QuoteThe Jacksonville Armada and club president Steve Livingstone have parted ways, the club announced Monday.
Armada owner and CEO Mark Frisch has taken over the team's day-to-day operations, effective immediately.
The announcement is the second major shakeup at the club in the last five months, following the Sept. 21 dismissal of general manager Dario Sala, then-coach Guillermo Hoyos and his entire staff.
"I look forward to working closely with our staff to continue the growth of the Jacksonville Armada FC and the sport of soccer regionally and nationally," Frisch said in a statement.
The Armada finished 11th and last in their inaugural North American Soccer League campaign, but had opened the 2016 preseason with home victories over Major League Soccer opponents.
http://jacksonville.com/sports/2016-02-15/story/armada-part-ways-club-president-steve-livingstone
(http://jacksonville.com/sports/2016-02-15/story/armada-part-ways-club-president-steve-livingstone)
Quote
..."The passion that the Northeast Florida community has shown for soccer since our club was founded has been tremendous," Frisch said in a news release. "The club's front office staff, players and soccer operations teams are all committed to ensuring we provide the very best product on and off the field. I look forward to working closely with our staff to continue the growth of the Jacksonville Armada FC and the sport of soccer regionally and nationally."
No reason, however, was given for Livingstone's departure.
"I want to thank Steve for all of his contributions and wish him the best in his future endeavors," Frisch said in the release.
Livingstone's departure comes after the team went through a round of high-profile firings in September, sacking its head coach and two assistant coaches. A new head coach, Tony Meola, was hired in November.
Frisch said, in an earlier interview, that it was a priority to get better on the field. The Armada has, additionally, introduced several programs meant to appeal to the business community, including a business alliance designed to boost ticket sales.
The team has just started its preseason, and, most recently, won its second test match-up against MLS team Orlando City 2-1.
http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/blog/morning-edition/2016/02/as-armada-fc-president-leaves-mark-frisch-gets-new.html (http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/blog/morning-edition/2016/02/as-armada-fc-president-leaves-mark-frisch-gets-new.html)
Livingstone's Bio
His Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaxarmadafcprez (https://twitter.com/jaxarmadafcprez)
STEVE LIVINGSTONE, CLUB PRESIDENT
Steve Livingstone came on board as the Armada's first employee in October 2013 following 17 years of leadership in the NFL, the last eight of which he spent directing in the areas of business development, sales and marketing for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Prior to immigrating to Jacksonville in 2005 from Scotland, Livingstone was the team president and general manager of the Scottish Claymores in the NFL Europe League, where he attracted major sponsorships and grew the team's fan base and attendance from 6,000 to more than 18,000 fans. He successfully attracted and hosted the NFL Europe League's World Bowl in 2003, with 30,000 fans in attendance at Glasgow's historic Hampden Park, the world's oldest soccer stadium.
Livingstone hails from Glasgow, Scotland, and was recently naturalized as a U.S. citizen. He grew up playing soccer, rugby, golf and American football, avidly watching the Scottish and English Premier and Champions Leagues, and was a season ticket owner with his home team, Glasgow Celtic F.C., and the Scotland National team.
Steve began his professional sports career in media and journalism, where he was a sportswriter and editor with a number of national media outlets from 1991-1996, including the Scottish Daily Record, The Daily Mail, The Glasgow Herald, First Down and Scottish Television. He covered the Scottish and English Leagues, Champions League, FIFA World Cup Qualifications and Finals, the NFL and ten Super Bowls, and worked on Scotsport, Scottish Television's flagship soccer show, and produced an NFL highlights show called "Touchdown Scotland" for the station from 1993-1996.
He joined the Claymores in 1996 and led the club from 2000-2005. The Claymores won the World Bowl in front of 40,000 fans at Murrayfield in Edinburgh in 1996 and appeared in the NFL Europe League Championship game in Frankfurt in 2000.
With the Jaguars, Livingstone established the Champions Club, a highly successful fan volunteer program which assisted the team in selling and renewing over 10,000 season tickets. The program's success led to the development of Team Teal which helped the Jaguars secure a record 17,000 new season ticket sales in 2010.
Livingstone was involved in the Jaguars recent brand repositioning and logo evolution and in the introduction and development of Jaguars Rewards, a fan benefits program, and the Jaguars Social League, integrating the club's social media engagement with its fans.
He has built the Armada FC front office from scratch and directed the successful brand and competitive launch of the club, which debuted in front of 14,000 against Major League Soccer's Philadelphia Union at EverBank Field on Feb. 7, 2015, and set a modern-day NASL regular season attendance record of 16,164 against FC Edmonton on April 4. He serves on the board of trustees for JAX Chamber.
I want to go off here about how happy this makes me but I'm going to wait and see who the replacement is. I will say I don't think he understood how to grow the fan base here. Flat fan events and mocking a stadium at the shipyards being key examples. Not that any fan really ever believed they could get a stadium there, but it is the job of fans to dream big and he didn't seem to get they should be encouraging it...
They don't seem to have had any trouble attracting fans, even though the team wasn't very good.
Ehhh, I was at games with PLENTY of available seats. The attendance wasn't bad, it was more or less the minimum to survive. That last month push they had before the season kicked off was strong, but they could have done better with it being a World Cup summer before hand. I'm very interested to see how the numbers go this year. Most NASL teams attendance numbers have steadily gone down. Indy and Minnesota being the only two who have had real success avoiding this. Hopefully we are in that boat...
Quote from: Gamblor on February 18, 2016, 09:43:05 AM
Ehhh, I was at games with PLENTY of available seats. The attendance wasn't bad, it was more or less the minimum to survive. That last month push they had before the season kicked off was strong, but they could have done better with it being a World Cup summer before hand. I'm very interested to see how the numbers go this year. Most NASL teams attendance numbers have steadily gone down. Indy and Minnesota being the only two who have had real success avoiding this. Hopefully we are in that boat...
They averaged nearly 8k a game, which was 3rd most in the league, and 4th most among all pro soccer teams in America outside MLS. In individual games at EverBank Field they drew 16k. Especially considering they ended the season at the bottom of the rankings, attendance isn't an issue for them. Though yes, it will probably go down once the new team smell wears off.
Having personally worked on several things with Steve during his tenure at both the Jaguars and the Armada... I'm going to say that I think he always had some great ideas (that have been copied by several sport franchises across a wide range of sports), is a very sharp guy that has a great understanding of sports marketing as well as innovative approaches to engaging with fans, and was an all around good guy - both to work with on a professional level and just personally to be around.
Hope this turn of events ultimately proves positive for both Steve and the Armada.
Quote from: fieldafm on February 18, 2016, 11:54:46 AM
Having personally worked on several things with Steve during his tenure at both the Jaguars and the Armada... I'm going to say that I think he always had some great ideas (that have been copied by several sport franchises across a wide range of sports), is a very sharp guy that has a great understanding of sports marketing as well as innovative approaches to engaging with fans, and was an all around good guy - both to work with on a professional level and just personally to be around.
Hope this turn of events ultimately proves positive for both Steve and the Armada.
Very well said. Steve is a good man and I wish it had worked out.
Quote from: Ajax on February 18, 2016, 12:45:44 PM
Quote from: fieldafm on February 18, 2016, 11:54:46 AM
Having personally worked on several things with Steve during his tenure at both the Jaguars and the Armada... I'm going to say that I think he always had some great ideas (that have been copied by several sport franchises across a wide range of sports), is a very sharp guy that has a great understanding of sports marketing as well as innovative approaches to engaging with fans, and was an all around good guy - both to work with on a professional level and just personally to be around.
Hope this turn of events ultimately proves positive for both Steve and the Armada.
Very well said. Steve is a good man and I wish it had worked out.
+1.
$20 for lower division soccer is a ripoff. Especially in a baseball stadium.
Quote from: fsquid on February 18, 2016, 04:34:45 PM
$20 for lower division soccer is a ripoff. Especially in a baseball stadium.
Is the experience that bad in the baseball stadium (honest question)?
I personally think the experience is pretty good. They definitely make it work. I think it should be more like $15 though. Aren't the Suns also making renovations to the stadium to update it?
Quote from: Adam White on February 18, 2016, 04:42:15 PM
Quote from: fsquid on February 18, 2016, 04:34:45 PM
$20 for lower division soccer is a ripoff. Especially in a baseball stadium.
Is the experience that bad in the baseball stadium (honest question)?
No, it's actually pretty nice, at this stadium at least. There are also tickets priced substantially lower than $20. You can get them as low as $10 or $15.
Quote from: Tacachale on February 18, 2016, 04:48:03 PM
Quote from: Adam White on February 18, 2016, 04:42:15 PM
Quote from: fsquid on February 18, 2016, 04:34:45 PM
$20 for lower division soccer is a ripoff. Especially in a baseball stadium.
Is the experience that bad in the baseball stadium (honest question)?
No, it's actually pretty nice, at this stadium at least. There are also tickets priced substantially lower than $20. You can get them as low as $10 or $15.
I'm going to be in Jax in late June/early July. So I might see if there are any matches when I'm home and if so, I'll try to go.
Quote from: Adam White on February 18, 2016, 05:24:42 PM
Quote from: Tacachale on February 18, 2016, 04:48:03 PM
Quote from: Adam White on February 18, 2016, 04:42:15 PM
Quote from: fsquid on February 18, 2016, 04:34:45 PM
$20 for lower division soccer is a ripoff. Especially in a baseball stadium.
Is the experience that bad in the baseball stadium (honest question)?
No, it's actually pretty nice, at this stadium at least. There are also tickets priced substantially lower than $20. You can get them as low as $10 or $15.
I'm going to be in Jax in late June/early July. So I might see if there are any matches when I'm home and if so, I'll try to go.
You totally should. Obviously it's no MLS (let alone Premier League), but it's a good time and a nice stadium.
Armada didn't come close to averaging 8,000 per game in 2015...that's just what the former president announced last year. For their 14 regular season games played at baseball stadium, averaged less than 5,000 per game. Only game where announced and actual were relatively close was the 4.4 home opener...and half the seats for sale were price much lower than normal.
Quote from: jjsoccer99 on April 12, 2016, 11:11:26 PM
Armada didn't come close to averaging 8,000 per game in 2015...that's just what the former president announced last year. For their 14 regular season games played at baseball stadium, averaged less than 5,000 per game. Only game where announced and actual were relatively close was the 4.4 home opener...and half the seats for sale were price much lower than normal.
My understanding is that they counted attendance the same way as every other sports team, and nearly 8k was the average that was reported. Obviously the game(s?) at the Bank that drew double affected the average. Either way, they averaged 3rd highest in the league, and 4th among all soccer teams outside MLS, meaning the Armada is successful if any team is.
Not sure which thread to put this in. But the Armada are terrible again. Last place and 4 total goals in eight matches. This past weekend they had a draw against Indy and scored their first goal since 4/23.
Quote from: pierre on June 01, 2016, 10:47:54 AM
Not sure which thread to put this in. But the Armada are terrible again. Last place and 4 total goals in eight matches. This past weekend they had a draw against Indy and scored their first goal since 4/23.
It's a shame that they have such a great, growing fanbase with such awful on-field production.
Quote from: CoastalJax on June 01, 2016, 02:15:15 PM
Quote from: pierre on June 01, 2016, 10:47:54 AM
Not sure which thread to put this in. But the Armada are terrible again. Last place and 4 total goals in eight matches. This past weekend they had a draw against Indy and scored their first goal since 4/23.
It's a shame that they have such a great, growing fanbase with such awful on-field production.
It is alot like the team that plays in the stadium across the parking lot. But at least the Jaguars now have some legit talent to build around.
The Armada do not seem to have much of anything.
The Armada fired their coach again, Tony Meola. What a disaster they have been.
(http://nasl.ezitsolutions.com/teamuploads/jax/images/TonyCrop4.jpg)
http://www.news4jax.com/news/the-armada-fires-head-coach-tony-meola
(http://www.news4jax.com/news/the-armada-fires-head-coach-tony-meola)
QuoteJACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The Jacksonville Armada has fired the team's head coach and technical director Tony Meola.
Meola was hired in November of 2015 and posted an overall record 2 wins, 10 losses, and 6 draws.
"I will never waver in my commitment to our fans of giving them a team that competes for championships," said Armada FC owner and CEO Mark Frisch. "Unfortunately, our results this season have not reflected that promise. After much thought and careful consideration, I strongly believe this is the best decision to make for our club, players and loyal supporters."
The club also parted ways with assistant coach Jim Rooney, who joined Meola's staff in November.
"I am appreciative of Tony's and Jim's contributions to our club and wish them the best in their future endeavors," Frisch said.
Assistant coach Mark Lowry has been named the interim head coach for the remainder of the 2016 Fall Season.
In addition, assistant technical director Nathan Walter will take over as the club's technical director. Walter joined the Armada FC in 2013 as employee No. 2. He was the club's director of soccer operations before being promoted to assistant technical director in December 2015.
"This is a well-deserved opportunity for Nathan," Frisch said. "He has shown a tremendous dedication to our club and strong sense of finding players that fit in well with the Armada FC. I look forward to seeing him shape a top-caliber roster as our technical director."
The Armada currently sits 11th place on the North American Soccer League Fall Season and Combined Season table. Jacksonville is winless in a club-record six straight matches and allowed a club-record five goals in the Armada's 5-2 loss to Indy Eleven last Wednesday night.n.
I don't know how to fix the Armada. But they have not done much right since they took the field for the first time a year and a half ago. I feel bad for the guys I know that go to every game and are subjecting themselves to just awful soccer.
Quote from: pierre on August 08, 2016, 09:52:37 AM
The Armada fired their coach again, Tony Meola.
for good or bad, it's a pretty common thing in soccer (futbol).