Subject: Cooper's Team Folds
From: "Eric Schwerin" <[email-masked]>
To: "Hunter Biden" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:24:36 -0400

Athletica shutting down, AC St. Louis looks like it survived; 5 p.m.  
update: League finally makes it official, explains situation going  
forward
By Tom Timmermann
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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Athletica players have just been told in a meeting at the Soccer Park  
that the team is shutting down in the wake of the team’s financial  
problems. AC St. Louis appears to have survived. They’re definitely  
playing at Minnesota this weekend. It appears the Athletica won’t be  
going to Atlanta.

All Athletica players are free agents as of June 1 and are free to  
sign with any team. With most teams up against the salary cap, I’m not  
sure how that will work. For a team to bring on Hope Solo or Lori  
Chalupny, they’d have to drop another national team-type player to do  
it. It might easier for a lower-paid player to catch on in the short  
term. The league will go forth as a seven-team league, and the league  
said it will reconfigure its schedule accordingly. Games already  
played will continue to count in the standings.

“It’s incredibly difficult to lose a team in mid-season like this,”  
said WPS Commissioner Tonya Antonucci. “We looked at a few options as  
a league together with our Board and U.S. Soccer, but the operational  
hurdles and finances just didn’t work out. In the face of a severe  
funding gap in St. Louis, the local ownership group is shutting down  
the team at this point.”

“This is a setback, but it’s one individual franchise and the loss of  
a team is an unfortunate reality of pro sports,” said Antonucci.  
“We’ll continue to have great games and an exciting season for our  
fans. The solid foundation that we built in 2009 is there. We have the  
same number of teams that we had last year during a successful first  
season. We’ll get through this stronger and keep moving the league and  
business forward.”

Here’s an official statement from team founder Jeff Cooper:

“The termination of Saint Louis Athletica is a painful outcome from  
the funding shortfalls and ultimate default by the investors who had  
the obligation to fund and operate the team on a day-to-day basis.  
I’ve given this matter my complete attention since returning to a more  
active role in the last few weeks, and numerous parties have spent a  
lot of hours during that time exploring what options or solutions  
might be available. Despite best efforts, nothing was found that would  
answer the immediate needs of the franchise. With more time, it is  
possible the answer to the financial challenges Athletica faced would  
have been met, but unfortunately we do not have the benefit of extra  
time. The investors who defaulted on a contract to fund Athletica  
through this season and beyond broke a promise to a league, team,  
players and a community, and that is what is most troubling about  
today’s development. I am grateful for everyone’s support of Athletica  
and am particularly appreciative of our players who represented the  
sport and our community with such class and spirit.

Despite the disappointing outcome with Saint Louis Athletica, we  
continue to work hard on securing the long-term future of AC St. Louis.”

Eric D. Schwerin
Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC
1010 Wisconsin Ave., NW
Suite 705
Washington, DC 20007
(202) 333-1880
[email-masked]
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