General PDL

If you were an international (non college) player between 21-23 and aspired to have a pro career and you could play for any PDL team what teams would you choose. List a top 3 excluding any of the MLS U23 teams including Orlando.

Based on level of play, history, pro players produced, result/standings, attendances, professionalism and some quality of life/location aspects my top 3 would be:

Ventura County Fusion (I heard they only train a few evenings a week but remain a "powerhouse" compared to some full time teams)
Austin Aztex
FC Tuscon / Victoria Highlanders

Including MLS teams Seattle, Portland, Chicago and Orlando probably go ahead of those three.

And of course a nice three month vacation at Las Vegas Mobsters, Floridians (Miami) or a couple others doesn't sound too bad either!

 

Des Moines Menace
Cape Cod Crusaders were really good in their day they even had Ethan Zohn!
Reading Rage/United FC

 

Three month vacation in Las Vegas in the summer?

Ever been out this way?

(Also, supposedly Thunder Bay has a really nice setup for its players.)

 

What's the issue with Vegas? Heat?

 

Ya think?

 

Yeah but having to put up with the British rain for 10 months, three months of heat doesn't sound too bad

 

Looks like the San Jose Earthquakes PDL team will be playing in the Southwest Division. Playing home games at CSU Stanislaus.. Interesting that the name doesn't have a U-23 in it. Should we read to much into that?? (im a PDL noob, dont make fun of me )

 

Tyrone Marshall is the new coach with the River City Rovers.

Seems like a nice pickup there.

http://www.roverssoccer.com/home/785737.html

 

No.

Given that the PDL is, largely, a U-23 league. There was, at one point, an actual roster limit to the number of over-23 players you could have on a PDL roster. I don't know if that's formal anymore, but it just works that out that way anyway, as the vast majority of PDL players are U23s.

 

Alright. I was kinda confused because the Sounders, Whitecaps, Timbers, and Fire all had U-23 at the end of their names.

 

They do that for differentiation, it seems. But they don't have to. The Quakes have apparently chosen not to, which is not to say they won't eventually.

 

With the demise of two long-running PDL teams - the Kansas City Brass (16 seasons) and El Paso Patriots (10 seasons) - the following clubs have the longest active runs in the PDL:

Des Moines Menace/Michigan Bucks (19 seasons)
IMG Academy Bradenton (17 seasons)
Orlando City U23s/Vermont Voltage/Westchester Flames (16 seasons)
Thunder Bay Chill (15 seasons)
Chicago Fire U-23/Southern California Seahorses (14 seasons)
BYU Cougars/Fresno Fuego/Ocean City Nor'Easters/West Virginia Chaos (12 seasons)

With Kansas City (and El Paso and Central Jersey and Virginia Beach and Ottawa and VSI Tampa Bay) folding, the PDL failure rate is 61% since 2000.

 

Is Orlando's U23 team going to continue to play in the NPSL? Or is someone going to start a new club called the Central Florida Kraze?

That organization - under both names - has been going on continuously since 1999. If they keep playing, they'll continue to have their PDL longevity streak. If they move to the NPSL, they'll still have their continuous playing streak, it just won't be in the PDL. And if someone starts a new NPSL club called the Central Florida Kraze, they'll be starting from scratch.

 

Also, that list above was only going back to 1996. Des Moines has actually been around continuously since 1994, as have the Long Island Rough Riders. But LIRR hasn't always been in the PDL. El Paso had been around continously since 1991, but had gone from the amateur ranks to the A-League and back. And there was the long, twisting history of the Dallas/Fort Worth Toros/Spurs/Rattlers/YouNameIts, which went all the way back to the SISL and continued at various levels until 2010.

 

They didn't really "merge" with Orlando City. OC bought their franchise, lock, stock and barrel, didn't they?

I would imagine if they wanted to start an NPSL team called the Central Florida Kraze, they certainly could do that, as long as OCSC doesn't claim that as intellectual property or something.

But it's just like I always say in reference to the Cosmos: if I opened a nightclub in Parsippany, New Jersey next month and called it Studio 54, would I be able to say Mick Jagger partied here in the 1970s?

Orlando City's PDL team has a history that dates back to 1999 under two different names. As long as that franchise continues to play, its history goes with it.

 

Fair enough. Not a merger of equals, but nice for them. I guess OCSC will have to decide what to do with the PDL team and deal with the potential Louisville situation at some point in the next 9 months or so.

 

OK, gotta' throw my Michigan Bucks into this discussion: http://www.buckssoccer.com/home/781715.html

Six Bucks Headed to Major League Soccer
Brings total to 55 former players moved to MLS
"The Michigan Bucks were pleased to see six former players selected to move up to Major League Soccer and join their perspective teams in training at the end of this month.... The six players with Bucks connections brings the total to 55 former players that have been selected by Major League Soccer clubs.... star goalkeeper Steve Clark returns from Norway to join the Columbus Crew this season.... This year adds to the Bucks record of having a PDL player selected for the 16th consecutive season."

(P.S. I think the author had "Bucks" and "PDL" switched in that last sentence.)

 

If anyone's interested, standings for the PDL from 1996-2013, along with playoff results, can be found here.

 

FC Wichita is looking at entering PDL in 2015.

 

Is that the Wichita B52s PASL group?