SEATTLE — Seattle Reign FC general manager Lesle Gallimore chatted 1-on-1 with KING 5 ahead of Sunday's season-opening win.
Gallimore gave an update on the progress of the sale of the team, detailed a hectic offseason and shared her thoughts on what to expect for the upcoming season.
Below is a transcript of the conversation.
On team's rebrand, going from OL Reign to Seattle Reign
Gallimore: I think it’s everything for the players, especially the ones that have been here a long time, especially for Laura who was here in the beginning, to go back to not just playing in Seattle but being identified with the city of Seattle, I just think it’s going to help our brand, it’s going to help our identity globally. It’s going to help us bring attention to why we love this city so much and why this city loves (soccer) so much… When you’re talking international soccer, Seattle does stick out as being a soccer city, globally. For us it’s going to be really helpful in retention, recruitment when it comes to the roster.
The evolution of the club is important too. You ever don’t want to forget your history or where you’ve come from… Going through everything this club has gone through from ownership to foreign ownership to moving to Cheney from Memorial to coming back to Lumen into the city, those are growing pains, but I think necessary. I think challenges and obstacles and going through different levels of challenges within the franchise are what makes us, us.
On the challenge of a rebrand with the unknown direction of ownership
Gallimore: I think everyone behind the scenes, above my pay grade, that’s been involved in the sale, they recognize the importance of timing, the amount of work that goes into a rebrand, the effect that it has on everybody from ticket sales to the players themselves to the fanbase… Everyone involved, the league in particular, recognized that the timing had to be before the season started. The sale had been I think announced last April so for it to be going on that long, to change back was the right thing to do.
On the latest updates regarding the sale of the team
Gallimore: We’re as close as we’ve been. It’s coming any time now. It’s been a process. We’re a month away from the year mark of when the sale was announced. I know everyone is really anxious to get it done and to sort of be over that next hurdle. It’ll happen. The anticipation has been huge. We’ll get there. As the general manager in charge of the first team, my focus has been to help the players and help the technical staff stay focused on preparing and winning games. Regardless of who’s writing paychecks, the biggest thing is we need to perform.
On the hectic nature of the offseason
Gallimore: You’re juggling staff that don’t know what their future looks like and what the investment looks like so that retention and recruitment of new staff. We had to go out and get a new goalkeeper coach, a high-performance coach, a medical director. My time was spent on those things including the roster. That started way before the season ended, but I’ve learned, new GM, rookie GM, offseason doesn’t exist for any GM, whether you’re new or not. That time of the year is when things are really flying. It was busy.
On how she views the talent on this year's team
Gallimore: I’ve been through a lot college seasons myself as a coach and you prepare and everyone thinks their preseason is going great, then you stick your team out on the field and there’s usually a little bit of chaos until teams start to settle in and figure out who they really are. The thing I’ll credit our technical staff with and Laura in particular is that is her strength. She knows how to build a team on the field really, really quickly. The players that, in conjunction with her, my associate GM and I, we went out and sought as replacements or additions or resignings were ones that we knew she could build a really good team around, a competitive team.
On the role she envisions for Lu Barnes
Gallimore: I think Lu’s role is going to be Lu’s role, what it’s been for 12 years. She’s a connector. She’s someone when Jess (Fishlock) and Pinoe were off on international duty, not that she didn’t want to go on international duty, she’s been here. She’s always been with the club, through the Olympics, through the World Cup. She’s the connector with the group.
On Megan Rapinoe's retirement
Gallimore: If you follow the Gram, it looks like she and Sue (Bird) are doing just fine. They look like they’re having a pretty good time. I saw her probably a month ago, she was out of her boot, she says the Achilles is doing great… The thing that’s probably most impressive about both of them and what they garnered in their career, Sue and Megan both, is that they just continue to have impact in so many different ways. We all just owe them a debt of gratitude, not just in women’s soccer, but in women’s sports and women in general. They represent so much and they’re so impactful in so many ways, it’s fun to watch. I’m excited for both of them to kind of just follow this next bit.