Carolina team will be “New Entity”; NASL Wins eBay Auction for RailHawks Name
Aaron Davidson, NASL CEO, was a guest on Daniel Feuerstein’s podcast last night. Feuerstein’s Fire episode #42 features the NASL spokesperson who broke news that the team being set up in Cary, NC is a “new entity.”
Davidson states in the interview that Selby Wellman “wound up his team.”
“We didn’t buy out his team,” said Davidson. “He didn’t give us anything. We have started a company from scratch in Carolina. We’ve created a new entity in Carolina. We didn’t know if we would get the name (RailHawks) or not. It had to be done [at] arms length.”
The NASL leader went on to explain the reason why the Wellmans had a fire sale on all the RailHawks assets, including the common trademark name. He said it’s normal for a business that is dissolving to auction off their assets in order to ensure they are securing fair market value. He explained that the name had to be placed on eBay to assess its value, asking a rhetorical question: “How do you put a value on a brand and how do you put a value on a brand that’s not even in a league anymore?”
“We have won the auction,” declared Davidson, referring to the name RailHawks being sold on eBay for $14,999.00. “It’s still not done yet. We still have to go through finalization. The Wellmans and their lawyers are doing what they have to do. They’re protecting their interests and whatever claims they might have against them by creditors. If we get an agreement, we’ll play as the RailHawks. If we don’t, we have a couple of other options for names. It’s a shame if we don’t go forward with the RailHawks after they went to the final last year and it’s not what we want to do.”
“It is difficult to make sense of all of this,” said Davidson. “When we’ve gone through the gyrations we’ve gone through as a league it’s easy for people to be skeptical and view us and criticize us as a circus. But it’s not really that difficult to understand what happened in Carolina. In terms of the Wellman family it’s unfortunate that they decided they’d had enough.”
“Frankly speaking and not an affront to US Soccer, people who don’t understand the world of soccer freak out. They don’t get it. Everyone says you’ve been working so hard to finally gather control of your league so you’re not in the hands of another entity like the USL. Now you did that, but guess what? You’re not really because the federation controls you. Welcome to the world of soccer my friend. If you want to invest in hockey or something else go for it. In the world of soccer there is a greater governing body. It’s unfortunate but I think he (Selby Wellman) just got tired and frustrated.”
Davidson also revealed that Dr. Paul Singh, a former minority owner with Wellmans, will stay on with the team as minority holder in Carolina.
Feuerstein asked Davidson if the last minute situation with the RailHawks contributed to the loss of provisional sanctioning with the USSF. Davidson responded, “On paper, black and white, looking at the minimum standards of U.S. Soccer and FIFA, not an issue. Because you can have multiple team ownership as long as they are run autonomously locally and you have a plan to get out of multiple team ownership and that you maintain the integrity of the sport. We obviously have local management with every team. So it’s not an issue but like a jury in a court, it’s not always about the law, but optics. And it didn’t help us to have that gentleman, Selby Wellman, given the amount of time and money he put into the team, to decide to pull out of the sport of soccer now and to have the uncertainty of the name. So as the federation looks at it, it definitely affects people’s confidence in what we’re doing. But everyone knows Traffic at the Federation. They know we are not in it for one day, one month, one year. We are in it for the long haul. And we’re trying to do what’s right.”
There’s a lot more information in the Feuerstein interview. You can listen to it here.
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Hoping for the fans that they are indeed able to keep the Railhawks name for the team. This situation seemed to generate a lot of specualtion about what was going on there, and the effect on the bigger picture of the league. When you listen to what the Wellman’s were doing, it makes sense from a business standpoint. If they had any creditors they owed money to, it makes perfect sense to liquidate all the assets first in order to put the proceeds towards that before going into your own pockets.
What’s left now is for the FO people Traffic retained, plus any new ones that will be installed, to get this thing up and running FAST. I assume the coach and players are all secured or will be shortly, and that the team won’t need to find a new stadium to play in right?
I really hope that they do indeed keep the name “Railhawks.” That, I think, is an important move to make if they are willing to spend some money in branding and marketing the triangle area. It will save some effort not having to sell a whole new team name to the fans.
Well right now the railhawks name doesnt seem to be in the best light around the triangle as better articluated in this article carynews.com/2011/01/26/26836/nows-time-to-be-open.html
Traffic is going to have a tough time with the market. I would imagine that many of the sponsors had a personal tie to the Wellmans and will be alot less likely to give support to a Traffic run team, especially as now it looks like Davidson has started mud-slinging Wellman.
also, Not sure what to make of this but a poster on BS said he knew someone who went to pick up an item they had won and was told he couldnt as it was now in litigation as “evidence”
That eBay auction still seems very odd to me. That may be a valid way to determine the market value of some things, but I don’t see how that works here.
Okay, so NASL “won” that auction, and paid $15K for the Railhawks brand, etc. But who on earth was bidding against them? Who is “eBay Member Id: r***a”? Surely there is exactly one entity in either of the Carolinas that could possibly give a damn about that big bag of branding?
Or is this just a case like I heard about from my in-laws over the holidays, where they’ll get a cousin to “bid” on their own auction just to start a fake bidding war?
I can buy them having to jump through some hoops to transfer these rights, but this seems pretty smoke & mirrors, pretty wink-wink nudge-nudge, to me.
Please remind me NOT to follow the Wellmans if they are at the forefront vocally leading some sort of other “movement”. After what has transpired, about the only place that I would follow those guys would be into a Triangle area Dunkin Donuts after the morning delivery truck just arrived so that I could “get my Glaze on”.
They did a lot of talking about a revolution, but after the molotov cocktails were thrown they decided to bail.
They ran a great organization. I really enjoyed my trips to SAS/Wakemed. They put competitive teams on the field and brought in good players. The studio at the stadium was really impressive. The online webcasts were some of the best at the second division level.
The friendlies that they played were ambitious. They set the bar very high.
But after being at the vanguard of the TOA and being so vocal about how they were eager to do things the “right way”, they went the jumped off the bandwagon that they so aggressively pushed in motion…
Jeff Cooper
Boris
DJ the snake oil salesman with Belgian citizenship.
Uncle Joey and Kerfoot are moving on (yeah, yeah, I know–they plan on continuing their involvement with the NASL–okey dokey–if you say so–I’ll believe it when I see it).
I could go on with the roll call.
Somewhere, Econo, Holt, Big Papa and Marcos are laughing their behinds off, sharing a brandy. Like I warned them before–don’t laugh too hard USL Brass–I wouldn’t be too pleased because I have no doubgt that USLPRO is going to being walking around with a bloody nose when some of it’s clubs are worried about being able to finish the inaugural USLPRO season…
It’s all very wacky, but when the dust settles I hope the Railhawks name continues on. It’s one of the most unique, and better, of American style nicknames and I’ve always liked it(and their logo).
For the sake of continuity and for sponsors, fans and local media, moving ahead with the same Railhawks name is ideal.
What about Bob Young? Is he still involved in Railhawks co-ownership?
For the Wellmans, it is very unfortunate of the situation they are in and very disappointing they just bailed out after all that has happen. But as a soccer fan I find myself thinkin about the original members of TOA that has come and gone before Wellman and thinking to myself, “good riddance!!”
This is just part of the long and on-going process of building a legitimate league from the ground up and that means weeding out all the bad elements that could get in the way of that. Just as EXACTLY what USSF’s standards intended to do. Imagine if all this began to come crashing down if and after NASL was designated a D2 league, then what!?
Traffic has no business in owning more than one club and I’m sure Davidson knows this. But despite all the criticisms, and they are not without their legitimate concerns, of how NASL been handling themselves, I’ve been fairly pleased with the actions he and Traffic’s been making. I’m still skeptical of whether NASL will be sanctioned but I will admit Davidson, whether you agree with him or not, is one of the few voices in this sport that doesn’t share a defeatist attitude most soccer fans and even owners have. And that atleast warrants some respect.
I don’t think so, Craig. I haven’t heard anything about him and Davidson didn’t mention him. He seems to be tied up with stadium problems in Hamilton anyway. I do believe if he gets his stadium or if he moves his teams which he is threatening to do, then he may try to get a D 2 team at some point.
@drebin- you did a good job of summing up almost all of my feelings on this subject.
Bob Young ‘s stadium problem has now been resolved. The current stadium that houses his football team, the Hamilton Tiger Cats will be rebuilt on the south side and renovated on the north side. Seating capacity will remain at around 25,000. The completion date is 2015, in time for the Pan Am games. The stadium will host the soccer competition.
Bob Young will rent the stadium at $450,000 per year for football and $150,000 per year for soccer. He plans to bring a NASL team to Hamilton. It is not clear when the soccer team will arrive, but it looks like 2015.
I also hope that Carolina retains the Railhawks name. Their reputation on the field was great, such that the glitch that just happened would go away soon if they produce good games for the fans.
@ yankiboy – I believe the Impact will keep a team in the NASL. It just just makes good development sense.
@drebin – I really like your analysis of NASL/Traffic/Davidson in the last paragraph. Thanks.
First it is quite unfortunate that Godfather Davidson felt the need to air his grievances on an obscure Podcast in NJ instead of lets say .. make a statement more locally.. you know to the actual people who buy season tickets…
Second The Wellmans did not just ‘Bail’ they tried to save the franchise numerous times and actually had found someone to take over who, lo and behold, allegedly got spooked when Traffic kept upping the ante (seems like a Traffic pattern see the Gale issue), so at that point a man who has lost an immense amount of money over four seasons decided he was done and rightfully so…
Third I am a believer of this .. that given the resources at hand the Carolina Railbirds have done a good job of marketing themselves (reminder given the resources) .. the issue was scheduling in an area where most people go to the beach on weekends and some poor decisions (IMHO) on player personnel and budgeting (again given the resources)
Joe has it all correct in what the real facts are with regard to the Wellman’s departure. And the real bottom line that everyone seems to be ignoring is that the millions of dollars invested in the Railhawks over a 4 year period who put a Championship level team on the pitch with a top notch coach and played on one of the best fields in the U.S. could only get 1000 paid attendance per game. So everyone should quit throwing stones at the Wellman’s and start asking if America is ever going to recognize soccer as the great sport that it has become around the rest of the world.
I’m going to be a bit contrary to both you Jane and to Joe. While what you are saying about the background of how this went down may well be true. I’ve talked to many folks down there associated with the RailHawks and of former employees. Most paint a very different picture of things than the two of you do.
Now, don’t jump to the wrong conclusion here. I think you’ve all read that I have lauded Selby and company for all that they’ve done and said they’ve done a fantastic job with the on-field product and done a pretty decent job at corporate sponsorships as well. I’ve also thanked them for the millions they have lost trying to make pro soccer work in Cary. But the message I’ve gotten from many down there is their ticket marketing has fallen far short as has their dealing with supporters, media and other groups.
Personally, I haven’t really seen anyone in these discussions throwing rocks at the Wellman’s other than what Davidson has said. Even then I wouldn’t really call it throwing rocks. Semantics I guess.