I’m not a fool. A dreamer but not a fool. Austria and New York isn’t South Africa. A feeder club in the prior two, yes can change a live of a young man but in the latter it can literally save a young man’s life. Ajax Orlando (yes there is an Ajax Orlando) in the United States is probably is a cash cow a ploy to tap into Americans’ wallets and the probability of a star emerging out of that organization will be a far stretch and I don’t think this will boost a community like it’s South African counterpart will. If Red Bull decides to create a team in Namibia there is no doubt even if the players produced aren’t that good there is no doubt the amount of good it will do for the area. A Red Bull team in New York isn’t really going to do anything...well except tick off a fan base. My Austrian friend and those soccer hipsters on the on their MacBook keyboards are right to bark on about tradition in the game it is a massive part of the sport and it should not be overlook. I get it. Where they stand from having a big corporation or another club coming and absorbing their side or creating a new team out of the air could be bothersome. It makes the game look cheap. They are not wrong but I will also put forth the case of the teams that are created in troubled areas of the world. What likes of Ajax Cape Town and SuperSport United Football Club in South Africa an affiliate Feyenoord Rotterdam...Yet another super club from the Netherlands has done for these areas is phenomenal. I personally love sides steep in tradition. By all accounts England’s Notts County Football Club is the oldest professional team in the world. If I was a Notts County fan I would feel just a warm glow every time I see them play. It is this kind of feeling of belonging to an old honor that makes people adore such clubs. So when a team that just was thought up in a board room by a corporate stud emerges I can see why traditionalist would be irked. I won’t ramble on any further, I could all day about the issue and for the sake of editorial quality I will close this chapter the best way I could...let’s not forget I am a fledgling writer. This notion that newly created teams are phony, cheap and a way for guys in a suit to make money is a harsh way to look at it because there always will be a scenario where that form of business will work and let’s not fool ourselves a Wolf of Wall Street character in a suit will always profit. Which is cute but I don’t care about that what so ever. If a little kid may he or she be from a football hotbed or a place that is trying to enter the heralded soccer circle...if a club can invest in that child and give them a tangible future in the sport I don’t see a problem. The kid that is in Red Bull Leipzig’s youth academy has much as a right as his counterpart in Hamburger SV to take a crack at this football thing. These arguments of newly minted and old gold football sides isn’t silly what they are is distracting. Fans and students of the game won’t ever get pass the surface level of the argument which is understandable but they should be reminded it is about the play on the pitch and the players produced and it shouldn’t matter how they got their start. What is important is that a get a start...One thing before I go and I put it to the those who despise these “farm,” or “commercialized,” teams. What if the best player in the world or of all time came from New York City FC or Red Bull Salzburg? When we tell his story will we omit the start of his career and the place where it all started because it had something to do with an energy drink?
