This story has it all. Drama, intrigue and wild speculation (the latter of which we will discuss none of for this piece). This story started with an ominous tweet about Alyse Lahue being away from team and ended with a statement through a lawyer.
It all starts with this tweet from Dan Lauletta on June 28th.
This tweet set off a firestorm of speculation as to how long Alyse was away from the team and for what reason. The team remained tight lipped and gave us no insight into the situation.
A day later on June 29th. Alyse shows up for an appearance during the NWHL draft and announces a draft pick. Alyse was announced as and shown on screen to be still Gotham's GM.
Although it was good to see Alyse out and about. Keeping up appearances. The fact the team was not retweeting this and continuing to remaining silent about their GM was a bit odd. Something was definitely going on. Same day we saw this tweet from Allison Brown and was the first we heard of a "split" between Alyse and Gotham.
Radio silence from Gotham furthering speculation that Alyse was on the outs at Gotham. Then Meg Linehan confirmed that Lahue was on personal leave many days later.
That's when things got weird. Alyse, who usually is a very vocal GM. Alyse was regularly seen at the stadium before games mingling with fans. She was also seen around the team at all events. Alyse had last posted on twitter on June 18th. Ten days before Dan tweeted about her being away from the team. This is unusual as Lahue regularly posts on social media. Continued silence from Gotham about the status of Alyse Lahue.
Then we had to wait until July 16th before we heard any update on the status of our GM. Then Gotham seemingly out of nowhere drops this statement.
Gotham ownership had informed Alyse, sorry, Ms. Lahue, a week prior to announcing on social media that they were cutting ties. This statement is very vague and doesn't give the reader any context or clue to the situation. That followed shortly by the "expanded statement".
The added context is that the NWSL did an internal investigation into a complaint of a violation of league policy. What the complaint was is unclear at this moment.
It's good to see the team acknowledge the amazing turnaround this team endured under Alyse Lahue's leadership. Alyse was the talk of the town around sports circles and deserved all the recognition and credit for the job she did at Sky Blue and now Gotham. Widely regarded as the best GM in the sport.
Which brings us to July 17th. Dan Lauletta followed up his earlier reporting with these tweets for added context.
And then this:
The NWSL's policy on Harrasment is 16 pages long and covers harassments, sexual harassments, sexual misconduct, emotional misconduct, physical misconduct, bullying, and hazing. You can download the PDF of the policy here: https://prod-nwsl-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/wp/uploads/2021/04/NWSL-Anti-Harassment-Policy.pdf It's unclear as to which of the many rules Alyse allegedly broke. We refuse to speculate.
Gotham moves on and erases all information on their GM. So that's it right? We move on?! Not quite. Alyse, through a lawyer stated this:
Here we are at present. Alyse was removed of her post and denies any allegations of misconduct.
Stay tuned and we'll update you on anything that comes our way. We do not have any inside connections to the team itself and we refuse to speculate or inquire. We will wait for any news to come to light and share it with you.
Update 7/18/21: our internet detective found this tweet from Amy Sterner Nelson. Amy is a big person in the business. She had posted this tweet to Alyse on the June 22nd. 6 days prior to Dan's twee about Alyse being away from team.
It seems those in the business knew about the infraction earlier than we realized.
Also captain and vocal team leader McCall Zerboni posted this.
Make of that what you will.
Thanks for reading.
Gary Gibson