Thorns Auction

[Guest]

Its not smoke and mirrors on the field where they continue to dominate the NWE / Surf and every level. The only smoke and mirrors here is NWE now Surf, yeah right, still NWE just paying a franchise fee to a soccer God Father.

If only there were 2 teams in the ECNL, this would really matter! Unfortunately there are more and the Thorns Academy is not dominating anything bud. Settle down. Pretty sure NWE has more college commits than Thorns. Feel free to fact check that.

I’m not saying either is better, just tired of seeing people claims the Thorns as some kind of great ECNL program when they are clearly not.

[Guest]

That was the first year of the academy, different owners and different time. Agree Tobin Heath was not active and should not have been promoted as such. THAT SAID, Meagan Nally has been an active Academy coach all year this past year and Morgan Weaver has expressed publicly that she really wants to get into coaching too. I believe times are different now 6+ years since Tobin Heath and Weaver will join Nally in being active with the Academy to gain coaching experience.

Fool me once…shame on you….fool me twice…shame on me.

words to live by my friend.

[Guest]

My goodness. Who cares? Literally. We all know there is no money yet in running a girls soccer club/academy other than paying perhaps a director or two’s paychecks. Let’s be serious here. Even a 10 year old knows a local soccer club is not an elite profit generating business venture. Maybe a mothership like the home offices of ECNL, GA and USYS make bank but not local clubs.

- signed… a rocket scientist

Are you joking??? Virtually all clubs in Portland have revenues in the multiple of millions of dollars annually.

XF Premier in Redmond, WA has a sponsorship endowment of $5 million annual alone. They have an ECNL travel budget of almost $1 million a year (club covers this cost)

Surf in SoCal is worth more than The Portland Thorns pro club by a factor of 5

Get real, you are naive if you think this isn’t huge business. youth sports may be the biggest racket in all of sports.

[Guest]

Thorns are dominating NWE / Surf

[Guest]

If only there were 2 teams in the ECNL, this would really matter! Unfortunately there are more and the Thorns Academy is not dominating anything bud. Settle down. Pretty sure NWE has more college commits than Thorns. Feel free to fact check that.

I’m not saying either is better, just tired of seeing people claims the Thorns as some kind of great ECNL program when they are clearly not.

Hit you up on this challenge and I DK, seems like nearly all Thorns commits are going to D1 Power programs as opposed to John Brown University, Point Loma Nazarene, Westcliif University, Lane CC, Bates, Grinell, etc.. TBH, most have never even heard of these schools. With the ECRL program, sure, they have more "college" commits, but most are very low level programs. Thorns '25 class is all Big 10 thus far and 2 WCC schools (very good soccer league). Thorns '24 is predominately B10, B12 and WCC and of their 20 kids in that class, 18 are playing D1.

Surf you ask? 16 total commits in '24 class. 5 of 16 are D1 schools compared to 18 of 20 for Thorns. Ouch. Don't let facts get in the way of your opinion "bub"

[Guest]

Hit you up on this challenge and I DK, seems like nearly all Thorns commits are going to D1 Power programs as opposed to John Brown University, Point Loma Nazarene, Westcliif University, Lane CC, Bates, Grinell, etc.. TBH, most have never even heard of these schools. With the ECRL program, sure, they have more "college" commits, but most are very low level programs. Thorns '25 class is all Big 10 thus far and 2 WCC schools (very good soccer league). Thorns '24 is predominately B10, B12 and WCC and of their 20 kids in that class, 18 are playing D1.

Surf you ask? 16 total commits in '24 class. 5 of 16 are D1 schools compared to 18 of 20 for Thorns. Ouch. Don't let facts get in the way of your opinion "bub"

I smell lies.

[Guest]

I smell lies.

It’s the thorns, lies are common.

[Guest]

If only there were 2 teams in the ECNL, this would really matter! Unfortunately there are more and the Thorns Academy is not dominating anything bud. Settle down. Pretty sure NWE has more college commits than Thorns. Feel free to fact check that.

I’m not saying either is better, just tired of seeing people claims the Thorns as some kind of great ECNL program when they are clearly not.

The Thorns have 4 out of 6 teams that are or likely going to be playing in Seattle in June. Surf has 1 on the bubble. Thorns teams averaging 4th place in the standings, while Surf is sitting at 8th.

Surf, "at least we're not PacNW..."

[Guest]

The Thorns have 4 out of 6 teams that are or likely going to be playing in Seattle in June. Surf has 1 on the bubble. Thorns teams averaging 4th place in the standings, while Surf is sitting at 8th.

Surf, "at least we're not PacNW..."

100%! And here is how they are architecting improvement.

They have 3 girls ECNL head coaches who have never coached girls teams. The have 3 new ECNL coaches who have never coached in ECNL or ECRL. They have 4 coaches coaching their own kid.

At least at Thorns we have experienced coaches who know the elite girls environment. Sounds like Surf is just rolling the dice with other people’s money.

[Guest]

What you just said makes no sense considering one came from there and was terrible to kids along with the recent history of at least 2 abusive coaches the last years.

keep trying to hide this fact. Thorns themselves were recently under investigation from hs soccer for inappropriate relationships with players and trainers giving out drugs.

[Guest]

Shall we go over again how many shocking age groups and terrible coaches the thorns have sold the community the past 5 years?

say the word and I’ll list them for you.

[Guest]

Shall we go over again how many shocking age groups and terrible coaches the thorns have sold the community the past 5 years?

say the word and I’ll list them for you.

The word

[Guest]

Is the auction money being filed under the Albion Portland Tax ID? Being distributed directly back to their teams as Thorns Academy is a non-profit operating under the Albion Portland 501c3?

OR

Is the money being redirected and used under the direction and management of the for profit Thorns FC Staff/organization. Worse would be if the money went directly to the first team account

Non profit auctions need to he filed with the state/doj.

Excited to see the truth. Is this an albion portland youth club extension? Or actually a first team academy with years of embezzelment? Maybe both

I want to know more. This is actually a big deal.

[Guest]

Are you joking??? Virtually all clubs in Portland have revenues in the multiple of millions of dollars annually.

XF Premier in Redmond, WA has a sponsorship endowment of $5 million annual alone. They have an ECNL travel budget of almost $1 million a year (club covers this cost)

Surf in SoCal is worth more than The Portland Thorns pro club by a factor of 5

Get real, you are naive if you think this isn’t huge business. youth sports may be the biggest racket in all of sports.

You are quoting the one club with a major sponsorship and San Diego Surf. Way to go buddy. Does this mean every soccer outfit is a Julia Roberts and a Brad Pitt??? Get real. For every star there are 50 struggling clubs.

[Guest]

That was the first year of the academy, different owners and different time. Agree Tobin Heath was not active and should not have been promoted as such. THAT SAID, Meagan Nally has been an active Academy coach all year this past year and Morgan Weaver has expressed publicly that she really wants to get into coaching too. I believe times are different now 6+ years since Tobin Heath and Weaver will join Nally in being active with the Academy to gain coaching experience.

Morgan was already coaching, she has been working with the Lake Oswego girls for the past two years. She is excited to join the Thorns Academy and is looking forward to working with the players over there.

Interesting auction though.....most of the stuff nobody had bid on the last time I looked and it was towards the end of the auction.