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ca Raton-based women's soccer team magicJack terminated by leagu... http://www.palmbeachposlcom!sportslboca-raton-based-womens-Soc

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Boca Raton-based women's soccer team magicJack

terminated by league after one seasonBy HAL HAB IBPaim Beach Post Staff Writer

Updated: 7:33 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011

Posted: 12:43 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011

The presence of U.S. National Team stars Abby Wambach and Hope Solo wasn't enough to keep the Women's

Professional Soccer league from pulling the plug on Boca Raton-based magicJack on Thursday, ending months of

bickering between the league and club owner Dan Borislow.

The league issued a two-sentence news release saying its board of governors voted to terminate the franchise

"after careful consideration."

WPS didn't respond to repeated requests for elaboration on why the six-team league eliminated a club with seven

U.S. National Team players or whether they would join other clubs.

Clearly, however, WPS tired of bickering with Borislow, a Palm Beach resident who bought into the league this

year, promptly began criticizing its business practices and boasted, "If we go away, they don't have a league."

WPS is challenging that claim after a season in which it docked the club a point in the standings, saying Borislow's

conduct was detrimental to the league, and banned him from serving in a coaching role on the bench.

Later, the league threatened to fold the club - which moved from Washington, D.C., to Boca Raton this year - and

labeled Borislow's actions "unprofessional." He filed suit against the league, retracting it after it became apparent

the club could finish out a 10-8-2 season.

Still, Borislow said Thursday that he was surprised.

"Normally, you go through due process before you announce a death sentence," Borislow said. "It doesn't make

any sense they would announce this this morning."

It was disappointing news for Florida Atlantic University, which hosted magicJack matches and stood to profit

further next season if the team's bigger matches could have been played in the school's new, 30,000-seat football

stadium rather than a soccer complex that required temporary bleachers to approach 5,000 capacity.

"It's sad," said FAU women's soccer coach Brian Dooley, who handled much of the gameday logistics. "I enjoyed

getting out, watching that level of play and seeing all the kids in the stands.

'We were moving forward, hoping to get an early start, get the word out and start selling tickets to try to keep

things rolling."

MagicJack included several other key players who led the United States to second place in this summer's

Women's World Cup, including U.S. captain Christie Rampone and midfielder Megan Rapinoe, who assisted on

Wambach's historic last-second goal against Brazil. Buoyed by that success, magicJack enjoyed a string of

sellouts on the road and at FAU.

''That was an incredible thing, to see it swell to the point it did," Dooley said.

The team boasted the WPS rookie of the year (Christen Press) and has two current finalists for world player of the

year (Wambach and Solo). Solo also is enjoying mainstream attention on Dancing with the Stars.

As the season ended, Jennifer O'Sullivan replaced Anne-Marie Eileraas as league CEO. Since much of the friction

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ca Raton-based women's soccer team magic Jack terminated by leagu... http://www.palmbeachpostcom!sportslboca-raton-based-womens-soc

ClJ;lpearedto be betweenBoJis.low and Eileraas, there had been hope peace was forthcoming.

"It is certainly a sad day for magicJack fans and fans of the WPS," Wambach tweeted. "I want to personally thank

Dan Borislow and the fans of South Florida for their support and I hope to get an opportunity to corne back to

South Florida to play in the future."

For South Florida fans, the news is too familiar. MagicJack joins defunct men's soccer franchises including the

original Fort Lauderdale Strikers, featuring World Cup stars Gerd Muller and Nene Cubillas, and the Miami Fusion,

coached by ex-Striker Ray Hudson. Both clubs also disappeared despite obvious on-field talent.

MagicJack's demise comes only days before the current version of the Strikers plays for the North American

Soccer League championship on Saturday at Lockhart Stadium in what might be the final chance fans have to see

live soccer for the foreseeable future.

Borislow, who invented the magicJack, a device used to place phone calls over the Internet, said he will continue

to be involved in women's soccer. He said he is working on "something I think would be a lot better for me and a lot

better for soccer and the community." '

Find this article at:

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No Star-Power Women's Sports in Florida? You Don't Know Jack! Page 1 of 4

SUNSHINESTATE NEW SPublished on Sunshine State News (http://www.sunshinestatenews.com)

No Star-Power Women's Sports inFlorida? You Don't Know Jack!

magicJack overcame great adversity to enrich FAU, enthrall thousands of fansNancy SmithPosted: August 18, 2011 3:55 AM

,",""'T"" Breaker Amy LePeilbet and magicJack player-coach Abby Wambach square offBoca. Photo credit: B. LaikenHide

The biggest thrill in South Florida this summer isn't the Florida Marlins or the golftournaments or the politicians passing through.

It's a team the top women's soccer league in the world, the WPS, fields in Boca Raton, onan always packed-out pitch at Florida Atlantic University.

It's a team with a breathtaking roster of players, unconventionally called magicJack. Andit offers South Florida a look at genuine national sports stars who captured the imaginationof millions of Americans in the Women's World Cup played in Germany earlier in the

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NoStar-Power Women's Sports in Florida? You Don't Know Jack!

season.

IIWNT teammates and WPS opponents

Lauren Cheney, of the Boston Breakers, ,i1andmagicJack's Megan Rapinoe chat I

Ibefore Wednesday's kick off in Game 1 0 ~ 1 'ItheWPS playoffs. © sunshine state ,,lnewsHide I.~ __ ._. •... •__ .__ .. .•__ .. ._. __ .. __J

Page 2 of 4

Tweeted retired TV talk show host Larry King,"If I still had a show, the magicJack would allbe on it."

Miami Heat superstar LeBron James was

reported as saying in a recent interview, "I callthe magicJack a symphony on grass."

But too many Floridians north of the PalmBeaches are unaware that women's soccerroyalty lives and plays magnificently in theSunshine State. And the ones who are awareknow the magicJack exist only because of theless-than-flattering headlines in sports pagesand in blog posts -- through no fault of theplayers.

This is a team -- including seven U.S.National Team players -- that must feel as ifits communal, professional life has beenstirred with a spoon.

At the start of 2011 , these players were all members of the Washington Freedom. Theyplayed just outside the nation's capital in Maryland. But the financial troubles that hadchurned in the background during the middle of the previous season came to the frontduring the offseason. The longtime team owners backed out, saying 10 years is longenough to prop up the club. With a number of teams having trouble making offseasonpayments, the league was under threat of folding.

Enter, the enigmatic Dan Borislow.

Borislow, owner of the phone service magicJack, jumped in to buy the Freedom. He saidhe was going to make sweeping changes to keep the team afloat, and sure enough, that'sexactly what he did -- including changing the team name (first to magicTalk, then to thename of the VOIP phone network that made him a multimillionaire) and moving thefranchise to Boca Raton.

Boristow is widely considered as the league's 2011 savior. But he is also consideredamong its most dysfunctional, go-it-alone owners -- a brash and antagonistic

businessman.

"He likes to get people talking," said former magicJack general manager and NationalTeam goalkeeper Briana Scurry.

Another former member of the organization, speaking to Sunshine State News oncondition of anonymity, has his own description of the boss: "Loose cannon? Dan is soloose he should come with a power drill."

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No Star-Power Women's Sports in Florida? You Don't Know Jack!

!

INot all magicJack fans care if they can

~ind a seat in the stands. The magicJack I McCormack said Borislow came to FAU with

Idefeated the ~oston Breakers. I an idea. "He wanted to put his team on ourIWednesday night to take the first game ofl field in exchange for all the ticket proceeds

~b~_pla_yg_f!'~,_l:JJ:Eg_~ 1 and money from local advertising. Of course,

he didn't think in his wildest dreams that we would be crammed and selling out week afterweek. But our women's soccer coach knew."

Page 3 of 4

With three weeks to go before the MayI season opener, Borislow hadn't hired a front-

I

I office staff, hadn't released a team roster orrebranded the club at the WPS website where

! it remained Washington Freedom and hadn'tdecided on a magicJack uniform design.Ultimately, Scurry resigned, team coach Mike

Lyons was "quietly reassigned" and the riverof uncertainty developed an ever-strongerrushing current.

Nevertheless, Katrina McCormack, FloridaAtlantic University's head of athletics andmedia relations, told Sunshine State News onWednesday, "We have a differentperspective. We love Dan Borislow."

Borislow, she said, bought the team because

his daughter "loves soccer so much, she'sinvolved in a youth soccer league and hewants to encourage girls who love to play.He's doing all this for her and for them."

Coach Brian Dooley, she said, considered that nearly half of the magicJack team wouldbe going to Germany for the Women's World Cup. He knew the exposure the playerswould get. He knew the big world event would stimulate interest back home. And so it did.FAU confirmed that less than 24 hours after the World Cup ended, the team had receivedan unprecedented level of calls for tickets and sold some 250 group tickets just like that.

Consider a sellout crowd of more than 2,000, and an average ticket price of nearly $14."Brian Dooley knew what he was doing," McCormack said.

But, while FAU athletics prospered mightily, while players like Abby Wambach, Hope Solo,Megan Rapinoe, Shannon Boxx and Christie Rampone spent hours in the community --

signing autographs, coaching youth players, serving as ambassadors of the game, whileFAU was elevating the caliber of its athletics programs -- Borislow was finding ways toantagonize the league over "noncompliance with league rules."

The WPS ultimately moved from giving the magicJack owner a warning to handing him afine; from taking away a draft pick to taking away a point in the standings.

Other problems between the league office and Borislow -- with players in the middle --included lack of sponsor signage, lack of media access in postgame interviews, failure toupload the game video for scouting and statistics, and failure to play in a stadium that

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No Star-Power Women's Sports in Florida? You Don't Know Jack! Page 4 of 4

seats at least 5,000 (capacity at FAU's magicJack Field is just less than 2,000, with a littlemore standing-room-only space available).

But the old model wasn't working, the league was dying, Borislow has said. By keepingexpenses to a minimum, he can pay players no matter what. They can -- and do -- live in aluxury condominium at his expense. And he claims they love South Florida and are happyenough with Wambach doubling as a player and coach.

"The stadium the women play on now is small, yes," said McCormack. "There aren'tenough seats. But everybody loves playing on real grass, they talk about it all the time.And in October, we open our 30,000-seat stadium, the magicJack will play there and wecan bring in as many fans as we can find.

"The magicJack and Dan Borislow have shed a whole new light on soccer in SouthFlorida," she said, "and a whole new appreciation for Florida Atlantic and its programs.From where I sit, Dan is a hero."

The magicJack, incidentally, won the first round in the WPS playoffs Wednesday night,

defeating the Boston Beakers in Boca Raton, 3-1. They play the next round, the semifinalin this six-team league, on Saturday in Philadelphia, against the Independence. Catch thetelevised game at 4 p.m. on FOX Sports.

Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.

Abby WambachBoca RatonBrian DooleyBriana ScurryChristie RamponeDanBorislowFAUFlorida Atlantic UniversityHope SoloKatrina McCormackLarryKingLeBron JamesmagicJackMegan RapinoeMike LyonsNewsShannonBoxxWashington FreedomWomen's Professional SoccerWomen's World

CupWPSPolitics

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