Coach - Check
It looks like our coach for the inaugural season will be Chelís Sanchez. While I felt like I recognized the name, I'm sure I'm not the only one of you who had to visit his wikipedia page to see where he came from and what he has done. Here, I'll save you a search:
Overall, Chelís is a solid pickup. Let's face it, being a USL team, we weren't going to pull an Atlanta and get anyone on the lever of Tata Martino. So we were always looking for MLS or former-MLS level coaches.
Chelís had a great run with a relatively small club in Mexico called Puebla about ten years ago. That is great for us, becuase that kind of coach is exactly what we are going to need as a start-up USL team. We won't be shopping on the top shelf for players, here. Instead, our coach is going to have to make the most of a limited budget and develop the talent that he has. It seems like Chelís has that ability.
The only problem, of course, is that line: "ten years ago." Ten years is a long time in soccer. And since then, he had a managerial stint at the infamous Chivas USA (though to be fair, I don't think any coach could have found success at that franchise).
Color me quietly optimistic about this one.
Shirt Sponsor - Check
The big news this week is that Zappos is going to be the main shirt sponsor in 2018. The league being what it is, we have no idea how much money is involved. But when it comes down to it, it's really great just to have a sponsor at all - a lot of teams at this level across the world don't ever get shirt sponsors.
And there really isn't a better option than Zappos. Barring one of the casinos coming in (which I'm not sure would be allowed in the U.S. because most leagues don't want anything that could be connected with gambling), Zappos is one of the only major companies headquartered here in town. Plus, not only are they headquartered here, they are right downtown, like only a few blocks from the stadium. And since a lot of the events they have held so far have been at Zappos headquarters, so it makes a lot of sense.
Players - Ummmm...
Well, they are working on it. Word is that over 700 players signed up for the trials. So hopefully out of those 700 they will sign some squad players to make a solid baseline. Don't expect a lot of stars to come out of that.
In fact, I wouldn't expect any signings to be people that the average soccer fan would recognize. But we'll just have to wait and see.
No comments:
Post a Comment