The Riley Effect – how it has benefited both Cascadia and ConIFA
by Steve Clare, London
James Riley has undoubtedly brought a great deal to the Cascadia team and to his younger teammates. But the influence the former Sounders FC defender has had on the playing side may have been dwarfed by the amount of media interest he has brought in, and more importantly, how that has shaken up both the ConIFA tournament and the image of Cascadia.
CAFF President Aaron Johnsen told Prost on Tuesday night that he had conducted as many interviews in the six days after he arrived in London as in the six months before. That is an encouraging sign about the impact his organisation has already made.
Riley as a player and captain has been even more in demand:
“I would guess that I have conducted 15-20 interviews,” he told Prost.
One of the highest profile interviews was from Jon Holmes, a journalist whose work had already come to our notice, when he interviewed Adam McCabe who has since joined the Prost team:
Sky Sports journalist Holmes wrote an article called Former MLS star James Riley ready for CONIFA World Football Cup challenge, in which Riley talked up and promoted both the soccer heartbeat and the beauty of the bio-region of Cascadia.
“You’ve got the Sounders, the Whitecaps, and the Timbers,” said Riley, “and that forms part of the Cascadian rivalry and culture.
“It’s also a stunning place to live, and to raise a family. To be able to unify those three cities that have such a deep-rooted soccer history is fantastic.”
On skysports.com, Riley was able to promote Cascadia and ConIFA to a new audience, English sports fans. Without Riley’s participation in Team Cascadia and ConIFA, how much of this audience would have been aware of either Cascadia or ConIFA?
Holmes, the article’s author, told Prost:
“For many football fans, there won’t be much knowledge of ConNIFA and the World Football Cup, so it helps to be able to introduce them to the tournament via someone with a bit of pedigree.
“With James’ experience in MLS, he was a clear choice to chat to from the players gathered on Wednesday’s media day and of course, he was able to convey why this unique event has captured the imagination of so many.”
Other outlets which featured Riley included MLSSoccer.com, some English freelancers, and besoccer.com. The Boston Globe had also made an inquiry to the Cascadia Football Federation about an interview and the Wall St Journal had also been in touch.
Riley himself talked to Prost reporter Steve Clare about the media attention and what drew him to want to be part of the Cascadia set up:
Whatever the future holds for Riley, one thing is certain. He has already made as big a difference to the fledgling trajectory of Cascadian soccer history as he did to the first three years of the fledgling Sounders FC MLS franchise, where three Open Cups and consecutive post seasons now define the club’s expectations.
