correct, plus try to persuade the local authorities or private investors to give you money for a SSS, knowing that a few seasons later you might be in PDL drawing flies
I agree with the second part about the NASL's viability. NASL Commish David Down's said that 4,000 a game is not enough for their clubs to be financially stable. Well, without Montreal they drew around 2,664 a game. And what will be the numbers next year? Like AndyMead said, those are sobering numbers. But a minor league affiliation is far easier to imagine and setup than some mythical MLS2 which would take years to come about. I don't see MLS concerning themselves with what to do about the levels under them until at least the next tv contract is done. So we have to think of the short-term. If you read many of Commish Down's quotes from his recent NY Times blog interview, you can see where he thinks the league might be heading. So it sounds like he envisions the NASL as a development league that bridges the gap between MLS and the youth academies. That might be the only way D2 is viable at this time. Similar to the way baseball's minor leagues bridge the gap between college/high school and the pros. But for this to work, MLS has to be on board with a financial stake in D2. NASL can't attract or develop top flight youth talent on their own. Nor will MLS ever pay transfer fees to the NASL. The idea that D2 or D3 clubs can exist on transfer fees for players has long been proven to be a fantasy. So a MLS/NASL affiliation, with MLS providing some sort of funding for players, is needed. But does MLS want that? They only brought back the reserve squads this year and the academies are a mostly recent thing. MLS might simply not see much hope for NASL's survival and stay out of the way. Perhaps Garber does envision the establishment of a MLS2 in the future for emerging markets. In that case there is little incentive for MLS to work with the NASL. Simply wait for the inevitable and build D2 exactly the way you want it with what is left over from the NASL. No, it looks like they bought three informercials for their league to be run over a few weeks. Similar to USL's USL Breakaway Magazine which they pay to air on FSC. Absolutely nothing about being on GolTV next year. National television, even on a network not many get, makes no sense since there is no national market for the league. You'd be paying GolTv decent coin to run a few games as filler. Just like the USL does with FSC. A total waste of money the NASL doesn't have since no one will watch them. This league only has a slight regional appeal in 8 markets. No one is clamoring to see American minor league soccer. With MLS it made sense to expose the league to as many people in the country as possible. So they took financial risks to get the games on TV. With D1 you need a national presence, but not for D2. I repeat there is no market. The NASL's only goal is to get the games on local television in each market. That is your only audience at this time. You simply don't have a product with any national appeal. David Downs himself said they can't compete with the soccer now on television given their low level of play. So their only hope is to attract fans for the live stadium appeal of soccer
I don't necessarily disagree with the premise, but there are two points that need to be made. First, we don't know that the league paid for the time. That could be the reason why the program is on GOL TV instead of FSC...at the very least, they would have paid less to be on GOL TV. Furthermore, both GOL TV and the league are headquartered in Miami...about 15-20 minutes away from each other. Second, GOL TV has a sizable presence on Comcast in the South Florida market, which should at least mean good things for the Strikers. I can't speak for anything anywhere else in the US or Canada, but it should have less competition for attention on GOL TV Canada as opposed to Fox Sports World up there. At least having the program can result in the potential for it to be shown on regional networks, such as BHSN in Tampa...or perhaps even a regional Comcast network. If GOL TV is helping to produce the program, it could result in more cooperation with the network, which could, at least, be a boost to the team streams as well.
No way any sort of legit second division will have pro/rel unless that second division has the reasonable potential of at least 75% of the revenue from the first division. And considering MLS is currently at well over $10M a team, and considering - using Andy Mead's relatively reasonable math - that the vast majority of non-MLS teams are hoping and praying to get to 10% of that, I think it is safe to say we're a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG way from that.
My point was that You would pay the 10 Million to get into MLS2 but you would be forced to stay there for a minimum of 10 years. Your one guaranteed entry would be as the lowest seed for the MLS Cup playoffs. And to answer a previous post, promotion would only be between the two MLS Leagues, not what ever other league may be out there (NASL, USLP, PDL, NPSL, etc.)
when, oh when will the promotion/relegation discussion die? At least lay out a strategy for making it work and for changing the American business model, instead of just constantly exclaiming "but I want it!". It isn't likely to ever happen and if it is tried it potentially could crush pro soccer here just as easily as it enhances it. Why bother? MLS is 16 or so years old and still struggles in alot of ways for viability. Lower division soccer has been a basket case for decades and despite recent attempts at fixing it, likely will remain so for the foreseeable future. We are a minimum of decades from even the discussion of pro/rel being something other than a waste of time, much less actually implementing it. Any word on how ticket sales are going in Minnesota and Puerto Rico for this weekends games?
I think we're talking about two completely separate subjects here. The first is actual tv coverage of games, you'd assume live. The NASL is light years away from this being at all feasible or worthwhile. As Downs has said in the past, we need to build each individual franchise in its home market right now. That is the only way this entire league will ultimately be able to survive. Each team needs to be relevant enough in its home market to develop and sustain a large enough core fanbase to support it financially. Then you can start talking about tv, but again, the focus has to be on the regional market. Getting the Strikers on tv in South Florida is a commendable goal. Getting them on GolTV for broadcasting of games would be a waste of money. Now, the other thing we're talking about is coverage for the league. Again, you want to start locally. You want to get media coverage for your team in its home market to be built up first. This is how you expand the number of people exposed to your product that can become members of the paying fanbase. Part of selling your product to more casual sports fans could have a larger footprint of relevance factor to it though. Broadcasting games costs lots of money, but getting a highlight/news show occasionally on GolTV can't be anywhere near the same cost, and it elevates your status a little. I've written e-mails to ESPN.com asking why I'm able to follow division two South American teams, and Division five English teams on their web site, but I cannot follow division two right here in the United States. Even just a page with the standings and game schedule. These are examples of things that lend some relevance to your league. If they have a show on a national soccer channel, or you can go on ESPN and see the standings, then maybe it's not as "second rate" as an outsider who has never sampled it might just dismiss it as being. The streaming quality has to be improved. If you find ways to increase exposure of your league from a coverage standpoint, ie. the GolTV specials, and then a viewer says, hmm, maybe I'll check out one of these NASL games, then the quality needs to be at a higher level if you ever want that casual viewer to come back.
I agree to the above points but let's say hypothetically to get the interest and public to the next level their needs to be pro/rel. That's why teams in other countries draw crowds because the fans all know that they have a chance of once playing in a "major" league. If it stays the way it is right now don't expect any team even coming close to MLS numbers.
I see the Reserve Division as serving a separate purpose as a minor league affiliate. I see the MLS Academy system basically making both necessary. MLS teams are attracting talent and developing talent. The trickle coming out of the academy systems is about to turn into a torrent. MLS isn't going to want those "assets" to just disappear as they attempt to figure out which two or three players coming out each year should be on their senior roster. The eventual solution is to sign all the players that show any promise and ship most of them to the minors for seasoning. The Reserve Division is where you give some games to the players at the end of the bench, a few top academy players, and trialists. Looking at it financially, and long term for player development and market penetration - having MLS squads leverage their local soccer youth scene - it all makes too much sense for at least part of this to come true. If one fails to look at things through the perspective of the various people and entities writing the checks, then you're doomed to be shocked/dismayed by what actually happens.
It's the curse of becoming a sports magazine editor. I started a soccer fanzine in 2000, and basically ended up with an MBA in sports management. It's frustrating because, it makes it real hard to fall into typical fan umbrage when you see the choices from a financial decision making end. I do wish I could just go back to being a normal fan and rail against the injustices of incompetent ownership that won't do what I want them to do.
And if a team has two or three minor-league affiliates, that's three or four times as many markets where they can leverage the youth leagues and develop more talent to potentially play for their team.
I understand this. MLS is going to need clubs where all their academy players can graduate to and move up. As Downs said, the biggest problem facing U.S. soccer right now is bridging the gap between the youth system and MLS. My question is whether MLS evens needs the NASL for this to happen? What incentive is there to work with the independent Traffic run NASL as opposed to MLS setting this up on their own? MLS clubs could create new minor franchises and have existing teams from the NASL and USL join them. Costly to SUM, but with hopes that long term this will pay off. NASL only has 8 clubs at this time. Only 5 of which even have local ownership. Perhaps MLS doesn't want to enter into any working agreement because they don't see the league as viable or sufficient for their future needs. ------------------- Back on topic, we probably won't get that PR Islander crowd for a while. It did look small. And the Minnesota crowd did look a lot smaller than 2,512 from the feed. Disappointing crowds for the semis. But maybe it was just a bad angle. Not to get ahead of ourselves, but did anyone think there was a chance for a Striker-Stars final at the start of the year?
There are existing fanbases, which makes it cheaper to support an affiliate in those markets than to try to build something from scratch. And if MLS, LLC had to do it all themselves, they'd be on the hook for the cost of marketing and game operations as well as just helping with player and coach salaries. So it's cheaper to set it up in a quasi-independent fashion a la baseball. Traffic is no more an obstacle than Mandalay. Hahahahaha, that's a great point. Both of those teams have far outperformed pre-season expectations, and deserve kudos even if they don't make it any further than this.
Pretty much in previous telecasts, the opposite side of the field would show like 5 or 10 people, must of the crowd sits just below the cameras. Still, 2,500 is not very good.
Based on what? If you look at the history of minor league games - including mostly playoffs and USOC games - 2,500 is pretty good. Games not on the schedule tend to do very badly.
And unlike major league sports, the local media isn't providing huge amounts of free advertising (coverage).