CSL- Something stinks at London City (aside from the soccer)

[Redcoatsforever]

I've been watching for the development of the board of directors very intently, as I'd like to see the team improve. Here's what has come up so far;

3 out of 5 appointments announced, 2 of them already worked for London City.

Karen Mote and Clint Jack:

http://londoncity.ca/page.php?page_id=8658

Greg Yeoman appears to be a guy who likes soccer, but has no prior ties to the club itself.

The reason I find this troubling is that the stated purpose of the board was to make the club more open and more London's club than the Gauss family club. These steps make it seem like empty words and a commitment not to move the team into a more professional direction.

The article detailing the purpose of the board of directors is here:

http://londoncity.ca/news_archive.php?news_id=301139

I know there aren't a huge number of Londoners on here, and probably even fewer City fans, but I thought the CSL crowd might consider it worth discussing.

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

Something to google is the recent London City vs North London dispute in youth soccer for why London soccer people would be reluctant to go anywhere near City. My sort of viewpoint about City has been widespread amongst people involved at the senior level for the past couple of decades but I suspect it is now pretty much universal even at the youth level in the aftermath of that:

http://offthepitch.ca/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4797

It doesn't surprise me in the least that the new BoD would be there for little more than window dressing probably to meet some D3 sanctioning requirement.

[Redcoatsforever]

Something to google is the recent London City vs North London dispute in youth soccer for why London soccer people would be reluctant to go anywhere near City. My sort of viewpoint about City has been widespread amongst people involved at the senior level for the past couple of decades but I suspect it is now pretty much universal even at the youth level in the aftermath of that:

http://offthepitch.ca/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4797

I don't know that this is the best example of what I'm talking about here, but Ryan Gauss is a bit of a slippery customer and this story is a fine illustration of that. All in all, however, it was a two-sided issue.

My issues with the way London City works are as follows: That the team is awful to watch and considers it an excellent season when they win 4 of 24 games (one of which was a forfeiture by Toronto Croatia), that the owner uses club resources (the London City official twitter page counts) to try to influence city politics and for his own personal aims (glad I voted Fontana, if for no other reason than Gauss didn't), that the playgrounds are not only a godawful place to watch soccer (there's a bog right beside it), but that they have no policy regarding smoking in the stands meaning that you literally cannot avoid sitting near it, and the people who go around selling game-ball tickets are often blowing smoke in your face as they do it. Also that the club sponsors are thanked over the P.A. system every five minutes.

So I can sum it up as; VERY UNPROFESSIONAL. Not even semi-professional sort of behaviour.

It doesn't surprise me in the least that the new BoD would be there for little more than window dressing probably to meet some D3 sanctioning requirement.

While I don't think this was a D3 requirement and I know I shouldn't be surprised, I can't help but feel extremely disappointed. I had considered applying for a position myself but thought it might be a waste of time with more qualified individuals trying to get posts.

I can't say it's any more than my opinion, of course, but it would appear it's just going to be more of the same old one-man band that City has always been.

[VPjr]

I can tell you that creating this BoD has nothing to do with meeting sanctioning requirements

[RS]

Greg Yeoman appears to be a guy who likes soccer, but has no prior ties to the club itself.

He's a fairly prominent RPB member.

Why did you bring his name up? I don't see it in that link you provided.

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

Think the content of the first url has changed since it was first posted.

[Redcoatsforever]

He's a fairly prominent RPB member.

Why did you bring his name up? I don't see it in that link you provided.

Sorry about that. Greg Yeoman is referenced on the London City twitter page, as a BoD appointee, he has no prior involvement with the club (maybe as a fan, I don't know) and the link provided was to illustrate the people who are already part of the organization who just seemed to be getting positions. That was the part that led me to believe that nothing was going to change, and since Greg Yeoman wasn't a contributor to the perspective I just mentioned his name in passing.

Think the content of the first url has changed since it was first posted.

It hasn't.

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

Knew I'd seen something concrete on that somewhere. Sounds like if you are interested the opportunity may well be there for you:

http://twitter.com/LondonCity1973

London City is re-opening Board of Director applications in order to have one or two more fans on the board. Our fans provide great insight

Send applications to info@londoncity.ca by January 3, 2011

[TFCRegina]

Yeoman is excited about the job, I can tell you that, I know the guy. He really wants to help turn London City around, but I doubt he'll have much influence. I don't know if critically analyzing these BoD appointments is really going to tell us much about the team. Real change will come from hiring the right people and signing the right players. And until that happens, nothing is going to change at the club.

[Redcoatsforever]

Knew I'd seen something concrete on that somewhere. Sounds like if you are interested the opportunity may well be there for you:

http://twitter.com/LondonCity1973

London City is re-opening Board of Director applications in order to have one or two more fans on the board. Our fans provide great insight

Send applications to info@londoncity.ca by January 3, 2011

I've been considering applying since the first round of applications were announced, but the sad truth is that in the coming months I'll be lucky to have the time to even go watch matches this season. I'd love to be a part of the club, my father played for them back in the day, but I just can't commit that kind of time and effort to it now.

Maybe if they have openings next season.

Yeoman is excited about the job, I can tell you that, I know the guy. He really wants to help turn London City around, but I doubt he'll have much influence. I don't know if critically analyzing these BoD appointments is really going to tell us much about the team. Real change will come from hiring the right people and signing the right players. And until that happens, nothing is going to change at the club.

Yeah, I've seen on the London City facebook page that yeoman has been posting with a lot questions about the club's operations. The fact that he's a Red Patch Boy helps a lot in bolstering my faith in his appointment (although I personally used to sit in the U-Sector). I'm interested to learn which portfolios have been created, and who has received them.

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

One of my relatives played for City back in the day as well. They were much stronger back in the 70s by all accounts back when it was still Marcus Gauss in control and they were not that far removed from being the German Canadians, who were a very strong team in London soccer in the 60s. The way I heard it they eventually got bored with all the travel up and down the 401 given the Toronto teams weren't that much better than the top teams in London at that point and handed over the franchise rights to Marconi.

The second incarnation of City as a semi-pro team (which seemed to possibly be motivated by a failure to compete locally with the top London teams like the White Eagles at that point) was reasonably respectable initially in NSL terms when players like Anthony Comacho were being brought in from the Caribbean but went downhill steadily from there unfortunately. It tends to be the excessive time commitment (beyond the failure to actually pay people to play in what is supposed to be a semi-pro league) that you hear as being the number one issue from ex-players with playing in the CSL as opposed to WOSL. The more teams that emerge within relatively easy driving distance the more chance there is of an open age semi-pro format working in a London context so the arrival of teams in Hamilton, Milton, Kitchener and Brantford may help a bit if the schedule is skewed heavily towards those teams and away from the single table approach.

Should probably balance my earlier extreme skepticism by mentioning that Aldo Caranci is actually highly credible for a BoD sort of role given his London Gryphons involvement. Would be nice to think it's a new beginning etc but the recent track record isn't good obviously. Ryan and Sean were always very polite when they sold the match ball tickets back in the 90s. Maybe the issue with smoking in that regard will be solved when/if a fourth generation of the Gauss family starts to be involved.