Carolina Railhawks 4th NASL Team to be Propped up by Traffic Sports

Carolina Railhawks 4th NASL Team to be Propped up by Traffic Sports
Inside Minnesota Soccer

But, I thought that the NASL owners were all shrewd businessmen for getting out from under the USL's outdated and unfair business plan....? That, without USL holding them back, they would thrive because they were so smart....?

I guess we'll find out how that "provisional" D-2 sanction from USSF really is.

You're a weak version of Kenn. Try harder.

The "provisional" tag was merely a by-laws formality. I LOVE BQ's blog, it's the best one out there for D2 news and info. But do you really think he uncovered something that the USSF board didn't already know? Coming at this story from that angle shows one of two things - either 1. you didn't think things through very carefully before rushing to make your NASL-bashing post, or 2. see #1.

I wonder if the ownership groups in say, Charleston, Rochester, and such feel the "unfair" and "outdated" models of the past are truly gone with the travel expenses they will be incurring flying out to California, and to the Caribbean this year on D3 budgets in the "all-new" "all-different" USL "Regional" League......

Apparently even Kenn has fanboys! LOL

Did you read the story?

So no, the USSF could not have known that Carolina would be in such dire straits, because they, like Selby Wellman, were working under the assumption that the new capital would be in place. Otherwise, why would he have to notify anyone about the situation, if it hadn't taken a significant turn for the worse?

And I love how you guys are more interested in shooting the messenger than discussing the message. Gee, I wonder why that is....? Could it be that the NASL isn't quite as loaded with wonderfulness as the fanboys love to pretend...?

No, it couldn't possibly be that the messenger, who has had an axe to grind with NASL from the start, is trying to be smug. (Also, I love how the use of "fanboys" when referring to fans of a team in NASL is required for all posts from the simple messengers)

We've read the news and it sucks, there's no need to be an arrogant shithead. Find me some posts from knowledgeable posters (i.e. - not WSW) that claim NASL was filled with "wonderfulness" or include descriptions of NASL owners as "shrewd businessmen." You won't unless it's from some stray poster that knows jack about the situation. Your post is blatant trolling and you know it.

I'm not sure why we, as fans of a new league, should be ridiculed for wanting to see a change in a second division that was run horribly and showed no sign of changing (and still doesn't, except they're brainwashing some people they're going "regional")

No one said that "NASL owners were all shrewd businessmen." They (and we) have simply stated from the beginning that any league would be better off were it controlled directly by the most direct stakeholders (ie. those individuals who stand to lose millions should their teams fold).

Even USL with their new Board of Directors has finally acquiesced, however superficially, to this statement.

It has never been about smarts. It's always been about being cheated out of a franchise fee that got owners next to nothing for their investment. No publicity, no financial or sales training, no collective bargaining. Even when the league was owned by a pro athletics retailer--nothing.

It's true, this situation sucks. Many of the NASL owners are not financially viable in the long term--we knew that. Hopefully in the coming years they can begin to attract new owners (or adopt new ownership models) which are. They now have that freedom; under USL they simply didn't.

There should be two conferences in the NASL

The Traffic Conference and the The Independent Conference

If I'm not mistaken but wasn't MLS propped up with 2 owners.

You're mistaken, as usual. There has never been fewer than 5 or 6 owners in MLS.

On this, we completely agree.

I did read the story. I have also read the other stories from well before the provisional sanctioning about Wellman looking for additional investors in the Railhawks. Don't know the exact timeframe on those, but I'm sure BQ reported on it at some point and you could check his archives on it. Any knowledgable Railhawks fan can probably confirm this here as well. So if everything was "peachy keen" as you're making it out to be, why was he looking for additional investors all this time? Notifying the appropriate parties, ie. NASL and USSF, is exactly what anyone in his position would do.

Look, we are not privy to all the documents turned into USSF by NASL. We do know that at the time of the review, USSF knew about Traffic supporting Atlanta, and the league supporting Minnesota at the very least. With this knowledge they still granted the sanctioning. And how do you know there isn't some other language to the effect that Traffic was guaranteeing the financial support of the 8 team league for 2011 as well? Maybe the USSF even required that guarantee to grant the sanctioning. Them giving the sanctioning and then the league folding mid-season would make USSF look pretty stupid wouldn't it?

Good points. I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I've never cried from the rooftops that Traffic, Wellman, or anyone else NASL affiliated are geniuses at this point. What I will shout about is the fact that they are willing to take on the risk of trying to make D2 work, and doing it differently from the model that failed repeatedly. Is it off to a rough start? You bet. But ultimately what aimorris, bullsear, hell even WSW with all his jibba jabba, what we all care about are OUR local teams. We want their league to succeed because we want to be able to take our kids down to the stadium on a Saturday evening and watch OUR team take the field. I just don't get what people like you and Kenn don't frakkin understand about that. It's a pretty damn simple concept.

Again, good points from one of us "fanboys" about the situation. All the NASL owners wanted was a chance to control their own destiny. The new USSF standards make that a tough proposition. But I think anyone who TRULY cares about the development of the game below D1 in North America can see why it is necessary to have these standards. The one thing we can thank Marcos and USL for is showing us how bad things could be without professional standards to be accountable to. Will these standards lead to the complete demise of D2 in North America? Who knows? Unfortunately, it could be.

But the guys who were willing to step up to the plate and try to make it work are now finally right where they have said they want to be - running the show. It's insanely easy to be critical and nitpick every single aspect of the league and the teams at this point. But as the invested owners in the deal, the now deserve the chance to go out, do the right work, and see what comes of it. That's what we get to do here in America, take our ideas and try to make them reality. And all of us "fanboys" will be down at OUR stadiums, cheering on OUR teams, and hoping it all starts to come together.

I think you are both off, but let's be honest, it's just easy to assume WSW is off 99% of the time and be right.

At one point MLS had 10 teams and AEG, the Hunts and Bob Kraft owned all of them.

That's Kraft.

So 3 owners, NASL said they would follow MLS model. I'm just hoping they could still make changes to the league structure. I like how they have a single table and playoffs are all home and away games.

Yeah, and that single table sure is turning the league into a gold mine, isn't it....?

Well, WSW stressed that the Open Cup would show MLS what they were up against...

...oops.

MLS trolls We will never agree, you think MLS is the way to go and their structure. MLS is the best league in the world. End of story.

NASL will do it's own thing.

I will keep on watching European leagues and NASL and you can drool over MLS.

I love how you have to pretend you know what everyone who disagrees with you is thinking in order to make a point. You might just as well admit that logic and reason are foreign languages to you.

Wow. The league is still four months and change from playing its first game and you expect it to be a gold mine. High standards.

No, I expect it to be no different from how minor-league soccer has been in this country, ever. That comment was directed at the poster I quoted, who insists on embarrassing himself by claiming that MLS not having a single table has some real, negative effect, a claim that he can't ever seem to back up with anything like facts or genuine rational arguments.

Why does everyone want to call this league "minor league" it's not. It's D2 like the rest of the world. NASL is not affiliated with MLS, so it's not minor league like other U.S. leagues (AAA,AHL,etc..)

Another point I will make which is a sad state of affairs..60% of MLS fans polled said IF there was pro/rel and their team was relegated they wouldn't support them. 1. either those fans are bandwagon fans or 2. everyone is caught up in this major-minor league bullshit.