NASL & New York Cosmos Should Wait Until 2014 to “Get This Right the First Time”

Of course what I am referring to is a conversation that New York Cosmos’ newly appointed COO, Erik Stover, had with supporters of the club on Saturday in a Q & A with the Borough Boys. I could say supporters of the “team” but the reality is, the Cosmos have no team and therein lies the problem. Stover is stating the organization cannot possibly get a team together in time for the 2013 spring season but will instead play only the second half of the new NASL Split season format and will forgo the 2013 US Open Cup.

I’m not one to shy away from voicing my opinion, particularly when it comes to matters of soccer. But for some reason, my voice in colloquy is much different than it is in writing. I tend to shy away from op/ed pieces here at IMS and instead would rather report the information and let you form your own opinion. There is that occasional topic that will draw me out, suck me in and motivate me to go outside my comfort zone. The Cosmos announcement that they will only play a half season in 2013 is one of those moments.

“It is nearly impossible to deliver on our primary objective – which is to be a proper soccer club – in three months,” Stover said. “We literally don’t have the ability to sell tickets now. It’s not possible. We don’t have a ticket service provider. We don’t have any staff. We have a coach, no players.”

Stover is just plain wrong. The Cosmos certainly could field a team in that time if they wanted to. Is it the ideal situation? Of course not and it’s not necessarily fair to put the hammer down on Stover, who everyone tells me is a pretty good guy. But he took the job to lead the high-profile Cosmos and with that comes the responsibility that should really lie on Seamus O’Brien who leads the new Cosmos ownership group along with Sela Sport. read more…