Tag: kathy carter

us soccer, women's soccer

Scenes from an Orlando hotel (or, why Heather O’Reilly is hard core)

Posted on by Beau Dure

After my interview with SiriusXM FC today (thanks, Dunny and Janusz), I headed over to the hotel where all the action is at the U.S. Soccer Annual General Meeting to grab a good meal and see who was hanging around.

I found more than I expected:

Hard-core HAO: I’ve been wrong about a few things in this election. One of them — I assumed that because Arsenal’s women play Sunday, Heather O’Reilly would not be at this meeting. As I walked through the lobby, someone from a table (not the table with Kathy Carter mentioned below) that also included Shannon Boxx and Lori Lindsey waved to me.

My brain: “That’s Heather O’Reilly. But it couldn’t be. She has a game on Sunday.”

Yes, she does. And she’s playing in it. On Saturday, she’ll go straight from the meeting to the airport and fly across the Atlantic for Sunday’s game.

That’s how important this meeting and election is to her. And to a lot of people.

I guess I shouldn’t complain about my flight. (Which was actually pretty good.)

“Hey, Eric! You’re on TV!”: I snagged the table in the hotel sports bar in front of the only TV tuned to beINSport, which was doing its election coverage. I looked up at the screen and saw … Eric Wynalda.

I looked back across the room and saw … Eric Wynalda.

He seemed a little puzzled when I insisted to him that he was on TV at the very moment. Safe to say the interview wasn’t live.

Carter holds court: I stumbled into a room where Kathy Carter had apparently just finished speaking. Quite a few dignitaries (voters) were on hand, including John Motta and Kevin Payne. Don’t read anything into that — I still don’t know who’s voting for whom. Motta is clearly one of the big winners in this election — he gets along with everyone, which is very impressive. When I saw him in Philly, he was at a Wynalda event.

I did get to speak with her and was a little surprised to find she has been reading my work. I hope that doesn’t mean she’s reading Twitter. (Motta is a big winner; a big loser in this election is clearly Soccer Twitter, a web of conspiracies and miscellaneous b.s. Seriously. You’ve heard that the non-Carter and Cordeiro candidates are talking about some sort of solidarity statement, and I can confirm that such conversation is taking place. I wouldn’t be surprised if all eight candidates agreed on a statement blasting selected anonymous jerks on Twitter who keep poisoning the conversation.)

Coincidentally, I had listened to the Total Soccer Show podcast on the plane, which I heartily recommend. (The podcast, not the plane, though American Airlines has more leg room on a flight to Orlando than British Airways has on a flight to London.) They pointed out that she has a lot of good ideas in her platform that haven’t gotten a lot of attention. Maybe we’re too focused on asking, “So, SUM is really evil, right?”

Her campaign has had a few missteps. I can’t argue that she’s the best choice, and I can’t argue against people who say they want more of a change in the Federation. But this whole “evil Wasserman/SUM cabal” talk is, to put it mildly, overblown. If she wins, please put down the torches and pitchforks. Work with her. You might be surprised.

I saw Carter a bit later at a table in the sports bar with a few members of the Athletes’ Council. And Sunil Gulati.

Martino’s army: I wandered down the hall after visiting the Carter room and found the room where Kyle Martino has been talking for … I don’t know how long.

I found a misconception worth correcting here. A lot of us have been viewing Martino as a sort of compromise candidate who may win out as everyone’s “anyone but (Candidate X)” second or third choice. What I found in that room: Many people who passionately support Martino. He’s not their second or third choice. He’s No. 1. They love him, and they’re ready to fight for every vote.

And several state reps in the room said they’re looking for change. No one mentioned promotion and relegation. They said they were glad that the Trinidad debacle has helped shed light on the many issues within U.S. Soccer.

 

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us soccer

U.S. Soccer election: On Carter, conspiracies and conflicts of interest

Posted on by Beau Dure

By announcing her plans to start an independent commission chaired by mega-agent Casey Wasserman, did USSF presidential candidate Kathy Carter force a lot of people into a conflict of interest? And can Wasserman’s company force voters to back Carter?

My research tells me the answers are “yes” and “no.” Here’s why …

Let’s start with the conspiracy theory first. Could anyone force voters to do their bidding? The USSF bylaws say no.

First of all, it’s a secret ballot.

secret

A good question came up yesterday — could a group such as the Athletes’ Council form a bloc and hand over all its votes to be cast by one person? If so, that would mean an outside actor could twist arms to hand all their voting keypads to the most trusted loyalist on the Council.

But the good news is that, as I’m reading the bylaws and from my understanding of reading all those past AGM transcripts, you can’t do that. This is from the lengthy Bylaw 302: Composition and Voting:

proxy

So unless there’s some quirk in the Bylaws I haven’t found, there’s simply no way to enforce any threats. A voter can say, “Oh, why, yes, I’ll vote for Kathy Carter,” then turn around and vote for Pat Buchanan.

(OK, no, not Pat Buchanan. The candidate has to be on the ballot, having gone through the declaration period and background check. Just thought I’d throw some Election 2000 humor into the mix.)

(UPDATE: See below. The “proxy” bylaw I’ve cited here may not apply to the Athletes’ Council.)

So let’s get back to the first question: Are some voters facing unfortunate conflicts of interest, given Carter’s call for Wasserman to step in and solve everything?

We need a quick disclaimer first. The existence of a conflict of interest does not mean that a person is corrupt. A conflict of interest is simply something that needs to be disclosed. For reasons having nothing to do with sports, I have to file all sorts of things having to do with my investments. In some cases, people involved must recuse themselves — see all votes relating to pro league standards and Soccer United Marketing in which Don Garber, Sunil Gulati and any athlete working in MLS step away.  Conflicts of interests may actually prove useful in some cases — say, if you want to avoid jury duty.

And we should remember that people often vote against their own alleged self-interests. Just look at all the blue-staters who benefit from race and class privilege but have no interest in voting for Mitt Romney, much less Donald Trump. Or consider former MLSNet columnist Eric Wynalda.

Given all that, I think the Twitterati should avoid pro-actively abusing all the Wasserman clients on the Athletes’ Council. I’m mentioning names here only to show my work as I count numbers. (I’m also open to some crowd-sourcing … nah, you all never help me.)

No one here asked to be put into an awkward situation. The person who put them in that situation is Kathy Carter. I’ve reached out to her campaign for comment.

My current count, based on the most recent info I could find, is:

4 Wasserman (Richard Motzkin, Dan Levy) clients: Brian Ching (at some point in the past; not sure about present), Lauren Holiday (as of 2015), John O’Brien, Heather O’Reilly (as of 2015)

6 clients of other agents: Carlos Bocanegra (Lyle Yorks/James Grant Sports Group), Brad Guzan (also Yorks), Will John (JCN Sports Management), Jonathan Spector (SK Soccer Tours), Shannon Boxx (Josh Schwartz/Evolution, as of 2015), Christie Pearce (Carie Goldberg/Gold Standard Sports, verified current)

1 client of nobody: Chris Ahrens (verified current)

9 unknown: Stuart Holden, Angela Hucles, Lori Lindsey, Kate Markgraf, Leslie Osborne, Nick Perera, Gavin Sibayan, Lindsay Tarpley, Aly Wagner

Now bear in mind there are two people who probably won’t be in Orlando for the election. Heather O’Reilly plays for Arsenal and has a home game against Yeovil Town on Sunday. (Yes, I know they played two days ago, and HAO played the full 90, but that was the FA Cup — Sunday’s game is a league game.) Also, Leslie Osborne is a little tied up right now.

(Maybe USSF could consider a bylaw to allow new moms to vote by proxy.)

And it’s probably safe to say that even if Wasserman was truly an evil genius and had figured out a way to force people to do Carter’s bidding, he’s not exactly going to threaten Lauren Holiday’s financial future.

The MLS-affiliated people may be facing some lobbying efforts, of course. That said, it’s not as if Kyle Martino and Eric Wynalda need an introduction to them.

So I’ll say again — any vitriol directed at these people is misguided. They don’t owe a bunch of Twitter tough guys an explanation of how they’re spending their time the week of the election. They’re human beings who have volunteered for a position of responsibility in which they have to weigh different factors and make decisions.

There’s also no evidence to suggest Wasserman and his company are making threats. For one thing, I’m guessing they understand the voting process, so they know any such threats would be empty. For another thing, they’re people who have built up a lot of goodwill in the sport. Wasserman led the bid for Los Angeles to land the Olympics and is in charge of the organizing committee. His top two soccer agents, Richard Motzkin and Dan Levy, were in the business long before they joined up with Wasserman, and their reputations are terrific. (Yes, I’ve corresponded with each of them many times over the years.)

So, once again, we’re left with one person who should be answering questions right now. And that’s Kathy Carter.

UPDATE: This “abstract” posted recently at U.S. Soccer’s site implies that the Athletes’ Council could in fact hand all its votes to one person:

ac-agm-one

The part that isn’t clear to me: Are they talking about literally handing all the keypads to one person? Or are they talking about the fact that the 20 members of the Athletes’ Council are not required to go to the meeting. Typically, they have single-digit representation, with each vote heavily weighted. This year, we’re expecting 10-15 people to go. (See above to see why it’ll be no more than 18.)

Theoretically, the Athletes’ Council could just have one representative in the room, and that person would cast every Athlete vote by default.

I don’t see any record of that happening in past meetings, where the Credentials Committee report usually mentions how many Athlete reps are present. (In 2017, it was six.)

From a practical point of view, I can tell you this:

  1. There is a push within the Athletes’ Council to have more members attending this year.
  2. There may be people pushing the Council to vote as a bloc, but there are also people who have made it clear they’re not going to pushed around.

And here’s another word on keypads:

 

 

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us soccer

USSF election: The final questions (cue Europe keyboard riff)

Posted on by Beau Dure

With one week to go in the election, we’re all talking about many things.

who-killedNot many of those things have anything to do with ideas or qualifications or anything like that. It’s mostly screaming that if (Kathy Carter, Eric Wynalda, anyone but Wynalda) is elected, we should all move to Canada or Mexico. Or it’s a bunch of rumors of shady politics.

So my goal in soliciting questions to pose to the candidates in the final week was simple. Let’s take advantage of this opportunity to talk about issues and so forth. We were doing that for a while, and then we just … stopped.

I didn’t get much response. Perhaps I should’ve included a truck portraying Kyle Martino and Hope Solo as Kang and Kodos. But a couple of people did get in touch, and so I’ve added their questions to the list below.

I will contact each campaign to see if they can give some answers. Each candidate’s answers will be a separate blog post.

Don’t hold it against a candidate if he/she doesn’t respond. We’ve got a week to go, and they’re surely on the phone nonstop with actual voters right now. But I’ll make an effort.

Here goes …

ALL CANDIDATES

Paralympics

  1. What will you do to work with the 7-a-side program (for athletes with cerebral palsy or brain injury) while it’s not part of the Paralympic Games program?
  2. Can anything be done to start a 5-a-side program for visually impaired athletes, a sport that is in the Paralympic Games? Have you already had conversations with athletes about doing this?

Futsal

  1. Most conversations about futsal in this campaign have focused on using it as a youth development tool. But we have a men’s national team and a couple of budding pro leagues. What’s the next step for building out the game at the elite level?

NWSL 

  1. Name three things that can be done to improve the women’s league.

Women’s national team

  1. Will you try to negotiate both the MNT and WNT collective bargaining agreements at the same time?
  2. Hypothetical: You’re negotiating with the WNT. They ask for 24 players to be put on full-time salary with restrictions on the number of “floaters” who can come into camp. The coaching staff has warned that they need flexibility to call in players who are impressing in the NWSL and Europe. What’s your next move?
  3. Should (or could?) U.S. Soccer put the women’s national team’s media rights under a different contract than the MNT/SUM contract so we can see exactly how much revenue the WNT is generating?

Youth soccer

  1. Hypothetical: Let’s say the state associations, backed by a national movement of parents and coaches, ask USSF to standardize leagues throughout the country, folding the Development Academy and other elite leagues into a clearly defined pyramid with promotion/relegation and more local play (less travel). U.S. Club Soccer, predictably, gets very upset. What’s your next move?
  2. Will you tell Development Academy clubs to let their players play high school soccer? Do you see any sort of compromise (say, letting kids play their junior and senior years)?

Open Cup 

  1. Hypothetical: You’re trying to sell the Open Cup as a separate TV property. The best bid you have is from an online streaming service that just launched a year ago. They’re offering four times as much as any traditional broadcaster. What’s your next move?
  2. Should the Open Cup run a fall-to-spring schedule that isn’t tied to the summer leagues (NPSL, PDL). If so, would you favor a separate Summer Open Cup for those leagues?

Promotion/relegation 

  1. Would you be open to a modified promotion/relegation system in which clubs can’t be relegated below a specific floor (for “major” clubs, D2; for other fully professional clubs, D3)?
  2. Hypothetical: You get a conglomeration of leagues to agree to set up a pyramid. MLS says it will not participate. The top league in your pyramid applies for D1. The task force recommends approval. MLS lawyers up. What’s your next move?

The team that didn’t qualify for the World Cup, causing Earth’s magnetic poles to reverse

  1. Was hiring Bruce Arena a smart decision?
  2. Did you support the decision at the time?
  3. Do you believe that Bruce Arena should be hired again for some other role by US Soccer?

ERIC WYNALDA

  1. Some lawyers and others with experience in the nonprofit world and with NGBs are skeptical of your idea to turn USSF into a lending bank. How would you respond?
  2. Will you please, please stop saying “international calendar” in reference to the fall-to-spring calendar that isn’t used in half the world? (Sorry, pet peeve of mine.)

HOPE SOLO

  1. Where did you hear the incorrect statement that U.S. Soccer coaching licenses are not age appropriate? (The purpose of this question is to find out where she’s getting misinformation like this and whether she has taken steps to find better sources of info.)
  2. If you win the presidency, you will be in the position of defending the federation against a grievance you filed. What’s your next move?

KYLE MARTINO 

  1. In your Progress Plan, why would any club created after 2024 be “non-league”? What happens if we have major demographic and climate shifts?
  2. Why move all of U.S. Soccer to New York and not just have a satellite office?

CARLOS CORDEIRO

  1. You’ve demonstrated a reluctance to do interviews. How will you adapt to the role of president, when you be required to do many press conferences?
  2. Why hasn’t U.S. Soccer released its Form 990 and audited financials for the year ending March 31, 2017?

KATHY CARTER

  1. Is it a conflict of interest to have the head of SUM, Don Garber, serving on the Board as long as it’s been in its current (15-member) configuration AND serving as the chairperson of the Nominating and Governance Committee? If not, why not?
  2. What happened to SUM’s site? It’s now redirected to a page on the quasi-independent MLSSoccer.com.
  3. Would MLS expansion fees be cheaper if new owners did not get a share of SUM? Is there any way to untangle that relationship?
  4. Would MLS be in good shape, financially (either profitable or running a loss only because it’s investing in future growth), if it were separated from SUM?
  5. Plenty of people who understand how SUM helped save professional soccer in 2002 question whether it’s still necessary in its current form (co-mingled with MLS) today. How would you respond?

MIKE WINOGRAD

  1. The plan to build a physical training center in each state sounds costly. Some state associations already have similar facilities. Would you simply cooperate with the state to share the space? In general, how would you pay for this plan?

 

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pro soccer, us soccer, women's soccer, youth soccer

U.S. Soccer presidential election: Last call for questions

Posted on by Beau Dure

In one week, U.S. Soccer members — from big-shot board members to little-known delegates from far-flung state associations — will descend upon a hotel just outside Disney World and Sea World. They’ll have two days of preliminary meetings and a welcome event at Hollywood Studios. (I have not yet inquired about Fastpasses for Toy Story Mania.)

questions-flipThen on Saturday, it’s the Big Vote. Eight candidates enter. One takes over the presidency from Sunil Gulati.

And we still have so many questions left unanswered. So many ideas that haven’t been fully vetted. So many vague statements.

So let’s come up with a list of questions — some for all candidates, some for specific candidates. Then I’ll see if I can get them answered.

You can leave them as comments here. You can email me. You can hit me up on Twitter.

Here are a few to get us started:

ALL CANDIDATES

Paralympics

  1. What will you do to work with the 7-a-side program (for athletes with cerebral palsy or brain injury) while it’s not part of the Paralympic Games program?
  2. Can anything be done to start a 5-a-side program for visually impaired athletes, a sport that is in the Paralympic Games? Have you already had conversations with athletes about doing this?

Futsal

  1. Most conversations about futsal in this campaign have focused on using it as a youth development tool. But we have a men’s national team and a couple of budding pro leagues. What’s the next step for building out the game at the elite level?

NWSL 

  1. Name three things that can be done to improve the women’s league.

Women’s national team

  1. Will you try to negotiate both the MNT and WNT collective bargaining agreements at the same time?
  2. Hypothetical: You’re negotiating with the WNT. They ask for 24 players to be put on full-time salary with restrictions on the number of “floaters” who can come into camp. The coaching staff has warned that they need flexibility to call in players who are impressing in the NWSL and Europe. What’s your next move?

Youth soccer

  1. Hypothetical: Let’s say the state associations, backed by a national movement of parents and coaches, ask USSF to standardize leagues throughout the country, folding the Development Academy and other elite leagues into a clearly defined pyramid with promotion/relegation and more local play (less travel). U.S. Club Soccer, predictably, gets very upset. What’s your next move?
  2. Will you tell Development Academy clubs to let their players play high school soccer? Do you see any sort of compromise (say, letting kids play their junior and senior years)?

Open Cup 

  1. Hypothetical: You’re trying to sell the Open Cup as a separate TV property. The best bid you have is from an online streaming service that just launched a year ago. They’re offering four times as much as any traditional broadcaster. What’s your next move?
  2. NEW! Should the Open Cup run a fall-to-spring schedule that isn’t tied to the summer leagues (NPSL, PDL). If so, would you favor a separate Summer Open Cup for those leagues?

Promotion/relegation 

  1. Would you be open to a modified promotion/relegation system in which clubs can’t be relegated below a specific floor (for “major” clubs, D2; for other fully professional clubs, D3)?
  2. Hypothetical: You get a conglomeration of leagues to agree to set up a pyramid. MLS says it will not participate. The top league in your pyramid applies for D1. The task force recommends approval. MLS lawyers up. What’s your next move?

ERIC WYNALDA

  1. Some lawyers and others with experience in the nonprofit world and with NGBs are skeptical of your idea to turn USSF into a lending bank. How would you respond?
  2. Will you please, please stop saying “international calendar” in reference to the fall-to-spring calendar that isn’t used in half the world? (Sorry, pet peeve of mine.)

HOPE SOLO

  1. Where did you hear the incorrect statement that U.S. Soccer coaching licenses are not age appropriate? (The purpose of this question is to find out where she’s getting misinformation like this and whether she has taken steps to find better sources of info.)
  2. If you win the presidency, you will be in the position of defending the federation against a grievance you filed. What’s your next move?

KYLE MARTINO 

  1. In your Progress Plan, why would any club created after 2024 be “non-league”? What happens if we have major demographic and climate shifts?
  2. Why move all of U.S. Soccer to New York and not just have a satellite office?

CARLOS CORDEIRO

  1. You’ve demonstrated a reluctance to do interviews. How will you adapt to the role of president, when you be required to do many press conferences?

KATHY CARTER

  1. Is it a conflict of interest to have the head of SUM, Don Garber, serving on the Board as long as it’s been in its current (15-member) configuration AND serving as the chairperson of the Nominating and Governance Committee? If not, why not?
  2. What happened to SUM’s site? It’s now redirected to a page on the quasi-independent MLSSoccer.com.
  3. Would MLS expansion fees be cheaper if new owners did not get a share of SUM? Is there any way to untangle that relationship?
  4. Would MLS be in good shape, financially (either profitable or running a loss only because it’s investing in future growth), if it were separated from SUM?
  5. Plenty of people who understand how SUM helped save professional soccer in 2002 question whether it’s still necessary in its current form (co-mingled with MLS) today. How would you respond?

Anything else?

 

1
podcast, us soccer, youth soccer

RSD26: Charles Boehm on the U.S. Soccer election and youth soccer

Posted on by Beau Dure

This week’s guest, Charles Boehm, is a player, coach, referee and writer — check out his intro at the 2:45 mark and learned where he played alongside future non-U.S. national teamers. Like me, he was in Philadelphia for the United Soccer Coaches convention and attended many of the U.S. Soccer presidential candidates’ sessions.

We talk about what makes a soccer person and what makes an elitist (5:30), whether Eric Wynalda is the front-runner (8:00), the “anyone but (so-and-so)” approach to voting (9:45), what the candidates showed us in Philly (13:05), Kathy Carter and Soccer United Marketing (24:10), what’s changing in U.S. Soccer (30:00-ish), then youth soccer and the surprising focus on ODP (38:15).

I didn’t get around to finishing my thought on why I was once the best U12 center back in Athens, Ga. The answer is the same reason why I was once a competent over-30 coed indoor goalkeeper: Reckless disregard for my own safety. It surely had nothing to my skill. It also had a lot to do with the fact that not many kids played soccer and even fewer wanted to play defense.

2
us soccer

The big winner in Philly’s U.S. Soccer presidential conversation is guaranteed to lose

Posted on by Beau Dure

Out of all the speakers I saw in Philadelphia, the person who looked best-suited to be U.S. Soccer president is …

OK, I should warn you. Some of you are going to hate this.

But bear with me. I’m not saying this person should be president on Feb. 11. I bring this up to point out the daunting challenges the next president will have not just in reforming the things U.S. Soccer is doing poorly but also in building upon the things U.S. Soccer has done well.

Some of you don’t want to hear that, I know. Again, not saying this is a vote for the status quo. I went into Philadelphia with severe reservations about Kathy Carter and Carlos Cordeiro, and if you read my FourFourTwo recap of the week’s campaign events, you’ll see they were not adequately addressed.

(And thanks to everyone for your kind words about that recap and about my hundreds of live tweets over those three days. I really appreciate it. And please bear it mind when you read this thing you’re going to hate.)

So, again, the big “winner” of the week was …

(Please don’t shoot the messenger.)

… Sunil Gulati.

Again, again — that’s not a voice of regret that his presidency is about to end. It might be a sign that a lame-duck Gulati, freed from the need to appease various voting blocs, is an entertaining interview. He and Alexi Lalas had a candid, searing and occasionally hilarious discussion. I know a youth soccer organization plans to post the candidate sessions, and I hope someone does the same with Gulati’s session.

You may have read the Soccer America and ESPN recaps. Here are a few comments you might not have expected:

https://twitter.com/duresport/status/954066954351992833

https://twitter.com/duresport/status/954058849279008769

He gave the most pointed defense (or perhaps the only pointed defense) of Soccer United Marketing that I’ve heard. It started in 2002 out of necessity, filling a vacuum IMG was leaving. Since then, they’ve renewed it three times. He insisted they’ve looked at alternatives but says there’s an advantage to renewing the deal before it expires, like a player having leverage before a contract expires. And the deal is always voted on by the non-recused (non-SUM-or-MLS-affiliated) members of the Board, and it has been renewed unanimously.

And then we had a few good zingers:

  • “Winning Twitter polls is not getting elected.”
  • In response to Alexi Lalas asking if he considered resigning after the Trinidad loss: “Did you quit after the 1998 World Cup?”
  • Anyone who thinks the Federation can legislate promotion/relegation “is going to end up in front of nine judges.” Lalas: What if FIFA pushes it? Gulati: “Then they’ll end up in front of nine judges.”
  • He says a lot of candidates are promising things they can’t deliver, something he refused to do even when it would help. He said a Central American FIFA voter once asked him for some sort of promise, and he declined. The response: “I like you, Sunil, but you’re a lousy politician.”

Some of it didn’t ring true. He said he’s not supporting a candidate but has recently given two candidates some solicited advice and one candidate some unsolicited advice. He finds a lot of the electoral discourse “depressing and disgusting” and claims all his past NSCAA Conventions and USSF Annual General Meetings have been positive — for a refutation of that, check out 2003 in my roundup of transcripts.

But is there more to this than just an entertaining session? Is it unfair to dump on the Gulati era?

A good take on that:

https://twitter.com/DiCiccoMethod/status/955808177521610753

And how about Soccer United Marketing, which has been intertwined with the Federation throughout Gulati’s tenure as president? Merritt Paulson is an MLS (and NWSL) owner and former Board member, so feel free to consider all that, but he makes a few interesting points:

https://twitter.com/MerrittPaulson/status/955250512948965376

But what about transparency?

https://twitter.com/MerrittPaulson/status/955253543564275712

Want to dismiss Paulson? OK. Let’s look at the numbers from the Form 990s on the USSF site and ProPublica.

ussf-money

Here’s the funny thing: If I could extend this chart on each side, you’d see an even more dramatic increase. I didn’t include the numbers from the years four years before this because USSF changed its fiscal year from Aug. 31 to March 31, so it’s not a valid comparison. The annual revenue and expenses weren’t sharply different, but the net assets were far lower. The 2001 statement shows net assets of $14,054,712, and it lists the previous year’s assets at $6,683,668.

And though the March 31, 2017 numbers aren’t available yet, we’ve seen information that net assets will be up in the $140-$150 million realm, thanks in large part to the Copa America Centenario.

So it’s no exaggeration to say that, in 18 years, USSF has gone from a seven-figure organization to a nine-figure organization.

And they’re not just accumulating that money. (They did in the early 2000s, which I gather from Board minutes was a business strategy at the time to make sure they didn’t run into serious problems.) I included “expenses” here for a reason. The Federation spends a lot more than it used to.

(Note: Eric Wynalda claims to have $1 billion sitting on the table for the Open Cup, then says we’re leaving $120-$150 million out there through various mismanagements. I’d love to know details.)

So are we being unfair to the Gulati era and to Soccer United Marketing — and, perhaps, to Kathy Carter? Or Carlos Cordeiro, who also has played a role?

No. Because for better or for worse — and in this case, we’re looking at the “worse” — neither Carter nor Cordeiro is Sunil Gulati.

Gulati’s session probably hurt Carter by contrast. Carter comes off as corporate, speaking in vague business terms. Gulati doesn’t. You may hate what he says at times, but you know what he’s saying, which isn’t always true for Carter.

Then there’s Cordeiro. He didn’t do a one-on-one session, and he has done few interviews at all. He did pretty well in his 15-20 minutes on stage at the forum. Then he stepped off the stage and balked at a recorded interview. He did finally chat with the reporter, but he wouldn’t be recorded unless he had questions in advance. Compare that with Gulati, who knows facing the firing line is part of the job.

So does it matter to this election that Gulati knows his stuff and is a strong voice with more openness to change than one might think?

No. It doesn’t. No matter who wins, Gulati will be on the Board as a non-voting immediate past president. No one wants to dump him off the World Cup bid committee. Even supposed nemesis Eric Wynalda led a round of applause for the good he has done, and Wynalda knows the next president will need to work with Gulati in many capacities.

But they can all do it. Gulati can work with his supposed enemies. So he doesn’t need Kathy Carter to take his place. Nor will it matter if Cordeiro is elected, no matter the state of their relationship.

So the takeaway here is that the next president, no matter how ideologically or personally tied to Gulati, has a steep learning curve.

Now that might be a good thing. For 12 years, Gulati has run U.S. Soccer with little opposition — none in the elections, perhaps not enough on the Board or within the membership. The next president, who probably won’t have a majority on the first ballot, will be forced to build bridges that Gulati had no incentive to maintain.

And that’s a good thing. So is the fact that Gulati isn’t completely going away. Maybe we’ll get that one-vs.-eight debate one of these days.

 

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