Ok lets just say that the NASL does get Sanctioned. Lets also say that the MLS stays put with 20 teams (assuming NY2 is the 20th League). What do you guys think NASL will look like? East Puerto Rico Islanders Tampa Bay Rowdies Ft. Lauderdale Strikers Carolina Railhawks Ottawa Buffalo Hamilton Central AC St. Louis NSC Minnesota Stars San Antonio Cleveland Milwaukee Austin Tulsa West FC Edmonton Pheonix Sacramento San Diego Calgary Las Vegas
Looks like an excellent league line up. Of course it does rely on a few teenie-tiny details happening.......like PR fulfilling the USSF ownership and stadium criteria, Tampa Bay and Carolina sorting out their urgent need for new investors, Ottawa, Buffalo and Hamilton actually getting eligible teams (with $20mm investors, stadiums etc), ditto Tulsa, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Diego, Calgary and Las Vegas, then if Austin could just reverse their decision to join the USL and St. Louis and Minnesota get out of their financial binds, Edmonton get a suitable venue then get the whole thing sanctioned and bingo! Otherwise it's just another list of mid-sized sports markets in the US who may or may not one day support a soccer team with more than 2,000 fans.
If pro soccer comes back to Austin, it will be another group IMHO. ''Rawlings'' must be a bad word now in Austin
I'd much rather have Cleveland in USL-Pro so we'd have more regional rivals. I'd rather play Pittsburgh, Dayton, Rochester. We also built up a pretty good rivalry with Richmond in the two years we were in USL-2. Cleveland is a major league city; if it's going to be minor league, it has to be at a lower level to survive.
It was clarified that PRI meets all criteria, Guillermad has decided to become mayority owner so that the team meets the ownership requirments, and the stadium has never been a issue.
I've heard/read in a couple of places now (including the recent Soccer Sam show with Brian Quarstad) that Tampa has not paid their players for the last couple of weeks of the season.
Where other than the Soccer Sam show have you heard/read it? Odd that players supposedly haven't been paid, yet have been making appearances all over town since the season ended and no one has produced any credible evidence to back up this rumor. Happily the Rowdies appear to be just fine and can be scratched off the list Bill's list of small details.
LOL, exactly. When a sports team fails to pay players the secret comes out pretty quickly as you here reports of players leaving town; talks of lawsuits; complaints aired on twitter, blogs, etc. When I start to hear of these things I will believe this rumor. Until then, I will continue to believe that the Rowdies will try to field another team next season.
I'm not sure what the h in hyp is supposed to mean, but throw in a "Republic" and an "Alliance" and you've got the makings of an all-time top ten worst team name suggestions list.
2 conferences of 10 teams, play conference rivals home and away and non-conference teams once home OR away = 28 reagular seaon games, Top 4 in every conference = Playoffs 1vs4 2vs3 home and away, and two legged final too.
I'm thinking one of two scenarios; 1. A solid to semi solid d2 soccer league with from 12 - 18 teams. Still going through some what of a cycle of adding and losing team. 2. A Wikipedia entry. Right now it's looking more like the second option.
Well, it's not completely certain what NASL will look like next year yet. The problem is the USSF has made the D2 requirements to strict for NASL who is almost starting from scratch to organize their teams into a league. There is no way they will get sanctioned for 2011 unless the USSF grants them an exception. And teams are hesitant to commit to a league that may not even be a league if the USSF decides to kill it. The USL Pro has already made their prediction and they are privy to much more info than us. They predict that there will be no D2 league. They are happy to be the D3 league with no D2 at all. I'm guessing that NASL may decide to go D3 as well and we'll be in the same situation as last year. The USSF needs to ease the requirements *and* grant the NASL a one time exception otherwise NASL is DOA.
More like USL is trying every dirty trick in the Book to make sure NASL fails. I think USSF knows and thats why USSF will give NASL D3 sanction and give all NASL teams with certain issues temporary waviers until the league gets on it feet. Once NASL is stable I bet the USSF will becoming to D3 and coming after USL for all the low down dirty scams they have done.
Kinda like how the NASL/TOA tried a dirty trick to make sure USL failed? The standards are set, NASL has got to meet them. If NASL is as great as you make them out to be, they shouldn't have a problem meeting the standards.
You are spreading FUD and lies. Soccer Sam has no source for his claims; go to Ralph's Mob site and you'll see a post from Graham Tatters saying he has never missed a paycheck. You've got plenty of other Rowdies players making appearances which they wouldn't do if they weren't paid. Owner Howard Hinds has tweeted that they have never had any problems meeting payroll. Look, we aren't stupid. We know a concerted whispering campaign, FUD, and astro-turfing (or in this case anti-astro-turfing) when we see one. The USL would very much like to kill off the NASL and they'll try every dirty trick in the book to pull this off. The fact that this "rumor" comes from a pro-USL, anti-NASL hostile source has bad faith and bad motives written all over it. It's a lie. Just calling a spade a spade here; tough sh!t if that offends some people.
You USL apologists are kinda...odd..... The NASL teams broke away from the USL because the they wanted to take D2 in a new direction. You'll have to forgive them if signing up for the years old USL strategy of give us a franchise fee check and you're on your own, was something they were on longer ok with. Now, think long and hard about this one chief......which organization do you think had a DIRECT influence on the USSF sstandards? The infant NASL, who at the time of the standards release had not even been in existence for a year or had a chance to fully operate a league on their own? Or the USL.....the guardians and champions of D2 soccer for the last, what, 10+ years? The same organization that has given the D2 level a stunning 75%+ fail rate of teams. The same organization who has now thumbed their nose at the D2 standards and actively engaged in attempting to derail any chances of D2 soccer in this country. Their "new business strategy" in all it's glory comes down to this - let's hope (and try to further at any possible opportunity) the demise of the only chance this country has it establishing a D2 level on the soccer pyramid for the foreseeable future, and in so doing by default make ourselves "the top level of soccer below MLS." What I find absolutely hilarious is the number of people and organizations who turn a complete blind eye to the history of the USL, a history of nearly complete failure as an organization. Every person in this country who truly considers themself a supporter of the sport on the whole ought to be all for our best chances at building a structure that works toward a long term goal of a stable pyramid and advancement of the game at all levels. That's the only way we're ever going to be competitive with other top nations is if we build from within. As an American sports fan, who wants to go to the world's largest sporting event every four years and have the entire world view you as nothing more then a mediocre squad with ZERO chance of ever winning?
I'm not a USL apologist; they have done a whole lotta wrong, chief. I just like pointing out that NASL is no different. Meet the old boss, same as the old boss.