Agree or disagree?

Here’s a fact, Twellman is 27. Here’s another, he’s scored six goals in 29 international matches… Part of me thinks the suits at the US Soccer Federation so desperately want Twellman to succeed. He’s got everything they need in a poster boy — an alliterative name, goofy smile, blond hair, etc. You know, the guy that can smile and sell cokes. He has the personality that Donovan does not…except he doesn’t have the game. I hate to knock him, since he does work hard, but we’ve all seen enough.

Reminds me a bit of what I said previously about Eddie Johnson. The problem? Brian McBride is retired and we need someone who’ll put the ball in the back of the net. If these guys aren’t going to do the job, who is?

Photographer: fabbio

Ives Galarcep made a bold move on January 1, 2008 when he went independent. Says Galarcep:

I am leaving the Herald News after 10 years at the paper in order to devote myself to launching and running a soccer news website [editor’s note: if it runs on WordPress, orders content sequentially by date and allows comments, it’s a blog—no need to be afraid] that readers from all over the country, and American soccer fans all over the world, can come to for the best mix of news and analysis around.

Listen, I think that’s super-awesome and everything but I’m concerned about how Ives will get all that news to analyze without press credentials. It’s not like MLS or U.S. Soccer are going to give a media pass to a blogger.

By the way, Ives is doing his best to prove that age-old axiom, “nothing says ‘L4wlZ! I gotz a blog - OMG!1!’ like three skyscraper AdSense blocks per post.” I’m only kidding; the CTR must be amazing, considering all those expensive AP and ISI photos.

Last week, I mentioned a St. Paul Pioneer Press article about Minnesota Thunder co-owner, Dean Johnson, and his ambitions to (re-)develop parts of downtown St. Paul.

I’m not sure why I didn’t see this earlier but the amazing (seriously, if you’re a local, you should be reading this every day) City Hall Scoop blog at the Pioneer Press has details (including pictures) of Johnson’s plans to bring life (good luck working with the rubes on that city council) back to the city.

Here’s a nice picture of the proposed riverfront development:

While you’re there, take a listen to Johnson’s comments about owning the Thunder and building a new stadium. (mp3)

This is truly one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. I dare you to type “Jose” on your cell phone using T9 mode.

A couple weeks ago, I planned to write a post about one of the Minnesota Thunder’s new owners. It wasn’t going to be a terribly original post; I was just going to link to an interesting article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press about Dean Johnson and his ambition to do some major (non-soccer) development in sleepy downtown St. Paul.

It seems that city councilman (and strangely-popular jackass), Dave Thune doesn’t care much for Mr. Johnson or his plans. Of course, because the PiPress is, well, the PiPress, they don’t keep stories online for more than about 5 seconds (because, you know, it hurts the environment to keep something online. Update: thanks to uhclem for providing an alternate link. Note to PiPress: It’s too bad that I have to link to a content scraper instead of you). The point is that I didn’t recall the details of the story well enough to write anything about it.

Today, though, there is a bit of Thunder news to report. ThroughBall.com favorite, Brian Quarstad has written a piece on BlueSkySoccer that outlines some of the teams plans for the 2008 season.

The first thing, while disappointing, is not a huge surprise: the team will stay at James Griffin Stadium. That’s kind of a downer but it sounds like they are going to make the best of it:

In making all these improvements [(new scoreboard, new press box, etc)], the Thunder hope to be able to negotiate with St. Paul Public Schools to allow them to upgrade the concessions. The General Manager said he feels that the fans certainly want more than “hot dogs and greasy hamburgers.” All the improvements to the stadium would be a donation to the school district. He hopes the school district will reciprocate and allow the team more control over concessions that are sold at games.

And my favorite part (if you’ve been here awhile, you know why), is that the new owners want to—gasp!—engage in marketing. In fact, they’ve increased the marketing budget from a paltry $20,000 to a more respectable $150,000, which will help cover the cost of a marketing director and a rebranding project:

Along with rebranding will come a new logo. The logo has not been confirmed yet but will most likely be more like the shield the team is currently using on their uniforms. “The logo got changed 6 years ago to what we have currently, and quite frankly, no one in the organization likes it”, Bucholz said. The team has secured a marketing and design firm to give the team several options. They hope to have the new design finished within 6 weeks. He also said, “We are looking for a more European look.”

And would you believe “[t]he team has also partnered with TV, radio and print media organizations”?

My goodness, winter lasts too long…