“I love my team…. but I’m positive it’s going to fail”.

Rhinos fans know who theses two or three people are…. it’s just embarrassing to see them spewing their B.S. on a less local forum…

All said…. I’m looking forward to another fun night in the stadium… (and hoping that the thunderstorms stay away).

And, at the end of the day, you’re still dealing with distinct ownership groups with different philosophies. It seems to be no different than when I was in USL back in 1997-2000 when everybody thought THEY knew the secret and nobody would admit that they maybe were doing things wrong. They just thought it might take a little bit longer, or they’d just fold before they figured it out. And you couldn’t get Team A to model itself after Team B, even if Team B was successful. Sometimes Team B is successful for reasons that don’t apply to Team A. Baltimore’s set of circumstances are different from Portland’s – as a market, as a soccer community, as a venue, as an ownership group, everything. To think that Baltimore could just do everything the way Portland does it and be successful may be simplistic.

There are certain things EVERY club should do. But there are certain things that make sense in one market but don’t make sense in another. And overspending on players and travel are two quick ways to see your business go up in smoke. Because despite what some people say, you’re not going to get a huge return on spending lots of money for players. That doesn’t mean you get a bunch of local guys out of an amateur league, but it also doesn’t mean you go crazy thinking that Player A is going to bring in a ton more fans.

At first, I was a little alarmed by Clark’s comment about reducing payroll. The first thought that popped into my mind was the analogy of opening a good restaurant and then skimping on the chef in order to cut costs. It seems to defeat the purpose of opening a restaurant in the first place. But I understand the idea of getting payroll stabilized at a reasonable level.

Regarding talk of attendance and marketing, I was wondering if anything can be learned from a couple of situations. I’m still amazed that Seattle, averaged about 3000 – 3500 when they were in USL 1 and jumped to 30,000 when they moved up to MLS. The same with Toronto. I understand that more marketing resources are available in MLS budgets. But is that all there is? I believe that Minnesota has the potential to attract a lot more fans, based on the numbers that the old Minnesota Kicks / Strikers used to attract. Not to pick on NSC Stars, but is the marketing so poor, is the team so unappealing that they struggle to attract 2000 fans at the gate? Or if you compare 2 teams in USSF Div II, what can Crystal Palace Baltimore learn from Portland so that CPB could be a more successful franchise?

I understand the problems. I don’t believe you can make D2 soccer a profitable enterprise unless it starts to move more into a club/development system. MLS is niche. D2 is for the really weird (no offence, of course. I was watching the Whitecaps game to 12:30 a.m. last night…).

That article struck me as thinking small. Look at what the ‘Caps did with their academy. Edmonton is already talking about developing the same thing. They all talk about how selling players will be a big part of their business model. In fact, that’s the biggest buzz idea in Canadian soccer now. Hell, I talk to CSL (D3) owners who tell me that’s their long-term strategy.

Why can’t somewhere like Charleston or Minneapolis do that? Especially if the York Region Shooters can…

By the way Duane, I’m sorry my article troubled you.

Selling players WOULD be a viable business model if you could practice it here as they practice it around the world at the lower levels. But MLS gets the bulk of the “sellable” players to begin with, and I can’t think of a D2 player you could conceivably sell to an MLS team today.

And, Randy, I’d say it would be really difficult to “standardize” a model that would realize profits for all – there’s virtually no industry I can think of where what works in one market works exactly the same way in another. Profits have been elusive for nearly everybody who has tried to do this. At some point, maybe we need to think that it’s not necessarily the approach, but the product in many cases.

And if you did have a “one-size fits all” model, you’d start to hear people complain about how it restricts the expression of individuality and is more like the MLS model (which I’ve heard from so many USL/NASL fans is so boring and socialist and devoid of charm. Well, the one thing you can say is that they don’t have a 75% failure rate at the MLS level.

If the rumours I’ve heard (that the USSF is not happy with MLS’ development model right now and is looking to D2 as a possible place to find the next generation of U.S. player) are true, it would benefit clubs like Rochester to change their thinking in that way.

You can make $25,000 with a good gate in D2. You can sell a good player for $1,000,000…

There seems to be varying ownership models and standards of the soccer entertainment/development delivery package. Do you feel it is possible to standardize a professional model in a minor league system that could realize profits on an annual basis for all rather than for a few well run/financed teams?