Part of the reason drafts have worked for soccer in the USA, especially MLS, has been the absence of stable youth development academies. Once you get academies well established and the desirable talent starts getting involved with them at very young ages then drafts just don't fit into that picture. I imagine that as academies become more effective at serving their local areas the importance of a draft at any level of the sport will become less and less relevant. I would hope the lower divisions see that as their real long-term goal as opposed to just drafting college kids.
The lower divisions are, in all things, several years behind the upper one. Individual teams just have to stay in one place long enough to establish an academy and see it bear fruit for there to be any sort of pipeline where they identify a kid at a young age, have him in their academy and get him to become "theirs" so they can eventually see him play for them and then (potentially) sell him on. Unfortunately, there's no real upside to a kid becoming part of such a scheme, where he develops, then goes off and plays college soccer and if he's good enough, gets drafted by MLS. You wouldn't say, "Oooooh, I've been in Indianapolis' academy system since I was 12, they have first dibs, sorry, Everybody Else." The local players a lower division team could develop in an academy would be unlikely to ever aspire to see time for them unless they didn't have other options. But, yeah, growing players rather than drafting them should, eventually, be the way teams (at least in MLS) acquire talent.
The first half of my radio show this morning was devoted to coverage of the Atlanta Silverbacks' championship media day, featuring interviews with Brian Haynes, Horace James, Borfor Carr and Martyn Lancaster. Here's a link: http://ryanmartinshow.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-ryan-martin-show-71513.html
They won a spot in a final, for a half season worth of work. Champions, my ass. Being able to call ourselves champions for "winning" half a season in this format is absurd. /rant In other news, thanks for the link. Hopefully a team near Atlanta will take the Fall so we can see a good number of travelling supporters.
Kartik Krishnaiyer killing it, as usual, on The Tailgate Show. 45:30 http://www.blogtalkradio.com/954tailgate/2013/08/15/the-tailgate-show-s2
NASL bids to overcome obstacles http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/...of-history-112113?cmpid=tsmtw:fscom:foxsoccer
It's all been out for abit but just in case you missed it here is the three part interview with Bill Petersen on EOS: Part I http://www.empireofsoccer.com/commish-peterson-broadcasting/ Part II http://www.empireofsoccer.com/commish-petersen-expansion/ Part III http://www.empireofsoccer.com/commish-peterson-explains/ I think it's more tame than some of the talkingpoints he was spouting off last year.
.@IndyEleven's @PeterWilt1 & @soccerreform joined us on today's show to talk Promotion & Relegation, watch: http://t.co/tGuMIHKOf9— Stake.com (@Stake_updates) December 30, 2013
Was a good interview, which actually has me thinking. Are there any teams in the NASL that could be to MLS standards in 5 years? I think Cosmos, San Antonio could very easy. Indy I think could, but not 100% but them selling out 11k is a good start, but not sure of the stadium issue.
Well Cosmos would have the land-field of MLS territory now, plus their current stadium situation is non-MLS acceptable. San Antonio's only problem would be stadium expansion but more importantly they need a wealthier investor to get involved. Personally after reading Strauss today, I believe McGuire and Minnesota are the most likely now: http://soccer.si.com/2013/12/30/mls-expansion-miami-minneapolis/
Wow. Looks like the owners of Minnesota United and the Minnesota Twins are teaming up to get the Loons into MLS. That's big news.
I'd rather see Minnesota United go up then the Vikings get a team. Good luck to them. Gotta suspect the motives of these NFL owners (Wilf, Blank) who are just bringing MLS into it so they can get a stadium deal. I say that realizing that MLS was founded in large part by NFL owners, but that was a different situation.
I second that. I'd rather see a lower division team move up to MLS then to see someone come in start a team from scratch and try to force out someone who built something in the lower divisions.
I was for Blank's MLS bid back when they were still lying about having a grass pitch in the new stadium. After the funding got approved and they said, "oh wait - we just realized our stadium design won't allow enough light for grass", I wised up and got off the bus. Really depressing. (But if he buys the Backs I'm sticking with them.)
No, rumors to the opposite actually. http://worldsoccertalk.com/2013/11/...e-not-being-considered-monday-soccer-insider/ The ASFC ownership group have said they are open to being "acquired" by the MLS ownership group, affiliating with the MLS team (USL Pro?), or remaining active in NASL (my preference and the toughest path I know). http://www.atlantasilverbacks.com/fc/news/item/q-a-with-president-gm-andy-smith-part-ii I was just qualifying my "getting off the bus".
Thing is, we've never seen an a 3rd party start talking to MLS, set it all up AND then buy the existing minor league team. Timbers, Impact, Sounders, Whitecaps, Orlando... all of them had their minor league owners either jump independently or found their new partners before they made the jump. It would be incredibly cool if Blank bought the Silverbacks and moved them up, but that would be the exception, not the rule. Seems that he will want to start fresh and completely new.
Closest would be Roth and the Sounders. Roth approached MLS about a team, they pointed him to Seattle, then he brought Hanauer on board.
Yes closest but Roth is more like the recent Orlando situation. Rawlins finds da Silva and together they go to MLS. Neither Roth nor da Silva had independent ideas merely had money to invest and Hanauer and Rawlins brought them aboard their project. I'm not against a new method, just don't see it.
BigApples' Cuttone Comments on the Cosmos Opening day: "Major League Soccer in its early days didn’t want to embrace the legacy of its predecessor. It’s been forced to in recent years, with admission of the Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers, and to a lesser degree the Vancouver Whitecaps." http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/columns/cuttone.php?article_id=36691
San Jose Earthquakes predates the Sounders, Timbers, and Whitecaps and the Earthquakes fully embraced as soon as they flipped from the Clash to the Earthquakes. I would also note that the Sounders still aren't fully embracing their history.
They don't have a history. They are completely separate entities playing in completely separate leagues at completely separate points in history. They literally share nothing but a name.