USSF Presidential Election - 2018

Who Is Your Vote for USSF President? (Ballot Candidates)

  • Steve Gans - Boston Attorney

    Votes: 1 2.9%
  • Kyle Martino - Former Player, TV Analyst NBC

    Votes: 13 38.2%
  • Michael Winograd - USL, Co-Founder

    Votes: 2 5.9%
  • Eric Wynalda - Former Player, TV Analyst Fox Sports

    Votes: 11 32.4%
  • Paul Caligiuri - Former Player

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Carlos Cordeiro - USSF, VP

    Votes: 1 2.9%
  • Kathy Carter - SUM, President

    Votes: 3 8.8%
  • Hope Solo - Former Player

    Votes: 3 8.8%

  • Total voters
    34

Midas Mulligan

Registered
Elite Donor
Donor
Seasoned Supporter
Apr 29, 2014
10,614
26,558
353
NYC
We need a thread given everything going on.


First, let me recommend listening to the Eric Wynalda interview on Total Soccer Show last week. He was good to excellent.

So I’m not a big pro/rel person, but I am 100% in belief, as I’ve stated elsewhere, that our development of players and participation in the global transfer market will forever be hampered if we don’t fix the schedule.

If it takes electing a candidate that supports pro/rel to get there, I’ll take it.

EW might be my choice right now. I need to do more research. But the biggest points i support are on his agenda.

What say you?
 
Of the player/media personalities I favor Kyle Martino over Eric Wynalda. That being said, USSF President is about running an organization, networking, leadership, soccer political capital. So I'd like to see an actual executive be in that position than a soccer personality.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Christopher Jee
Of the player/media personalities I favor Kyle Martino over Eric Wynalda. That being said, USSF President is about running an organization, networking, leadership, soccer political capital. So I'd like to see an actual executive be in that position than a soccer personality.
Listen to what Wynalda says and see if you feel the same.
 
My fear is that Wynalda will be a lightning rod for controversy. From what I understand he is not popular with players and coaches, but I have only speculation, little hard info. He is generally derided by fans on social media, but I think he is great at what he does, and certainly would have the passion for the soccer side of the organization, which Sunil lacked.

I'm intrigued by Kyle Martino. His vision, from what I saw in one article, seemed positive steps. He would be far more likely to use diplomacy to get the best value out of the various factions and generations in US soccer.

I know nothing about the lawyers. Ultimately, since I don't have a vote, I'll keep just a passing eye on this until the vote is close.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ulrich
So I'd like to see an actual executive be in that position than a soccer personality.
We need a leader. That can be an executive who hires a soccer guy to run the entire soccer side, or a soccer guy who hires an executive to run the business side. Either way, they both need to be competent.
USSF is far from broke, so id rather focus on the soccer operation, make sure we attract the right talent first, then hire a sports executive/political ambassador later.
 
We need a leader. That can be an executive who hires a soccer guy to run the entire soccer side, or a soccer guy who hires an executive to run the business side. Either way, they both need to be competent.
USSF is far from broke, so if rather focus on the soccer operation, make sure we attract the right talent first, the hire a sports executive/political ambassador later.

Well, the President of USSF is essentially just the Chairman of the Board of Directors. There's already a Secretary General, Dan Flynn, who runs the business side of USSF. But I agree we need a Technical Director, to run the sporting side of USSF. So with those two guys place, it's just the job of the President to make those hiring decisions and to be a leader.
 
My fear is that Wynalda will be a lightning rod for controversy. From what I understand he is not popular with players and coaches, but I have only speculation, little hard info. He is generally derided by fans on social media, but I think he is great at what he does, and certainly would have the passion for the soccer side of the organization, which Sunil lacked.

I'm intrigued by Kyle Martino. His vision, from what I saw in one article, seemed positive steps. He would be far more likely to use diplomacy to get the best value out of the various factions and generations in US soccer.

I know nothing about the lawyers. Ultimately, since I don't have a vote, I'll keep just a passing eye on this until the vote is close.
I don’t know if Wynalda would be the best president at effectuating his plan. Maybe, maybe not. But I think he has the right ideas regarding what needs to be fixed and how to fix it.

I am not against anyone that isn’t an insider to the current administration.

There is some chatter that Martino is nothing but a vote splitter put up by Sunil & co. to ensure status quo remains.

Hearing Wynalda call out the specific shit Sunil pulls that I’ve suspected makes me loathe that guy (Sunil) even more.
 
While plausible, that seems far fetched.
Dude, there are way more ways to make that happen than having Kyle knowingly be a part of it.

I definitely don’t think that is Kyle’s intention.
 
I listened to the podcast and he made some interesting points.

- No love lost for Gulati that is for sure.

- I liked how he mentioned that the US needs to be in the business of soccer and not in the buisness of being in business.

It seems that all these decisions that get made, revolve around making money first and soccer second, where it needs to be the other way around.

- I also liked that he mentioned that he believes the alternative (pro/rel) hasn't been explained to the current owners in MLS.

However, this might be the biggest problem, trying to convince a bunch of millionaire and billionare owners that an alternative system will be better for them. He might be right in that MLS clubs lose money, however as long as those franchise values continue to go up in value, owners won't particularly care. Can Wynalda convince them that his alternative would be better ? I'm not so sure.

- As for the MLS schedule, I dont think thats an issue. Japan runs on the same schedule as MLS and they dont seem to have troubles in regards to transfers etc.

- Either way a change is needed. There needs to be more of a soccer prescence in the US federation. It can't be all about bean counters.
 
We need a leader. That can be an executive who hires a soccer guy to run the entire soccer side, or a soccer guy who hires an executive to run the business side. Either way, they both need to be competent.
USSF is far from broke, so id rather focus on the soccer operation, make sure we attract the right talent first, then hire a sports executive/political ambassador later.

Well, the President of USSF is essentially just the Chairman of the Board of Directors. There's already a Secretary General, Dan Flynn, who runs the business side of USSF. But I agree we need a Technical Director, to run the sporting side of USSF. So with those two guys place, it's just the job of the President to make those hiring decisions and to be a leader.

I’m not sure if it was Dan Flynn, but whomever was in charge of finances (and gets a real salary) was going to retire this year because of health issues and age. But he’s now staying on to add consistency to a new administration. USSF will be fine financially, we need to worry about the soccer side of things for the first time in 30 years.
 
I'm a recent convert to an open system. I think we are reaching the point where what is good for MLS is not necessarily good for the USMNT. An open system gives an incentive to create academy structures in more cities since there are more teams and thats leads to more development. I don't see how you can end pay to play any other way with clubs footing the bill.

Another concern is that there has developed a class of MLS owners (Kraft, Sugarman, Precourt, Kroenke, Hauptmann, Thohir) who are ok just sitting there not spending money and are just here sucking on the tit of SUM and their increasing club values.

I think alot of Wynalda's ideas make alot of sense. It's time for the status quo to be upset. My big concern is that there are going to be too many challengers, which will dilute the protest vote against Gulati. (Promise I didn't just copy you Midas. Just didn't post this last night after going into a Vennu Mallesh hole.)
 
I'm a recent convert to an open system. I think we are reaching the point where what is good for MLS is not necessarily good for the USMNT. An open system gives an incentive to create academy structures in more cities since there are more teams and thats leads to more development. I don't see how you can end pay to play any other way with clubs footing the bill.

Another concern is that there has developed a class of MLS owners (Kraft, Sugarman, Precourt, Kroenke, Hauptmann, Thohir) who are ok just sitting there not spending money and are just here sucking on the tit of SUM and their increasing club values.

I think alot of Wynalda's ideas make alot of sense. It's time for the status quo to be upset. My big concern is that there are going to be too many challengers, which will dilute the protest vote against Gulati. (Promise I didn't just copy you Midas. Just didn't post this last night after going into a Vennu Mallesh hole.)

i do have concerns of the open system....so many teams (including us) have problems finding a suitable location....and thats not even considering the lower leagues where some are still playing in college stadiums, not only that but academies costs alot of money and lower league owners may not even want to invest in that, they may rather invest in players to promote them to a higher level in pyramid or avoid getting relegated ( in potential opened system). also when teams get relegated from division one, im still not convinced people will still go to watch ( even worse if you have teams struggling to get in stadiums in MLS level). and then that hurts revenue since there wont be "tv money" in the lower levels ( even though i still dont think TV companies will shell out as much to begin with)

should the open system happen ? i did think eventually yes......i always thought if it was going to happen then it would be like the J league where it gradually grew and added J2 and J3 leagues ( although i read a while back that they were going to stop admitting applicants into its professional ranks).....maybe it can happen with USL/ USL 2 etc. but not going to happen within next cycle for sure with all the other NASL drama.
 
My fear is that Wynalda will be a lightning rod for controversy. From what I understand he is not popular with players and coaches, but I have only speculation, little hard info. He is generally derided by fans on social media, but I think he is great at what he does, and certainly would have the passion for the soccer side of the organization, which Sunil lacked.

I'm intrigued by Kyle Martino. His vision, from what I saw in one article, seemed positive steps. He would be far more likely to use diplomacy to get the best value out of the various factions and generations in US soccer.

I know nothing about the lawyers. Ultimately, since I don't have a vote, I'll keep just a passing eye on this until the vote is close.

if thats the case then he is done.....doesnt youth soccer and also certain players get certain percentage of votes? if so then he loses all of that.