Showing posts tagged “Brian Wellman”
Neil Morris ·
17 Mar 2010, 9:36 AM ·
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A joint press conference featuring coaches and players for the Carolina RailHawks and Major League Soccer’s New England Revolution was designed to promote the teams’ preseason friendly this Saturday evening, March 20, at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary.
However, another continuing revolution again took center stage thanks to one attendee, RailHawks’ President Brian Wellman.
Joining Wellman for Tuesday’s press conference at the Hilton Garden Inn in Durham, N.C. were RailHawks’ coach Martin Rennie and captain Mark Schulte, together with longtime Revolution head coach Steve Nicol and two of their young players, Raleigh natives Darrius Barnes (a Duke University grad) and Zack Schilawski (a former Wake Forest standout). All appeared before members of the local media and a smattering of diehard RailHawks supporters.
Barnes enters his second season with New England as the only field player in MLS to play every minute of every game during his last year’s rookie outing. Meanwhile, Schilawski is embarking on his rookie season with the Revolution after the team drafted him in the first round of this year’s MLS SuperDraft. Although Schilawski will play in Saturday’s game, Nicol confirmed that Barnes will not due to a minor injury.
Last year, the RailHawks won the Community Shield match against New England, 1-0. This year’s game marks the end of the Revolution’s 10-day training visit to WakeMed Park. Last weekend, the Revs traveled to Charlotte, where they defeated the USL-2’s Charlotte Eagles 2-0. The match against Carolina will be their final tune-up before the scheduled MLS season opener against the L.A. Galaxy on March 27—a event that could be delayed or canceled if the ongoing MLS labor dispute isn’t resolved by then.
I will defer to the RailHawks’s revamped Web site for much of the arduous work of transcribing the comments that came from the dais. It is safe to say that the Railhawks enter the season a hungry and confident kettle. Coming off last year’s regular season runner-up finish in USL-1, which included winning the most matches in the league, Rennie returns the core of his squad along with several new, key pieces.
“For players and for coach, a second-place finish isn’t what we’re after,” said team captain Schulte. “We want to be first. It was a commendable season, considering no one really knew each other the first month or so. This year, I think is going to be something special.”
But, it was Wellman who sounded the most insurgent chord, using his opening prepared comments to expound on the mindset of both his team and its fledgling, as-yet-unsanctioned league, the North American Soccer League (NASL).
“Every roster spot is a meaningful spot, and Martin has a plan for every guy on the roster to get us deeper in the playoffs and contend for championships in both the U.S. Open Cup as well as the NASL league cup.”
The latter reference is eyebrow-raising, seeing how such a cup does not currently exist. The USSF has mandated that the member squads of both the USL-1 and NASL play in a combined USSF-sanctioned Division 2 league for 2010. Neither the USL-1 or NASL are individually sanctioned as D2 leagues by USSF this year. Continue reading »
Carolina RailHawks, Soccer Brian Wellman, Community Shield, Darrius Barnes, Mark Schulte, Martin Rennie, MLS, NASL, New England Revolution, Nic Platter, Ramak Safi, Steve Nicol, striker from The Gambia, Zack Schilawski
David Fellerath ·
7 Oct 2009, 9:08 AM ·
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Quick update on the meeting at the New York office of the United States Soccer Federation that was called by its president, Sunil Gulati:
The meeting ended yesterday, inconclusively, and will continue today, RailHawks president Brian Wellman said in a brief phone interview last night. Wellman, who was calling from Raleigh, had no details to divulge, but he said that approximately half of the TOA membership was represented in person, and that others may have teleconferenced it in.
He confirmed that Gulati is personally engaged in the discussions. “He wants to get everyone on the same page,” Wellman said.
Gulati won’t be there for much longer, however. He’s due to appear at a “Leaders in Football” conference in London, along with MLS head Don Garber.
Carolina RailHawks, Soccer Brian Wellman, Don Garber, Sunil Gulati, TOA, USL, USSF
David Fellerath ·
6 Oct 2009, 7:28 PM ·
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Wow. It’s starting to look like we could be seeing a profound moment in the history of American club soccer—even if Jack Bell of The New York Times‘ Goal blog hasn’t noticed anything yet, busy as he is. Fortunately, there’s a platoon of bloggers and full-time reporters at work on these stories.
I was buried with my normal editorial responsibilities today, but this is what came over the Twitter wire:
- J. Mike Blake of the Cary News seems to have been first out of the gate with the news that the USSF had stepped in to order a meeting today between representatives of the Team Owners Association and the United Soccer Leagues. We haven’t heard anything about how that meeting went down.
- In USL-2 news, WECT television in Wilmington, N.C. reported that the Wilmington Hammerheads had been kicked out of the second flight due to the alleged failure of its owner, Chuck Sullivan, to meet his obligations to the league.
- And finally, the biggest fish of the day was hauled in, wet and flopping, just in the last hour or two by Inside Minnesota Soccer’s Brian Quarstad. The thing to which I refer would be a copy, an actual replica, of the notorious email sent by the USL last Friday to Carolina, Miami and Minnesota. It’s a sharp-toothed thing that bears further scrutiny. Here are the money grafs:
Section 5 of the USL Standard Contract for Professional Players requires that the Club “shall operate a professional soccer team in USL” and further states that “Should Club fail to operate a professional soccer team within USL, this contract shall be terminated.”
Consequently, all Players under Contract with the (Team Name) have been released by USL. The U.S. Soccer Federation has been advised of the same and has also released all Players from their USL Contracts and USSF Registrations.
We’re going to show this to our lawyers (leave your assessment in the comments, please). But non-lawyers following this case have noticed three things. First, we’d like to see a copy of the USL Standard Contract for Professional Players. Second, there seems to be a disagreement about whether the USSF has released the affected players. This letter says yes, the RailHawks’ Brian Wellman says no. And third, the same RailHawks official characterized this communication as being a “middle-management” (same link, scroll down) kind of thing. The signer of this letter identifies himself as Tim Holt, president of USL.
There will be more, surely much more, to come.
Carolina RailHawks, Soccer Brian Wellman, Chuck Sullivan, Jack Bell, the holt letter, Tim Holt, TOA, USL Standard Contract for Professional Players, USSF, Wilmington Hammerheads
David Fellerath ·
5 Oct 2009, 7:15 AM ·
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Fans from the 204 Depot after the RailHawks' 2-1 victory over Puerto Rico on Sept. 12. (Photo by Jeremy M. Lange)
Last night the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Montreal Impact advanced to the USL-1 finals with victories in the two-leg semifinal round. Not only will there be an all-Canadian final, but this represents the victory of the No. 5 and No. 7 seeds over the league’s “big four” of Portland, Carolina, Puerto Rico and Charleston that had dominated regular season play.
And there’s an irony at work, too, for the two remaining teams are also members of the dissident USL-1 owners’ group known as the Team Owners Association. Last week, the USL took steps to sever ties with Carolina, Miami FC and Minnesota, by sending emails purporting to release those teams’ players from their contracts, and by removing links to those clubs on the USL Web site.
We spoke with RailHawks president Brian Wellman over the weekend and he clarified a number of issues, including the fact that Vancouver and Montreal have not renewed their franchise agreements with the USL, but were not included in the league’s actions last week simply because they are still playing.
“The day [Montreal and Vancouver] stop playing,” Wellman said, “they’re going to receive everything we received because they’ve not renewed.” That day will be Oct. 18, the day after the second leg of the USL finals.
Wellman also said that the Carolina players are under contract to the RailHawks, rejecting the USL’s position that the players are now free agents. He noted that the players have not been released by the United States Soccer Federation, the sanctioning body for American soccer.
We also discussed the options facing the TOA—including possibly partnering with the MLS—along with the status of the RailHawks player contracts and the surprising fact that, despite the decline in reported attendance, the RailHawks actually experienced a rise in paid attendance this year.
TRIANGLE OFFENSE: It sounds like the USL sent out a note to the three teams (Carolina, Miami, Minnesota) that the players are not under contract anymore. Is that right?
BRIAN WELLMAN: Contractually speaking, while it is true the RailHawks have not renewed their franchise agreement with the USL-1 for the 2010 season, there’s still a chance that could happen-and several other teams haven’t either. There was a specific date when the franchise agreement ran out which meant our contract expired with the USL, but our players are under contract with the RailHawks and they’re still under registration with the federation—the USSF [United States Soccer Federation]. It’s a little misleading because under normal circumstances when you let a player go out of contract he goes onto the list and anyone can talk to him. Under this situation its very unusual that all the TOA teams are getting the same information but at the same time the federation is not releasing any of our players from their registration with our club. It’s a little unfortunate, it may have been a bit of a posturing, scare tactic technique on the part of the league due to the nature of the negotiation. It was unnecessary and unfortunate. We met with our players today [Saturday, Oct. 3] for about an hour and a half to explain the entire situation. Our players are under contract with us, and they’re under registration to the federation whether we play in the USL, in a new league or partnering with the MLS, wherever we play next year, our players are under contract with us. That’s the bottom line. Continue reading »
Carolina RailHawks, Soccer Alec Papadakis, Brian Wellman, Chris Economides, Miami FC, Minnesota Thunder, Montreal Impact, NuRock Soccer Holdings, Team Owners Association, TOA, USL-1, Vancouver Whitecaps
David Fellerath ·
2 Sep 2009, 9:56 AM ·
7 Comments
Carolina RailHawks majority owner Selby Wellman (Photo courtesy of RailHawks)
On Monday, we spoke with Selby Wellman, majority owner of the Carolina RailHawks. Wellman is also the spokesman for the Team Owners Association, which has announced a “chill” in its relations with the USL and declared that it will pursue aggressively all options—including the formation of a new league—as a solution to establishing the owner-controlled league it says is vital to the success of their clubs.
Wellman gave us more details about the buildup to the sale of the league to NuRock Soccer Holdings (a group unknown to him and his fellow owners), and about why he and his fellow club owners think an owner-controlled league is vital. He suggested that the declining attendance experienced by the RailHawks and other clubs is an issue of poor-to-nonexistent league marketing and reiterated that the owners have decided it’s time to “take control of our own destiny.”
He noted that the USL-1 clubs make single-year commitments to participate in the league, and that in a month or so, the league will approach the owners about committing for next season. But, “If they don’t come to the table with us having the ability to control our league, we won’t play with them,” Wellman says.
For background on the sale, see posts here and here. Also, Kartik Krishnaiyer of majorleaguesoccertalk.com and others are working on a multipart, in-depth series on the USL sale. Here’s today’s Part III.
Triangle Offense: Last Wednesday, after the Miami game, I spoke with Brian [Wellman, the team president] and he said there was nothing but silence coming from the USL about where they were on the sale. Did it all come down Thursday? Did it catch everybody by surprise?
Selby Wellman: Nike called the group in St. Louis that we were teamed up with to buy the league and told them that ‘we had changed our mind and we were selling it to another group’ after a month of negotiations. And the issue is they sold it to a group, basically it’s a non-team, non-USL-1 team entity, it’s a large real estate developer in Atlanta along with his partner who owns a PDL team. So we were upset with that, and we didn’t think it was right, because we’ve been working for almost two years [inaudible] and Nike to restructure this league to where it would have the ownership control like all other sports leagues around the world. The USL did not promote itself, did not do anything at all that a league should do. So we wanted to buy it and take it over. Continue reading »
Carolina RailHawks, Soccer Brian Wellman, Don Garber, Mark Abbott, Miami FC, Minnesota Thunder, Montreal Impact, NuRock Soccer Holdings, Selby Wellman, USL, Vancouver Whitecaps
David Fellerath ·
27 Aug 2009, 6:15 PM ·
4 Comments
UPDATE: News outlets are reporting that the RailHawks organization were part of an ownership group that includes Traffic Sports, the Brazilian company that owns Miami FC, that tried and failed to purchase the USL. We hope to have more soon.
After last night’s game between the RailHawks and FC Miami, we spoke to Carolina RailHawks president Brian Wellman about the progress of Nike’s long-rumored sale of the entire United Soccer League pyramid. Wellman acknowledged that the league, 98 percent of which is owned by Umbro, was for sale.
“There’s a lot of silence right now from the league, which means something’s going on, we just aren’t sure exactly what’s going on. And the bid is for the entire USL.”
Today, Atlanta-based NuRock Soccer Holdings announced its purchase of the entire USL pyramid, including USL-1, USL-2, Premier Development League and W-League. Terms were not disclosed, but Nike and its subsidiary Umbro will continue to have a long-term sponsor relationship with the USL.
NuRock is led by Chairman Rob Hoskins and CEO Alec Papadakis. The former is a real estate developer, while the latter is a franchise attorney and veteran player for the Atlanta Chiefs and the Boston Minutemen, both of the old North American Soccer League. NuRock Soccer Holdings also holds USL-1 franchise rights in Atlanta, Ga. and Birmingham, Ala.
The deal promises to address a persistent source of concern among the club owners of the USL, that the league is in urgent need of better, more aggressive marketing and development.
From the press release:
“We are delighted to close this transaction with NIKE and begin a partnership with Nike’s leading football brands which will sponsor and support USL, and all of its leagues, for many years to come. Together with USL Management, we are excited about the opportunity to grow the size and visibility of USL, and to help develop and train the future generations of soccer athletes in the United States”, said Alec Papadakis, CEO of NuRock Soccer Holdings.
Last night, Wellman agreed that better marketing is a priority.
“We are in favor for a new ownership group to move the league forward, whether it’s St. Louis or another group,” Wellman said. “We’re in favor of dealership to lead the league in a new direction, with corporate sponsorship and TV contracts and raising the level of the league to a much higher standard.”
Here’s the entire release.
Carolina RailHawks, Soccer Alec Papdakis, Brian Wellman, Carolina RailHawks, Nike, NuRock Soccer Holdings, Rob Hoskins, Umbro, USL-1, USL-2
Chris Gaffney ·
13 Nov 2008, 4:23 PM ·
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Martin Rennie, with publicist Marco Rosa (left) and owner Brian Wellman
The Carolina RailHawks announced Scotsman Martin Rennie as the team’s new head coach. Rennie comes to the Railhawks from the Cleveland City Stars of the USL’s Second Division. At Cleveland, Rennie compiled an impressive record, taking the Stars to the USL-2 semi-finals in his first year and winning the league in his second year. This is clearly a coach who knows how to develop and implement functional tactical systems. Rennie is also noted for his ability to maximize player potential. A high percentage of his acolytes went directly into the MLS or foreign professional leagues following their stint in Cleveland.
Rennie comes to Cary with Europe’s highest coaching qualification: the UEFA “A” license. This is an unusual accomplishment for someone who has yet to begin plucking grey hairs before press conferences. Rennie also carries the UEFA youth license, which will be a huge asset in identifying and developing local talent to bring through the RailHawks’ fledgling development system. He has significant connections with professional teams in Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean and suggested that he will immediately look to add to the international character of the RailHawks’ squad.
During today’s well-attended press conference, RailHawks owner and president Brian Wellman identified the synergy between the RailHawks organization and Rennie saying “we are here to deepen our roots in the community, promote a family-friendly soccer environment, and put a championship team on the field. Martin will bring us consistency, a winning attitude, and a proven track record of success.” Wellman was also very clear that the RailHawks are not content to just compete in USL-1 but will continue to bring in top Mexican and MLS teams, and will target the new CONCACAF Champions League which would bring meaningful (and lucrative) international competition to WakeMed Soccer park. Continue reading »
Carolina RailHawks, Soccer Brian Wellman, Martin Nuñez, Martin Rennie, Matt Watson, Santiago Fusilier
David Fellerath ·
9 Oct 2008, 4:18 PM ·
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The RailHawks announced today that, as expected, Lulu.com’s founder Bob Young is joining the ownership group.
“I am thrilled to be a part of this team,” said Bob Young. “Both the Triangle area of North Carolina and the sport of soccer are growing rapidly, the combination of those two trends makes the future of the RailHawks very exciting.”
Mr. Young is the founder and CEO of Lulu.com, a self-publishing web-based company headquartered in Morrisville, NC. Prior to founding Lulu.com, Young co-founded Red Hat, Inc. in 1993, where he served on the board of directors with Selby Wellman who, with son Brian, holds the majority stake in Triangle Professional Sports and the RailHawks.
Still, it’s a bit of an odd day for the announcement: The News & Observer reported this morning that Lulu is laying off approximately 20 percent of its workforce. Evidently, reporter Alan M. Wolf asked Young the obvious question:
“Why wouldn’t I get behind the fastest-growing sport in the fastest-growing market run by a guy I have the utmost respect for?” Young said.
The stake is a financial investment that won’t take his time away from Lulu, Young said.
The team’s press release suggests that Young’s value to the group will include his publishing resources:
“We are thrilled to have Bob Young as one of our partners,” said RailHawks owner Brian Wellman. “With him, Lulu.com will become one of our strategic partners as it pertains to all of our multimedia marketing.”
Carolina RailHawks, Soccer Bob Young, Brian Wellman, Lulu
David Fellerath ·
7 Oct 2008, 4:04 PM ·
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After two years coaching the USL-1 RailHawks, Scott Schweitzer’s contract, which was set to expire at the end of this month, was not renewed, the team announced today. Owner Brian Wellman praised the efforts of Schweitzer, who posted a record of 24 wins, 24 losses and 24 draws in league and Cup play and professional friendlies in his two seasons that also saw one playoff appearance and a drive to the semifinals of the 2007 U.S. Open Cup.
“Scotty Schweitzer will go down as one of the greatest players to ever play in the United Soccer Leagues,” Wellman said. “His dedication and passion as a player was just as evident as a coach. We are grateful to Scotty for all he gave to the organization and wish him well in his future endeavors.”
This was Schweitzer’s first head coaching job after a stellar career in the USL and its predecessor, the A League. He will retain his job as the head of Next Level Academy, a Cary youth soccer training school.
Although this year’s team finished strongly, with 16 points in its final eight games, the season was nonetheless a disappointing one. Despite the infusion of several talented midfielders and forwards—including Dan Antoniuk, Hamed Diallo, Matt Watson and Martin Nuñez—the team often struggled offensively and missed the playoffs with an eighth-place finish.
In the team’s press release, Schweitzer doesn’t disguise the existence of disagreements between him and the management:
“There was simply a difference of opinion between myself and the ownership group. I wish all of the players that gave everything to me and the organization all the best.”
This is the second major change announced in the last few days. Over the weekend, the team announced the buyout and departure of Chris Economides, the team’s founder, president and GM. Schweitzer and Economides have shared roots with the Rochester Raging Rhinos of the USL-1.
UPDATE 4:17 p.m.: In a phone interview, team publicist Marco Rosa stressed that the move was not a firing or a response to the team’s showing last season. It was an option, Rosa said, for Schweitzer to return but the coach and management were unable to resolve their differences. “It was a mutual parting of the ways,” Rosa said.
The team will conduct an international search for a new coach “starting today,” Rosa said.
Carolina RailHawks, Soccer Brian Wellman, Chris Economides, Scott Schweitzer
David Fellerath ·
5 Oct 2008, 9:13 PM ·
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We’re not sure what this means, but Jarrett at Triangle Soccer Fanatics has the story: Chris Economides, co-founder of the USL-1 soccer team, is leaving the club.
Co-owner Brian Wellman announced that Triangle Professional Sports, LLC has bought out Economides’ ownership stake.
Economides, who is a member of the USL Hall of Fame, previously managed the Rochester Raging Rhinos before establishing the RailHawks in 2006.
Carolina RailHawks Brian Wellman, Chris Economides, Contracts
