Nah, it doesn’t have to be that bad. Here are some things to start the week:

• The top division of the United Soccer Leagues is a mess. Carolina, Minnesota and Miami are apparently out of the loop’s good graces, having not renewed their contractual obligations to the league. Those teams are no longer linked on USL’s list of teams and all of those teams’ players were told on Friday that they’re free agents (Carolina doesn’t necessarily agree with that characterization). Montreal and Vancouver won their semifinal series over the weekend (Uh, Portland? Nice 24-match unbeaten streak during the season. Means bupkus now.) and will play in a two-legged final starting Saturday night in Vancouver.
• What I thought was very interesting in the coverage of the USL-1 mess was this: This interview with Carolina RailHawks president Brian Wellman by Triangle Offense’s David Fellerath contained this passage, which caught the eye of your friendly neighborhood attendance wonk:
  

  Q. Attendance was down for many clubs this year, including the RailHawks. Do you see that as a function of a specific problem in the marketing of the league?

  A.The answer is yes and no. Yes, we clearly know that, from a macro standpoint, our fan base could be increased with a larger marketing and advertising and branding reach without a doubt, while at the same time, the RailHawks did experience a rise in paid attendance this year.

  Q. Really?

  A. With our first two seasons, with our partnership with the former New York group [led by club founder Chris Economides, now the senior director of USL-1], we’d been heavily comping tickets to matches just so people would come. Where we cut that out this year, and minimized that to only necessary comping for advertising trade and business partners, etc., we relied on paid attendance. While the stands looked less [full] and the final attendance number was a little bit lower, we actually had a higher paid attendance. I think that’s a good weed-out process-you can see the people in the stands and if there’s 3,000 of them, they’re completely into the game, they’re RailHawks fans and they’ve chosen to come there, as opposed to a bunch of people who are just there because they got a free ticket.

  Q.I didn’t realize there had been so much comping.

  A.We just analyzed the budget, since the season ended—we’ve worked 12- to 14-hour days since Sept. 27, because when the season ends, all that excitement goes away, all the game days and all the travel, that goes away, the day the season ends, you’ve got to sit there and scrutinize the business. So, we’ve just been breaking down the numbers and we were surprised to see that paid attendance did go up.

  There must have been a lot of comping, because Carolina’s announced attendance went from an average of 3,869 in 2008 to an average of 2,730 in 2009 - a 29% drop. Carolina’s ownership has apparently been at the forefront of the potential breakaway clubs who may form their own league for 2010. Well, good luck with that.

• Speaking of the USL-1 final (two legs haven’t been used for a semi-major soccer championship in a a US league since the 1968 NASL Championship, I don’t believe), leg one (9:30pm ET, FSC) goes up against the USA/Honduras World Cup qualifier Saturday night (10:00pm ET). Which is okay, because nobody’s going to see the USA/Honduras match unless you give in to the Honduran pay-per-view weasels.
• Entourage had a pretty uneven season, but a high point was a great scene in last night’s season finale with Ari Gold shooting up his former agency with a paintball gun. A lot of the shows used to be as good as that scene. But it’s been a while.
• Speaking of not as good as you thought it would be, we went to see The Invention of Lying yesterday. The first 20 minutes or so are very funny. Ricky Gervais is a very, very funny man. But despite the fact he wrote the script, he’s not particularly funny in it, and after the first 20 minutes or so, there are very few laughs. And then it becomes Every Romantic Comedy Ever.
• Chris Doran and I are back together this Sunday when we call the Michigan State/Wisconsin men’s soccer match on the Big Ten Network (4pm ET, check your local listings). MSU, the defending regular-season and tournament champs, are 0-2 in conference play after losing 1-0 to Penn State yesterday. With only six conference games for each team, each result is crucial. The Badgers are 0-2 as well after losing to Michigan 3-0.
• Two months after the story of the videos first broke, the Feds arrested a suspect. You may think you’ve covered your tracks on the internet, but chances are you haven’t. As Neil Best points out (and rightly so), this puts to rest the rumors of it having been an inside job or a publicity stunt.
• I think I watched more hockey this weekend than all of last season, and the NHL just started. NHL Center Ice has a free preview on DirecTV until the 24th, so that’s cool.
• Lastly, there’s a little football game on tonight that might be of some interest. Green Bay-Minnesota could be the highest-rated MNF game in a long while. And as soon as it’s over, they’ll have to switch the Metrodome to baseball configuration for a one-game playoff between the Twins and Tigers to decide the American League Central title after both teams won Sunday to finish 86-76. The Twins went 16-4 in their last 20 games to tie for the top. Meanwhile, Texas, which won 87 games, is out, as Boston won the wild card.

Tags: baseball, Big Ten, creeps, football, hockey, soccer, USL, Work

This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 10:14 am and is filed under Miscellaneous, soccer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.