The hatchet job on Real Salt Lake restarts
November 1, 2008 by f4denz.
The return of RSLFM
So it seems that once again soccer fans in Utah have to prepare themselves for the good old fashioned yellow wannabe journalism to return, in the months since the site was shut down, how nice that someone wasn’t always trying to do their best to ruin anything good that happened. Just look at the revamped RSLFM.com site today.
First up a fake letter from Dave Checketts, doing their best to paint Dave Checketts as a beggar and disinterested owner, if you have talked with Dave you know better and for those who have been to the new stadium you know his vision to build a quality stadium was right on target as Rio Tinto has gotten rave reviews from ESPN, FSC and every player who has been on the pitch. Not to mention I have personally invited over two dozen people out to the stadium and none are soccer fans, yet each left with a favorable impression of the stadium and the way it is being run.
Next up is an attack on a Deseret News writer James Edward because he doesn’t write about 39 yr old defender Claudio Suarez, why would a writer doing a piece on RSL write about a Chivas player, I get your wanting the attention to not be on RSL or their players and the fact that they made the playoffs. But honestly do you expect a writer in LA to include Nick Rimando in a piece about experienced Chivas players, get real. Nope we should all bow down to Claudio and respect that he played in the world cup for another country, really, are you that desperate to be PC?
Slide down just a bit on the site and you see a picture of some players celebrating after the Colorado match by having a beer, with their ages and yes each player or coach with a beer is of legal drinking age, imagine the fun if someone under 21 had a picture taken of them, oh the fun they would have with that. Instead there is this typical of an attempt to toss mud, please take the time to go to the site that the picture was hijacked from, and notice all the pictures of players taking time to celebrate with fans after the big match. Also notice the cheap attempt to slight the team by adding the banner of “Mission Accomplished (?). How sad that one of the best moments in RSL history has to be put through a ringer by someone who so clearly has a grudge.
Oh and then little ole me get’s a plug (If I could block them from accessing my blog, I honestly think I would) but of course they have to toss a smart ass comment in, yes my match preview is typical. Yes I believe RSL is a better team than Chivas, and yes I think RSL will win on Saturday. Perhaps if you had taken the time to re-watch all 3 Chivas vs. RSL matches this week, like I did you could see that the majority of play in each and every one of the matches was controlled by RSL. No we didn’t win but in soccer as in all sports the better team sometimes doesn’t win, last weekend is a great example of RSL playing poorly and yet coming out with a result.
Next is some random comparison to the 2005 Galaxy? As they takes cheapshots at every bit of RSL coverage, and praises the coverage of Chivas, wow is anyone surprised? And then they take a look at the recent struggles of iStar, a major partner of RSL. Yes, many companies invested heavily in real estate and the mortgage industry have suffered huge losses, wow talk about ground breaking coverage, but the reality is that you can look at a number of companies that have struggled mightily, but perhaps if they had waited just a couple days before trying to slam a company and infer that their struggles are going to lead to trouble for RSL, she could have listened to the 3rd quarter earnings report of iStar. Here is a link (from seekingalpha.com) to the transcripts of their report and conference call. Here are a couple interesting facts that were overlooked:
Jay Sugarman (iStar CEO)
“Let’s start with where we are. At the end of the third quarter, we reviewed every asset in the portfolio as we do every quarter. Of the $17 billion in assets we manage, $13 billion looked solid $1.3 billion were on our watch list and $2.5 billion are on our NPL list…..Aside from earnings, I think it’s pretty clear the market is most focused on the two pivotal issues for all finance companies, liquidity and credit. In our case, the key questions have centered on the ability of borrowers to repay loans in sufficient quantity to meet our funding obligations and the potential losses embedded in the weaker portions of the portfolio. Both are fair questions in light of the severe disruptions in the credit market.
So let me start with liquidity, we ended the third quarter with over $800 million in cash and available credit and still over $14 billion of unencumbered assets. In addition to funding both forward commitments and operating expenses, we’ve been judiciously reducing debt where possible.”
If you read through their statements, you will notice they are paying down their dept and they are heavily invested in some condo project located around the country and as the real estate market rebounds so will their earnings and assets. So with over 14 billion dollars in assets I think trying to paint the picture of doom and gloom for iStar and their relationship with RSL and SCP is a bit overblown. I am not a financial genius, but consider which companies went belly up in the recent weeks, Lehman Brothers, AIG, and Washington Mutual. iStar is still there and still functional, their investment in the stadium and RSL is for a franchise that is up and running, and while some question the recent financial issues and their impact on MLS teams.
The launch of the Philly franchise has been questioned and the only facts I have to go on are those from the CEO of Keystone Sports & Entertainment,LLC who is the company behind the Philly franchise. If you want to read his comments from last Friday you can follow this link to the Philly team website. Here is one quote in response to a question about the current economic state and its impact on the franchise “The economic situation is, oddly enough, positioning us nicely in sponsorships discussions” Sakiewicz said. “We’ve found that potential sponsorship partners consider our team and MLS to be excellent values, especially in comparison with other professional sports leagues. These companies recognize the opportunity to reach an emerging Hispanic market, younger soccer demographic, and suburban soccer families in the Philadelphia region. The prospect of aligning with an expansion team in a tremendous soccer market and flourishing league at an affordable cost is proving to be incredibly attractive.”
Finally, I will end with pictures that have now had the faces of people covered, with a headline of “RSL Fans: Abused…or abusive in Colorado? With just one quote and the pictures of people drinking and talking with police, and yes one person in handcuffs, but no details, no facts, just another attempt to throw mud and play at yellow journalism.
So why do I care, and why should you care
Well see there are people out there who think her “reporting” is great and factual, but far too often it seems that it is more of the same stuff that has been done at RSLFM. One might have thought after months of hiding in the shadows, that the returned site would try to focus on facts, or supporting the team, but it really looks like more of the same mudslinging and yellow journalism.
If you’re not sure what yellow journalism is, here is the link to Wikipedia. In sending their stories to other sites in order to get more traffic to the site and try to create it as a source of legit RSL news, there are many that simply don’t take the time to research on their own, and if that is you, then enjoy it but understand what you get on that site, and take it with a grain of salt.
If you go to the site for links to other new about RSL and love having all the links in one place, I suggest using some RSS feeds and google alerts.
I don’t apologize for being a RSL fan, I embrace it, as a fan I have missed a total of two home matches since RSL started playing, I have been there for the orange ball matches, heck a lot of the people who read my blog know me, how many of you know who is behind RSLFM? How many matches do they attend?
I know the players and staff from top to bottom of RSL appreciate the fans and how they have shown support for the team from day one and through some rough times. In fact at the media luncheon on Tuesday, Jason asked the players to show their support for the fans by a round of applause and in talking with players each of them mention the support of the fans as a big part of what makes playing for RSL attractive.
Listen there is no perfect team, or perfect player, coach, or company, but I like to believe that RSL does what they say and when you hear it from top to bottom that one of the biggest qualities that RSL looks for in players is that they are good people, and then you talk with the players and watch their actions in the community you know it is true. I believe it is this fact that has been one of the biggest factors in the rebuilding of RSL and making the playoffs, it is much easier to play hard for teammates that you like and respect, and I tried to get players to show some ego and couldn’t get one to focus on themselves they all focused on the team.
Now I know my little blog isn’t linked all over the place and that is on purpose, I don’t want to feel that I have to say or act according to what someone else wants, so I don’t ask people to link to my blog and in turn I don’t link to many others. I use my own pictures and my own thoughts to create my content, I will on occasion link to other sites with relevant content, but I don’t think you can find a site with more original content on RSL than what you get here. It is what it is, but for the 500 plus people (October’s monthly average of unique visitors) I hope you keep on coming back and this will be the last post on RSLFM, I just thought since the return has been so jaded that pointing out the clear bias was something that needed to be done.
Writing and maintaining a blog takes a lot of work, for me it is probably 10-15 hours a week to read info, write posts, respond to comments but that is a small cost to pay for something I am passionate about, Ask yourself why someone would spend that amount of time and energy to bash something on a regular basis? What is the opposite of passion, isn’t it hate? Remember the attempt to claim Crandall Mine owner Bob Murray and RSL head coach Jason Kreis have the same management styles, this just days after the mind collapse that claimed 9 lives. I am sure I will get slammed on her blog, and I am sure there are a bunch of people who will rush to her defense, and that is all good and fine, my reality is that I will not visit their site unless someone asks me to refute some of her claims.
OFF MY SOAPBOX