Sacramento Republic FC heads into new season with a new manager, same lofty goals
With a new ownership group in charge and construction of a downtown stadium underway, Sacramento Republic FC is banking on a fresh start.
The club made bold offseason moves, headlined by the hiring of a new manager tasked with restoring championship glory and delivering Sacramento its first USL title since the team's electric debut season in 2014.
Republic FC kicks off the new campaign Saturday night at Heart Health Park at Cal Expo where they host New Mexico United. Neill Collins takes the helm as the club's new manager, stepping in after Republic and Mark Briggs parted ways in November following a five-year run.
'I set higher expectations on myself than anyone else can,' Collins said after Friday's training session. 'We understand there's been success before in certain regards, but want to try and win somewhere down the line, so that's what we're all trying to achieve. And no one will put more on me than myself.'
Republic FC has entered the last few seasons with championship expectations only to come up short. The team last season dealt with a slew of injuries and finished fifth in the Western Conference before falling in the first round of the playoffs. The year before, they had the West's best regular season record but lost in the semifinals.
Not coming away with a second league championship factored heavily into the club electing not to bring Briggs back despite his popularity. With the Collins, Republic FC hopes his fresh perspective and pedigree will end the decade-long championship spell.
'His history of success in USL, combined with a steady demeanor and well-respected reputation, align with our pursuit of championship hardware,' team president and general manager Todd Dunivant said when the Scotsman was hired.
Collins joins Republic FC after leading the Tampa Bay Rowdies to three straight Eastern Conference Finals, including advancing to the USL Finals in 2020 and 2021. Collins believes his team would have won the USL Championship over Phoenix Rising FC in 2020, but the game was canceled after players and staffers tested positive for COVID-19.
A year later, Collins was named USL Coach of the Year when the Rowdies finished with the top record in the Eastern Conference. The Troon, Scotland, native came to Sacramento shortly after being hired by the Raith Rovers of the Scottish Championship League in September. He also coached Barnsley F.C., a League One team in South Yorkshire, England.
Collins said he's excited to get to know Sacramento's avid fan base, which for years has been considered one of the best in USL.
'It's quite a huge advantage to have 10,000 fans that are passionate. And that's one thing that struck me,' Collins said. 'There are a lot of teams that have fans that support the team because they like to go to the games. Here, they really support the team and they're there win, lose or draw — through thick and thin because they're passionate about football.'
On the field, Sacramento is bringing back mainstays such as Rodrigo Lopez, Russell Cicerone and Lee Desmond. They also have Da'Vion Kimbrough, the 15-year-old who became the youngest professional soccer player in U.S. history when he signed with Sacramento in 2023. It's believed he was the youngest athlete to sign a professional contract in any team sport.
Kimbrough, a Vacaville native who worked through Republic FC's developmental academy, could see more time in 2025 after getting scarce minutes last season. But the team is working to manage expectations despite Kimbrough being one of the most talented teenagers in the country.
'He's just a kid, a really, really young kid,' Collins said. 'I just like the modesty that he's got. He's just a good player, simple as that. He's got some great traits, especially considering he's only 15 years old.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
Mayor Adams' ‘emergency' spending is out of control — now NYC must hit the brakes
New Yorkers, like all Americans, tend to stock up when any crisis is about to hit: We fill up our gas tanks, empty the bread and egg shelves at grocery stores and buy enough toilet paper to last for months. It's human nature — and for far too long, New York City's government has been behaving the very same way. But City Hall's panic reaction is far worse, and does far more damage. Advertisement In recent emergencies, like the COVID-19 pandemic and the asylum-seeker influx, city government kept on 'crisis buying' for more than a year, without ever comparing prices or rooting out contractor abuse, fraud and waste. It's time for drastic change: We must reform the city's out-of-control emergency procurement practices and add vital checks and balances. Currently, when the mayor declares a state of emergency, the city's comptroller and corporation counsel suspend their ordinary oversight regarding contracts and procurement. Advertisement In theory, this allows City Hall to respond quickly and obtain necessary goods and services to alleviate the crisis. In practice, it means the city can award no-bid contracts for up to one year — contracts that, having bypassed the competitive bidding that's normally required, can be rife with waste and abuse. Imagine purchasing a car or searching for your next apartment without competitively price-shopping for those big-ticket items. That's what City Hall does whenever the mayor declares an emergency. City agencies aren't even required to send 'emergency' contracts to the comptroller for auditing before laying out taxpayer cash. In fact, 84% of such contracts filed between January 2022 and September 2023 were submitted more than 31 days after the contract start date. Advertisement Both Mayor Eric Adams and former Mayor Bill de Blasio spent billions of dollars on the asylum-seeker and COVID crises, respectively, drawing multiple allegations of corruption and pay-to-play politics. This uncontrolled spending was especially acute during the pandemic, as de Blasio extended 'emergency' contracts a whopping 100-plus times and spent nearly $7 billion on emergency supplies with no oversight or limiting guardrails. In the private sector, affordability is a prime factor when choosing bids on contracts. The city's emergency procurement process throws such considerations to the wind, leading to reckless overspending. During COVID, City Hall paid top dollar for ventilators and N95 masks it never received — and in one case, paid an absurd $7.50 apiece for cloth masks. Advertisement Its fire sale of nearly $224 million worth of COVID-era surplus items, from ventilators to face shields, only recouped $500,000, a downright outrage. The current administration is no better, awarding a $432 million emergency contract for asylum-seeker services to an untested company called DocGo. Its dreadful performance — with problems like chronic food waste, moldy hotel rooms, unlicensed security guards and an uncredentialed CEO who was forced to resign — resulted in an investigation by the state attorney general. Even in non-emergency circumstances, the city has never reined in city contractors who utilize loopholes to enrich themselves. Take the company owned by David Levitan, listed as one of New York City's worst landlords. For over a quarter century, the city has repeatedly used Levitan's properties as homeless shelters — buildings with rotted floors, broken elevators, rat infestations and peeling lead paint. Levitan has even required some of the nonprofits operating shelters within his buildings to subcontract with his own maintenance or extermination companies to service the properties — reaping even more revenue from our tax dollars. It's time for reform, top to bottom. Advertisement Emergencies, by their very definition, are short in duration. Accordingly, they should necessitate a strictly time-limited use of no-bid contracts, for instances when competitive bidding will truly hinder the city's response. That's why I am introducing two bills in the New York City Council this week to update our lackadaisical, irresponsible procurement processes. These bills will limit all emergency contracts to 30 days, unless both the comptroller and corporation counsel approve of an extension. If passed, the laws will require all contracts be sent to the comptroller for auditing within 15 days of signing, and will increase subcontractor transparency with fines of up to $100,000 for not disclosing to the city any conflicts of interest or competing contractual obligations. Advertisement New York's broken contracting system has price-gouged our taxpayers for far too long — and recent mayoral administrations have shown no appetite to follow good-government procurement practices. It's up to the City Council to advance this vital legislation, saving precious fiscal resources, restoring responsibility and rooting out corruption. City Council Member Julie Menin (D) represents the East Side of Manhattan and chairs the Consumer and Worker Protection Committee.
Boston Globe
2 hours ago
- Boston Globe
FDA looks to AI to enhance efficiency
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The agency plays a central role in pursuing the agenda of the US health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and it has already begun to press food makers to eliminate artificial food dyes. The new road map also underscores the Trump administration's efforts to smooth the way for major industries with an array of efforts aimed at getting products to pharmacies and store shelves quickly. Advertisement Some aspects of the proposals outlined in JAMA were met with skepticism, particularly the idea that AI is up to the task of shearing months or years from the painstaking work of examining applications that companies submit when seeking approval for a drug or high-risk medical device. Advertisement 'I don't want to be dismissive of speeding reviews at the FDA,' said Stephen Holland, a lawyer who formerly advised the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on health care. 'I think that there is great potential here, but I'm not seeing the beef yet.' A major AI rollout closely follows the release of a report by Kennedy's MAHA Commission, which uses an acronym for Make America Healthy Again, that was found to be rife with references to scientific research apparently fabricated by an AI program. For some cases, the FDA officials proposed speeding major drug approvals by requiring only one major study in patients rather than two, a practice the agency has used in recent years. The pandemic provided a precedent, they said, for accelerating the process. 'We believe this is clear demonstration that rapid or instant reviews are possible,' Makary and Prasad wrote. But Holland pointed out that during the pandemic, many staff members were transferred from routine duties, including overseas inspections of food or drug facilities, and reassigned to hasten critical COVID product reviews. The agency was also better staffed. In recent months, the FDA shed about 1,940 employees, reducing the workforce to 8,000 from roughly 10,000. Last week, the agency introduced Elsa, an AI large-language model similar to ChatGPT. The FDA said it could be used to prioritize which food or drug facilities to inspect, to describe side effects in drug safety summaries and to perform other basic product-review tasks. The FDA officials wrote that AI held the promise to 'radically increase efficiency' in examining as many as 500,000 pages submitted for approval decisions. Advertisement Current and former health officials said the AI tool was helpful but far from transformative. For one, the model limits the number of characters that can be reviewed, meaning it is unable to do some rote data analysis tasks. Its results must be checked carefully, so far saving little time. Staff members said the model was hallucinating, or producing false information. Employees can ask the Elsa model to summarize text or act as an expert in a particular field of medicine. Makary said the AI models were not being trained by data submitted by the drug or medical device industry. When it comes to food oversight, Makary and Prasad said there would be a renewed focus on 'our increasingly chemically manipulated diet,' a goal embraced by Republicans and Democrats. 'For all additives,' the article said, 'the benefit-to-harm balance must be reevaluated.' Although the Trump administration is seeking steep cuts in the FDA's budget for the next fiscal year, the food division is expected to receive additional funds. Others noted the fine line agency officials were walking, given Kennedy's complaints that the FDA is too close to the drug industry and the Trump administration's business-friendly approach. Makary and Prasad wrote that the FDA must be 'partners with industry' while avoiding 'a cozy relationship that has characterized the agency in the past.' Dr. Reshma Ramachandran, a director of the Yale Collaboration for Regulatory Rigor, Integrity and Transparency, pointed out that Makary and Prasad were going on a six-city, closed-door listening tour to meet with chief executives of the drug industry. 'How is this guarding the agency 'against a cozy relationship' with industry?' she asked. The FDA priorities 'read as though they're straight out of PhRMA's playbook,' she said, referring to the trade group. Advertisement This article originally appeared in
USA Today
2 hours ago
- USA Today
Brace yourself for more ads before movies at AMC theaters, reports say
Brace yourself for more ads before movies at AMC theaters, reports say Show Caption Hide Caption AMC, Regal investing $2.2B to upgrade movie theater experience The eight biggest movie theater chains in the U.S. and Canada — including AMC and Regal — will invest $2.2 billion to make upgrades. Straight Arrow News Moviegoers, brace yourselves. The dreaded advertisements before a movie are expected to get longer at AMC Cinemas, according to multiple reports. The cinema chain is joining major competitors in running even more commercials starting in July under a new partnership with cinema advertising company National CineMedia (NCM), multiple outlets including Bloomberg and the New York Times reported. The move comes in an effort to increase revenue without raising ticket prices as cinemas continues to struggle financially and recover from the COVID-19 losses, The Hollywood Reporter reported. Under the deal, AMC will play commercials in what is known as the 'platinum spot,' the part right before the movie begins, in complete contrast to its 2019 decision in which it had shunned NCM's proposal to place ads in that spot. National CineMedia had gone on to sign agreements with two of AMC's rivals, Regal and Cinemark, that year, according to NYT. "AMC has no plan to introduce commercial advertising close to the start of a movie's commencement at its theatres in the United States, nor does AMC envision entering into such an arrangement with NCM anytime in the foreseeable future," the cinema chain had said in a September 2019 statement. AMC further said the concept "of commencing a platinum advertising position during the end of trailer play," was "flatly rejected" "because of AMC's concerns that U.S. moviegoers would react quite negatively to the concept." AMC prepared for backlash While AMC did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for a comment on the latest development, the chain in a statement to NYT suggested it was prepared for criticism and backlash, noting the decision would not impact the customer's wallets. 'For the past five years, AMC has sought out crucial revenue that is not reliant on the increase of base ticket prices,' the company said in the statement to NYT, adding 'while AMC was initially reluctant to bring this to our theaters, our competitors have fully participated for more than five years without any direct impact to their attendance.' Both AMC and NCM are expected to share revenues from the new pre-movie advertising window, according to The Hollywood Reporter. National CineMedia also did not respond to USA TODAY's request for comment. It is not known how long the pre-show and advertisements would run and what kind of ads viewers can expect to see. Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@ and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.
