Whitecaps, Impact, heck even Seattle's previous owners/or part-owners had no intention of moving up to MLS. Only Seattle's made an attempt before 2008. Those guys just setup quality teams in great markets, hoping start something special. But none of them created a team because they weren't invited to the MLS party. St Louis DID join D2 because they couldn't make the MLS jump. There has been a lot of talk because of Phoenix's size to go to MLS. MLS doesn't seem interested. Hence why they should go the StL route and just make a quality D2 side and go from there.
Look at Tampa, if things continue the way it is there i wouldn't be surprised if Tampa were to make a move to MLS.
I've heard someone mention that they are working on a Western Conference team at the division 2 level. Is the USSF sanctioning another confernence besides the NASL Conference and the USL1 Conference? Can anyone point me to an official announcement of this?
You're a little confused. The reason the USSF named the conferences "USL" and "NASL" was to mollify the two groups that were trying to get their own leagues certified. Neither of them had enough teams to do it, so the USSF decertified the USL1 and decided to run the league themselves this year. There hasn't been any news on next year from the USSF, and we probably won't know anything until after this season is done. However, both the USL and NASL have been making announcements on teams they'll have for their leagues next year. Both leagues are planning on applying again this off season. There are a few threads on the matter in both the USL and NASL boards. I think the most recent stuff is probably in the NASL news thread.
You might be thinking about the Western USL 2 conference (which is division 3 in the USSF tier) tim holt has aluded to the expansion of USL 2 to include a number of West Coast teams in a few interviews and press releases.
gantry is probably remembering what I said a few threads ago. That if you go to this new Phoenix team's website, they make it sound like they are creating their own NPSL/PDL like league in the Southwest and have hopes to merge with the USL (or something equivalent) in the future. They talk about teams in NM, NV and California. I don't know if that is really their plan, but thats what it says.
I'm talking about this announcement from the Phoenix Monsoon Group http://www.phoenixmonsoon.info/Announcements.html Here, they are clearly referencing a USSF D2 Western Conference. I had heard the the USL2 (D3) was considering a Western Conference, but this is the first that I've heard of a D2 Western Conference to compliment the D2 NASL Conference and D2 USL1 Conference.
Well that is a little bit new. 4 cities committed, only San Jose and Phoenix are actually known to commit. San Jose and Los Angeles, really? But its essentially the same thing as before, but now they have cities actually named. And the link you posted does reference the USSF D2, which it didn't before. I am still thinking this will be a non-USL, non-NASL league.
from what I have gathered from my google-fu, reading the press releases and a couple emails to people, it sounds like that they are organizing a group of teams and investors in a geographic area (SouthWest) to make it more cost effective for travel. At this point, it looks like they are waiting to see what D2 looks like next season before comitting to either USL or NASL. It sounds like a grand plan and a bit ambitious for 2011.
OK, but you can't just declare yourself a division 2 conference, that is up to USSF. So the question is, what does the USSF have to say about this? Any team in a self-declared conference without any USSF sanctioning is simply an exhibition team competing among other exhibition teams. I do not understand why there needs to be such consternation over resolving this USL1 vs NASL division 2 thing. Why can't the USSF, just make a ruling and be done with it? Delaying the decision just leaves uncertainty in division 2 and prevents it from growing.
However, this article suggests that USL2 West isn't going to happen any time soon. Unless, of course, the USL pushes teams into it. Which they have done in the past.
yeah I read that but other than the title it really doesnt dismiss USL2 West. there is a meeting tomorrow to discuss the fesiblity Victoria seems ready, Kitsap want to but the article says he would like 2000 a match before making the jump Tacoma seems to be sending a rep but not really ready to go. not sure about the other rumored teams but I think five at a min, six would give you a schedule like what we have in USL2 this season (20 matches, play each team 4 times, 2 home 2 away) As to the Phoenix and the new "conference" I dont think the owners are declaring them Divison 2, but more that is their aim is to play in a Division 2 west coast conference. They are putting together the teams while working with the leagues. Now for USSF decission regarding D2, I feel that they do want D2 soccer to do well, which is why they didnt sanction either league and made them try to play nice. I imagine we will have a repeat of this past off season starting once the teams stop playing. As it stands, I really dont see either league as standing on their own. For that matter, I dont know if USSF has stated their "new, tighter restriction" for D2 status but that might give the edge to one league over the other. USL seems to be trying to right the ship by adding more staff to address some of the issues the the TOA had with the league. (league presence, Marketing assistances, just recently a new postition that help USL clubs on website production and management to help strengthen their online presence.) the additions of the teams inAntigua and second PR team makes ones eyebrows raise and in my opinion its not too early for Orlando and FCNY to ramp up their online presence. Not sure what is going on with NASL other than the individual team press releases, as the league itself doesnt seem to be putting anything out online. I have heard rumors that some of the clubs arent really happy with the way things are being run, and of course there is the constant question mark over the future of the teams in Baltimore (or the area about 50 miles around it) and St. Louis, weather the attendence in Minnesota will let them continue at their current level and if Traffic rebranding Miami is going to change anything. long rambling rant over...
So there are at least two separate efforts to bring a professional soccer team to Arizona: Phoenix Monsoon http://www.phoenixmonsoon.info For info on this, I check out their press releases at their website. Most of their info seems to announce stuff that the dream of doing, not that they are actually doing. I've not been able to verify anything they have announced. In fact we are still waiting for them to announce the coach that they say they selected on May 8th. Phoenix Pro Soccer http://www.phxprosoccer.com/ This group isn't making any public announcements at this time. However, they have a Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Phoenix-Pro-Soccer/123005961061549?v=info&ref=ts and the discussion forums there give you an opportunity to directly ask questions of the team leading that effort.
A while ago there was another attempt to bring a USL1 (div 2) Pachuca USA team here to Arizona. http://www.aztuzos.com Does anyone know what happened to this effort and why it failed?
Pachuca was looking at a couple areas in the US, Arizona included. they "decided" on Orlando but that was as far as it went. I think they even went as far to contact some of the supporter group efforts there. It just seemed to disappear without much explaination though and the pachuca is not very well recieved there.
AZ Tuzos was the Monsoon people trying to get Pachuca on board. Now I guess they have some new backing (or no backing).
Yes....Monsoon does equal Tuzos......however, there is another group, Phoenix Pro Soccer, which has met with both the USL and NASL and are also working to bring soccer to the city. Keep an eye out for them.....
Yes, I've been following them as well. You can check out their Facebook page. There is some good info in their Discussion forum too.
Thanks for this information. Learning that Phoenix Pro Soccer is not the Monsoon makes me more optimistic about a Phoenix D2 team. That Monsoon site is pretty low-rent, and learning a little about Stu Starkey didn't really improve my opinion on them. Somehow completely missed that phxprosoccer link. Definitely good stuff on the facebook discussion.
Yes.....I have heard that this group has met with both leagues already and is close. I have seen their facebook group and it does look like they know what they are doing.
Quite a discussion. I've been following the attempts to bring pro soccer to the Phoenix area since '07. Dana Gagnon's efforts to bring MLS fell short. I suspect the pockets weren't deep enough. MLS had a planned visit when they were in the selection process that led to Seattle and Philadelphia, but the visit never happened. Stuart Starkey, the 2002 Dem's sacrificial candidate for the US Senate vs John McCain, led the group that was looking to partner with Mexican club Pachuca. Pachuca execs, including VP Luis Baraldi, came to Phoenix and met with local politicos and the MLS Phoenix Rising supporters group. It was at that time that the AZ legislature passed the first of its laws in its move to make the state undesirable to illegal residents. That, in part, but not exclusively, led Pachuca to declare that they had chosen Orlando over Phoenix, San Antonio, and San Francisco. And then they pulled the same non-action in Orlando. Now we have the two groups mentioned in this thread, Phoenix Monsoon and Phoenix Pro Soccer. The Monsoon are led by Starkey, Phoenix Pro Soccer has the involvement of Chris Campassano and, I believe, Nick Saliewicz's(Philly Union CEO) brother out of San Antonio. Both groups have been in contact with both D-2 leagues. As to the low rent look of Starkey's group v the polished look of Phoenix Pro Soccer. All I can say is, you can't tell a book by its cover. The Campassano group's business is in digital media. It makes sense that they would have a polished look as they don't have to go out and purchase the service to create and maintain it. This Phoenix Pro Soccer event was announced with great fanfare and went nowhere. Starkey's date for announcements of a coach has not been met. Unless anyone here has a direct pipeline into the offices of USL or NASL, it's no surprise that no one can confirm or deny anything and its just foolish to discredit one group or the other. These leagues are simply not going to tell us anything until there is something concrete to tell. To say that one group is in a better position than the other without confirmation from either Tim Holt or Aaron Davidson is pure speculation.
I would modify that to "You can't always tell a book by it's cover. However, usually if a website's crap, so is the organization behind it. One way or another, here's hoping that Phoenix gets a good professional soccer team next season.
I attended a meeting last night of the MLS Phoenix Rising Soccer Supporter group at which Stuart Starkey outlined his plans to bring professional soccer to the Valley. Kenn Tomasch, a better writer than I am, was also in attendance and did a write-up on his blog Kenn.com. Head on over there to read the full story. Kenn also has a video of an interview he conducted with Starkey. BTW: Two groups in Phoenix are in contact with USL and NASL.