Going pro at the Soccerplex again?
While the USA’s post-Olympic tour rolls on, a quiet effort to rebuild pro soccer in this country is still in progress. It’s hard to gauge how well that effort is going because much of it is going on in private. Meanwhile, the public information is either dispiriting or tawdry, depending on your point of view.
By now, many women’s soccer fans have read the Shaun Assael/Peter Keating/Lizzie Haldane story on magicJack in ESPN magazine’s “franchise issue.” The story, with the clever headline “MAGICTRICK,” is not yet available online. You won’t find a bunch of former (current?) magicJack players publicly breaking their silence about their team’s wild year in WPS, but you will find more magicJack-related comments from both named and anonymous sources than we’ve seen in one place before. The story is reported and written very well.
In case you’ve missed it, here are a few highlights:
- More tales of Dan Borislow’s lavish spending on magicJack and then on the national team in London.
- A few more stories of Borislow’s behavior with the team, including rather personal questions about players’ sexuality. Borislow’s defenders would point out that the accounts are anonymously sourced.
- More accounts, both anonymous and directly quoted, suggesting Borislow takes a “my way or the highway” approach to many of his business and personal pursuits.
Those parts are mostly about Borislow the person. Like Hope Solo, he’s talented, driven and controversial. Whatever you think of him, you’d have to concede that he could write a lively memoir.
Then we get to the parts that are of greater interest as we roll forward with women’s soccer:
- The story depicts a large rift between the players in Borislow’s good graces (mostly, but not all, current national team players) and those who weren’t. An anonymous player says some teammates bragged about the big bucks they made for a couple of minutes of work on an ad campaign. Another anonymous source says original head coach Mike Lyons was fired within a few minutes of Abby Wambach complaining about him. Non-magicJack player Cat Whitehill, quoted by name, says she thinks Wambach and company likely didn’t want to see teammates mistreated but could’ve been more vocal about it. (Disclaimer: We don’t know what, if anything, the national team players said privately to Borislow about the issues.)
- Several top players are still on the magicJack payroll, and Borislow says he’s looking into some sort of team. No further description given.
- A telling direct quote from Borislow: “We should not have a pro league in this country unless they get paid real wages.”
That leads us to the as-yet-unnamed new league that was announced hours before the Olympic final. And this league has detractors beyond Borislow.
Not much has been said in public about this league. But several things said in private are worrisome. Or flat-out wrong.
Two things in the “wrong” category:
1. The new league will not be professional. It will be. The whole point is to get out of the W-League and WPSL restrictions (necessitated by the NCAA) on paying players and playing beyond late July. The new league’s backers intend to be professional. Moving to the new league would not be, as someone told me, a lateral move from the W-League.
2. U.S. Soccer is/was out of the loop. Nope. U.S. Soccer even knew the press release was going out at an unusual hour. (To be clear: It wasn’t U.S. Soccer’s decision to announce the league just then. But the federation was consulted, and it has been working with the new league’s backers.)
I’ve been told otherwise by people who have firm professional positions in women’s soccer. That leads to a question: Why? Why are they telling me something wrong? Is that what they heard? From whom?
Perhaps we shouldn’t be using a Genesis song for the headline here. Let’s try Led Zeppelin.
Communication breakdown … it’s always the same …
That’s the tale of any sport. You have to establish loyalty to the game and team, not just the stars. You have to be able to get them to spend their time and disposable income on your team. You have to be able to get them excited about any chance to see them. Everyone is a nobody before they’re a star. And all stars eventually burn out and are replaced by others. It’s the loyal fans that are the constant and we need to find a way to get women’s soccer in their consciousness more often than every world cup and Olympics.
Aside from the allegations and denials, what Mr Borislow is doing, even now, keeping Wambach, Hope Solo and the others under contract and keeping them in his clutches shows how damaging the man is to the sport of women’s soccer. It’s sickening to even contemplate that these players could be subsidized by him to not play in the new league or one of the top leagues in Europe (say) just so they could remain “his” – his players, his playthings. What good is a collection of these stars if they’re not part of a competitive league? This isn’t stamp collecting and, if the idea is a Harlem Globetrotters thing, this is a sport, not a traveling circus.
I understand that Mr Borislow is a fan, not only of the sport but of some of these particular women. I am, too. But something is clouding his judgment and making him overly possessive about it and it is not good for the sport he professes to love. Look, when Phil Anschutz and Lamar Hunt helped create MLS (and then carried them through the lean years), they didn’t just buy the star players (which they had the money to do, Anschutz at least) and been content to see other teams fighting over the scraps. They saw that wasn’t how you build a league and how you build a sport.
Beau – 10 years ago everyone was asking “how will we ever replace Mia, Bri, Brandy, and Julie?” The answer is the same now. The new players need to do something dazzling in front of a international audience of 40+ million watching.
Alex Morgan is so young, and she’s worth the price of admission in any game, pro, national team, W-League. She’s a bridge that Pia didn’t respect soon enough, and has won over millions with her skill and athleticism. There is a HUGE crop of new talent coming up through the youth teams right now that will impress in the same way.
Those youth need to be in a system that grooms them to be pros, with a pro league functioning in as many major markets as possible, so the kids can attend games, watch on TV and online, read about their idols, and dream of emulating their skills.
They don’t need $200K a year as a draw to want to be a pro soccer player. Anyone who knows how girls think about sports participation, knows the game itself and the relationships therein is their draw. They are driven to be the best they can be, and determined not to let their teammates down. They don’t dream of playing pro soccer for the money, they dream of a life experience that enables their desire to do something great. If the money is at least there for them to live, with a really nice bonus for the special few who make it to the USWNT, that would be enough to build this thing for the next two decades it will take to get a real league on it’s own two feet and part of the American sports culture.
It will be great for them to make a ton of money one day, but paying a dozen elite players $200K a year in the short term while the rest get nothing will not solve the problem as Dan B believes. Great soccer and great soccer players will fill stadiums when they win and do things worth the price of admission.
Our time and money should be spent first ensuring every year that the new crop of players graduating their youth clubs are better than the last, and ensuring that we have a sustainable pro league in as many cities as possible for them to come into after college (and during on the reserve teams).
If we don’t, the USA will never win another World Cup or Gold Medal, and Dan’s whole business “plan” for the success for the game goes out the window.
Dan, I think you’re an idiot when it comes to global and American soccer economics and politics. Your valuable no-nonsense business advice is perpetually betrayed by your ignorance to the real history and facts related to the game at every level and what makes the stakeholders in the game tick. Combine this with an apparent inability to keep track of all your own versions of events and opinions stated as “facts”, and you should not be surprised to always be on the receiving end of mistrust. I’m sure you see a lot of jealousy too, and have learned to try and block that out, but in doing so you clearly block out too many good people who want to do the right thing for the women’s game too.
I hate to say it on a human level, but your presence is part of the problem, not the solution.
To put it in coaching terms to a wannabe pro player with all the passion and dreams still misleading them every day… “Son, you’re not good enough. You’re never going to make it in this game, so I recommend you find another line of work. I’m sorry you have to hear this, but it’s better to be honest with you than string you along when you could be channeling your value into areas where you really can do some good.”
Dan, Unless you’re willing to buy the whole system, please find a way to just be a fan. We’ll take your sponsor money if you like, but it won’t buy you access to the team. Just leave it in a bundle on the front porch with a copy of your logo and basic instructions for delivery and care.
If you REALLY wanted to fix women’s soccer. And everyone else was REALLY that wrong about it. Then quick screwing around on a chat board. Stroke a check for $50 million, form a corporation, hire the good leaders, and get a 12-team league off the ground with $1 Million in subsidies each for 5 years. And award the winning team $1 Million per year. An annual MagicJack Cup open to all women’s teams in the country with a $1 Million prize pool to the top four and travel costs covered for the quarterfinals and higher rounds would also have a great trickle down effect and see a lot of elite youth leagues field summer Amateur teams, which would in turn naturally support the youth development efforts we need to create more Alex Morgans.
Do something like this now, or please just go away, because your actual opinions on the game, and what makes great teams are misguided at best, and destructive all around. Great teams are not made of the 11 best players, and only great teams win championships. As talented as they are, the wider world only knows who Abby and Hope are because they were on winning teams. It doesn’t work the other way around. Your “100% pay the best players more” is fundamentally flawed on far too many levels to get into here.
Borislow’s comments clearly demonstrate his lack of knowledge in what development environment is required to build the strongest program possible. While the US is #1 in the world right now, it’s clear to everyone the gap has closed considerably. The women’s leagues in countries like France & Japan, which are semi-professional, are clearly helping with the development of some of the best players in the world. Increasing the wages for players in a US domestic league is not the solution. Obviously these women need to be paid a fair, living wage, but it has to be realistic to the market that exists.
Borislow is a glorified groupie, who has managed to buy the loyalty of a select group of players. They tolerate his antics because he signs their checks. While that makes me question their character & professional integrity, who am I to judge really? They are incredible athletes, who deserve to be paid well for their talents, especially when considering the shelf life of their careers. Essentially they’re cashing in while they can. I agree with Dontcallmesunil…..Dan keep signing the checks that will help fund a sustainable pro league in North America, just do it at arm’s length (preferably even farther!).