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greenwich village resident outlines a major league vision for manhattan’s pier 40

In just ten days, the brand new and beautiful Red Bull Arena will finally open to soccer fans with a sold-out exhibition between Red Bull New York and Brazil’s famed Santos football club. New Yorkers will hop on the PATH train and in about a half-hour arrive at the Harrison, NJ, based stadium without most of the problems of traveling to the Meadowlands, the previous home of RBNY and the now defunct Giants Stadium.

But for many who live East of the Hudson River, the biggest problems still remain. Will the best soccer stadium in the country be able to draw fans across the river? Can a building straighten out a mismanaged franchise with a history of failure? Will there be a honeymoon, and if so, how long will it last?

RBNY has its new home, but another structure’s future also places the city’s soccer future in the wind. Pier 40, one of the largest and most-used sports facilities in Manhattan, is in dire need of rehabilitation. Just as with RBNY, many plans have failed. But Greenwich Village resident Patrick Shields thinks he has the answer. An ambitious answer… Click HERE for the full story…

In the last few years, I’ve spoken with Frank Dell’apa, Ray Hudson, Grant Wahl, Ives Galarcep, Jack Bell, Bruce McGuire, Jeff Carlisle, Buzz Carrick, Mitch Peacock, Robert Abramowitz, Beau Dure, and others, but it’s been a while since I sat down with one of the flashlight bearers in this little wilderness to get their story.

Now that the soccer journalism transfer window appears to be closing in on the World Cup and a new MLS Season (there is going to be one, right?), I thought it meaningful to get back to basics.

With the USMNT playing in Amsterdam tomorrow, and what with my fascination by the life (I imagine) of an American living in Europe, writing a blog for an American audience, there was no one better to kick this series back into motion than Greg Seltzer, who brings the boys back home through his various outlets as a full-time soccer writer.

Yes, he does earn a living off internet soccer writing. Click HERE for the full story…

AMERICAN SOCCER MEDIA LANDSCAPE NEEDS TO GET BEYOND THE BLOG

Ives Galarcep moved to Fox Soccer. MLS hired my Waiting For Gaetjens co-host Greg Lalas and Sports Illustrated’s Jonah Freedman to run MLSnet 2.0. Jose Romero left the Sounders beat at the Seattle Times. Glenn Davis got laid off from the Houston Chronicle. Dirty Tackle was purchased by Yahoo!. Did I miss something?

Some good some bad. And coincidence or not, this media transfer window has come along with increased concern and critique of the soccer media landscape, from the benefit or lack thereof of certain hirings to the direction of certain outlets content and coverage.

Big Surprise: It’s just about my favorite topic. I haven’t addressed it recently because I didn’t have anything to say that I haven’t already said (which is at the heart of this entire issue). In 2007, I wondered about the future of the American soccer magazine. To have a print magazine in the vein of FourFourTwo for American soccer is something that as a fan of soccer and magazines I dream about, but as a magazine writer and former editor I fear will never exist. (for the record, I don’t love FFT, but what else do we have?)

I heard from plenty of people both inside and outside the industry when I wrote that 2007 essay, and the correct question coming back was, “Where are these specialized advertisements waiting to be sold?” The salesman in me thought it possible, but more than two years removed, and what with the crumbling state of ad-driven journalism, I’ll concede it may be impossible.

But that comes with a qualifier. Click HERE for the full story…

After hearing from a few people about the poor sound quality of the interviews on last week’s Waiting For Gaetjens podcast (sorry about that), I figured I’d transcribe the two interviews and post them here. I normally wouldn’t do this–I hate the whole, I write the same thing that I Twitter that I podcast that I Facebook, etc, etc, etc–but I think Hugo Salcedo in particular offers the most experienced knowledge of the movement of American youth players to Mexican club teams, while Goal.com’s Rene Leal, who spent time with Pachuca’s youth team, can shed light on the experience from a player’s perspective. And anyway, because no one actually heard what they said on the air, this is still new.

So how does the pipeline for players going from the U.S. to Mexico work? Will we see more movement? Will we see Americans without Mexican ancestry start heading south? Is this good for American soccer? Greg Lalas and I follow the path south to a system better prepared at present to accelerate the soccer education of American youth. Click HERE for the full story…

Did I just learn why the negotiations over the collective bargaining agreement are so contentious? Did I find out just how disrespected the Vietnam league is? Or did I discover that MLS doesn’t think he’s worth it? There is plenty to learn from the professional path taken by Lee Nguyen, but at present, all I have are questions.

Talking to Nguyen back in November of last year it seemed certain he would be playing in a MLS uniform in 2010. Once high school player of the year and college freshman of the year, as recently as last fall Arsenal had nice things to say about the 23-year-old Texan who played within the national team system at almost every level. He’s spent time at PSV Eindhoven, Randers FC, and HAGL in Vietnam. In an environment where nearly every talented young American player runs from MLS to foreign countries for better competition and compensation, here is a guy who wants to come back home. Done and done, right? So why am I waking him up at 6:45 AM in Vietnam—Lee thankfully awake from the half-day time change and jet lag before his new season starts at the end of the month? Click HERE for the full story…

Do FIFA and its international tournaments really make a difference for the countries that host them? Could they? Should they? And what responsibility must the host country take on? What if instead of leftover stadiums host nations received fully integrated, brand new transportation systems? Will that be what South Africa reaps beyond profits for those whose pockets are already full? What if they were left with a bigger and better trained security or police force?

South Africa will be the biggest, but also just the latest opportunity for FIFA to not just turn a profit but to do good by the African continent. So much has been written about the upcoming host nation and its preparedness for the World Cup. What is myth and what is truth?

Brent Latham, veteran of the last three FIFA tournaments in Africa, tries to decipher the answer. Click HERE for the full story…

book excerpt – one (every)man’s dream to own a pro soccer team

A native of Buffalo, NY, born to German immigrants, Ronald P. Maierhofer, 74, has been involved with soccer in the United States for eight decades. In 1942 his father started the first youth soccer league in Buffalo.  Ron and his brother signed amateur contracts with Toronto’s Belfast United of the Canadian Professional League when they were 16 years old (part of the contract was two cases of Molson Ale after each game). Ron was an All American player at Cornell and inducted in the school’s athletic hall of fame on the same night as Bruce Arena. He played for the LA Maccabees (signed for 7 cases of booze, and a bottle of Chivas Regal for every goal scored). He played for the US soccer team in the 1959-60 Pan American Olympic games (they placed third). Walter Bahr, he of the famous assist to Joe Gaetjens in the 1950 World Cup, recruited and coached three of Ron’s sons at Penn State (one son, Jeff, later played in the NASL). In 1970’s Texas he coached several of the first women to go on to UNC and help begin that eventual dynasty. He started the Cherry Creek Strikers, now the Colorado Storm, the 2nd biggest soccer club in Colorado. Tim Schutz, president of the biggest CO club, Rush, was coached by Ron as a youth.

That’s the short list. And all while having a serious, non-soccer business career on the side, which speaks to the entrepreneurial spirit that led Maierhofer in 1980 to be founding owner of Major Indoor Soccer League’s Denver Avalanche. His new book, No Money Down! How to Buy a Sports Franchise details his experience of buying and running the short-lived indoor franchise. Detailing how he financed the deal, hired staff, built the team, and marketed the franchise, the book is a peak into the past and proves at least in American soccer, that you don’t have to be a tycoon to follow your dream. Three decades later, it’s still true. “For a minor league franchise, any guy can own one,” Ron says. “That American dream is what the book is about, and it tells you how to make it a reality.” Click HERE for the full story…

TIAS’s Senior Hair Band Correspondent scores world exclusive with the Group of Death

If you were one of the lucky few who snagged a t-shirt in Seattle during the Supporters Summit, than you might know the Group of Death. For the rest of you, it’s merely the hardest group, with the toughest teams, pooled together in one group during the World Cup draw–which goes down today at Noon, setting off a full day of wholly unique soccer events in New York…

Which brings us back to the Group of Death–not the group, but the band. The vagabond heavy metal band of soccer loving, hairspray abusing, face painting leather freaks that tours once every four years. Talk to them and it’s, “awesome this,” “melt off that” to the point where the music becomes the least of your problems when trying to glean any sort of information out of them. Or at least that was my experience with the band of misfits-doesn’t-even-get-it-close. The Group of Death. Why they wanted to do an interview with TIAS, I’ll never know. Should I feel proud? Ashamed? Or scared about just how easy it is to find me?

And on Friday, it will be very easy to find me, as it’s one of those great days to live in New York. World Cup draw at the international bar or restaurant of your choice from Noon-3. At 4pm I’ll be at Niketown NY to finish up my first on-camera work during Live With Landon, a streaming event broadcast live on Facebook. Then straight from there to Nevada Smiths for the opening night of GoD’s world tour, which I think is called ‘GoD Help Us’.

Somewhere while sitting down with the four members of the Group of Death, between their music making me self conscious and their juggling causing my ears to bleed, I was able to get in a few questions and three separate confrontations. Click HERE for the full story…

The treasure is not always what it seems. Didn’t Jack T. Colton teach us anything? It’s not a shiny, Tiffany-made cup. It’s not a three-day party of networking and one-night stands. It’s a moment where truth and disbelief bleed into the surreal. It’s a band on parade with a madcap leader out front. It’s the fans and all the swag they buy, creating a cohesive gang of support whereby the entire stadium is a supporters group. It’s the stadium with as many images of Sounders as Seahawks. It’s the Emerald City itself–the temporary end of the yellow brick road until there is proof that it can be extended. Seattle didn’t pave the way for American soccer, and stadium banners be damned it didn’t save MLS, but it steamrolled every obstacle so far in the adolescent league’s path (well, there is that one little munchkin about the turf).

So when the tears crept toward my eyes and memory transported me back to the banks of the Thames, I knew I found what I had been seeking. The sousaphones swirled around me like a tornado, the drums hammered me with their thunder.

Tap Tap Tap. Tap Tap Tap. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. Click HERE for the full story…

QUICK PROGRAMMING NOTES:

TIAS, Du Nord, The Original Winger, Soccer By Ives, and The Offside Rules will be hosting a party Friday night 9pm in downtown Seattle at Kell’s Irish Pub (FYI - bar charges $5 cover, which is not going to us). It’s a true soccer bar I’m told, should be a good time. Won’t you join us?

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New Podcast Coming To iTunes: WaitingForGaetjens.com
Hear me butcher first and last names and attempt to make co-host Greg Lalas laugh as he tries to bring serious analysis to the world of American soccer. We’re looking towards a weekly schedule to begin after a special week of several run-up shows revolving around MLS Cup. Those few shows will also be downloadable at MLSnet.com. The plan is to pull in the best guests we can and keep it entertaining and informative. Please check it out–RSL GM Garth Lagerway joins us tomorrow–and let us know who you would like to see on the guest list. We’ll get it right next time.

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Now back to regularly scheduled programming already in progress…

I can’t remember the last time I put up a player interview on the site, but I’ve been fascinated with Lee Nguyen for awhile now. And then over a stretch of one month this fall the 23-year-old attacker went from Vietnam superstar to Arsenal trainee to FC Dallas off-season practice attendee. Curious, I went looking for some info, but found few answers. Here’s this kid living large over in Vietnam, cover of GQ, etc, etc. But we never hear much about him Stateside. We can’t begin to pronounce his Vietnamese club team and know nothing of his life in the far East, which is entirely different from every American soccer player, maybe in history.

On the phone the Texas native with Vietnamese roots sounds like his fellow Texan Clint Dempsey–that rough southern drawl lazy on the crackling cell phone satellites…

Click HERE for the full story…

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