From: rcampb@cac.washington.edu (Russ Campbell )
Newsgroups: rec.sport.soccer
Subject: Re: S.F. Blackhawks quit APSL
Date: 16 Oct 92 21:07:06 GMT
Article-I.D.: u.1992Oct16.210706.24852
Organization: UW Computing

In article <1992Oct16.183701.26634@pony.Ingres.COM>, cmorris@Ingres.COM (Colin Morris) writes:
> The San Francisco Blackhawks have withdrawn from the APSL. Their owner
> described the league as "going nowhere". The Blackhawks are now
> thinking about playing as an "independent" team playing friendlies against
> foreign teams every month, or entering the Mexican League. Seems like the
> Blackhawks finally got sick of spending money on a league they thought
> was headed towards a dead end.

Absolutely, amazingly unconscionable on Van Voorhis' part.  The league
finally gets to the point where other teams want to join and begin
expanding (LA Salsa -new entrant next year-, the Vancouver BC team leaving
the CSL with Montreal and Toronto expected to follow suit to join the
APSL, hopefully other new clubs as well, some possibility one or two of
the indoor clubs might switch to outdoor and join) and Van Voorhis wimps
out.  Based on the last discussion I had with Bill Sage, APSL
commissioner, before he left the Seattle area when the Storm dropped out,
Van Voorhis was one of the people who was pushing for the financial
requirements as they now exist for the league.  And now he's pulling out?!
Pardon me but, what a dick!  This really pisses me off.  If he thinks he
can get into the Mexican league he's got another think coming.  There's
something called a boundary between him and Mexico and I don't mean the
political borderline at the other end of California.  The boundary I'm
talking about is club quality.  Put the club in the Mexican league and how
long does anyone bet it will survive?  Will the US kids on his roster all
of a sudden be considered foreigners by the league?  If he can pull it off
and the club survives fine but what happens later when he wants to come
back?  Play friendlies against good foreign teams every month?  Wrong.  As
anyone with the slightest bit of knowledge will immediately see that will
NEVER happen during the European and South American region seasons.  He'll
end up playing second string lineups during their season breaks.

I suppose I better clam up now before I utter something libelous or
slanderous.  This just really pisses me off after all his whining and
pushing to get the APSL to raise it's financial standards.  IMHO that's about
90% of the reason Seattle currently doesn't have a team.  I just can't
believe he's done such a thing right when the USSF appears to be beginning
to pay more attention and the strongest team in the CSL has switched
to the APSL with two more to follow suit.  Lunacy, I call it.  Sheer,
unbridled, traitorous, bullshit.  Independent, my great-grandfather's ass.
At that level he's either involved with the efforts to grow the APSL
or some version thereof or he doesn't have a team and isn't the supporting
the effort to create a strong nation (or US + Canada) league.

Grrrrrrrrrr.  No offense intended to you Colin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|  Russell  D.  Campbell        : No new snappy quote or saying.   |
|  rcampb@u.washington.edu      : I'm just tired of the old one.   |
|  (206)543-0846 @UW in Seattle :                                  |
|------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Anyone can have an opinion, but very few people ever bother to   |
| educate themselves before expressing one.                        |
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