Author: Emmett O'Connell (Page 116 of 176)

I was surprised that since the launch of Save the Victory (wrote about it over the weekend) that they hadn’t gotten much attention. Either they weren’t talking about it to anyone outside the online soccer world or no one has thought it was interesting that someone is trying to establish the FIRST fan owned sports franchise in the United States.

But, today there were two items. Salinas Californian:

The Victory came into being in the spring under the auspices of Spanish second-division team Deportivo Alaves. However Chairman Dmitry Piterman recently sold his interest in Alaves, which had racked up $30 million in debt. The sale technically left the Victory ownerless and in limbo.

That’s when the 1906 stepped in. USL started looking for investors, but fans didn’t like leaving their team’s fate in hands of others. The supporters’ do-it-yourself attitude is displayed proudly on the Web site. “Everything with this team has been ‘do it yourself'” Alonso said. “Our shirts and jerseys, raising money – ‘do it yourself.””

My Soccer Blog:

Admit it, at some point in your life you thought about owner a profession soccer team, but with the millions it takes to get involved with the MLS and billions it takes to be a player overseas, you never thought it would happen. But wait, if you have an extra $100, your dream can come true.

Last year there was a great deal of excitement when San Francisco was awarded a USL-First Division team. Even better yet, Dmitry Piterman, chairman of Spanish club Deportivo Alavésk, was announced as owner, making the California Victory the ‘first European owned team to compete in any level of the United Soccer Leagues.’

The idea of fan owned team has vexed sports fans (me specifically). When I get into a discussion about sports in a meta sense, what’s wrong with them and how they’re set in the U.S. leads fans into a set-up of disappointment someone always points to the Packers.

The Packers are the one really fan-owned team in the United States. That they are fan-owned is the one reason they haven’t moved to Milwaukee. The Mariners wanted to move to Tampa Bay: “man, wouldn’t it be great if we could buy them and they’d never leave?”

That idea is pretty much impossible in the United States, since the four major leagues make any sort of non-profit or corporate ownership impossible through their operating rules.

The one sport in the U.S. (and a possible third or fourth major sport if hockey continues to fall) is soccer and as far as I can tell, there are not limitations in the MLS or the USL to either non-profit, fan owned corporations owning teams. And, the idea of a truly fan owned teams in English soccer can be pointed to with Cambridge United, FC United and now myfootballclub.

And now, if it all works out, we might have our own fan-owned soccer team here on the west coast. The owners of the first year California Victory of the USL 1st Division have been pretty flaky. They’ve been kicked out of the ownership of their Spanish team, and there is a lot of speculation that they’re going to give up on their American side as well.

So, this is where Save the Victory comes in. They aren’t trying to necessarily find “local” ownership for the club, like some dot-com millionaire angel that will operate the team at a loss just to keep them in town. Rather, they’re looking for up to 20,000 owners who will invest $100 to buy the team. You can buy up to 1,000 shares.

I think this is an exciting idea. I’m a bit disappointed that this effort has been going on for a few weeks and there has been no coverage of it yet of this effort. It would be interesting to see if something like this could ever happen over here.