If enough of the Reserve teams were to join USL, then it would be easier for them to create some conferences with very few inter-conference games which would limit the travel expenses. The eastern teams will definitely have an advantage on costs if that were to happen. This really will only work if they make it more like baseball where the USL becomes the home of farm teams and MLS clubs are allowed to send injured players down for rehab starts etc. I hope this doesn't happen though. I would rather USL stay independent and teams just loan young players out, but maybe allow short term loans for rehab stints. I'm not sure how FIFA would feel about the short loans though.
Adding a whole 2 games for the reserves does seem pretty weak, but you have to start somewhere. If these games are successful, it seems logical that they would expand it (i.e. Reserve squads playing in USL) in upcoming seasons. Pairing up the Rapids with Harrisburg seems idiotic. That's a lot of travel expenses for a reserve league game. I was hoping they would play Phoenix FC, but I'll make sure I thoroughly boo the Salt Lake squad when they are in town.
Seems like other leagues/countries do short term loans a lot--at least, this seems to be the case in England's Football League.
FIFA restricts how many teams you can play for in a calendar year (2 I think, maybe 3) but I do not think they cover how many times you go back and forth.
Oh, I thought the idea was just a short (few games/weeks) loan. I didn't think of the sort of thing where a player goes up-and-down between teams several times in a season. Yeah, with current roster sizes you'd probably need to do that with some guys when injuries hit the 1st team.
Once again, I reiterate this whole MLS/USL deal is nonsense. It diverts attention for the real issue of MLS developing young players. Moreover, If I were the coach of a recipient team I would never play yo yo with players on my roster. It would be disruptive in training, in games, in the locker room, etc. However, I would happily accept players for a full season loan, or maybe a 1/2 season loan. "My USL team" would not be a farm team for MLS and I would prohibit it from being used as 1.
I pretty much agree with you on this Marx. The one caveat would be if this blossoms into full participation in the USL Pro by Reserve League teams. The only reason this would be preferable would be the additional games and possible additional importance placed on the games by players. I also wonder if this will lead to expanded rosters in the future, which would allow teams to keep more fringe type players that may have a future upside.
I agree, but also think you are failing to see the forest for the trees. We just got a USL team in Phoenix and I want to go see Phoenix FC players, not Salt Lake's reserves (everyone was assuming Phoenix would be paired with Salt Lake b/c of their academy is in Casa Grande). That said, all partnerships have to start somewhere and develop. It may start as 2 games, but eventually we could see a 'western conference' with LA Blues, Phoenix FC, Sacramento (new team for 2014), plus Salt Lake, Galaxy, Timbers, Sounders, Whitecaps, and Rapids reserves. Yeah, 2 extra games for reserves seems insignificant now, but I think having MLS and USL start to collaborate can only be a good thing for the leagues and developing young talent.