As I’ve mentioned before, getting back from Spring Break for me generally includes a tinge of regret for having gone on vacation at all because of all the work I have to do now that I’m back that I didn’t do while I was gone. Such is life, said Ned Kelly.

Anyway, that means I skipped a PP yesterday, and now there’s a ton of stuff to write about! YAY UNPAID LABOR, I’M JUST LIKE A COLLEGE ATHLETE.

Let’s go in chronological order. First, Louisville City announced on Tuesday that they’d contracted with AEG Facilities to manage the new stadium. At first I was a bit confused as to why that sort of arrangement would be necessary. However, it’s not at all uncommon for a property owner to hire a management company to take care of mechanical stuff, and, more importantly, leasing from the property owner, whose core competencies probably lie elsewhere (e.g., running a soccer team).

TO THE PRESS RELEASE, BATMAN!

In addition to venue management services, AEG Facilities will provide services such as event content development, purchasing, vendor services, marketing and event-day operations for the arena.  Additionally, AEG Facilities will implement its industry-leading proprietary initiatives at the venue including AEG S.A.F.E., AEG 1Source, AEG 1EARTH, AEG 1Force, AEG Encore and AEG Energy Services. 

Some Email I Got From Howie on Tuesday

I don’t know what anything in that second sentence means. AEG Facilities is part of the giant Anschutz Entertainment Group conglomerate, which is primarily owned and overseen by Phil Anschutz. Ol’ Phil presently owns the LA Galaxy in MLS, plus I think still part of Houston Dynamo, which is a far cry from about fifteen years ago when he literally owned half the teams in the league with Lamar Hunt and Bob Kraft. So Phil knows a thing or two about soccer and soccer venues and how to optimize them. That’s good, because the new stadium will only be used by the club maybe 20 days a year, and so it’ll be important for them to find other uses for it so it can keep making them money. That’s what AEG Facilities is for. Good deal.

NEXT: Louisville City signs sixteen-year-old Elijah Wynder as its first ever Academy player!

This one really hit me out of left field. I’d known for a little while that the USL was putting together a cup competition for its clubs’ academies to participate in. I’d also known that USL was really pushing its owners to start their own academy programs if they didn’t have one already. I did not, however, think Louisville City was anywhere near this close to throwing its hat in that ring. But here we are!

Elijah is a sixteen year old student at Collegiate who lives in Oldham County and plays his club ball at Ohio Elite-Kentucky. He’s apparently been training with the club for the last several weeks or months. The super nice thing about this kind of agreement is that it preserves Elijah’s NCAA and amateur eligibility, while still allowing him to play with Louisville City and his OEK team, too. He probably won’t see a team sheet for Morados this season, but is technically on the roster, which is bound to be a super cool thing for this dude.

I’m not aware of any time-table for when the USL Academy Cup is supposed to start, or if it’ll even be this year. But we can probably expect more announcements like this one as Mario Sanchez continues to comb local clubs for talented players that can help LouCity succeed in that competition finally does get underway.

In any event, congratulations to Elijah Wynder, and welcome to the club!