US Soccer Bites the Hand that Feeds Its US Open Cup

By: Laurie | July 23rd, 2009

Once upon a time, there was a website called USOpenCup.com that was dedicated to bringing attention to the best tournament that nobody knows about, the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup.

It was so comprehensive, so well-researched, and so professional that most of the people who visited didn’t realize it wasn’t run by US Soccer, the sponsors of the tournament. When people went looking for full US Open Cup coverage, this was where they went, simply because it had the best information out there.

Explanations of the rules? Check. Tournament brackets? Check. Game recaps? Check. History, dating back to the Open Cup’s start in 1914? It had that too. (For fun, check out this historical recap of the tournament in 1914. Then tell me you’re not impressed.)

But there was a problem. Anybody who’s run a website can tell you it’s not free. US Soccer was perfectly fine with the website drawing attention to its event and doing work that nobody else was willing to do. But because the site was unofficial, they prevented the domain owners from selling advertising or doing anything else that could raise money to cover costs or compensate the people who did the work. When the issue came up, US Soccer suddenly had a problem with the site.

It was learned at that point that Demosphere, who owned the domain name USOpenCup.com, were unable to authorize [things like selling advertising] because the USSF had informed them that they had a right to the domain name due to the fact that they own the copyright and trademark for the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.

The USSF was more than pleased with the work that was being done on USOpenCup.com, but if it was determined that money was being made on a domain name that they had a legal right to, that was going to cause a problem.

In an effort to avoid future conflicts, Demosphere signed the domain name over to the USSF, making them the rightful owners. All parties involved agreed that the website would not change as a result of the official change in ownership of the domain name.

So the obvious next step, now that US Soccer owned the site, would be that the people doing the work would get paid by them, right?

Wrong. For awhile, it looked like this would happen, but in the end US Soccer decided that the money just wasn’t there. On the surface this sounds like a valid reason, because we’re talking about soccer in the US, where the money is never there.

Where this argument breaks down, though, is when you consider that there could be money if the site were allowed to sell advertising. Just like the folks who ran it originally proposed.

But that’s apparently not going to happen. And so, instead of a fantastic site at USOpenCup.com, what fans of the tournament will get are the same people running a different site: TheCup.us, which will go live on September 1, the day before this year’s final between DC United and Seattle Sounders FC.

US Soccer will apparently still hold the rights to the old name, but my guess is that there won’t be anybody around to put the time into it to make it anything special. Definitely nothing like they had before.

And soccer in the US wins by this…how, exactly?

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Category: World Football

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alex w

"Its only the most hard-core soccer fans who watch European leagues with great regularity."

I'd say that is incorrect. Myself, along with most of my soccer watching friends, we watch european leagues regularly, and only MLS when nothing else is on. It's just too hard to sell the MLS to americans, because we are used to spectating the best, and MLS is far from the best. By and large we all support the USMNT, but we are all resigned to the fact that soccer in the US will probably never reach the level of european teams.
G

N, the matches that you are referring to are organized by parties outside of CONCACAF, so all that the confederation could do is request, like the AFC did, that teams shorten their trips. They aren't under any obligation. I don't believe that CONCACAF made the same request. While the confederation does care about the cup, remember that in 2007 (when the AFC made the request), the tournament qualified teams for FIFA's confederations cup. This time it is just for bragging rights, as we can all see.

Also, Laurie is right - every U.S. player that played in the confed cup has now been released to their club teams (many teams still have players on vacation).

My personal opinion is that having great European teams come really helps make soccer more popular in the U.S. Fans here really support the big European club friendlies, and as they start to see how much fun a soccer game can be, some of those same supporters will watch USMNT and MLS games. Many people say that European clubs are such a higher class that the fans that came out to these matches won't see MLS teams. Let me tell you, TONS of people at these games have never been to a live soccer game, and this will help drive their enthusiasm. Its only the most hard-core soccer fans who watch European leagues with great regularity.
Laurie

Saving thoughts on your real topic for later, but the US is playing the B team in the Gold Cup. Onyewu played the Confederations Cup and then was allowed to go back to real life, along with almost everybody else who played in South Africa. A couple of players (Altidore, Davies, Adu etc.) got the second call-up, but even they were allowed to go home during or right after the group stages.

I think Bob Bradley decided that the Confed Cup was the real deal and this is the proving ground. Even so, the team has made it to the Gold Cup final, which isn't too bad.
N

Sorry to turn to different topic but is it not a bit counter productive to the development of game in the CONCACAF region by having Chelsea, Inter Milan, AC Milan and Club America playing in the same country at the same time of the regional championships?

Having all these top class teams is great, but, trying to win over North American (in particular US) supporters to follow their national team might be distracted with the likes of Zlatan, Milito, Ronaldinho and one of Mexico's biggest teams.

Also I saw Oneyu (poor spelling) played for AC Milan in this tournament....did he end up playing for USA against Honduras??

Surely playing for your country in a regional tournament is more important than some shonky pre-season comp?

Man Utd. was told by the AFC to cancel (or shorten) its trip to Malaysia on the eve of the 2007 Asian Cup to keep interest in the tournament.
Laurie

Response from Josh at USOpenCup.com

We are trying to work out a compromise when it comes to that. We may be able to work out a deal where we create a splash page that reminds people that the domain name of the original site changed. I don't know what their plans are with the domain name. I'm assuming they will forward it to their current Open Cup page on ussoccer.com, but I'm just speculating.
Laurie

I was wondering that too, Dave. My guess is yes? This seems like a relatively amicable split, all things considered. I can check, though.
DaveS

Will US Soccer at least redirect requests for usopencup.com to the new website?
Adam

what's missing here is the legal proceedings? Demosphere just gave USSF the domain name? why? is there legal precedence that copyright to a name holds over for a URL?
Dave

Doesn't it seem like sometimes the USSF would rather promote 2girls1cup than the US Open Cup?
Chris

Count me among those unaware that usopencup.com was not run by USSF. Given how terrible ussoccer.com is (and has always been), it doesn't surprise me though. It's a great shame.
jon

Bitch move, USSF. For a cup that no one cares about already, lets make information from the only source that provides harder to come by.
Laurie

Oops. Today, phantompong! Look for them in a few hours.
phantompong

Hello Laurie - when will answers and results from last weekend's quiz be up?