Flash forward a month and a half later, I and several others were still stewing about the move and how everything had transpired. After writing the Turf and Boards article, Tommy Tanner did reach out to me and tried to convince me to give the new management a chance. Being the stubborn ass I am, I stood by my stance.
A couple days later, a friend of mine from the local supporters group for Syracuse FC of the NPSL reached out to me, saying the new team management wanted to meet with some Syracuse fans, or as they called us "die-hards" about continuing to support the team and gaining support from the Salt City. While several loyal supporters of the Knights had checked out and sworn off the team for good, I decided to to take up the offer for a meeting, even though I was very offended by the "die-hard" label. For the next couple weeks, I would spend hours researching the city of Utica, the Comets organization, and the MASL, coming up with over a dozen questions to ask the group I would be meeting with. I wanted to know their plan for the first year, the first five years, and beyond, how would they sell tickets to people in a city with a low overall yearly income, and how they planned to attract fans from Syracuse. Most importantly, I wanted to know how they were going to avoid failing like the Silver Knights in Syracuse did.
On July 30, Rich (the friend) and I took the forty five minute jaunt down I-90 for the meeting at 6pm. When we first pulled up to the arena, we noticed how the updated exterior stood out amongst the other dated buildings and vacant lots of Downtown Utica. We went up to the front doors of the arena, next to the new 72 Tavern and Grill, where a person was suppose to be there to greet us. However, the doors were locked and no one was there to open them. After waiting five minutes, I sent a text to Tommy Tanner (whose number I somehow didn't end up deleting after the move) and were informed everyone was waiting in the tavern. Not a good start.
Upon entering the restaurant, we were greeted by Tanner, Vice President of Communications Lindsay Mogle, and Dave Abel, the Creator of the City Keepers Supporter Group. We sat down at one of the tables and ordered drinks before I opened up by asking a series of questions. Now, I'm not going to lie, I was coming off as a complete a**hole, trying to make the Utica group the enemy and prove they had no idea about indoor soccer. To my surprise, they were ready for me, having answers to all my questions and several details into their plans for the coming season. Here are a couple of the questions I asked and their answers.
What is your one year plan? Five year plan?- Of course, to be successful and win MASL championships. More importantly, they want to grow the sport in Utica and help grow the MASL. They believe their success will gain the attention of many AHL Hockey team owners, thus those owners starting their own MASL franchises. Their goal is have the MASL be a thirty team league.
What's your plan to get people to the matches?- While the Syracuse Silver Knights ran with a very tight budget (complete debt,) Utica City FC has a vast budget with major plans of promotion and advertising. This has been seen already with their media outreach, almost every news outlet in the Utica Rome region constantly writing and reporting about the team. Syracuse news outlets rarely ever gave the Silver Knights the light of day. True fact, the Utica City FC spent more money on the team announcement than the Knights spent, possibly even made, in their seven years of existence.
What's going to be different from when the team was in Syracuse- New turf, new jerseys (no special or third jerseys), a beer garden, mostly Sunday games, and no music during the matches.
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Alright folks, it is now November. I have been quite busy with a new job, getting married, and trying to start a family while enjoying life to the fullest. I could drone on about what else happened with the meeting, but I'm just going to keep it short at this point. They toured Rich and I around the arena, we met Robert Esche, the new owner, I ate dinner with everyone and even paid for Tommy's dinner (I owed him that after how much of a d**k I was.) Overall, I trust what the new ownership group is doing and I'm happy there is still an arena team is Central New York. I'm not going to bog my life down being pissed about the team not being in Syracuse any longer. I'm just accepting it and going to cheer on the guys this winter.