From: andy@rocky.gte.com (Andy Busa)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.soccer
Subject: Re: US Soccer Development
Date: 11 Apr 92 20:07:08 GMT
Followup-To: rec.sport.soccer
Organization: GTE/SCSD

In article <1992Apr11.181811.5005@wam.umd.edu>, waddlech@wam.umd.edu (David Akkarach) wrote:
> 
> In article <15935@bunny.GTE.COM> andy@rocky.gte.com (Andy Busa) writes:
> >to learn from the mistakes of the NASL.  I think there will be  a good
> >amount of fans that will be ready to go watch this new league but it must
> >be run as a professional league not like the APSL. I feel that leagues
> >like the ASPL and the SISL would make for excellent second division teams.
> 
> Good amount of fans in the new league? Where are all these 'real' fans
> when the APSL first started out? Are _some_ of these 51,000 people who
> showed up for the USA-Ireland last year in any way related to the so
 called 'fair-weather' fans in UK? :-)

David,

Well I am one of those people who did attend the US Ireland game last year,
just as I am going to attend the two games that are here this year. 
I was also one of the few who attended the Boston Bolts games.  But the
difference between me and the people who went to the US Ireland game was
that I am a soccer nut and the other people are just sports fans. I think
that you misunderstood what I said about the APSL.  It is a fine league
for the amount of money that they spend on it but you can't expect a league
to draw 1st rate crowds (ie. sports fans, not just soccer fans) if you
don't put 1st rate money into it.  Believe me when I tell you that the
Boston Graden is full of people who aren't real big basketball fans but
are there just because it is the place to be.  Thats what happened at the
US game here last year and I think that's what will happen again this year.
We need a pro league that can be publisized be the press.  Without that, 
there is no league.  I am am sad to say that if the USSF starts a league
where the press will deem it semi pro, it is doomed to failure. But if
the USSF gets some owners with some money and try to build a league of
AMERICANS with two or three foreigners per team (see Japan) I think that
it has a good chance of succeding.  According to Rothenburg, there is not
one owner in the APSL who would have enough money to sustain a pro level
team.

>Excuses such as the league isn't professional (what does that suppose to
mean?) 

What is meant by this is the public's perception of a league.  If the general
public thinks that a league is not professional it will stay away from
it.  I think it all comes down to salary and facilities.  I'm not saying
that the players have to be making what baseball players are, or even hockey
players, but the money they make should make them comfortable, (ie
they don't have to have another job on the side as do many of the APSL
players).  The solution to salaries is fairly straight forward, we need
owners who have enough money to pay them.  The facilities are a much bigger
problem.  I fully believe that soccer would thrive in this country if we
would have about 20 30,000 seat stadiums spread across the country.  But
this size does not exsist in abundance.  I feel that the general public
would be much more impressed to go to a soldout game in a thirty thousand
seat stadium than sit in a stadium that is half empty.  Again I am just
guessing what the general publics perception would be, this is not mine.

>Sorry, this was not intended to flame anyone on the net. Those fans in the
US who understand my article know exactly what i'm refering to.

Ouch, I feel burnt.

Andy
Newsgroups: rec.sport.soccer