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Comparing the Eight U.S. Presidential Candidates’ Platforms and Backgrounds

Published

7 years ago

January 9, 2018

After the United States Men’s National Team lost to Trinidad & Tobago, thus failing to qualify for the FIFA 2018 World Cup, the soccer world in the U.S. has gone berserk. Some people were calling for complete makeovers, while others were saying that there only needed to be small changes. Media was calling for U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati to resign immediately and for Bruce Arena to be fired before then, and while Arena did not last long after the loss, Gulati repeatedly said he was going to run for re-election again.

Seemingly everybody in the U.S. had opinions on what the USSF had to do, and few of these ideas agreed with each other. However, the one thing that everybody did agree with was that there needed to be change.

What needed to change and how to get the country from its current state to becoming a soccer country is a highly debated topic leading to 10 individuals campaigning to become the next U.S. Soccer president. Gulati dropped out of the race, saying he will not seek a fourth term, and Paul Lapointe failed to advance to the last stage, leaving eight candidates vying to become the next president.

The entire process of how to become a candidate was long and had many stipulations. First, in order to run for the unpaid position, candidates need to be U.S. citizens. Each potential candidate then had to declare that they were running and send in at least three letters of recommendation by Dec. 12. They also had to pass a background check.

U.S. Soccer holds its annual meetings on Feb. 8-11 at the Renaissance Orlando at Sea World. The voting is to take place on the Feb. 10. So, who is even voting? That part can get a little confusing, so here is a complete breakdown of it. In short, members of the professional, youth, and adult soccer leagues, and elected athletes all vote.

Who are the eight candidates receiving votes? Let’s meet them below:

Paul Caligiuri

Bio: It’s ironic that Trinidad eliminated the U.S. from the World Cup last year when 29 years ago it was Caligiuri’s goal against Trinidad that put the Yanks in the biggest sporting event in the world for the first time in 40 years. Now 53, Caligiuri started his playing career at UCLA. In his junior year, the two-time All-American captained UCLA to an NCAA championship. After graduating, Caliguiri played one year in the Western Soccer Alliance, earning MVP honors and U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year, before taking his skills abroad.

The defensive midfielder signed for Hamburger SV and spent the next 10 years in Germany. Caliguiri came home for the inaugural MLS season, where he spent the rest of his professional career. Caliguiri played 133 club games, finding the back of the net four times and adding three assists.

The California native is most remembered for “The Shot Heard Round the World.” It was this game-winning goal back on Nov. 19, 1989 that helped the U.S. get into the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy.

After retiring from soccer, the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame member has taken up coaching. He started at the college level with both the men’s and women’s teams at Cal Poly-Pomona before taking the reins of Orange County FC in the NPSL.

Platform: There aren’t many details of Caligiuri’s platform, but he has stated that he wants there to be some form of promotion/relegation. Not surprisingly, after spending years as a youth coach, he also wants to improve the youth system in America. He will create different committees that will be assigned to youth programs, and aims to completely reform the Developmental Academy. Part of that reform is to merge the Olympic Development Program and U.S. club soccer together. Caligiuri has also said that his goal is for the women to defend their World Cup title in 2019 and for the men to win it in 2022.

Kathy Carter

Bio: Carter is the current president of Soccer United Management (SUM), which is “the preeminent soccer company in North America, exclusively offering access to integrated marketing partnerships with properties such as Major League Soccer, United States Soccer Federation, the Mexican National Team, and more.” In other words, she is in charge of the marketing side for MLS.

Carter is a former high school All-American and college soccer player. After college she tried to continue to play soccer, but when that never took off she joined the executive side of the sport. 1993 was the first big year for her, as Carter served on the World Cup Organizing Committee. After the 1994 World Cup, Carter became a founding member of MLS and has stuck with the league ever since. From its inauguration until 1999, Carter held the role of vice president of corporate marketing for MLS, and in 2003 joined SUM.

The only female candidate, Carter has 25 years of experience on the business side of soccer. After Gulati stated that he would not be running for re-election, Carter threw her hat into the ring. Both Gulati and MLS commissioner Don Garber reportedly — but that’s unconfirmed — urged Carter to run and are both backing her in the race.

Platform: There are many aspects that Carter will keep the same if given the job. Her focus will be on the 2026 World Cup bid and bringing the international game to the States.

A large part of her platform is equality. She believes that a female president will help the women’s game and wants for every American, regardless of social status, race, ethnicity, or gender, to have the opportunity to play soccer and be treated fairly.

However, her biggest asset that she brings is her history and ability as an executive. She is a great business mind and proven executive. If elected, Carter will limit her own power and will create a CEO position, which she has stated would be Dan Flynn. Carter will hire soccer experts to improve the technical side, while she will focus on the business side.

She also says that she wants to address pay-to-play, but doesn’t go into much more detail.

Carlos Cordeiro

Bio: Cordeiro, 61, is most famous for his current role as vice president of U.S. Soccer, however this is a post he has only held since 2016. Prior to being voted in as the VP, Cordeiro served in multiple roles within U.S. Soccer. He was the treasurer since 2008 and has been the chair of U.S. Soccer’s budget committee since 2011. He is a member of the CONCACAF council, volunteered on the 2008 U.S. World Cup Bid, and he’s currently involved with the 2026 World Cup bid.

The Harvard graduate lacks the soccer knowledge of other candidates but has more than 30 years of experience on the financial side. In 1980, he started his career with Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company, then transferred to Credit Suisse First Boston in London before finally ending up with Goldman Sachs, where he spent the next 12 years.

Platform: There are both pros and cons of Cordeiro’s history in the finance sector and on the USSF Board. He has no experience in the sport apart from his executive roles, but he has stated that he will appoint a general manager to take over the technical aspects of the game. The 61-year-old also has experience with all the politics, which has its advantages and disadvantages within itself. The biggest disadvantage for him is going to be how he will differ from Gulati when Cordeiro has been his No. 2 for the better part of two years.

On how he will differ from Gulati, Cordeiro said: “We can’t have more of the same. I think when we talk about change, ultimately, we need to ensure that we have very open, inclusive, transparent leadership if we are to achieve the growth we want. It can’t be about one person making every single decision. It can’t be an organization that focuses on only some members…I’ve worked very hard to get the board more engaged, and not just have it there as a rubber stamp — that may be too strong a word — but just to ratify things. We need a board who are engaged. That means they’re deeply involved in strategy, making critical decisions about expenditures. Those boards are, by and large, the best boards to have.”

Steve Gans

Bio: Gans’ background is unlike any other candidate. He is the only person running that has a history on the business side as well as soccer experience. If that’s not enough, he is the only candidate not to declare his intentions to run for president before the U.S. lost to Trinidad.

The 57-year-old went to Cornell University, then Brandeis University where he got his B.A., and played collegiate soccer at both schools. Afterwards, he played in the indoor league MISL for the Baltimore Blast. In addition to playing, he worked as an executive with the Blast.

His soccer background does not stop there, though. Gans has over 25 years of soccer experience, which includes being a member of the board to bring the World Cup to the U.S. in 1994, part of the board of directors for the Development Academy team FC Bolts Celtic, and represented youth and professional teams domestically and in England.

Although he has a solid amount of soccer knowledge and experience, Gans is truly a lawyer by trade. He went to the Harvard Law School and the University of Pennsylvania Law School and passed the Massachusetts bar and is currently a partner in the Boston law firm Prince Lobel Tye LLP. He also held the roles of chief operating officer and general counsel for New England Mobile Book Fair, Inc.

“I’ve been a player, I’ve been a front-office executive, I’ve been an adviser, whether consulting business or as an attorney, both on management side and playing side,” said Gans. “I’ve represented players, represented management, represented clubs. Youth, I’ve done all of that, too, from being a parent and a coach, but also counseling youth clubs on a variety of legal and structural issues.”

Platform: Gans has a full on 20-point platform on his website. Here is a summary of each point:

Create a soccer summit within 60 days.
Top-down evaluation of employees.
“Halt and institute a moratorium on the current U.S. Soccer plan to centralize the State Referee Administrator responsibilities.”
Hold president position accountable.
Within 60 days meet leaders and evaluate youth programs.
Increase role of Athlete Council.
“Institute an atmosphere on the Youth Council Technical Working Group that welcomes and encourages feedback.”
Improve domestic leagues.
Improve youth development system to become leading soccer nation at the international level.
Ensure that the U.S. gets the 2026 World Cup bid.
Ensure greater transparency and accountability.
Put $130-$140 million surplus to use in youth development, field improvements, and scholarships.
“Promptly and respectfully address issues raised by members of the Athletes Council and its constituents.”
“Meet with national youth affiliates to evaluate whether or not to rescind the player development initiative that prevents school age children from playing with their classmates.”
Partially defray the pay-to-play system.
Ensure women and men have equal working conditions.
Create a search committee to find the next USMNT head coach.
Give Youth Council and Adult Council a voice in how to improve their programs.
Top-down review and improvements on Development Academy.
“Always advocate 100% for U.S. Soccer when dealing with FIFA.”

Kyle Martino

Bio: The ex-University of Virginia midfielder played collegiately from 1999-2001, scoring 17 goals and registering 21 assists. He was the ACC Player of the Year in 2001 and a MAC Hermann Trophy finalist in his sophomore and junior years. He skipped his senior season to enter MLS and was drafted eighth overall in the 2002 MLS SuperDraft by the Columbus Crew.

The Atlanta native won MLS Rookie of the Year in 2002 and went on to play 125 MLS games and scored 11 goals and provided 12 assists for the Crew and the LA Galaxy. Martino made just eight international appearances and scored once for the Yanks. His lone goal was the game winner in a 2-0 World Cup qualifier against Panama in 2005.

After his professional playing career, Martino became a commentator. He’s worked for ESPN and FOX, but today is the only American commentator covering the English Premier League for NBC Sports. Although he has stated that this is his dream job, Martino is on a hiatus to campaign.

Platform: Martino’s entire platform rests on three main pillars — Transparency, equality, and progress. Transparency is a common concern and something that many other candidates are focusing on as well.

In terms of equality, Martino will look to create an equal playing field for both the men and women, but he will look to go beyond just gender. The former national team member noticed that in South America and Europe, basketball courts have soccer goals underneath them. He believes that having a similar set up in the States will give low-income families, that cannot afford pay-to-play, a chance to play soccer. Martino wants to ensure that every child in America has an opportunity to play the sport.

Finally, Martino talks about progress. He believes that the country needs to continue to push forward on its goals and improve development. He wants to improve coaching and create training centers that are of no cost.

“I’d like to focus on progress, as it’s the sense of moving backward that I know has so much of the US soccer community feeling lost and upset,” Marino said via his website. “When a nation of more than 300 million fails to qualify for the World Cup, it’s not because of a few bad bounces on a less-than-perfect pitch; it’s because of systemic failures across all levels of the game.”

While nobody is doubting Martino’s knowledge of the sport and we know that he has done almost everything as a player, he has no history on the business side. He also wishes to make the president a paid position.

Hope Solo

Bio: Hope Solo, 36, is perhaps the most well-known candidate. She is a World Cup champion, two-time Olympic gold medalist, winner of the 2011 and 2015 FIFA World Cup Golden Glove awards, and leads all American goalkeepers in caps, wins, shutouts, and starts in U.S. history. She has represented her country at every level, starting with the U-14 age group, and is arguably the best goalkeeper in U.S. history. She has over 200 caps in 16 years as a pro and has played in the NWSL and abroad.

There are no questions about Solo’s ability on the field, but her off-field record has its ups and down. She was one of the main leaders for the players in the national team’s labor negotiations back in 2016. However, she has a history of legal issues, being arrested in 2014 and suspended by U.S. soccer for half a year in 2016 for disciplinary reasons after the women lost to Sweden in the Olympic quarterfinals.

Platform: Solo was a late addition and her announcement to run came from nowhere. In a Facebook post, she told a story of why she is running, giving a personal account of the financial issues in U.S. Soccer.

“The systemic problem in U.S. Soccer starts at the youth level. Soccer has always been a middle class sport and in more recent times, has become an upper middle class sport. Some of the best clubs around the country charge each youth player between $3000-$5000 per season. I have personally witnessed young players heartbroken over the financial reality that they could no longer pursue their dream.”

Solo wants USSF to be more transparent, the focus to be on soccer instead of the business side, pay-to-pay to be addressed, and an investment in the youth system. However, her first priority will not surprisingly be to ensure there is an equal opportunity for everyone and to secure equal pay for men and women.

Michael Winograd

Bio: Winograd, 47, is a corporate attorney from New York and has a background that will help him connect the technical and business sides of the sport. He played college soccer at Lafayette College before making it as a professional in Israel. After playing he became an assistant at the University of Richmond and was a director of youth and team development for the Staten Island Vipers, and has a history of coaching in youth camps.

Winograd got his law degree in 2000 from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and since then has been practicing law in New York.

His website states: “Winograd successfully has devised and implemented case strategies, managed teams, drafted briefs, argued before state and federal judges, and negotiated settlements. He has represented some of the largest banks and companies, domestic and foreign, in high stakes cases and negotiations. In 2008, he, along with former colleagues, helped create the Legal Mentoring Program for the Harlem Education Advancement Fund (HEAF), which recently awarded Winograd and his colleagues its long-term volunteer service award.”

Platform: Winograd believes that the biggest issue in U.S. soccer is youth development and will make that his priority.

“We need to define a clear path to the national team and make sure that we are identifying kids at an early age and getting kids at an early age — good players — in front of good coaches,” Winograd said. “And that implicates identification, it implicates training, clarity of a path for the consumer — so people know what the right path is, if you have what it takes — and it also takes money.”

He also believes that there needs to be more transparency and will institute this immediately when hiring the next head coach of the men’s team. He wants to create a panel that will collaboratively decide on who will replace Bruce Arena. In addition, he stands for equal pay on the women’s side and equality for all.

Eric Wynalda

Bio: Wynalda has had a historic and memorable playing careering. He was the first American to play in the German Bundesliga, the first American to captain a European club, scored the inaugural MLS goal, is fourth on the USMNT all-time scoring list, and a three-time World Cup veteran. The striker scored 41 goals and added 21 assists in 140 club games. He also found the back of the net 34 times in 106 international caps. His 34 goals were the most in U.S. history until Landon Donovan came on to the scene.

After playing, the Hall of Famer took up coaching and has been in that role ever since. He coached amateur side Cal FC, Atlanta Silverbacks in the NASL, and UPSL team LA Wolves. When not coaching Wynalda is also an analyst with a history with ESPN and ABC, but he’s currently with FOX.

Platform: Anybody who is not a fan of Gulati will most likely support Wynalda, who is considered an “anti-Gulati” by some. He will want to change the schedule of American soccer so that it matches that of Europe and FIFA, so the MLS season would run from July to June. He does not think that the men’s team needs to completely start over and that a change in schedule will help that national team setup.

“The [problem with the] national team, in my opinion, right now, is not a talent issue,” said Wynalda. “Under no circumstances should we start believing that the players that we have — whether they play domestically or abroad — aren’t good enough. We have a very good team. We underperform, sure, but there’s mechanisms that exist within Major League Soccer that if we fix them, we immediately create a much more competitive environment for our players. We create a scenario where there’s more visibility for the league itself.”

On the women’s side he wants to completely redo the collective bargaining agreement and restructure so that they can get equal pay. He will also look to connect lower divisions to MLS and have a form of promotion and relegation. Wynalda believes that kids are being over-coached and wants to improve the youth coaching and development.

Candidate Platforms

Candidate	Expand Business Side	Hire Technical Director	Improve Coaching	Lower/ Eliminate Pay-to-Play	Promotion/ Relegation	Transparency	Youth Development
Caligiuri					√		√
Carter	√	√				√	√
Cordeiro	√	√				√
Gans			√	√		√	√
Martino			√	√		√	√
Solo				√		√	√
Winograd		√		√	√	√
Wynalda			√		√		√

Uncategorized

State of The Mane Land 1/1/25

Our 10th season of covering the club and second as an independent enterprise was a great one, and a memorable one.

Published

3 weeks ago

January 1, 2025

Michael Citro

Dan MacDonald / The Mane Land

Happy New Year, TML family! As we head into 2025, I’d like to update you on how things are going. As always, I want to be transparent with you, because we owe you that for your support over more than a decade of covering Orlando City, the Orlando Pride, OCB, and “all things” soccer-related in the City Beautiful. (“All things” is in quotation marks because it’s admittedly hyperbolic. We’d love to bring you coverage on everything from the professional teams all the way down to rec league results, but that’s probably a pipe dream. We cover as much as our staff size allows us to cover.)

Let me start by apologizing if this is long (it is long, there’s no “if”). I hope you read it all, but I understand if you don’t. This is just the state of things here as of 1/1/25.

Our 2024 was awesome. We watched and covered the Orlando Pride’s incredible record-setting, two-trophy season. We watched and covered Orlando City reaching the playoffs for the fifth consecutive year as the team played deeper into the MLS playoffs and Concacaf Champions Cup than ever before. We watched and covered OCB making the MLS NEXT Pro playoffs for the second consecutive season. It was the first time all three of the club’s teams made the postseason in the same year.

We saw Facundo Torres become the all-time leading goal scorer in Orlando City history. We saw an unexpected second season of Duncan McGuire playing in a purple uniform after nearly losing him to Blackburn. Yes, 2024 was a pretty great year for Orlando soccer.

It’s hard to believe The Mane Land is quickly approaching two full years since VOX/SBNation informed me and many other soccer blog managers that they would cease support of our efforts. While that didn’t mean much to us in terms of compensation (almost nothing, in fact, despite many sites like ours operating like a 24/7 source of content and news on their behalf, allowing them to bring in advertising dollars), it was a significant hindrance to us doing this thing we love, because they did a lot of the back-end stuff for us — things like domain registration, technical support of the content management system (that they always seemed to be tinkering with and things often broke as a result), web hosting, etc.

Our readers and podcast listeners stepped up in a big way to help us transition to independence in spring of 2023. The money contributed by our many founders in our GoFundMe campaign and our few member subscribers in our Buy Me a Coffee program has sustained us for two years, establishing our business, paying for expenses like hosting fees, domain registrations/renewals, tax and paperwork filing, etc., and even allowing me to give most of our staff something for their efforts just before Christmas 2023. As the initial GoFundMe dollars continue to recede and are not being adequately replaced by our membership or advertisers, things begin to look a bit scary, but not necessarily dire (yet).

The Plan for Self-Sufficiency

My goal upon The Mane Land becoming independent was to make our site self-sufficient. What that means is that I wanted to be able to pay for the things we need out of a combination of membership subscriptions for additional reader and listener content/perks, merchandise sales, and advertising sales. That part isn’t too hard. The other thing I’d hoped to do to make this site successful was to be able to compensate its contributors regularly, even if it was a small amount. Not only is this important for retention and contributor morale and buy-in, but it would also make it easier to entice new contributors.

I’ve been blessed over the last decade to find other people who share my passion for telling the story of Orlando City, the Pride, and OCB as it unfolds. I consider these contributors friends, colleagues, and co-workers, and I appreciate every single contribution they make to the website, our podcasts, and our social media accounts. They give what they can and I am thankful for every word.

And it kills me that I am failing them and failing you, although I have not quite yet failed completely.

It’s no secret that this is not my “day job.” I work full-time in addition to managing this site. While I’m the kind of person who remains hopeful, I was never under the illusion that TML would grow to the point where I could quit my full-time job and do this for a living. The most optimistic side of me still insists it’s possible in a perfect world…we simply don’t live in a perfect world.

Because I work a 9-to-5 and spend pretty close to full-time hours on The Mane Land as well each week, I have found since our site went independent that I simply don’t have the time to manage and organize the site, write and podcast frequently, and do the things that will bring in the required income to sustain The Mane Land indefinitely without finding more help (which I also don’t have time to do). That’s where I’m failing you, failing our staff, and failing this site (and my business…or side hustle, if you like).

Time: The Enemy

Many hands make light work. Right now, The Mane Land lacks enough hands, and one of my biggest sources of frustration is not having enough time, energy, or success recruiting new contributors.

And this is by no means an issue with current staff. I can’t thank our contributors enough. Senior writer Sean Rollins and David Rohe, my podcast co-host and also a senior writer, have been incredible since their first days in 2014 and 2015, respectively (it blows my mind they’ve been here so long). Marcus Mitchell writes and helps with the editing and is invaluable. Ben Miller has been contributing and being a positive influence in our internal Slack channel since 2017. Dan MacDonald has been photographing games for us when available since 2018. Joshua Taylor kicks in a Lion Links piece every week as he has done since 2020. Nic Josey joined us in 2022 despite being a busy emergency physician by trade, contributing to our coverage. Ryan Smith has mostly stepped away as a staff writer, but even he helped out once or twice in 2024.

We added two fantastic writers in 2024, although Sam Denker, who augmented our Orlando Pride coverage with feature stories this year, has sadly already informed me he is moving on. Andrew DeSalvo has been a world-class addition with his in-depth statistical analysis, overwhelming enthusiasm, and unparalleled volunteerism. The staff has been amazing.

Our first several years, I hardly needed to do any recruiting. I put up a post on the site asking for help, and I’d receve a few dozen emails per year with people volunteering to contribute — soccer fans, aspiring sports journalists looking for experience, college-age writers seeking clips for their portfolio, photographers, graphic artists, etc. Some of those earliest respondents are still on our staff.

For about the last four to five years, the number of applicants has slowed to a trickle. I’m certainly at fault for that, as I don’t spend enough time promoting staff openings or looking for ways to get the word out that don’t eat into our bank account. What was once effortless now requires time and energy. But with a work week of 40+ hours, a daily round-trip commute of an hour, and my various writing and editing duties, I find time to be my biggest obstacle.

And my lack of time is why the financial side of the business isn’t where it needs to be either, because it needs to be in a place where I can not only give our current contributors something for their efforts, but I also need to find incentives for new people to come help us, making the work lighter for everyone, and freeing me up to spend more time running the business.

I have not had the time to properly manage our web shop. I haven’t found the time to design more items or find strategies to sell more of what we have on offer. Our merchandise clearly isn’t resonating, or people simply don’t know about it, and that is something I’d love to have time to fix.

When it comes to raising advertising dollars, I’ve barely had time to put together any pricing, let alone solicit potential advertisers.

And that’s honestly my biggest failing as the managing editor of The Mane Land and owner of the business — not having enough time to do this right. Over the years, we’ve lost a lot of great contributors. That’s nothing new, because blog life isn’t for everyone, and there’s an average shelf life on it. We’ve added some great staff members over the years as well.

One of our biggest challenges is that our current staff almost all live outside the Orlando area, which creates difficulty in staffing matches. Because I believe the best way to cover a team is to do it in person whenever possible, it falls on me to cover the Lions when they’re at home. I’m covering Orlando City matches in person at home and, due to so many of our contributors working nights and weekends, I’m also recapping the road games. In 2024, I covered just about all of the 34 Orlando City regular-season games, five playoff matches, four Concacaf Champions Cup games, and three Leagues Cup matches. That’s more than 45 OCSC games right there.

That’s not a complaint. I love doing it. I’d love it even more if I could scrap the day job and do it full-time, because it’s a huge time commitment on top of a full-time job. Add two to three podcasts per week, writing game previews, editing our contributors’ stories five of the seven nights per week, helping Sean with live coverage when the Pride and OCB play on the same day — and my eternal gratitude to him for dutifully covering the Pride and commuting an hour each way for home matches while also voluntarily providing coverage of OCB and being our primary breaking news writer on weekdays — maintaining our publication schedule, doing most of our social media posts, planning ahead, organizing tasks such as the Season in Review and Top Moments stories, and updating plug-ins and content on the website, and you quickly run out of time to reach out to advertisers, create a rate card for the podcast, design new merchandise, etc.

It also, unfortunately, saps any time I might have to find new contributors for the staff, so it’s a perpetual cycle.

This wasn’t a problem early in our existence, because we had a lot of staff members who lived in town and multiple writers who not only wanted to cover the matches live but actively lobbied to do it. So, it wasn’t necessary for me to cover every game. I wrote more feature stories back then (something I love to do) and had more time for managerial pursuits. Beyond the time commitment, the schedule I’ve been keeping during the soccer season the last few years requires an insane amount of mental energy, because down time comes so infrequently.

Again, this is not meant as a complaint, so my apologies if it sounds like one. If I didn’t love doing this so much, I’d have given it up years ago. It’s merely important to convey this information, so that this State of The Mane Land piece is as transparent as it can be (this is part of the setup, as it were). Summarizing this overly verbose post so far: I don’t have enough time to run this place properly while being responsible for so much of the content, especially the live content, and not having the time to run this place properly is preventing me from finding solutions.

So, what am I driving at, exactly? Bear with me for one more side excursion, and we’ll get there.

Our Financial Health

We began our independence in incredible shape. Our GoFundMe was successful beyond our wildest imaginations. We paid for all up-front costs, like setting up the LLC and some initial design and back-end technical work, as well as two years of everything we needed: web hosting, domain registration fees, our WordPress theme (the site layout, widgets, and font package, essentially), a few WordPress plug-ins we needed, and registered agent services to ensure the business did everything by the book. We also had money to get the business taxes done and make a few minor purchases to help with bookkeeping and day-to-day needs. Life was great because of our GoFundMe Founders.

We did the GoFundMe campaign after having an almost exactly 50/50 split on a couple hundred responses to our online poll, in which we asked our readers and listeners how they’d prefer to support our pivot to independence. About half expressed a preference for a one-time donation through a GoFundMe or Kickstarter type of campaign. The other half said they preferred a recurring monthly subscription service like Patreon (we ended up going with Buy Me a Coffee), in which they would get added content and/or perks for a monthly fee.

Because the split was so close to exactly 50/50, we opted to do both and give everyone a choice. We did not launch these at the same time, and I think that was a mistake on my part. We launched the GoFundMe first, because we needed start-up funds, and if we didn’t reach our goal, our plan was to refund everyone’s money and call it a day. But we surpassed our goal in a matter of hours! In the end, we exceeded our start-up goal by a lot. But I think many people either missed the message that we were planning to do both the GoFundMe and the monthly subscription service, or they were just so eager to provide immediately help that they donated up front. Either way, it ultimately undercut our subscription drive.

Given how successful our GoFundMe was, I figured if we were able to get even half the number of subscribers as we had initial Founders, we’d be in amazing shape — even if the subscribers came in mostly at the Homegrown Player level, rather than TAM Player or Designated Player levels. I vastly overestimated how many subscribers we could count on, basing my estimations on the initial poll, and not thinking about the delayed timing of the subscription launch.

While I wasn’t quite putting my faith in 50/50, I thought we would be able to pull in more subscribers than we did. We fell well short of that, so if people did understand we were doing both, it seems I’ve failed to provide the requisite incentive perks to entice subscribers. I’m certainly willing to take your suggestions for add-ons we can offer that might help increase our subscription base. It’s another thing I haven’t had time to think much about, along with more feature content that I had envisioned doing just for subscribers.

As mentioned above, I have not had the time to properly manage the web store. I haven’t found the time to design more items or find strategies to sell more of what we have on offer. Our merchandise clearly isn’t resonating, or people simply don’t know about it. I realize some people won’t want to wear our logo (although I think it’s cool), and I do have thoughts on other things we can offer that are more soccer-specific in nature, but I haven’t had the (say it with me) time to create them.

In terms of advertising dollars, I’ve barely had time to put together any pricing, let alone solicit potential advertisers. Our podcast got its first real sponsor in 2024 for a limited time, and we profoundly thank WJ Dog Treats for sponsoring a month’s worth of podcasts last year. They were great to work with and we enjoyed ad-libbing their podcast ads. Sorry if they ran a little long. We are verbose and we were having fun.

Why am I telling you all of this behind-the-scenes financial stuff? Because more successful finances would allow me to offer new writers a financial incentive to join the staff. It turns out that there are more people who are willing to write stories every week for $100 a month than people who would do it for free out of their love of the club.

Failures and Successes

It killed me not to be able to compensate our deserving staff writers in 2024 as I was able to do in 2023. It made me feel good that those who contributed regularly and provided the bulk of our content had a little something extra in their stockings before Christmas 2023. I didn’t mind the hit to the business savings account, because the staff earned it, and I had the ability to pay it, so it was paid.

It also killed me not to be able to send Sean to Kansas City to cover the NWSL final between the Pride and the Washington Spirit. He earned the right to do that with his excellent coverage of the Pride the last few seasons and for voluntarily providing our readers coverage of OCB. We looked into it, but the costs of travel and hotels the week of the NWSL final was just a bit too high for comfort. And you deserve the kind of coverage that comes from our writers being there, too.

We just couldn’t quite do it, because I wanted to avoid cutting things too closely when it comes time for renewing things this spring. I have kept enough in reserve to pay for those upcoming renewals — to have the business taxes done; complete our annual filing; renew the hosting, domain registration, and our theme license; and perhaps have a couple hundred dollars left over in case something unexpected comes up.

I have managed to successfully avoid some expenses since going independent by doing things like moving The Mane Land PawedCast last year to the Fans First Sports Network, which takes care of our podcast hosting costs and helps us promote the show. They’ve been great. They even trickle in a few advertising dollars for us, but we’re talking about a small sum that doesn’t always even make the necessary minimum to distribute it monthly (most months it’s like having one DP-level monthly subscriber).

We began SkoPurp Soccer: An Orlando Pride PawedCast to better serve Orlando Pride fans in 2023, and we enjoy doing it. We are hosting that for free on Spotify for Podcasters, which is a bit limiting as a platform, but it gets the job done at no cost. Our goal is to move that show to FFSN when the audience grows sufficiently to make it worth their while. That hasn’t yet happened, and probably won’t have much (if any) positive financial impact when/if it does, but it will be a step in the right direction for the show.

However, starting that show created another recurring time commitment for me. I wanted to find a permanent host for it who wasn’t me, but so far, we’ve had no one express interest in taking it over.

Our Future

If any or all of the above sounds at all ominous, or even complain-y, it’s not meant to be. Our situation is serious, but at the end of the day, this endeavor is just a blog and a couple of podcasts. My plan is for us to continue through 2025 and beyond, but we have some important milestone deadlines ahead, and the first of those comes up in the spring, when I must determine whether the business will/should continue. So, we’ll approach the season as if we’ll be here throughout 2025, but if i’m being honest, there’s a legit chance it stops before the MLS All-Star break. I can’t help that right now, as much as I wish I could.

Our future is not money-driven (not in a strict sense). We have the funds to pay for another year and probably two with what is in the bank and the small amount we have coming in from subscribers. I’ve even had staff members volunteer to pay some of our costs if need be. That is extremely humbling, and they have my undying love for offering, but that’s not the issue. We have the financial means to survive, even if we aren’t exactly thriving.

However, to make TML work as a business requires me to have more time to do the things that will sustain us — finding more volunteer contributors (who would possibly be compensated when income allows, but with no guarantees) or moving the business to a level of financial health that would allow us to attract paid contributors. The common theme here is the “more hands” thing. TML doesn’t need to make money, as nice as that would be. It needs to not lose money, to sustain itself, and (optimally) to give at least some small reward to those creative people putting in the work.

In short (LOL, I know), our continued existence is threatened not by a lack of revenue, but by a lack of time, and more specifically, my lack of time.

As much as I love every minute I spend on this site and our podcasts, it isn’t healthy to spend so many of those minutes doing it. Fatigue is real. Burnout is real. Anxiety about who will cover a game if I want to occasionally spend a weekend in the mountains with no Wi-Fi is real. Mentally, I’ve been running on fumes by midseason each of the last few years, and by the end of the year I’m a complete wreck. I have poured more than a decade of my life into this labor of love and have done so gladly, but my body and brain keep reminding me I’m not a kid anymore. I must have more down time, more days off during the season, and a chance to unplug and quiet my mind. The only way for me to get that time is by adding more staff writers (especially local ones) and editors. Not having the time to beat the bushes to find them is agonizingly ironic.

While our plan is to continue indefinitely as we have, I must honestly admit that “indefinitely” may not include the entirety of 2025. I need to have an answer on our continued existence in place by the first week of March. This is a self-imposed deadline, but there’s no sense in spending a few hundred dollars on recurring business expenses in the spring if nothing changes, and I don’t want to feel at the end of 2025 like I did at the end of 2024. I’d rather dissolve the company and split whatever remains in our bank account among the people who have helped me do this over the years.

If we can add staff writers/editors, we can and will continue for as long as you’ll have us. It seems so simple. It used to be. It has not been since about 2018 or so.

What Can You Do?

If you’re one of those souls who is prone to asking, “What can I do to help?”, first, bless you. The world needs more people like that. Secondly, there are a few things.

First, think hard about the people you know (or even yourself). Do you or someone you know follow soccer and have the ability and willingness to write? If so (and remember: if you can talk about soccer, you can probably write about it), you or that person can join our staff and help us build our numbers to lighten my load and the load of the staff, so that we have more time for recharging our batteries and growing the business side of things.

Do you or someone you know own a business? If so, perhaps we can partner up on something that would enable us to provide advertising inventory to you that would help your business, while the ad revenue would specifically endow a paid beat writer during the season.

Are you or someone you know creative? If so, you could suggest ways we can improve our Buy Me a Coffee subscription or web shop offerings. You might even donate a design for a t-shirt or other merchandise. Or you might be able to help us with some graphics to help our social media posts pop, drawing more attention to TML, which might translate into more subscribers.

Other free things you can do include chatting up your friends (real and virtual) about us on Facebook, Twitter (never X), BlueSky, Reddit, or elsewhere. You could repost or share our stories and include your personal thoughts on what you liked about them or why they made you happy/angry/sad/curious/etc. You could urge your Orlando City/Pride-loving friends to become readers or podcast listeners. All of these things might help us find people who may want to contribute to the site/podcasts or help build revenue to where we can add paid contributors.

All the above would cost you nothing, except the advertising, which is a business expense, and if you’re doing that with us, you’ll probably be doing that elsewhere anyway.

Finally, you can check out our Buy Me a Coffee page and consider whether our stories/podcasts enrich you enough to commit to a subscription. Do we provide you with $5 worth of entertainment per month? If so, please consider supporting us at the Homegrown Player Level. If you are in a position to help and like the perks we offer, you could consider subscribing at a higher level. Building finances and becoming capable of paying contributors would help with the whole time thing.

No one ever knows what the future holds in any aspect of life. We hope to be around for a long time. Whether that happens almost entirely depends on how successful we are in augmenting our staff with people who are as excited as we are about telling the story of the soccer club as it unfolds. As long as we’re here, we’ll continue to do our best to bring you worthwhile coverage of the club.

Thank you so much for your support. I am humbled and encouraged by it, and I am keeping the faith. We will keep doing our thing as usual for now. I will reassess in a couple of months and I will keep you informed.

We here at The Mane Land wish you a happy, healthy, successful 2025, and if the club wins more trophies, that would be nice too.

Uncategorized

A Note About Hurricane Milton and The Mane Land

First of all, be safe. Second of all, be safe. Third of all, here’s what’s up regarding our upcoming schedule.

Published

4 months ago

October 9, 2024

Michael Citro

Hello, Mane Landers! With another powerful storm bearing down on the Sunshine State, it’s good to know that Orlando City and OCB are off and the Pride are on the road this weekend. We hope that everyone remains safe as Hurricane Milton passes through and near the areas in which many of you (and us) live.

As always, I hate writing these pieces but it seems to be required at least once per year, so I wanted to let everyone know that we at The Mane Land are going to do our best to continue our normal coverage and publication schedule as best we can — understanding that we are not a priority for anyone in the area at the moment. Our schedule in the coming days is not really up to us, as there are always unknown aspects to every storm, and while Hurricane Milton may or may not disrupt some or all of us personally, there are cell, internet, and electricity services that could be affected — something far beyond our control — to the point where our normal service isn’t possible. So we ask that you be aware of that and to be patient if that happens.

Hopefully our cable/satellite/electricity/internet will stay on for all the normal reasons, as well as so we can continue our coverage of Orlando’s soccer teams.

As Hurricane Milton threatens our state, we want to wish all of you the best of luck. Mother Nature is not a force to be trifled with, so we hope that everyone takes the mindset to err on the side of caution rather than take unnecessary risks. The weather is undefeated and should never be challenged.

The weather is undefeated and should never be challenged.

For those who read us throughout the Central Florida area and beyond, please let this serve as a reminder that several of our writers will be within reach of the storm, and all or some of us could find ourselves without power, internet, and/or cell service soon. Some of our staff members live in the more vulnerable areas along the Gulf Coast and Space Coast, where flooding could be severe.

When The Weather Channel sends people to your area to broadcast about the storm, you definitely take notice.

The safety of the TML staff is obviously of paramount importance to me. I urge all of our staff to take appropriate precautions, including – should they deem it necessary – evacuation. I urge everyone to be wherever they’re going to be by 5 p.m. tonight and then to stay put. As a website, we will strive to continue to function as normally as possible over the coming days.

I will personally do everything in my power (provided I have power and either the internet or cell service, or both) to maintain the site’s schedule of features with whatever breaking news we can cover over the span of the storm’s passing and beyond. However, please be aware that the site could potentially go without updates for an indeterminate period if the storm is particularly destructive and leaves us without power/internet, or with more immediate problems that must be overcome before we can even think about sitting down to write a blog post or record a podcast. This may be unavoidable, but we will do everything we can to avoid it.

I will try to provide updates from The Mane Land Twitter account (@TheManeLand) periodically to let people know that we’re OK as I get reports from our staff, and what the status of stories will be over the days (and weeks, if need be) to come. We hope the storm isn’t too disruptive to our daily functions but…this is a blog and it is infinitely less important than real life. I guess what I’m trying to say is that we’ll do what we have to do and get back to normal as quickly as we can.

Hopefully I’ll be able to look back on this post in a few days and laugh about having written it.

But this is a two-way community, so enough about us. Where are you located in relation to the storm’s path? What are you doing to prepare for the hurricane? Are you getting out of harm’s way, or are you staying put? How are you planning to pass the time? What are your best hurricane hacks? Let us know what you’re up to in the comments section below and keep us updated on how the weather is affecting your area.

Stay safe, Lion Nation.

Uncategorized

Reflecting on Eight Years with The Mane Land

A look back over my time with The Mane Land (so far).

Published

2 years ago

June 20, 2023

David Rohe

Nick Leyva, The Mane Land

As of last week, I have been a contributor at The Mane Land for eight years. That’s longer than I’ve ever been at any of my actual jobs in my life. There are literally only a couple of people who have been with the site longer, but I’m still amazed at how long it’s been. This is not to say I’m going anywhere, but rather I wanted to take the opportunity to look back at the past eight years, and look ahead to the future.

Unlike some, I didn’t come to be a supporter of Orlando City until it was announced that the club was joining MLS. At the time, I was contemplating picking a club to follow in MLS, but being in Tallahassee, there were no nearby options at that time. I considered FC Dallas and D.C. United, given the two were geographically closer in proximity to me than any others. Fortunately, it was literally while I was considering my options that the announcement was made regarding Orlando City’s jump to MLS. It was an easy decision.

As I do in many aspects of my life, I immediately started researching my new club, which led me to the content being produced by The Mane Land. There was also an article on the site titled “Join The Mane Land Staff.” I had often over the years internally bemoaned that I rarely used my Bachelor’s degree in English, and the desire to write welled up in me so much that I emailed the staff.

In response, one of our former editors, Andrew Marcinko, contacted me and said “I think your voice would be a great fit on TML.” He asked me to submit a Fan Post (those went away with our presence on SBN), and then another piece for review. Following that, our founder and managing editor, Michael Citro, emailed me to welcome me to the staff. I had no idea at the time how big a part of my life this blog would become.

I started out writing Monday’s Lions Links — often one of the more difficult days to write — and a feature piece. It’s been many years gone by now, but there was a time when the feature piece was “Pride Pub,” an ongoing series that paired craft beer and good food based on Orlando City’s opponent. I can tell you that the research for that was very enjoyable, and I still use some of the recipes I found to this day.

Eventually, I started contributing more match coverage and analytical pieces. Staff came and went, but I never thought to leave since I was enjoying myself. Sometime after that, I was promoted to senior columnist, for which I’m grateful. I can without reservation say that I’m a better writer thanks to my time with the site, and from working with such excellent staff.

In November of 2016, Michael asked if I wanted to give co-hosting The Mane Land PawedCast a try. My first recording was for Episode 71. We just recorded Episode 354, and with the exception of maybe two or three episodes, I have been on every single one of 283 episodes over the last six plus years. Michael and I have spent a lot of time talking on and off the podcast over the years, and I’m proud of what we have produced and to call him my friend.

We recently added an Orlando Pride-specific podcast called Skopurp: An Orlando Pride PawedCast. For years we wanted to give the Pride the time and attention the club deserves. Now, it is a reality, but one that I ask you to listen to and share. I’ll even put out that although Michael and I are the current hosts, we merely consider ourselves stewards and are hoping to get others to come onboard and eventually take it to the next level.

When I started with The Mane Land, the site had just made the move from a free WordPress site to the SBNation network. It was a big deal, and for many years it was a good partnership. Of course that all came to an end not too long ago, and our blog went the independent route thanks to the incredibly generous support of our readers and listeners. In fact, if you want to be one of those supporting our efforts, please go to our Buy Me A Coffee site to become a member. The move has allowed a flexibility we didn’t have before, but I really want others to have the same sense of joy and accomplishment that I have as a member of our staff.

At one point we had nearly twice the staff that we do now, and as you know, many hands make light work. The opposite of that is also true. I genuinely believe that there must be others out there with the same passion for Orlando City as I have — with the same desire to have their voice heard, whether through the written word or on a podcast. I promise you there is an opportunity to contribute here with us. Our internal discussions are informative, engaging, and often funny. Please consider joining us, as I did eight years ago. I haven’t regretted it and I know you won’t either.

I want to thank all of those who contributed to The Mane Land over the years. There are many that I am still in touch with, though they are no longer a part of the staff. Of course, the current staff are a pleasure to work with, and I appreciate their dedication to what we are trying to do.

Finally, I want to thank the readers and listeners over the years. From those who regularly comment on our articles, to those that I’ve personally met at matches or even randomly on the street, you are a big reason that we do all of this. You are a big reason why I’ve been doing this for the better part of a decade. it is always a genuine pleasure hearing your thoughts or simply sharing a moment of joy together — U.S. Open Cup final, anyone?

So, thank you. I look forward to many more years of this journey together.