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The Sale is Complete. Oh, and We Played P*rtland - Ep. 3
7 Plays5 months ago
Coop and Van discuss Reign's nil-nil draw against Portland in Seattle and the news of the Reign's new ownership finally being announced.
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Coop
Van
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Show produced by Coop
Theme song by Alex Juarez
Show artwork by Coop
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The Cooler Guild Est. 2024
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Transcript
Episode Introduction and Personal Updates
00:00:20
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to episode three of The Cooler Guild. I am your host, Coop, and with me today is my co-host, Van. What's happening? We are recording on Tuesday, June 18th, 2024. In today's episode, we'll be discussing Reign's home match versus the Thorns, as well as diving into the long-awaited announcement of the sale of the team.
00:00:42
Speaker
Celebrate. We don't want to get any copyright problems. So let's not sing that. Should we talk about some other stuff going on in our lives first? Do you have anything going on? Oh, just more soccer man. Just more uslw team loves to win more winning. Yeah. We're down in Eugene this weekend again. They won five zero. Well, that's good. Great. Great job. Uh, one of our players for the last three games she's played, she's scored two goals and I think she's cursed cursed with scoring goals.
00:01:05
Speaker
With not being able to score three. Oh, she's like, Oh, I'm sort of Hattie. And then just doesn't get it. Yeah. That's too bad. My prayer is out to McKenna Martinez to get rid of your typical curse and make it three fingers crossed. Fingers crossed. No, it's good. Play again on Thursday. So Thursday
Viral TikTok Story and Product Gifting
00:01:21
Speaker
and Sunday this week. So cool. How about you?
00:01:23
Speaker
And I've been doing some embroidery work. I'm like finishing up a piece for, uh, like, uh, it's like my first custom order that I've been doing for somebody and it's like sounders inspired. Do you want to see it? He doesn't know what it looks like yet, so I can show you. It was his idea. And then I like kind of came up with like a graphic for it and I was going to like mail it out. I'm not done with it yet. I'm going to put some like strings going up. It's like little boxing gloves. I like it. Yeah. So hopefully, uh, hopefully he likes it. Nice. It's been taking me a while.
00:01:49
Speaker
Nobody can see this because we haven't started posting video yet, but Coop is wearing a Guy Fieri hat and I need you to I need the podcast listeners to know the little bit of Coop lore about how she ended up. I always thought it wasn't a secret that Guy Fieri had really great merchandise on his website.
00:02:07
Speaker
I just kind of was always aware of how silly it was. And during COVID, you know, we're all bored. And so I got on TikTok and like made a video of kind of like my favorite merch from his site. And it like blew up. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't, I don't know. I was just bored in my house. I wasn't expecting it to blow up. And it like blew up and then guy, guy like saw the video and his, his, him and his, he had like his team send out like all this merch to me.
00:02:35
Speaker
Yeah. They also like posted your video on like the flavor town. Yeah. But they sent me like it's great. $300 worth of like Guy Fieri. Like I totaled up everything they sent me and I was like over 300 maybe $400 worth of like Guy Fieri merchandise.
00:02:52
Speaker
There's like a sweatshirt that I have. This is like love is rare and has like a steak on it. I don't even eat red meat, but I wear it. And I got like a flavor town, like sticker on my car. Yeah. I don't know. I have my some complicated feelings about some of the stuff that he does these days, but his merchandise is undeniably great. So yeah, it was a bright spot in the dark times of the 2020 lockdown.
00:03:12
Speaker
We'll
Broadcasting Issues and Game Analysis
00:03:13
Speaker
get into the game first just because the sale was announced afterwards and also the game was a 0-0 draw, not a very thrilling Cascadia clash. No, there's some stuff to talk about with the tie but we can get into the sale after. What do you think of the game? Oh, the parts that you could watch.
00:03:29
Speaker
Yeah, the first problem number one, um, the game was supposed to be on CBS, like big CBS. This is, you know, the NAACP has been hyping up all of these games they're going to have on CBS this season. It's like a record breaking number of CBS games. I turn on the, turn on the TV to CBS, kind of a pain in the ass to figure out, but I had like paid for the upgraded Paramount so that I could watch CBS and golf is on, which I will say at least it was women's golf.
00:03:54
Speaker
Yes. So I saw somebody tweet that like we've come a long way because the last time it was a men's sport. Yeah. And then I've also come across sometimes like bull riding. I mean, I'll take women's golf over that. Yeah. And then eventually they like posted it up like someone else, not even like the end of the cell or whatever, like a different. I think it was the attacking third. They posted like a link to some CBS link on their website and other people were saying you couldn't even access it if you were on like your phone. You had to have a computer basically.
00:04:22
Speaker
So I got that up on my computer, which is why I didn't really get any notes from the first half. And then the second half kicked off. And then that was finally on there. Conveniently the women's golf. I don't know. I don't know what the deal is with golf, but like they finished all their holes.
00:04:35
Speaker
I don't have a better way to put that, put the balls in the holes. The day was over. And then the second half was finally on TV. You had me check too. Like I was sitting at the game at my team's game, you know, doing my little sideline gig. And, uh, I pulled out my laptop to look, cause you were like, I don't know if it's just me. And I was like, well, let me look. So I pulled out my laptop and got onto YouTube TV to look at CBS and sure as shit, it was women's golf.
00:04:59
Speaker
Uh, not great. I'm curious on like what the deal was that the women's golf got, you know, like, were they also like CBS is in all these meeting with the women's sports and they're just like, we're going to put you on CBS and we're going to put you on CBS. It was the golf live. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It was live. Uh, it was interesting. I guess like I would rather watch that than men's golf for sure. Where are they making these deals where they're just like going to overlap these things and then just tell us it was technical difficulties. I don't know.
00:05:25
Speaker
Well, and to not have that advertised, to not put it out there like, Hey, apologies, put a banner, like a ticker. They did put the banner on there, but the like TV programming schedule, like when you pull up the, the, like, uh, what's it called? Yeah. I sent you the screenshot because it said 120.
00:05:43
Speaker
Yeah, it said 120 NWSL. Again, the biggest rival match of the season was supposed to be on big CBS, and it wasn't, not really. 45 minutes if it were, but that's it. I don't know, that was stupid. I think that someone from the NWSL needs to go and lay the hammer down on someone, because whatever the deal was, it didn't work.
00:06:03
Speaker
Yeah. Moving on from that, other than the TV fiasco, uh, the game, it's hard to get a good thought on this match just because of how many players were out for the thorns. I'll take a point because we were on a losing streak. Don't get me wrong. I'll take a point for sure. I just think we need three points if we want to like be making strides to the playoffs. They didn't have Sophia Smith. They didn't have Olivia Moultrie and they also didn't have Sam coffee.
00:06:26
Speaker
Right. That's three very big players for Portland and we couldn't manage to like find a goal or something like that. It seemed like an opportunity that was wasted to me. Yeah, I would heart agree, especially with the there were some quality chances and quality openings that just weren't taken advantage of. So it very much felt like a missed opportunity at three points.
00:06:49
Speaker
I don't think they'll say no to a point still against Portland. You know, these rival matches a lot of times can go anyway, and they lost pretty badly last time, but all those players were still in that match. It was a frustrating match for me, but I did see a lot of positives, I would say. We saw Claudia Dickey back. Yeah. Back Lion looked a lot better. They did. I think McLaren and starting was a very positive showing.
00:07:12
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Susie from Sandra Hart, Red of Valkyries, like, pointed out how, how good Phoebe McClurning was in that match. And she's been pretty consistent, I would say. It's hard because when she plays outside, I feel like she gets burned a lot. On this more central role, you know, in the foreback, the right side center there, I feel like she's a lot more stable. But, you know, putting Brown in was another solid positive for me.
00:07:36
Speaker
I feel like every time I've seen Brown, almost every time I've seen Brown, I've been very happy with what she brings to the table. She's very physical, playing Portland, which these games get pretty physical. And she was up for the challenge for sure. She wasn't backing down from anything. She also got up forward. I think she had, I'm going to hook this up really quick. She had 86% accurate passing, which was 24 out of 28. And she wasn't on the entire 90.
00:08:01
Speaker
No, she got subbed off in like 76 minutes. 76, she got a yellow card. She was, I would say near the, I don't know if it was just like being near the end, playing that long, playing the way she was playing. She just got tired, but there was like a few fellas at the end that
Offensive and Defensive Strategies Discussion
00:08:15
Speaker
I was like, yeah, she needs to get pulled off like sometime soon. And she did, but she got that yellow and it was very deserved. I was surprised she didn't get called for a yellow for the challenge that she had on someone like right before that one, but she got away with it. And then she didn't the second time. I think a really good showing for her.
00:08:30
Speaker
We're not losing anymore. So that's good. That's one game. Let's not, let's not get carried away. I did notice you have a note here about their one touch passing on the attack. Things just seem to be clicking a little bit better this game, though it didn't produce anything. The game flow looked a lot better and it looked a little more connected than it has recently.
00:08:50
Speaker
I feel like it doesn't like something we haven't seen before. Um, I would say it went better this time because our defense wasn't screwing up. I thought the mentality looked a lot better too, just because last last game was so kind of disconcerting with it just felt like they were giving up and, you know, it looked like players had a little bit more fight. Maybe they knew that sale was going through, maybe.
00:09:10
Speaker
We saw the photo. I mean, like the photo, they did the photo shoot, whatever. Cause they got announced Monday or like, you know, Sunday night, whatever. Like when we were all asleep in France, I got announced Monday in France, but they had the photos ready for them from like over the weekend. And then I tweeted, if it doesn't get done in two weeks, I'm going to like lose my mind. And Jeremiah responded to me as if he knew it was done and it was going to get announced probably Monday. So the players definitely had to have known. Yeah.
00:09:35
Speaker
When you look at the, we should, we'll get to the sale stuff later, but I will say that just from the brief little snippets we've gotten from the players, I feel like you can tell there's been a weight lifted off their shoulder. For sure. Yeah. And I think that that, you know, whether it's that or whether it's just good coaching and good training between games, it definitely like, it looked like they were at least trying to win.
00:09:56
Speaker
I will say they do, they usually look like they're trying. Yeah. It's just the finishing final stuff is not there and it's not consistent and it's not happening when they need it to, right? Like they're getting a lot of good chances and a lot of stuff near the end when it's too little too late. And we just need to see that kind of like urgentness throughout the game because you are so far down on the standings. We need to be collecting three points.
00:10:20
Speaker
Yeah, we need to be collecting three points. We need to be racking up goals, both things that we're not doing currently because goal differential is the first tiebreaker. We actually have like the amount of goals we scored is like pretty comparable to some of the teams who are in the playoff standings. It's the defense stuff that we're having issues with, but it's also like we score goals when we're down or like, you know what I mean? Like it's, it's like they're forced to create something and try to fight, get back in it kind of thing where they give it up.
00:10:46
Speaker
Another thing I wanted to touch on was King. Yeah. When she, she subbed on, she's been starting recently. She subbed on this match. I thought she looked really good. Yeah. They also kind of had her switching to the right side I saw. And I feel like her chemistry over there was working really, really well with those tight passes. She, I like the role of, you know, super sub quote unquote for her better than the starting role. I think that that kind of time restriction adds to that urgency and she plays better.
00:11:13
Speaker
I mean, a lot of times on the left, it seems like she's just expected to run the ball down the side and then kind of just hold up play. Is that the right term? Yeah, she's a pretty good passer. She's got that like finesse, I think that can work with somebody like G. I wouldn't mind seeing that a little bit more on the right. Maybe sub on a little bit earlier. You bring her on, you bring Adamas on earlier, bring them both in. Yeah, I mean, she came in in the 60 second minute. Adamas didn't come until later. She came in.
00:11:39
Speaker
Cause then you can run Adamas up on the left and either King, I think King can service balls into
Team Dynamics and Player Development
00:11:45
Speaker
Adamas. Adamas is so good at finding, like finding a way to get open that if they can get that right side going into just the ability to swing the point of attack.
00:11:55
Speaker
is crucial and they haven't really been able to do that a lot recently because the possession in the opposing half has been so lackluster. Yeah. And the ability for the midfield, those central players to get open and to be, you know, that point in the triangle to really create that passing hasn't been there. So that was nice to see this game. Yeah. I think it's encouraging things that didn't go so well. Quinn. Quinn.
00:12:19
Speaker
I don't know what the insistence is on putting Quinn so far back or like trying to rely on them for defensive, I don't know, moments. Personally, I've enjoyed watching Quinn higher up and I think the skill is there to get like some good shots off actually from distance and even pass, like the three passes that they've had on the attack. And I've seen it with the Canadian team too when they're a little bit
00:12:45
Speaker
Playing higher up, but it seems like for whatever reason Laura Harvey would rather play them in a little bit sitting back
00:12:51
Speaker
Yeah, they were kind of sitting in that six role. And there are a lot of positive things about them as a player. I would say that one of the things that they're not so great at is holding the ball with a physical defensive presence. They lost the ball multiple times just for holding it too long in really dangerous spaces. That's something that if the back four aren't having a good day, that can be extremely dangerous for us.
00:13:20
Speaker
When we have seen them more in that attacking role, they're a little bit more creative and positive with their play. Yeah, it's tricky because we're just so like crowded up there that I don't like I don't know how you work that in. And they're also not like a 45 minute like they're playing 45 minutes. They're not a 90 minute. Quinn's never really been at like a full 90 minute fitness. And I saw that their knee was taped up.
00:13:48
Speaker
Yeah, you sent me that picture of the zoomed in because of how bad our defense has been in the back. It just makes me nervous when I see them having so much responsibility back there. It's something that on a different day could have caused a lot of issues and could have caused us to drop points or point in this case.
00:14:06
Speaker
But yeah, two shots on goal. Ten shots. Ten shots, two on goal. And nothing really super threatening. No, not really. A lot of stuff outside the box was just kind of flu. Just not good. Go to the.
00:14:21
Speaker
finishing practice. I mean, that's something we've had to come back to. We go in the cycle, I feel like. Yeah, because like last game, we're like, well, the goals are there. Never mind. We can't give them up and then we don't give up goals. And then I don't know how this is like, I don't know how you like coach this. Laura Harvey said like the last game, like afterwards, like we're figuring these things out in practice and then we get there, we can't execute. And I'm like, OK, we'll then figure out how to fucking execute it.
00:14:47
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, like you need to control the game. And part of that is getting up a goal and then having your defense hold off. And we have it. I haven't seen. I haven't seen that. Yeah. Yeah. It's like a tale of two teams. We can score, but then we get scored on or we can not get scored on and then not score.
00:15:05
Speaker
Yeah, there has been a lot of rotation. So I'll credit Laura Harvey on that for trying different stuff because it's like we have one problem and then we're cycling through players and then we don't have those problems that we had the last match, but we're having these problems now. So like, what's the right combination? We just haven't found that yet, I guess. Yeah, the special sauce. What's the special sauce? Well, it was Roosevelt and Emily's on it.
00:15:28
Speaker
That's over, that's dead. They're dead to me. I still love you, Rose, it's fine. I know. I thought we could do a new segment. We're probably going to keep workshopping it, but the segment we're going with is going to be called the cooler player of the match. The cooler player of the match. Bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp. I don't know what that was.
00:15:50
Speaker
We're also looking for that special song. I'll head up my buddy Alex for something. Yeah, so I kind of just wanted to have a segment maybe where we highlight a player that we thought was really good in the match. Maybe sometimes there won't be a cooler player in the match. That's up to them. But for me, I'm going with Ryan Brown. I'm going with Ryan Brown. I think
00:16:11
Speaker
The obvious player of the match, if you, not the cooler player of the match, the player of the match was McClernan. I know what we're getting from McClernan most of the time, very solid player that usually concerned about what's happening there. But Ryan Brown, I thought stepped up really well. And I would like to see her starting more. Yeah. I mean, we've seen her subbed on a couple of times, um, and she's been relatively solid, but definitely starting today, like she took that opportunity and ran with it. Which we need help with our defense. Yeah. And I think that that option at outside back is great.
00:16:39
Speaker
Cheers to you, Ryan Brown, for being the cooler player of the match. We're probably going to crack a beer when we announce this next time, but we're saving that for the big announcement that we had from Monday. So I guess do we want to add anything else to this match or should we move on? I mean, we could talk about Shea Holmes. Okay. Things we want to see maybe. Yeah.
00:16:58
Speaker
Yeah, because I agree with what you're talking about with Shay Holmes starting maybe replacing Lou Barnes. Shay Holmes has been really hot and cold this season. I think more hotter than colder. I'd like to see her in there with McLaren in and that hair up. I think that that would be because Shay Holmes does like to get into the attack. Yeah.
00:17:19
Speaker
they think that that would be a really interesting matchup. And with what we've seen from McLaren and of her ability to hold it down, I think that it would be a good combination because she can organize, you know, holding others back if she homes decides to like go off on her little runs.
00:17:35
Speaker
Yeah. She like made like a forward run like early in the season. And I was like, are you, are you a forward? She just streaked through. Was that, um, what game was that? Was that the Portland game? No, cause we, we got our asses handed to us that game. It wasn't that game. It was early. It was before that. Yeah. It might've been like bay or sunny day.
00:17:52
Speaker
But yeah, I just remember being like, oh, OK. I was like, what is she doing up there? It doesn't look bad, though. It doesn't look bad. I was like, I want more of this. I mean, we need it wherever we can get it. Right. So I think that that would be a really interesting matchup, especially with Lou Barnes. You know, she's being subbed off sooner and sooner in these games, which makes sense.
00:18:10
Speaker
Yeah. Other things I want to see, things I want to see. I want to know what's going on with Sam Mesa. I thought she was hyped up pretty highly, um, for the draft and we haven't seen her at all. And it sounded like they were dealing with some illness problems. Like the team like how to manage that. And then she's now just having trouble breaking into the lineup. We didn't, it's not like she was, we had a super high draft pick and like, we know for sure she's going to be amazing, right? We didn't know that.
00:18:35
Speaker
But the rain don't seem to care about like trying to figure out if these draft picks are worth like developing early enough to me. Yeah. And it, you know, with being in that purgatory presale and kind of, you know, forcing yourself to have a dud draft pick because you're not even giving her a chance, it just seems like a very interesting choice to me.
00:18:57
Speaker
I see clips of her or like photos of her in training. She looks really excited and like she looks like she has a really good attitude and I think that's something that could translate really well like on this team with the way that we're struggling. I think that could be very helpful, but we have no idea. No, we don't. We have zero clue. No clue. I feel like there's always mysteries going on with Laura Harvey that I can never figure out. Mm-hmm. And maybe that's just the way it is. I don't know. I'd like to see her. I want to know. Yeah, I want to know too.
Team Sale Celebration and Ownership Context
00:19:26
Speaker
Sam Aza, let us know.
00:19:28
Speaker
I mean, we've had this issue with other draft picks. I get annoyed and frustrated that we don't take the draft more seriously, because not a lot of players can go out and kick ass in this league right away. But it does happen. And if you're willing to go and get those high draft picks, that can pay off for you very, very well. You can see that with the spirit. Yeah, especially if you don't have a lot of money.
00:19:50
Speaker
It doesn't cost anything. There's no transfer fees. I know it makes no sense to just like, number one, waste the opportunity and to not take advantage of a player that you got. So there's obviously things that, you know, we don't see in training or in the backend. So don't know what's going on there, but yeah, it just seems like a bit of a mystery to me as well. Sounders love developing players. So maybe, you know, maybe you'll see something change there with the new stuff going on there. So.
00:20:16
Speaker
And now on to the best news that we have been waiting for since. I don't know. It's been a long, long, long ass time. We wait waiting for this announcement to come through. The rain have officially been announced that they have been sold. Yay. They have a new ownership. It's a lot of familiar people. Cheers to that. Cheers to that. Cheers.
00:20:39
Speaker
Cheers. Do you have any first impressions on the sale? It seems that the players are very excited about it, which is a really, really good sign. And, you know, I was watching the clip from attacking third where Darien Jenkins, you know, of Darien Jenkins, notable rain alum basically was talking about it and saying a lot of the same things that we talked about in the last episode with our frustrations, because, you know, we weren't able to go out and spend money.
00:21:02
Speaker
for players, we weren't able to go, you know, really get things done that we wanted to do. Um, and so having this process finally be over and having some clarity on financials and is the team safe here even have been answered. You know, the sounders had an opportunity to do this before they joined the NWSL. And I had to say that they didn't do it then, but I'm glad they're doing it now.
00:21:26
Speaker
It just, it's a weight lifted, I think, from the business side. And that always translates. The front office always translates to the product on the field. So hopefully an improvement on one end will lead to one the other. Quicker would be better. Things take time. It was notable for me when Darian Jenkins was talking about it, that she was talking about how desirable of a place Seattle is for players to come to. That stuck with me because I know there has to be players that want to come play here.
00:21:54
Speaker
Players like playing for Laura Harvey. Players like being in this city. And I think that the ability to be able to financially bring those players in now is going to keep them here. And that's what we need. What were your thoughts? Yeah, I think I just kind of agree with everything that you said. I do want to kind of make a funny note about when the Sounders
00:22:14
Speaker
And I don't know if they would have been able to figure out what, you know, Leon did with the rain and getting them to lumen and getting their attendance doubled, right, in that time. But they could have bought the rain for like three and a half million dollars.
00:22:30
Speaker
several times I can't believe they didn't buy them for that I remember being like why are they not jumping on this they didn't whatever now they're willing to go get fucking private equity they got private equity to figure this out for 58 million dollars I guess that means I know you're gonna take it seriously you
00:22:49
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. We got a shout out Bill and Teresa Predmore, the original owners of the team. Yeah. I think they did a really good job initially and that was a big financial risk for them and it paid off. But without them, we wouldn't have the team where it is now.
00:23:05
Speaker
Yeah. I kind of, I'm kind of sad that they don't have any ownership stick anymore. They sold all theirs because I really feel like they're always going to be part of the rain family and they're, they're such a big name for this club. We had a very successful club. Yeah. Well, while he was overseeing it, it's pretty crazy that a guy who threw down, it was like, what if it wasn't much money. He threw down that money for a club that is not worth $58 million. It's pretty cool. It wasn't that much money compared to $58 million. Let's be clear. It still was.
00:23:35
Speaker
It was like less than it was like a less than a million. That's a lot of money to me. Well, yeah, for you and me. But we're we're well aware that we're not going to be buying like a top tier team unless we win the lottery or something. Unless I win the lottery because you can't play in Orange.
00:23:50
Speaker
I can't play in Oregon, but Washington's right across the bridge. I'll just, I'll go over there. I think one interesting thing from the announcement was how they were putting into place a woman led leadership group, which I thought was very thought out and a very, very good PR move. Sounds like probably a very good business move too.
00:24:11
Speaker
Yeah, Maya Mendoza Ekstrom is going to be the new CBO. Her background with soccer is deep. I think that's very cool. A lot of local ties. She's got ties to UPS. She originally did Peter Sound, not the shipping company. UW, she went to law school there. And then she also worked for the Sounders in a pretty big role, helped get, was kind of part of the process for getting the World Cup to Seattle and that bid.
00:24:37
Speaker
I read the article from Jacob at the Valkyries that he did with Maya and she seems to have a pretty good vision and she's very, very excited to kind of make this her thing, which, you know, when you go work for the Sounders, that's the vision. Everyone knows kind of what they're about. And you're kind of the rain or kind of in a perfect place for you to kind of do whatever you want. And we're in this perfect landscape of women's sports right now. I can't imagine a better situation for somebody like that to be in.
00:25:04
Speaker
Yeah, there's a lot of opportunity there. Opportunity for growth, opportunity for, you know, branding and team identity and club identity. Yeah. To be, you know, molded into something great. I feel like that's another takeaway I got from the whole announcement and things that I've watched and read since is the people that are coming into leadership roles within the new ownership really are bought in.
00:25:30
Speaker
This isn't something that like they're doing on a whim because, you know, that's another soccer team in town and they just wanted to buy them. It seems like this was a very thought out arrangement and that they are 100% in to creating a new successful history for the Rain organization.
00:25:47
Speaker
I'm excited about it. I'm excited for cross promotion. They've done a pretty good job at it before, but it's cool because they're going to have access to all these other facilities and stuff like that. Maybe not for training because the rain are going to be staying at Starfire, but their offices will be, their main office will be raped by the sounders at that Long-Agers facility. You know, photo shoots, whatever. If you need some sort of extra assistance, resources, whatever, that's all there.
00:26:11
Speaker
Yeah, it just it's a much wider net cast for resources. Yeah, they were saying the I mean, they have a barber. Yeah. Yeah, they have a barber. They were saying that like a lot of the people at the rain because they're going to obviously be bringing a ton of people in because it's like they've done a bad job. They just don't have they haven't had a lot of money and they a lot of people working in there were doing like 10 different jobs.
00:26:32
Speaker
They didn't need to be doing like they can just focus on like the things that they need to be focusing on and let somebody else take over other stuff. So I think for marketing and trying to get attendance up, I think it's just like sky's the limit. And they have, you know, game day staff, you know, all of those personnel resources as well. Yeah. So it'll be cool seeing going forward, um, kind of the player experience and even employee experience and how that, how that changes for the better.
00:26:56
Speaker
In the interview, Maya said that she's got like a six-week kind of program. She's been like going over stuff and coming up with a plan. So after that, I think that's maybe when we'll start seeing some new stuff rolling through and maybe get a better picture of kind of her vision. Is she on Twitter? Can I tweet at her and see if we can get her on the show next week? Yeah, we're totally ready for interviews. That's definitely our level of expertise. I think I followed her. Yeah, I'm following her. She is on Twitter.
00:27:21
Speaker
And then Adrian Hanauer is going to be serving as the rep for the rain for the NWSL board of governors, which to me kind of speaks to like, he's buying into it too. He's not trying to just put in money and step back. He's interested in being part of all this journey. My only, my, my one question I have is, um, Megan Rapinoe has made comments about like, you know, bring me in whenever this ownership gets brought in and I would be part of it.
00:27:50
Speaker
I don't know what she can do, but we all know that she has an audience. We all know that she has a following. We all know that she is working on like meaty company. She's working on film, producing TVs, whatever. So someone needs to get in, like, if they're already not in contact with her, they need to figure something out with her in my opinion, because I just feel that that's going to be such a valuable thing if they can figure something out for her.
00:28:12
Speaker
That's the
Ethical Considerations in Team Sale
00:28:13
Speaker
next logical step for sure. I don't think it would have been right to lump that in with the sale announcement. But yeah, you're you're not wrong. She or her her identity is so interwoven into the rain organization.
00:28:27
Speaker
You don't think about the rain without thinking about Megan Rapinoe. And I think that that's important for the club to carry on just because of the person that she is and what she stands for. And, you know, being associated with that is only going to help their their viewership and their buy in from fans.
00:28:45
Speaker
Yeah. I'm assuming the six week plan, someone's good. It's going to get brought up in the six week kind of a, you know, uh, what do they call it? Like analysis. And I would love to be on the Microsoft teams meeting for that, for that deck. Well, yeah, we've always like kind of, uh, I don't know, played make believe.
00:29:01
Speaker
about like, well, this is what we would do. It's like we've always had so many ideas of like missed opportunities for the rain and like things that they could be trying and all this stuff. Now it can actually happen. Yeah. Will it? Will it? Will it is the question. Yeah. I guess we can't, we can't talk about this deal without kind of mentioning the Carlisle group and kind of what, what their deal is.
00:29:21
Speaker
Yeah. It's not good. People I don't think are ever excited about a private equity involvement in sports. No. They've got some very questionable investments. I will say this though, private equity exists to make money. And so private equity investing in the rain must be a smart business decision and they feel that there's value.
00:29:44
Speaker
Yeah, and they feel like there's growth opportunity financial growth opportunity So I will say that part of it but I mean private equity firms are notorious for like just Investing in things that kill people. Yeah sports washing. Yeah, it's it's a shitty situation But this is kind of what happened and I don't want to try to like downplay
00:30:06
Speaker
You know them, I think this is just something that happens when we're in the year 2024 and sports teams that are going for sale are at such high price points and the people who have the money or the companies that have the money to buy those rich people aren't usually good people. No. The entire like concept of at least sports in this country is all about capitalism. So that's going to leave you with
00:30:34
Speaker
very specific buyers an idea like this so it sucks but rich people suck yeah i just i i can't really add more to that i'm just gonna go i mean tester suck yeah john texter suck i have thoughts about michelle king as well as do i
00:30:52
Speaker
It's one of those things where I follow sports and I'm well aware it's supposed to be a money machine. I don't want to call it unnecessary evil because it's part of the foundation of this country with capitalism that these companies that make a lot of money are going to be not great. That's woven into the fabric of American idealism and capitalism.
00:31:17
Speaker
I can't say that necessarily it's a necessary evil, but those are the kind of companies that are going to have the money that are going to be able to take the risk and make these investments. Do I love it? No. But am I happy that it happened? Yes. It's very conflicting.
Building Fan Support Post-Sale
00:31:33
Speaker
It must be nice to be rich, must be nice to be evil and not give a shit about it.
00:31:37
Speaker
Yeah, but the least we get out of it is our sports team. Yep. Cheers to that. Cheers to maybe throwing some money at some players that are going to help us start winning games. Yeah, it didn't. It didn't sound like it was all the realm of possibilities. No, it seemed to me I saw something about like summer signings being a possibility.
00:31:57
Speaker
Yeah, the question is, can they get someone who's a free agent, sell them on what we've got going and what the future is? I think they can do that if they're smart. I'm sure they've been in talks with some players. We can keep pushing the fake rumor that doesn't exist besides us pretending it exists of Mediva.
00:32:19
Speaker
Oh, Viv. Come on, Viv. Yeah, I'm sure she's I'm sure she's in deep negotiation talks right now. She really wants to live in West Seattle. I know. I'm sure Seattle is not that different from where or like the climate. It's probably very similar to where she grew up. And I'm you know, it seems like a perfect fit. Yeah. So let's preview the next next match we got coming up for the rain.
00:32:44
Speaker
Yeah. So for the next game, uh, we're looking at Sunday this coming Sunday, June 23rd, 3 PM, uh, at home at Lumen field playing against a racing Louisville. They're currently sitting in eighth place. Hopefully we can get more than the 9,000 fans that were at the Cascadia rivalry game. Maybe some sounder sands will make the crossover. You think that that's going to happen more now?
00:33:06
Speaker
I hope so. To me, it's like there's no excuse now. I know there's for sure. There's been some people who want to argue they haven't had local ownership, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But like, I don't know. I have my own thoughts about this that can get pretty pretty honest in a way that maybe maybe isn't always appreciated or some people take it the wrong way. You know, they're together now. Right. There's no excuse now.
00:33:29
Speaker
to have some sort of hesitations, right? They're all under the same umbrella. Yeah, I'm hoping that they can, you know, kind of hop on a train, like a lot of the League of MX teams have done, Emekis, sorry, where they say, you know, if you support our club, you need to support our women's team. And people started going to those games and they've continued to do so.
00:33:48
Speaker
I'm sure we'll
League Incidents and Updates
00:33:49
Speaker
see we'll see more Sounders players at rain matches. Mm hmm. And vice versa. Yeah. That'll be I don't think that'll be good. And I'll be fun. Don't don't make excuses. Just go. I see people who go to like they'll go to Sanders matches. They're going to crack in matches. They'll go to Mariners games.
00:34:04
Speaker
Which if we ever think about how many like Mariners games are in a season, how many cracking games are in a season and you can't go to like the few rain matches that happen at home. I don't, it seems a little, there's like a theme here. Yeah. And let's, let's just, let's just stop doing that. Let's.
00:34:21
Speaker
Show up for everybody. Yeah. It's also more affordable to go to rain match. Your dollar goes much further. Dollar goes much further. You're getting to see players that you can watch at the Olympics, at World Cups. It's crazy to me that people don't go out and watch them every single week. I live three hours out, three and a half hours out of town now. You know, if I was in town, I'd have season tickets. Go buy your season tickets now before the Sounders jack the price up next season. That's no joke.
00:34:49
Speaker
Yeah. So they're playing racing Louisville. They haven't played them since last year, uh, September 6th of last year. And it was a challenge cup game and they lost one zero. Was that the final? That was awful. Other happenings in the league. Maybe you want to just kind of briefly cover. I wanted to talk about,
00:35:10
Speaker
I know what you want to talk about. Sophia Smith and the Thorns. If you listen to last episode, Sophia Smith got red carded for time wasting. Well, she got a second yellow for time wasting the match before the Cascadia. Yeah. So she was suspended for the game against the rain this last weekend.
00:35:27
Speaker
But she did it in the dumbest way possible by taking the ball from the field of play that had gone out of bounds and sheepishly trying to, like, hide it under the bench. She, like, got off the bench, reached over to the, like, very far off of her seat to try to scoop up the ball, which did not go well, end up going under the bench, whatever. It just, like, completely held up play. Completely held up play. There's no reason for doing that. It was so stupid. No, it was so dumb. Anyway, so they went on and filed an appeal.
00:35:56
Speaker
Which why would you do that? It was like an obvious second yellow. What is there to appeal? I don't know what they were going for with this. It got denied unanimously by the independent review panel because they determined the appeal was, quote, frivolous, unquote.
00:36:14
Speaker
And I'm just like, obviously, I don't know. People are mad about it. And I'm like, what did you want? I think the crazy thing is the punishment. Yeah, that's the funny part to me. So what I want to know is, did they know that this is a possible punishment? Because language, they didn't pull this language out of their ass. That's what it didn't seem like to me. It seems like this is probably somewhere in their guidelines, maybe. That or like they just really fucking hate Portland or Merritt Paulson is behind this. I don't know. Somehow Merritt Paulson might be behind this.
00:36:43
Speaker
I have a conspiracy theory about that. Could be very true. Anyway, so the punishment, because they lost as appeal and it was considered frivolous, is they had to forfeit their bond and then they lost their right to appeal any other decisions for the rest of the season and the following season, including the playoffs for both seasons, so they can't appeal anything. And then Sophia Smith was going to get an additional game suspension. They were just going to double everything, including the fine.
00:37:09
Speaker
But the Players Association, like, appealed it, right? And then they just decided, okay, you serve this one suspension, we'll keep it at that. But all the rest of the stuff besides that, I think the fine maybe also got rescinded or whatever. The extra fine got rescinded. But Portland still doesn't get to do any appeals the next year and the year after.
00:37:32
Speaker
I know people are really mad about this. And I think, I mean, it's a little, it's a lot, but also I think that they, like, it sounds to me that the panel was just like so mad that this challenge was so frivolous and that they even had to spend any time on this because this costs money. Yeah. This costs money to get a panel together. You know, this is our job, but like to get that, I don't know who's on this panel, but like to get that panel together, have them all come together, uh, read over the claims, the appeal, blah, blah, blah. And then like, like issue a decision.
00:38:01
Speaker
That costs money. Do you know how pissed off I would be if I was one of those people? And maybe I hadn't, for some whatever reason, I hadn't seen the second yellow. And if they brought me that, I would just be like, are you fucking kidding me? I'm sorry, you're appealing what? To me, textbook, if I saw that and there was this frivolous thing in their book, like guidelines, which they only get so many appeals a year anyway, why would you waste on this? I would see that and be like, this is so stupid. And you've wasted everyone's time.
00:38:26
Speaker
And you made it worse. Ridiculous. Yeah. So, yeah, she'll be playing in this weekend's game. The other thing I want to talk about kind of League adjacent, the offseason trailer just dropped today. They went for that for like several years. I know. The one thing I want to say about this and you know what it is? Nicki Stanton was born to be a reality star and I'm so excited to watch this.
00:38:45
Speaker
really hope this kicks off Nikki and her, hopefully, long career in reality TV. Yeah. I mean, I'm hoping for Amazing Race. I want to see Survivor. I haven't watched Survivor, but I will watch Survivor for that. Maybe Big Brother. Get her on Big Brother. I'll watch her on anything. She's so fucking funny. The trailers, and I really hope the editing team took advantage of her.
00:39:06
Speaker
Maybe they don't see how weird she is and they don't value that, but we do. We do. We 100
Episode Conclusion
00:39:11
Speaker
% do. Stanton stands over here. That'll be interesting. Utah won a game, which is not great for us, but I will say as a fan of the game, as a former player, the joy and relief on those players' faces
00:39:26
Speaker
after they scored late in the game was really cool to see for a half second. And then I was like, no, pressure's on the rain now. I'm looking forward to Sunday's game. Won't be able to go because I will be at a different game. I'll be watching. I'm hoping Haidama, if I'm a guest in person, I'm guessing Haidama is going to get a goal. She's been looking really good and I'm hoping she gets a good game. Maybe a fish luck banger too.
00:39:48
Speaker
Yeah, we're due for one of those. Cool. Maybe a G. I don't know. I got a lot of hopes. Got a lot of hopes. I know. I know. My spirits have just been suddenly lifted. The sails really got me going. And then between that and... It's really put on my rose-colored glasses. And I hope that those don't get violently torn away. Between that and the zero-zero draw against a depleted, nothing can stop me in my hopes. No. We're unstoppable now.
00:40:13
Speaker
Uh, hopefully that doesn't come to bite me in the ass next week. Yeah. As usual, you can follow us on Twitter, uh, at hoolerguildpod. And then if you got any feedback or suggestions, anything helpful, you can email us at thecoolerguild at gmail.com. And you can find me on Twitter at vancrisp. And I'm at the tallest coop. Until next week. I'm coop. I'm van. Bye. Bye.
00:40:56
Speaker
But I just closed my browser. One second.