Sky Blue: Wil They See Twilight or a New Dawn?

My question is will Phil Murphy, newly elected NJ governor, sell or have to sell his majority interest in the team. The other owner is the CEO of Bed Bath and Beyond whose stock is one-third the high value 3 years ago.

 

Huh, didn't know that!
I guess the bigger question then is: will it be good for the team if the majority owner is even busier with very important non-NWSL responsibilities than he already is? Obviously Murphy has been a better owner than Baer was, but having an owner that's too absentee still can't be a good thing...

 

I called Sky Blue ticket office last week to get some info. Talked to Matt. He called me back today, as we had discussed, and I purchased a 12 game Flex Pack.
I don't know exactly which games I plan on going to, but I have my eye on the NC and Utah games. Last week, I had asked him about donating back tickets I don't use, and he said they kept a list of organizations that they provided with donated-back tickets.
He also said that he had just sold a season ticket package to someone who immediately donated it back - kudos to that fan!

 

I would vote twilight and fading to black:

https://thinkprogress.org/phil-murphy-womens-soccer-535a57130d0f/

 

I mentioned this in a reply to someone on Twitter, but I'm wondering if the combination blow of the missed flight on top of all these other revelations is going to catalyze a Sky Blue sale in a way similar to the baseball stadium game did for WNYF...

 

This team really needs to be bought by the RedBulls or NYCFC. These players deserve better.

 

Lloyd calls out SkyBlue front office.

http://www2.philly.com/philly/sport...-pride-nwsl-scandal-phil-murphy-20180908.html

 

It seems mean to really crush down on Sky Blue with the dust from this season still settling, but it's certainly worth pointing out (as this article does) that this is essentially the first time in US ProWoSo that current players, including team stars, are openly talking about the possibility of their club not existing next year:
https://equalizersoccer.com/2018/09/10/sky-blue-rutgers-new-stadium-nwsl-future-unclear/
There's also talk of what a new stadium could be, but it certainly sounds like pie in the sky right now, or at the very least a case of "too little, too late". While no one wants to see another team fold, I've more than half a mind for thinking Sky Blue should take a hiatus year (as they did in 2012) for 2019, and work out some agreement with one of the NY MLS clubs so that they can come back miles ahead in 2020 - alongside a new LA team, so NWSL goes from 8 teams in 2019 to 10 teams in 2020.

 

Does Seattle have a home field for 2019? No Seattle or SkyBlue would bring the league down to 7 for 2019. Big step backwards if this happens.

 

Yes, last month I shared (I forget which thread) that Memorial will still be standing 2019 and Seattle will use it. No need to worry about Seattle, at least for another year.

 

good to know. Maybe SkyBlue sits out 2019 and gets bought by NYCFC for 2020. League gets up to 10 teams for 2020.

 

Wow, this is some very tough love coming from supporter's group Cloud 9:

Members of @Cloud9SBFC, Sky Blue FC’s official supporters group, are refusing to renew their season tickets until conditions are improved for the players and the club fire GM Tony Novo. #NWSL #SBFC

— Ali 🟧 (@allibecc) September 12, 2018

And you can go to Cloud 9's Twitter page itself to see that they've RT'd about a dozen or so of their individual members who have said as much on the personal Twitter accounts.

 

...Sky Blue just tweeted out that they're looking for an (unpaid) graphic design intern - for the offseason. Call me cynical, but I think they've got bigger fish to fry at the moment...

 

they be the amatuer team next season because they won't pay anyone.

 

They need to fix their housing and training conditions with their players before they do anything else. The players aren't going to be able to accomplish anything on the pitch without adequate basic needs. I don't care who you have on your roster. It should have been illegal what they put those players through this past season. There should be relegations in place, penalties or consequences for this kind of low effort filthy set up.

 

I will add to my comments above from almost a year ago. Of the two owners, the perception of many in NJ is that the majority owner Phil Murphy, the governor of NJ, is plotting a presidential run for 2020 and the other is Steven Temares, the CEO of Bed Bath and Beyond whose stock is now down about 80% from early 2015. How long will both want or afford to put money in the team?

 

Now would be a great time to sell the team to one of the two MLS NY operations.... if either of them are even passingly interested anymore.

 

NYCFC still has the same problem they've had since the team launched: no stadium. Hopefully one of the two proposals that have been floated recently work out for NYCFC. But even if a site were chosen/announced tomorrow it'll still be quite a few years before the stadium actually opens. So I'm not sure where a NYCFC-owned NWSL team would play. Icahn Stadium was a possibility in the past, but I'm not sure it would meet current NWSL standards. Perhaps it would still be allowed as a temporary facility, though. But I don't think it would be wise for the NWSL to let them take over a team if playing at Yankee Stadium were the location. NYCFC already has enough issues getting access to the stadium (they even had a game kicked out so the Yankees could play a makeup game), a NWSL team would probably end up just having to play doubleheaders all the time. Though perhaps having a decent training facility would make that worth it.

 

RedBulls would be the better option between the two just due to stadium issues/availability.

 

The Red Bulls - who are technically in NJ anyway - certainly are a better stadium fit. But NYCFC (or, more appropriately, City Football Group) have shown much more interest in WoSo, and "sky blue" is already part of their branding, so it'd be a much better spiritual fit. I wonder, now that the Cosmos are essentially out of the way, if NYCFC could put the NWSL team Shuart Stadium or MCU Park.

 

Red Bull has the stadium and NJ connection. NYCFC has the branding and WoSo interest. If only we could get the two teams to go in halfsies...

I would hope that MCU Park would not even be considered. It's a minor league baseball stadium with an artificial turf with a permanent brown colored "infield" and no outfield seating.

So you might as well play at Yankee Stadium in that situation, as at least it'll be natural grass (and have better transit access).

Shuart Stadium (besides being artificial turf with permanent gridiron lines) is probably too far out, with Hempstead being around a 1.5 to 2 hour trip from NYCFC's core fan base. And I know NYCFC's fans won't necessarily be interested in going to NWSL matches, but you assume the NWSL team will eventually play in the MLS stadium when it's built (which one assumes will be in The Bronx, or Queens as a last resort), so you would want to establish a fan base from the geographic area they will be playing in long term. But I guess it'd be better than staying at Yurcak after hearing about the locker room situation there...

 

Per the Norway thread, we get to know that Rebekah Stott and Amanda Frisbie signed for teams in Toppserien for 2019 season. Now, this doesn't look at all like some kind of off-season committment (à la Aussie-W-League): Norway season goes from March to November (with a long break in summer for WWC in France), so it more or less completely overlaps with NWSL.

What can it mean that two Sky Blue DFs (and starters in season 2018, if I remember well) decided to leave the ship? It could just mean that their experience in New Jersey was miserable, for the reasons we know, and that they want to change, but do I read too much into it if I doubt that they could have the feeling that there will be no Sky Blue in NWSL next season?

 

Top draft picks for SkyBlue may bail on team.

https://thinkprogress.org/womens-soccer-no-toilets-draft-picks-329b69f9d522/