Exiled in Texas

more like 2,600

[emoji3] OK, so maybe not the derby games or the big rivalry games - but if they wanted Christmas Eve games then they should schedule the right match ups for that. And we know that having a London club travel to the NE for Christmas Eve would be unthinkable but having Newcastle in London wouldn't cause a second thought Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

A scholarship at a top 100 D1 school is probably worth anywhere from $100,000 to $200,000 when you factor in tuition payments for the degree, accommodation and meals etc. not to mention the shoes and clothing that they get given to wear. At smaller D2 and D3 schools the tuition/room/board package would be less but those kids are there to play now and will not be going pro. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

thanks for link. Great article. The whole system is a f***ing mess. We need something which takes ‘ownership’ (of the academies and the young slaves) away from businesses. Must be some learning to be had from the USA? Youth Soccer in the US is split into two main sections - Rec Soccer - Local town soccer associations having open enrollment for anyone to play. Players are randomly allocated to teams (no drafting/picking players) but generally you have the right to return to the same team each season. Coaching is the teams responsibility, so it's almost always a parent of one of the players who coaches. This is available from 4yrs through to U19. League fees are usually around $100 for an 8-10 game season (one spring, one Autumn/Fall) The other is Academy or Select soccer. This is the true pay-to-play soccer. There are tryouts and recruiting, paid coaches and that sense of entitlement that comes from paying between $2000 and $4000 per season to play. There are probably 10-15 Academies my area (Dallas/Ft Worth) so some play in higher leagues than others. Select soccer is usually where the kids who are good (or whose parents think they are good) will go play, and this is the path that you need to go to play soccer for your highschool and/or into College. There is a high drop out rate around the 14-16 age when the amount of practice/games gets to not be fun any more, or where the players get more bench time than game time. I think the difference in the US, is that the peak of any non-professional sport seems to be through the university route, so study and grades remains important. The idea of dropping out of the education route to focus on sports (and the risk that carries for those that don't succeed) is not something that the US mindset would agree to.

If they are going to have Christmas Eve games, then build the schedule with that in mind and scheduled "local" games for that game day. NE vs NE, Midlands vs Midlands, London vs London etc Don't have a teams furthest fixture (Newcastle v Swansea, Bournemouth v Huddersfield) scheduled for Christmas Eve. It;s not a bad idea - it just needs to be planned into the schedule, and not be an afterthought where you have fans trekking the length of the country when they could have been a quick trip home with a bit of fore thought.

I doubt their contracts had a second relegation wage cut as no one would have thought that a Premier League club would suffer two straight relegations to league 1. But I understand that Sunderland would continue to receive the parachute payments even if they did go down again into league 1.

That can't be true surely: https://www.readytogo.net/smb/threads/i-would-honestly-take-reid-back.1393346/ Just waiting for the "were we too quick to dump Moyes - what chance we could get him back" thread

RTG really is re-tread central. Would love to see Waghorn or Murphy back in Red-white. If they need a new player - the rolodex only goes to an ex-players who are doing well (or rather did well against them). Need a new manager - How about PDC, Big Sam, Mick Mac?? Bring Him Home. FFS - haven't they got a clue outside of their re-treads??

Meanwhile, in unrelated news... PSG takes out a new insurance policy for "player assets" for a value of approximately 220M

Yes - that's certainly not helping them develop players that are appreciating in value in the long term.

Kinda But it really points to the fact that Ashley has been working on a sustainable financial model (even if we don't like the results on a Saturday afternoon). Fans want more that 17th or lower-mid-table, but is it a viable financial plan to "invest" $$$ when the pay off is only $$ (or more likely $). These discussions do point out that fans see their clubs as a football club not as a business (but the business needs to be viable for the club to survive), and there are business decisions to be made that should be made with a business mindset. I do like some of the RTG rantings, that are better observed from the outside looking in (probably similar things said on here too for NUFC/Ashley too but wheres the fun in that) Invest - Short should invest more of his money in the team, and give us a team we deserve. Translated to Short should keep tipping money into the pit without any hope of seeing a financial return. Administration - If we go into Administration its the fans who suffer the most. Nope - I think its the shareholders who invested their money in the business and who lost it all who suffer the most. Spend to get promotion - They only way out of this financial mess is to spend and get back to the PL. That would be the same PL where SAFC was losing money every season. And when you are already spending more than you earn...spending even more that that is probably not the best approach But, see how the Mags spent their way to promotion, they spent 50M/80M on new players to get promoted - Yes, but they also sold 50/80M of players because they had bought quality players who they sold for a profit We are truly fooked - Yes. Yes, you are. But enjoy saying 9-1 and 6-in-a-row as that makes it all worth while.

It's more money going out than coming in. Primarily because they Buy-High and Sell-Low. They pay high prices to get players in, and if/when they sell them the players value is always lower than what they paid and they lose money on the transfer. It was something like only 3 players out of 38-ish who were sold for a higher price than they paid. But they are in denial about the costs incurred by their frequent manager changes (All Short's fault), and also in denial about the support/attendance. They assume that 40K attendances in the PL means that their game day revenue is fine - they won't recognise that the FTM (Free Ticket Marras) is diluting their game day revenue as many of that 40K is not actually paying for the tickets. (RTG-"how can we be losing money with 40K attendances every week?")

Grumpy has been leading the charge for a while to explain to those RTG Dim Wits who think that Short is trousering all the "para shoot " (sic) money and all the Pickford money, and explaining how Short has been propping up the club year after year. Of course anyone who even slightly challenges the notion that Short/Bain are to blame for the financial state and more so the state of the team, is immediately labeled a Mag and the pitchfork and torch Mob set upon them. His new series of posts looking at the financial situation of several clubs are great - and really explain the predicament that Sunderland find themselves in. The penny is now dropping for them (although based on their financial state, they might want to save those pennies)

Perfect [emoji108] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

C Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

RTG is glorious today I love their Hypocritical nature... Short is the Devil for destroying the club by not investing in the club any more and refusing to pump any more money into the bottomless pit of a business. (by the way... how is it that "Invest" really means piss your money into a hole). But would the Free Ticket Mackems truly invest their own money in their club? But what would they do if they ever did buy out Short? Umm, Isn't that what Short is now doing. Not spending what they don't have. Good times on RTG... Good Times

I love the look on all the other players faces ... as if to say.. F*** me, that's a hell of a jump

That title

Re the Canadian football article. I get where you want to take the article, which is to show how soccer/football has blossomed across north america. I'm not sure that positioning the intro about a mainly-foreign sport not being reported in the local paper is really a good comparison.... Does the Chronicle have any NHL coverage? And why would a local paper have coverage of a sport from another part of the world? Perhaps that's a good comparison, and one that would illustrate the change in popularity in the sports between then and now. Still no NHL in the Chronicle but you can now find EPL coverage in the local US/CA TV media. Plus if you want to find goalposts, then looking in the park is the wrong place... you should be looking on the ponds/lakes as you'll find plenty of signs of sport... just a different one. And of course the climate has a lot to do with this... in the dept of a Canadian winter a frozen pond is much easier to play hockey on than a snow covered field. I like the personal story aspect of the article, trying to find the scores when abroad, so I would get to the comparison as quickly as possible and move on from the negative statement to a positive one (which is the purpose of the story). Living in the US, Soccer (i'm going to call it that because talking football in the US but meaning soccer is way too confusing) was always a niche sport mainly for immigrants (Mexican, South Americans as well as those with UK/European backgrounds). And even after getting football games onto the TV in Fox Soccer channel or now NBC Sports it still seemed to be rather a niche sport. The interesting point came where you saw ESPN (which focuses on the big US sports - NFL, NBA, MLB etc) was including soccer scores (prem league, la liga, bundesliga)in their ticker or their high light packages. And even local talk-sports radio was adding small segments on soccer games into their daily talk shows, or even (as here in Dallas area) adding a Saturday afternoon soccer/football review show completely dedicated to the EPL. This is what's telling me that soccer has arrived (and I don't just mean for 4yr olds as their first sport before they move onto Football or Baseball). Office workers now have fantasy soccer leagues at work with often the Americans outnumbering (and out performing) the Brits in predicting games. Saturday and Sunday mornings are for EPL soccer games before the college or NFL football games come on. And wait till the world cup (or even European Champoinships) come around..... Breakroom TVs are tuned to the games and its not just the brits/brazilians who are watching. The american sports fans are watching now. Yes, we all laughed at Diana Ross and her penalty kick in 94, but America loves the world cup now...especially now that USA can compete as a reasonable level (and is not a token invite). Deep down Americans want to compete in a world sporting event with a seat at the adult table that they have earned. Yes, they love winning the Olympic medal count, but I think they know that being Olympic champions in basketball is nowhere near as satisfying as it would be to win the world cup and beat the world at their game. Would love to read the full article when you are finished Forgive my criticism of the opening paragraph... I wasn't able to see where you were developing the article, but I just wanted to offer a reverse view and I think that it would balance your article nicely to contrast the increased popularity of soccer in Canada/US compared to US sports in UK. You might also consider a comparison of the growth of the NFL in London, as a contrast to an overseas sport becoming accepted in a country dominated by its legacy sport. Yes, the NFL sells out their games in London, but you don't see an uptake of American Football in the UK parks on a Saturday afternoon. This probably provides more data points to your article about how soccer is really taking over in north america. No it will never overtake football or baseball here in US (or Hockey in Canada), but it's climbing.

The only thing on target all day was the bottle that was thrown

More Mackem gold WTF?? How can he be this thick??

Half of RTG are up in arms that the free tickets are being stopped, will leave empty seats etc Other half saying that it's about time and as ST holders the free tickets need to stop. I love how it's more important to them to fill the ground than actually earn revenue Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I thought they had settled on Larry as his name Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

FYP - Championship Charismaras

This is the reason why socks must be light/dark - usually referees and ARs are looking at the feet for throw-ins or fouls in the box