Showing posts tagged “NuRock Soccer Holdings”
David Fellerath ·
5 Oct 2009, 7:15 AM ·
15 Comments
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
