Today, the Carolina Railhawks have announced a new owner to take them forward, a local technology mogul. With this announcement, the NASL is finally rid of a cancer that has helped the league in every way except for the field of public relations. Traffic has helped the NASL in the rebooting process, but Aaron Davidson's indictment put the league's involvememnt with Traffic at a standstill. While this has taken a long time to do, this is ultimately a good thing for the league's image, but this is also good for Carolina, now that they have local ownership ready to take the Hawks forward to become NC's premier soccer club.
Now, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the Atlanta Silverbacks are still without an owner. It has gotten to the point where I have seriously contemplated moving down there and taking out a massive loan on my non-existent credit to buy the team myself. This black eye must be dealt with immediately. Atlanta is a wonderful location, with tons of Fortune 500 companies based down there, the Silverbacks should have no trouble getting big-time money from big-time sponsors (I'm looking at you, Coke and Delta). From earlier conversations with a supporter, there seems to be interest in a suburban stadium north of Atlanta where affluent people have disposable incomes that they could spend on soccer, but that don't want to go downtown for a stadium. An argument can be made that those people could watch the Silverbacks on TV and help the TV numbers, but anyone with a TV and cable should be able to do that. These people have the money to go to the stadium week in, week out, then why are they not going? That's a question I can't answer, but a new owner who knows the city of Atlanta and its suburbs could. If the league (who is temporarily operating the club) can't find an owner soon, they will concede an important market to MLS, which I find disgraceful because that's not how this is supposed to work. In America, sure, you support your local "minor league" team and the local big league team. In the rest of the world (especially soccer), that does not happen at all. You support one team and that's it. While the Silverbacks and Atlanta FC can peacefully coexist now due to a lack of pro/rel, I'm sure a better solution can be found. I think the Silverbacks should copy the Braves's attitude as the South's soccer team and go on from there to become just as big of a name as the Cosmos.
Just my two cents for the day, enjoy the NASL Soccer Bowl playoffs. I'll have a preview up after the games this weekend.
