Minnesota Thunder and Team Owners Association Update 11/10/09
Thunder president Manny Lagos spoke briefly to IMS this morning and confirmed the Thunder’s role with the TOA but also said they are focusing on internal issues at this time. Lagos said, “We are still trying to continue to grow and develop soccer with the Thunder in Minnesota.”
Lagos also said that Dean Johnson, owner of the Thunder, had been in contact with Lagos and the two had spoken this morning before the TOA press statement had been released. Lagos says Johnson plans on making a public statement in the next several days concerning his continued commitment to the Thunder.
In the press statement released today by the TOA and announcing their intentions to move forward with a new 2nd division league in North America, Johnson was quoted as saying, “After years of failed efforts to work and improve the current structure of our league, we must take control of our own destiny. When you are doing something that is objectively correct and good for the game of soccer, no one can question you.”
Lagos was also asked about the situation with the Rochester Thunder. He expressed concern for their situation as well. “I think that will be resolved,” stated Lagos. “Dean (Johnson) is speaking to them this morning to try to find a solution to that issue.” Lagos was optimistic that a resolution would be found.
The Thunder president also explained the releasing of the players last Tuesday. “That was my decision,” stated Lagos. “It was the right thing to do. We had players that were wanting to play indoor and others concerned with their future contract options. We decided to honor the USL’s statement that they had voided the contracts. This allowed the players to go looking for other options. Our goal is to be honest about the league situation (TOA/USL) as well as our current financial situation and we believe the guys have seen the effort and facilities improvement over the last couple of years and most will hopefully want to be back. We will also be looking for new talent to go with the core that believe in the club.”
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1st off, thanks for keeping on top of this bq.
I hadn’t really thought about the Rochester Thunder aspect, but that is interesting. If the TOA league does successfully form and play separately from the USL, at this point the Thunder and Dean Johnson would still have the PDL team operating under the USL umbrella (or 60% of it or whatever). Seems like an awkward situation at best. I don’t follow PDL stuff too much – there aren’t other TOA teams/ownership groups in a similar situation are there? Hopefully that can get resolved, seems like the best solution would be if the other Rochester owners took that over and had a complete, but hopefully amicable, separation from the Thunder.
Found this quote from Manny the most interesting:
“We believe the guys have seen the effort and facilities improvement over the last couple of years and most will hopefully want to be back.”
If all we’ve been hearing is true about people not getting paid, etc., good luck with that.
Brian thanks for being so on top of this. IMS is the only place that has all the information about the Thunder situation. Keep up the fantastic work.
Somehow this makes me cautiously optimistic about next year but scared about the future beyond.
Anyway, good reporting, Brian. Thanks.
You know we deserve better than this from them. They are holding us at arms length talking about “We are still trying to continue to grow and develop soccer with the Thunder in Minnesota.” Make a statement Dean!! be truthful with us! In a few days? we’ll see.
Thanks for the comments folks. Had planned on responding last night but had some illness in the family with my mom but everyone is fine. Just meant my plans changed and I was in the ER the whole evening last night.
It’s been really interesting to me to watch the political kick backs of this whole TOA v USL thing. It’s been very much like a political campaign in that momentum has swayed back and forth over the last several months. One thing for sure that I am seeing from those that are following the story, they are still interested but quite frankly are tiring of the whole thing. I think it’s dragged out too long for anyone to stay too interested. But I will continue to follow the saga. Mean while I’m most interested in the MN Thunder and what the next step is and how that will effect this TOA league. But more than anything, I just want to continue to have a pro team in Minnesota. What a shame if we ended up without a PDL team, a pro team and no D-1 team in mens soccer. It’s just depresses me to think about it.
I’m assuming Manny either misspoke or you misquoted him when he said he decided to “honor the USL’s statement that they had voided the contracts”. Methinks he meant USSF, not USL…
I don’t think so because the USSF never voided the contract. USL claimed they voided the contract back when Holt sent out the infamous letter to the players. If you track back and look at the stuff I wrote back then, I had a very reliable source check with USSF (This is when the parties were meeting in NY) and USSF was not going to agree with USL and void the contract since they felt that the teams owned the contract and not USL. It sort of surprised me that he used the USL’s voiding of the contracts to allow themselves to release the players, but he did.
Also, I asked him specifically if the USSF had voided the contracts and he said no.