| Report from the colonies 11:02 - Jul 7 with 1017 views | saint901 |
I'm recently back from the US - visiting southern Maine which is a mix of blue and red types.
1. Football/soccer is booming there. Portland has a new franchise (Portland Hearts of Pine) which is a pro team playing in what we might call a feeder league to the MLS. They has an English striker (Ollie Wright) and a number of decent prospects.
2. The playing style of the US teams remains the (to my eyes) over coached - pass the ball to death - method which prioritises making say half a dozen decent chances a match rather than the more forward thinking game of making perhaps a dozen or more half chances but which produces a more interesting game.
3. The game there is still however kids and ladies and the boys have a whole range of other distractions such as baseball, football, hockey, basketball, lacrosse (very popular).
4. Hearts of Pine will be in their league for at least two seasons - no promotion/relegation - whilst the stability of the clubs financially and playing wise is established following which a form of promotion/relegation will be introduced via some sort of complicated end of season play off system. The issue is that the MLS teams have "bought" a franchise for a period and being relegated would perhaps break the contracts.
5. Hearts of Pine play in a league based on the east coast but even so travel huge distances. often they will be "on the road" for a series of games (four whilst we were there) before playing say three/four home games.
6. Their stadium is 6,000 capacity and sold out for every home game.
7. Their playing season is from April to December. It's usually too cold or snowy after that.
8. Several UK clubs have invested in academies there which for the moment support the efforts to build a league but already a couple of players have bene exported to the UK. Notable clubs include Brighton, Forest, QPR.
9. American owners are increasingly looking at US clubs at this level as a stepping stone to the UK. Aside from the variety show at Wrexham, recently Reading FC have been acquired by a US owner with connections to clubs in the deep south. |  | | |  |
| Report from the colonies on 10:05 - Jul 8 with 634 views | SaintNick |
Will they get into the MLS proper ? Portland Timbers are a massive team there. |  |
| Satisfying The Bloodlust Of The Masses In Peacetime |
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| Report from the colonies on 10:20 - Jul 8 with 616 views | Joiedevivre |
Very interesting read, thank you. |  | | |
| Report from the colonies on 19:05 - Jul 8 with 476 views | IanSouthstander |
| Report from the colonies on 10:05 - Jul 8 by SaintNick |
Will they get into the MLS proper ? Portland Timbers are a massive team there. |
Don't see why not. The yanks don't do anything by half measures and will throw money at it.
There doesn't appear to be any other mls club anywhere near maine, so would have a massive catchment area to attract more fans.
They gotta increase their stadium capacity though. Sound familiar. |  | | |
| Report from the colonies on 10:57 - Jul 9 with 278 views | saint901 |
| Report from the colonies on 10:05 - Jul 8 by SaintNick |
Will they get into the MLS proper ? Portland Timbers are a massive team there. |
Different Portland.
Portland Timbers are from Oregon - west coast.
Hearts of Pine are Portland Maine - east coast.
They have ambition to be MLS but I think they may have to survive 5 - 6 years financially before they can do that.
Portland (Maine) has a host of "minor league" teams in baseball (Sea Dogs), hockey (Mariners), etc. Most of these are feeder teams for the "big" clubs that are "local".
New England Patriots (gridiron), Boston Bruins, Boston Celtics, and New England Revolution (football) who play in the same ground as the gridiron team (Gillette stadium which will be used int he world cup.) | | | |
| Report from the colonies on 11:11 - Jul 9 with 266 views | saint901 |
| Report from the colonies on 19:05 - Jul 8 by IanSouthstander |
Don't see why not. The yanks don't do anything by half measures and will throw money at it.
There doesn't appear to be any other mls club anywhere near maine, so would have a massive catchment area to attract more fans.
They gotta increase their stadium capacity though. Sound familiar. |
Agreed.
New England Revolution are closest, based in the Gillette Stadium about an hour south of Boston Mass. About 4 hours drive from Portland Me.
Hearts of Pine are focussed on building a youth and academy right now and have a number of amateur and semi pro outfits they link to such as Seacoast which runs squads from under 6's to full adult (four teams - 2 male, 2 female).
The boys and girls are in the same team until age 8 and then play in single sex teams. It's short sided to age 13 and then goes 11 a side.
Seacoast has perhaps 50 coaches - perhaps 5 full time - all paid and all put through coaching badges at the local universities. I met perhaps 8 of them - three Brits, 2 Spanish and three Americans. Interesting to hear them discuss their favoured approaches to training (practice) and games.
So yes, there is money being invested at grass roots.
They did say that some of their better prospects get sent to UK/Europe in the winter in order to continue playing and being coached. I did ask what happens if a UK club wants to buy the player they have invested in so heavily. They simply shrugged and said "that's business". very different attitude toward "loyalty".
Their facilities are incredible. We went to a middle school (kids 8 to 14) in Scarborough Maine. Aside from two gridiron pitches, full athletics track, baseball diamond, lacrosse pitches, indoor pool, huge gym they had perhaps 6 full size football pitches.
Schools are invested in heavily but not without politics or humour. One school district budget was up for renewal alongside a vote for governors. One individual had taken to planting small placards alongside pavements and public spaces making comments about the budget, links to performance, alleged political bias etc. (Maine is roughly 50/50 in terms of red/blue). Somebody else had made slightly taller placards which they planted alongside those above, with an arrow and simply said "false". Democracy in action. | | | |
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