The Triangle of Power

If someone was to ask who the three major players in the Minnesota soccer scene were, I think most in the know would answer the Minnesota Thunder, the National Sports Center (NSC) in Blaine, and the Minnesota Youth Soccer Association (MYSA) - in no particular order.  It's been an interesting triangle of power for nearly 20 years, one that just saw another major shift in dynamics.

NSC recently sent out this mass email blast regarding the termination of their partnership with MYSA.  

Open Letter to Minnesota Soccer Community

October 3, 2008

I regret to report to you that the partnership agreement between the National Sports Center Foundation and the Minnesota Youth Soccer Association, which has been in place since 1985, has ended.  (See letter below)

The lack of an agreement and cooperation will likely be a great inconvenience for Minnesota youth soccer players, coaches, teams and families.  When the NSC and the MYSA do not coordinate the dates for Districts, the State Tournament and the USA Cup, Minnesota teams will have to choose between these two great soccer opportunities.

The conflict between these events can be solved through cooperative scheduling if the parties are committed to do so.

We at the NSC have communicated with the 1) MYSA President, 2) the Vice-President of Leagues, 3)the Youth Council, and 4) the MYSA Executive Director ; all four have stated it is not their responsibility or within their authority to resolve scheduling conflicts. 

Historically MYSA Presidents and Boards had chosen to cooperate on making the dates of the USA Cup and the State Tournament work for all teams in Minnesota. It is a great disappointment for me that this cooperation does not continue as I know the conflict is avoidable having served as MYSA Executive Director from 1995 to 2000.

The purpose of this letter is to ask your help in encouraging the soccer leadership of Minnesota to resolve the problem. Please feel free to write me and let me know your suggestions. If you would like to receive e-mail updates on this subject please visit this link here and select to receive items from the "NSC/MYSA Partnership Agreement Information" list.

Steve Olson, COO
National Sports Center Foundation

October 2, 2008
Bob Poretti, President
Candace Daley, Executive Director
Minnesota Youth Soccer Association
11577 Encore Circle
Minnetonka MN 55343
 
Over the past nine months the National Sports Center Foundation and MYSA have exchanged letters and held numerous meetings regarding our Partnership Agreement.  The MYSA interpretation of the agreement has significantly changed and now is unacceptable to the National Sports Center Foundation.   The basic purpose of the agreement was to cooperate on USA Cup dates and in return the NSC would offer the MYSA a substantial discount for the MYSA State Tournament and all other MYSA use of the NSC.  The NSC has upheld its part of the agreement by discounting the state tournament and other event rental rates, but the MYSA has chosen not to cooperate in scheduling the District Tournaments in harmony with the USA Cup. 
 
Therefore, the NSC has no reason to continue in a partnership agreement with MYSA.  This letter serves as official notice, on the part of the National Sports Center Foundation, that we are exercising our options under Section II of the agreement to end the contract effective the date of this letter, October 2, 2008.  As of this date the MYSA and NSC will no longer have any agreements in place regarding scheduling priority or discounts for the use of NSC facilities.
 
However, we still believe that a cooperation agreement between our two organizations is in the best interests of soccer in Minnesota.  To that end, we propose crafting a new partnership agreement which is clear to both parties, addresses the scheduling of major events and serves the best interests of the entire soccer community.  We propose meetings to begin immediately in order to have the document ready for your AGM.
 
The ultimate goal of cooperation is for a youth soccer team in Minnesota to be able to play in both the USA Cup and the MYSA District/State Tournament.  An agreement between the NSC and the MYSA would guarantee this.  Non-cooperation will result in less opportunity for youth soccer in Minnesota and teams will be limited to choose one event.
 
We look forward to your response.  As a former executive director of MYSA I know that it is possible to solve this problem with a modest effort.
 
Steve Olson, COO
National Sports Center Foundation
 
Please note: The MYSA is distributing, via its website, reasons for an amendment to its rules governing the State Tournament indicating the NSC will be seeking "significant concessions" from MYSA to keep the event at the NSC.  This is incorrect. The NSC has made no such requests and is only seeking the same scheduling cooperation that is in the original agreement has largely been in place between the MYSA and the NSC from 1985 to 2007, but did not happen in 2008.

MYSA's response hit our inboxes yesterday.

Date:    October 7, 2008

To:       MYSA Club Presidents

            MYSA Club Coaching Directors

From:   Bob Poretti, MYSA President

            Candace Daley, MYSA Executive Director

cc:        MYSA Youth Council Members

            MYSA Staff Members

The Minnesota Youth Soccer Association (MYSA), at its Executive Committee Meeting on September 22, 2008, voted to not renew the current Partnership Agreement with the National Sports Center Foundation (NCSF), which is set to expire on December 31, 2008.  MYSA focuses on providing quality services to its members and therefore must make decisions that seek to accomplish this goal and are in the best interests of the organization’s members.  Recently, NSCF sent out a notification that the Partnership Agreement was being terminated.  However, that notification was not only misleading, but it failed to provide accurate information.  More specifically:

1)      MYSA and NSCF have not had an agreement in place since 1985.

2)      MYSA has complied with all aspects of its agreement with NSCF.

3)      In April 2008, the Youth Council (MYSA’s board of directors) approved the sanctioning of five of NSCF’s six events for 2009, even though it was not obligated to do so because the Partnership Agreement between the two entities was due to expire on December 31, 2008, prior to any 2009 events.  The Youth Council approved the sanctioning of the NSC Cup, NSC Fall Cup, Wal-Mart All American Cup, Herman’s Cup and USA Cup Weekend.  The Youth Council did not approve the sanctioning of the USA Cup Week because the 2009 dates chosen by NSCF directly conflict with MYSA’s 2009 District and State Tournaments.

4)      In the past, when the USA Cup Week overlapped with MYSA District Tournaments only, MYSA District Directors worked with teams that were interested in participating in both the District Tournament and USA Cup Week.  In most cases, the schedules were worked out so the team could do both.  

5)      MYSA representatives have met repeatedly with NSCF representatives to try to avoid the scheduling conflicts but there is a lot of soccer being played during the month of July by our members and only so many days to get it in.  When the NSCF unilaterally chose dates in 2009 that overlapped with both MYSA’s District and State Tournaments, MYSA was once again put in a very difficult situation by the NSCF.

6)      The NSCF unilaterally sets its USA Cup dates well in advance and historically has not been open to changing those dates, so a truly cooperative effort could not be achieved unless the NSCF was willing to consider rescheduling the USA Cup dates.  Instead, the NSCF refused to do so and now attempts to shift the blame on MYSA for the parties’ inability to reach an amicable resolution.

MYSA hopes that a more cooperative effort can be achieved in 2010 and beyond.

A number of people have called/emailed/talked to me since, sure that MYSA is acting out against NSC due to NSC's new partnership with the Thunder.  Members read more...

NSC Fall Cup Schedules Posted

Schedules came out yesterday for the 2008 NSC Fall Cup.  We will be playing up to the U13 top flight and I'm excited for the weekend test.  We'll face off against Dakota Rev Rampage, North Metro Lightning, and the Edina Swarm.  Not sure what happened in the NSC scheduling office, but I think the groups are a bit skewed as the three current fall league leaders were put in the same group. 

The other group has White Bear Lake, Dakota Rev's second team, Prior Lake Splash (a U12 team like us), and Woodbury.

The only bummer about the weekend is that it is unlikely that we'll get 4 games in as it will be very difficult to advance out of this group.  Maybe I'll try and call the Prior Lake team and see if they want to play a 4th game in the event that neither of us win our group.

The great thing about the weekend is that we're going to be facing terrific competition here in our backyard.  I had considered taking the group to the Chicago Sockers Nike Classic Cup this weekend in Illinois, or to the Metro United Girls Fall Classic (also in Illinois) the first weekend in November.  The Sockers event turned out to be 9v9 and the Metro event conflicted with a family vacation to Disneyland that I kinda forgot about, much to my wife's chagrin.  Moreover, I heard the fields at the Metro United event weren't that great, so we bailed on the idea. 

We're fortunate to find a challenging test here at home this week.  We'll be out muscled in every match up for sure, needing to rely heavily on technique and brains to stay competitive.

Hopefully the weather will cooperate so I can get some good video from the games.