Never seen so much hype for an amateur team. Good for them for marketing this team as something like the women's equivalent to the Riverhounds, when in reality they are amateur HS and college players.
Riveters
- Thread starter Sean Miller Fan
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Good for them. They should get a cut of the gate as well. Pay them in "NIL" so they can retain their college eligibility. Yinzers are a weird bunch in that if they THINK something is professional (Riveters, Wild Things, Pirates), you cant keep them away. These Riveter girls would get beat 6-0 by Pitt but no one will go to Pitt games. Admittedly, the branding of this team as "pro" was smart. I thought they were a pro team as like a 2nd Division to the NWSL. I didn't realize this is just a summer league team of HS and college girls
Since the Pirates' game had a rain delay I watched a decent amount of the game. It was actually some entertaining soccer. Even though it ended 0-0 there were plenty of good chances for both teams.
I watched it too. It was definitely entertaining and competitive.
Unfortunately, now we have to put up with SMF's unsolicited and unwanted posts about them.
Buddy let them have their day. My daughters played on those teams that preceded this one and while I wish they came around a few years later and experienced what those girls did last night, I can still think it’s a cool thing for those young ladies.
Yes they are a mix of players past their prime, some in their prime, and some never had a prime, but so what. These ladies played their entire lives and sacrificed a lot through the years. Let them have their day. They all deserve it.
They must not be marketing that well because even I did not know anything about this. I’d have watched too. Some of those girls I know and coached and am happy they are still enjoying the beautiful game.
It was "only" on the SportsNet Pittsburgh extra channel, because the Pirates were supposed to be on the regular SportsNet Channel. But I did see a story a couple of weeks ago when they announced that half of their games would be televised. I think all the home games. My guess is that most of these other teams in their division don't have anyone local televising their games, or they could pick them up like they do with many Riverhounds away games.
Yea, I said I think its great for them and they should even be paid if they are going to draw that well. The point of the post was really to illustrate how stupid Yinzers are. These amateur women's (and men's) teams have been around forever and as you said, your daughter played for one. But she played in front of only parents. And I didn't realize the Steel City youth soccer club also has a team in this same league. They will also be playing in front of parents only. But the Riveters were marketed as a pro team, the equal of the Riverhounds so people will pay to go watch HS and college girls play soccer thinking its a pro team.
Its nice for these girls and good for local soccer but I just can't get over how stupid people are. Century, Beadling, and Steel City have had amateur women's teams forever and people aren't packing Cool Springs and Southpointe Field House to watch them.
They keep packing them in like that and Pittsburgh will be in line for an NWSL franchise!
(Not really, just having some fun.)
(Not really, just having some fun.)
So my daughters played for all 3 of those teams. Steel city played at Shadyside Academy and the Ellis school in East Liberty. Beadling played at whatever HS stadium they could get. And Century played at Cool Springs. Occasionally they’d go on the road and play in front of nice crowds. But not here. It was just parents, friends, and parents and kids from the younger teams at the club.
All it is is college players keeping their foot on the ball during the summer, older players who still want to keep their foot on the ball, and some hangers on just looking to play. The teams all roster a ton of players because summers are for fun, for travel, vacations, etc. Scraping up enough players for a road trip to Cleveland or Kentucky isn’t easy.
But no one markets like the Riverhounds. I was just talking to a High Major D1 Head Coach the other day, and she said the book is out on the Hounds. All these years have caught up to them. College coaches know the Hounds oversell their players, and Beadling continues to undersell and push players to MAC and A10 schools when they should be playing at bigger and better schools/programs.
If Pittsburgh got an NWSL team that would be great. I'd go to some of the games. But not only would someone have to buy a franchise (and they are getting pretty pricey), they'd also have to build a new place to play.
Unfortunately, I just don't see it.
If they keep drawing like this for an amateur summer league team, I dont see how they dont get an NWSL team. This has to be the goal. How can the NWSL look at what Pittsburgh is drawing for a low level of women's soccer and not think that if they brought in real pros and world stars, they can make bank.
I guess its all about marketing and how much you want to spend on marketing. Beadling, Century, and Steel City don't market their adult amateur teams at all so of course, its just going to be parents at those games. The Riverhounds have the stadium and sold this team as the women's version of the Riverhounds so most people think its a pro team when in reality it's just an amateur summer league team, the same as Beadling, Century, and Steel City. The funny thing is that Steel City is in their division so they are going to play them and hopefully lose to them.
If you look at the pedigrees of the two rosters, where the players are playing their college ball, Steel City is the much lesser of the two teams. Which, of course, doesn't mean that they couldn't win one of the games. But it would be an upset.
The Riveters have college players from all over the country playing for them. For example one of their players was one of the captains for North Carolina's national championship team. They also have players from Syracuse, Indiana, Maryland and Rutgers in addition to their local players. Steel City is almost all local players. They have a bunch of players playing at places like Point Park, CMU, Slippery Rock and Mount Union. They have a few Pitt players (both teams do), but other than that the only power conference players they have is one from Syracuse and one from West Virginia.
when my youngest daughter played, Shupansky and Coffield came over and played at Century, while some of the other Pitt players went to steel city, or maybe it was that Hotspurs team at the time, because there wasn’t room at Century.
If all the best local players got together on one team and took it seriously, they could field a really really good team. But no one takes it seriously because it’s the summer and it’s essentially pick up soccer. Players aren’t around to train and are only around for games that fit around their summer fun. I think a few years ago my daughter’s Beadling team went to Cleveland for a game with only 10 players…and won.
Kudos to the Hounds though for making money off this and selling merch, etc.
as I first read this I thought you had daughters names Steel city, Beadling and Century
would've been cool
but your oldest Steel city was a bit much They mentioned at least a couple times that I heard on the telecast on Friday that the team had basically only been practicing since Monday.
Which makes sense, because most of the players were still in school a week or two ago.
I think that's part of the reason I think these Yinzer fans are idiots. They are paying money to see this Riveter team play some D3 girls. Again, I think its great that they have this and if they can make money, so be it. But its a bit of a con in that they sort of hold themselves out as a pro team.
If they get in one solid training session in the entire summer, with all the players, I’d be shocked.
Maybe the Hounds will do it differently though. Maybe the expectation is that all players attend trainings and games. But at the same time, I doubt their opponents will. Then when they win a championship, they’ll market that. Just like several years ago, before ECNL (you probably remember this), they played in a 4th rate league and one of its teams won its nationals (in a B group no less). It was equivalent to winning the CBI in hoops or the Europa conference League in soccer, and then declaring yourselves national champions. They got a lot of marketing mileage out of that one. It helped build their youth soccer brand. No one markets like them. They deserve credit though. Anyone else in their shoes would do the same thing.
Yea, I mean I legitimately thought they won the natty and I am familiar with youth soccer but at that time, a newby to the alphabet leagues.
And this Riveter team, I completely thought it was a pro team. The only reason I found out I was wrong about both of these were people on this board. And nobody else does that kind of digging. 99% of Riveters attendees think its a pro team.
Well the Hounds themselves are a pro team…and I still have never attended a game at Highmark. That’s how I feel about that level of soccer.
I’d fully support an NWSL team though. Full stop. If we had a team locally, they might even become my favorite local team.
Had a discussion with a group of men this weekend about the sudden rise in popularity of women's sports. Several admitted to liking the way the women's games are played. Not necessarily for the individual skill but for the necessity of teamwork. Like the games are a purer version of the sports and offer some excitement in the way they're played.
To be fair, the USL has gotten way better than it used to be. It used to be that those teams were made up of D2 and D3 grads. Now, Pitt guys (Blue Bloodish D1) can't even make these teams. USL is roughly as good as MLS was about 20 years or so ago. I think what happened is that MLS stopped signing Americans more or less so USL is sort of the old MLS. Still, I only go to 1-2 games per year as a family night. Not a fan of the team.
NWSL would be cool. If they support this amateur summer league team like this, I think Pgh can get one.
Maybe a joint Pitt/NWSL stadium? There's some cool NWSL stadiums going up.
Yeah, that's what I said above. Those franchises cost a lot of money, and after someone kicks in the money to buy the team they are also going to have to come up with the money to pay for (and a site to play at) a 10,000 seat minimum stadium. And likely a training facility with several practice fields.
It would be great if it happens, but who in Pittsburgh is going to fork out all that money?
no one is putting new franchises in Pittsburgh. unless it's minor league. my colleague is huge into NWSL. lives in Dallas. she has to go to Houston to see a game. you think Pittsburgh is getting a franchise before Dallas?
there are only 14 NWSL teams. they'd put another team in 10 of the current cities before they'd put one in Pittsburgh.
I don't know. I would have said Cincinnati had no chance at an MLS team. Medium-sized city. Columbus Crew right up the street. But they were selling out Nippert for USL games so MLS said, "yea we want that."
If the Riveters can continue to attract that type of crowd for an amateur summer league team, I do think its possible that Pittsburgh can get an NWSL team. I mean Louisville has one.
Think about it.
- No WNBA, no pro female sports, this is a +
- No MLS, this is +
- Only 3 major pro teams, and only 1 in the spring/summer
I'm not saying I'd bet on it but IF they can draw like that, I think its a possibility.
The problem, again, is that Louisville only paid $1-$2 million to get in. The fees are now over $100m. The Riveters crowd size could get the attention of the NWSL but unless someone locally with deep pockets steps up, it doesn't seem likely. The time to get in this league was when Louisville did it but that didn't happen.
Pittsburgh has a better chance getting a NBA team than a MLS or NWSL team. and Pittsburgh's chances of getting a NBA team is less than zero.
Gotta be honest…I am all for these ladies playing in front of large crowds and experiencing this. It’s awesome for those girls.
But I just went online to see what the hounds are charging for tickets and they are absolutely preying on unsuspecting and vunerable yinzers. Tickets are $26-46 dollars. They are conning the public. I can pay half that for a NWSL game.
And for $6, you can see a Pittsburgh team play in USL-W. Here's a link to Pittsburgh's USL-W team, Steel City FC:
Steel City FC vs Cleveland Force SC - W League | Passage - Your event. Your fans. Your mobile box office.
Steel City FC Women's Home Opener on Saturday, May 31st!
Yinzers are one of the dumbest groups of people. And yes, the Riverhounds are conning people here. But, I guess that's part of marketing. Give whoever thought of this Riveters con a raise!
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