AC St. Louis Update – 5/22/10
Just a few new details that I know of this morning. Sources are telling me that the Vaid brothers from England, who were majority owners of the franchise, have had financial difficulties in England and are out. It has also been confirmed that Jeff Cooper is also out but continues to work closely with USSF to find investors to save AC St. Louis. Yes, save is the correct word because it is very possible that if investors are not found quickly for AC St. Louis they could fold. As I posted yesterday, the USSF bond for this year’s teams is said to be about $400 thousand dollars. Some of that money has been used by USSF to make payroll for the team who were to get paychecks on Friday.
AC St. Louis had a team meeting Friday morning and several players who attended the meeting said they were told that the Vaids (English investors brought in during the off-season) have not contributed any money to the team in a long time and because of that the team was not able to make its payroll. They were also informed that U.S. Soccer will be covering payroll for the next two weeks as Cooper tries to find a new investor.
As we found out last year in Minnesota with the Thunder, when a team isn’t making payroll it’s usually on the tail end of trouble not the beginning, as organizations usually choose to pay their players before their bills. An unpaid player is likely to talk to press and that’s something most teams don’t want. My point being, I am sure AC St. Louis and Athletica, the WPS team owned by Cooper, have plenty of debt beside the payroll and the team would need to find an investor who was willing to pick up some of that ongoing debt beside the operating expenses. It’s doubtful the bond money could carry the team through the season.
As sad as this situation is for the fans of soccer in St. Louis it has to be a terribly frustrating situation for US Soccer who are not normally in the business of running soccer leagues and did so this year only because of the instability of both the USL and NASL in running the league. They also have a few other important things on their agenda right now like preparing a team for the World Cup and trying to get a World Cup Bid to host the games in 2018 or more likely 2022. This can’t be helping an already very busy US Soccer House in Chicago, Illinois.
As the USSF said at the time they decided to run the USSF D-2 Pro League this year, neither the NASL, which is a league only in name, or the USL were ready to run a league for 2010. USL only had 3 teams at the time. Many of the former USL teams were unhappy with USL’s franchise business model and teams coming and going all the time, so they made an exit to the NASL. On the other hand the USSF said that the NASL was not ready yet and needed to get a lot of things in order before they were prepared to be sanctioned. The hope was that both organizations could get their acts together this year and be prepared to bid for sanctioning in 2012. In light of the financial issues of Crystal Palace and AC St. Louis, Minnesota last year and the many other teams that have gone belly up over the last 10 years of the USL, it seems that USSF, with Dan Flynn and Sunil Gulati leading the charge, need to take a look at the possibility of a new model for this league. However, with CEO/Secretary General Flynn being a native St. Louisan, this has to be a particularly difficult time.
I appeared on the Kick This radio show out of Rochester, NY this morning with host Jeff DiVeronica and producer James Weise. We talked about this mess and the the future of USSF D-2 Pro League or whatever it may be called going forward. Peter Wilt joined the program after I was on to talk about the next city MLS may expand into. It was a good show and you can find the archives here later today here.
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And people criticized MLS for not just handing St. Louis a franchise. Just goes to show that the people running MLS are way smarter than some fans want to give them credit for being.
Well, it could be argued that an MLS club is an easier venture to find investors, as it’s a more valuble investment considering the way MLS does business. A failure in a USL/NASL/Division II doesn’t mean MLS wouldn’t survive in St. Louis. That being said, a failure in D2 certainly doesn’t help for future endeavors in St. Louis.
I would be curious to know if there are other current D-2 teams that are also having financial problems. I would also be interested to know the financial strength of the other teams planning on entering into the D-2 market–Edmonton, Atlanta, San Antonio and Phoenix.
On a side note, it really looks like AC St. Louis has a two week deadline to find some money. This makes it really important to get out of the 5/29 Stars/ACSL match. It sounds like it will be the first and last time we see them play at the Nessy.
Way to go, Cooper. Create a team only to leave it dying by the side of the road five months in. Brilliant. No way MLS gives Cooper the rights to an MLS franchise – he had a hard time finding investors last time he tried it.
I’m not surprised CP Baltimore is having issues. Putting aside the financial issues of Crystal Palace in England, the jump from D3 to D2 is one that’s harder than most operators seem to realize. We went through this last year with the Cleveland City Stars.
Frankly, though, my greatest concern is for Athletica. It was bad enough they lost the Sol, but to lose a team not a quarter into the season is certainly not what the league is looking for, and separating WPS from WUSA becomes that much harder. Unless several people screw up royally, U.S. men’s soccer isn’t going anywhere in the near future. Women’s soccer, on the other hand, like any other women’s sports league in the country (sad as it is to say) rides on the brink of destruction and financial ruin every day. The WNBA is always in tough financial straights, and pro softball is barely a speck in the sports universe and can’t even get their new owners to pay the startup bills.
Anyway, it’s probably unfair to pile most of the blame on Cooper, but the fact remains that he has been such a crusader for soccer in St. Louis over the past few years and has now cut and run on all of it. Sad.
Could the owner of the St Louis Lions (PDL) be an option as a possible buyer (obviously with other investors)? He used to own the rights the USL-1 in STL.
No bueno. Seems like the solid financial rug they thought they were standing on got pulled out from under them.
Speaking of which, just how different are USL and NASL with regards to their franchise systems?
CoconutMonkey,
The difference between NASL and USL is an interesting question, and one we need to understand going into the future.
This is an interesting report, considering that St. Louis is claiming that the problems are “a rumor blown out of (proportion) by some blogger.” Not many other bloggers than you covering this, and your sources are generally pretty reliable. I’m really sad to see this, and sadder that ACSL is knocking your accuracy.
And it’s interesting that your sources are still saying Cooper is out and looking for other investors, while the folks on the BS SL board are claiming that Coooper has plenty of money to cover things and is still in. I guess we’ll know in just a couple weeks.
Let’s see. This is a tought one. Who to believe???
AC St. Louis or BQ?
I think I’ll go with the dude from Minnesotan.
I really hope that it works out for both St. Louis clubs.
Hmmm…. lowly Antigua picks USL over NASL now.
Should we be concerned about NASL even more now or is that over reacting?