[Preface: Thanks for the great post; I've been reading this stuff for months now and this wonderful post encapsulated the issues very well.]
>>[Belligerant] The FACT is that the MPSC has rejected a plan to make Charleston area soccer competitive with the rest of the state.<<
The fact is that MPSC has rejected the Bridge FA plan to make Charleston area soccer more competitive. The fact is that MPSC believes that it can do it on its own. Can it? That's arguable; MPSC has the past on its side in terms of its last few years improvement; Bridge has the argument that organic growth alone won't beat the non-organic growth of CESA with its merger. Reasonable people can disagree on this.
>>I read Christi Arnold's letter, and it was all hot air. She gives absolutely NO reasoning for not joining the Bridge, other than that Mt. Pleasant Soccer Club is "the most well-rounded and successful club in the Lowcountry."
But from the MPSC perspective, this is a pretty powerful reason, to wit, MPSC is the most successful club and why would we want to join with these less successful clubs when we've been the ones to show the most success in the last two years with our plans and execution.
>>I can see it now - next year, when CESA takes home all the state championships again, the Mt. Pleasant administration will be saying "that's okay, we STILL have the most well-rounded and successful club in the Lowcountry."
The really scary part of all of this from the highly ambitious Charleston player perspective is that MPSC might just do that. Municipal supported soccer is wonderful in terms of keeping fees down [although taxes seem to rise -- TANSTAAFL], but municipal supported soccer caters to quantity, not quality. I've been impressed that MPSC has been able to achieve what they have with so much municipal funding.
>>"The devil is in the details." Let's check with Arnold again..."MPSC...not a part or supportive of this alliance in any way to include PHILOSOPHY..." That is an awfully HUGE detail.<<
Bottom line to any M&A activity; what can you offer to a target company to make it more attractive to come into your fold than to go it on their own? With normal companies, you offer the investors more money. With soccer clubs you have to come up and sell them on a plan where they get something that they really want and they get it with less risk/cost than they would in doing it on their own.
>>Which part of winning state championships and becoming the most-successful club in the STATE does she not agree with?<<
Bridge FA does not offer MPSC the chance to "become the most successful club in the state"; Bridge FA offers MPSC the chance to be an equal partner with arguably weaker clubs to be an alliance member of what could possibly be "the most successful club in the state." MPSC doesn't see that as attractive. Yelling at them, telling them over and over again that they are stupid -- none of that is going to make them think it's more attractive.
>>Apparently, grenades won't do the trick - we need something much louder to make them WAKE UP!!!<<
The most likely thing that's going to work is Bridge to execute and undoubtably replace MPSC as the strongest club in Charleston in terms of services and teams such that MPSC players move en masse to Bridge FA.
Other than that, you have to show them how to achieve their goals with less risk/cost than on their current course and speed, which may or may not include being the most successful club in the state.
