Big news yesterday! The Philadelphia Soul are back.
Oh, but before you break out your autographed Soul Jersey, Jon Bon Jovi will not be back.
Per a statement from Jon Bon Jovi from different articles:
“I will not be part of the ownership group due to my focus and attention being on the current Bon Jovi worldwide tour, but I have fond memories of my experience with the Soul and especially our 2008 ArenaBowl championship season," Bon Jovi said in a statement. "I continue to be a fan of the team and want nothing but continued success on and off the field for the Soul.”
Here's my take on why Jon Bon Jovi will not be a part of the Soul.
The AFL in it's current situation has no ties whatsoever to the NFL, in it's previous incarnation the NFL backed the league financially and otherwise. The NFL in it's history does not like competing leagues and does whatever it can to destroy them (the American Football League now known as the American Football Conference, lesserly the XFL, and more importantly the USFL which was better than the NFL during its heyday and gave Doug Flutie a place to play (he was the QB for the Tampa Bay Bandits) ).
Jon Bon Jovi wants to own an NFL team or be a part of an ownership group, the NFL will not look fondly on his ownership group if he owns a stake in a team that's in a league not affiliated with the NFL.
Jon also wants to play the Super Bowl, you think they would let him if he owns a part of the new Soul?
And the statement above is so lame, he toured extensively during the previous incarnation of the Soul (watch WWWB and see) and still found time to support the team.
A publicist needs to do a better job when writing these things.
The above is just my opinion, but I think I hit the nail on the head. I did not root for the Soul even with JBJ in command, my dislike for any Philly sports teams (coming from Northern New Jersey) prevented me from embracing the Soul. It would be like rooting for the Eagles (only when they play the Cowboys and not when Michael Vick is playing). It doesn't happen.
2 comments:
I don't think that his wanting to play the Superbowl has anything to do with it. I agree that being on tour also doesn't have much to do with it.
Bottom line, the guy went out on top. He won a championship. He formed the foundation. Like I said on Twitter, he looks at it as another "chapter" in his life. It was a good one, but its time to move on.
I agree that his focus is on NFL ownership. Additionally, the newly-tooled AF1 is not even as strong an organization as its predecessor yet. Jon worked his a$$ off for the league. Been there done that, I ain't looking back. (SOOOO sorry to quote that particular song! xoxo)
Ok ... I could go on forever given my past involvement with the team and my strong feelings about the whole situation. But, I will just say - provided the new management team at the Soul is sound (I mean GM, Dir of Sales, etc.) and they continue to attract the best players in the league, I will happily travel to Philly for the games. :-)
I was really glad when he got involved with Arena League because the Tampa Bay Storm have been there from the beginning. My grandfather had season tickets from day 1 (just like with the Bucs, in fact if you were a Bucs season ticket holder you got better seats, and the Storm won games!) He was a really good face for the league, and did a lot (more so than John Elway who he played for the Broncos who lost to the Giants in 87) to elevate the team and the league publicly. It would have been better if they said everything but the part of the world tour. I still think he's holding out for NFL ownership through, and if the Maras ever sell part of the Giants I think he would cut off his testicles (he's not having any more kids LOL) to own the Giants.
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