Well the Cosmos PR stunt did take away a little out of the great news (that most of us already knew) that Indianapolis will be the next NASL expansion team. Other than that I see the Cosmos news much like the Tampa flames (or what ever the USLPRO team is called) news that they were planing on their own 400 million dollar stadium.
PR stunt or not, those Cosmos stadium renderings, and they have a bunch of them, along with schematics too, on that cosmosstadium.com site, are pretty damned impressive. That would be a really cool stadium if it ever gets built. Based on the wacky history of soccer in this country, it would not shock me to see the Cosmos push their project through, get the stadium built, and force MLS to let them in. Then MLS heres the cries of New Yorkers who claim Belmont is still too far away, builds their Flushing stadium, and puts a 3rd team in NY under the premise of creating the "London of American Soccer!" lol
Interview with goal.com: http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/66/u...ious-stadium?source=breakingnews&ICID=HP_BN_8
If the Cosmos think they can jerk Don Garber around or force his hand in any way, I think we can answer the question of how this plays out pretty easily - very, very badly for the Cosmos. Does it really make sense from a business perspective to piss off your would-be commissioner--the man who can effectively set the price of your expansion fee? The same man who has ownership groups in four major metropolitan areas around the country beating down his door for a franchise? If this is a ploy, then it only proves that the Cosmos are as inept as many seem to think they are.
Read this article with Cosmos COO... ... he says it isn't - maybe you believe him & maybe you don't... Edit: Stover has a history with MLS and I would be amazed if he thought playing games with MLS/Garber was a good idea.
From reading that link, this is a little different than what they were selling when they met with the Borough Boys. Doesn't sound like they think too much of the NASL there, eh? And basically tells you that is not their goal. They expect to be a MLS team by 2016. This will not end well for the Cosmos if they think they can force their way into MLS by messing with the Don's Corona Park stadium.
That's funny. This isn't the place to discuss it, but it would be interesting to see a place like El Paso try to get a waiver from Fifa to enter a team in the Mexican pyramid instead of one of the US leagues.
On twitter I follow an account that gives scores of lower division soccer in Mexico; Sometimes I see them giving the score for a team called Chivas Los Angeles. I wonder if there is a town/village in Mexico also called Los Angeles or if Chivas has an academy in LA that plays in the lower levels in Mexico. If it is the latter; what would happen if they win promotion to the upper levels (D1 or D2)? Nevermind it is Los Angeles, Puebla in Mexico.
Interesting. I did uncover a Los Angeles street in Guadalajara, so it may be a really small club there. There's also a small village called Los Angeles outside of Zapopan.
Canada names roster for Denmark, U.S. friendlies: Miller says no conflict in Porter callup Interim national-team head coach Colin Miller has called in a squad that mixes youth and experience for Canada’s two upcoming friendly. Cosmos stadium plan, Indy expansion franchise: NASL gets the good-news day it needed The North American Soccer League badly needed a day like Wednesday. Erik Stover Answers Your Questions on the Belmont Proposal – NYCosmos.com
As bad and frustrating as some of the recent NASL news was, I do think by the start of 2014 it'll be mostly forgotten. Worst case scenario, neither the Cosmos nor the Islanders ever play in the NASL again, would still see the league play with ten teams, the majority of which having private ownership. It's still more likely that all 12 teams will play in 2014 and at that point we won't be talking about the Cosmos decision anymore. We'll only be worried about how long they plan to stick around and what kind of format the NASL will choose to play when they finally realize that you can't have 44 regular season games.
Yeah that should be interesting. They could come up with some kind of divisional format, but that would pretty much break the split schedule system of awarding the spot in the championship to the team with the best record in each of the two seasons. If you don't play everyone the same amount of times then that takes away any shred of legitimacy the format has.
Possibly an existing team or two from the USL Pro could make the move up from D3. Orlando & Rochester are the only ones that could afford the extra costs and the 750K bond I think. The rumored MLS/USL Pro agreement turning USL Pro into a sort of farm/reserve league for MLS may push one or both of them to move up to Division 2 NASL. I wouldn't expect the next new expansion team to make it any sooner than 2015 though.
http://www.soccerbyives.net/2013/01/minnesota-signs-nasl-mvp-campos.html SBI reporting Campos to MNSFC
FC Edmonton to name new GM by end of the week, says Fath - the11.ca FC Edmonton owner Tom Fath says his NASL club should have a new general manager named by the end of the week.
Rochester has been gung-ho about the MLS/USL agreement. A lot of what we know about it has come from them. A few months ago, their GM Pat Ercoli even said any MLS/USL agreement would make the NASL a "renegade" league. So don't count on it. And Orlando's goal is MLS and they have been extremely loyal to the USL. Being part of a league that has an agreement with MLS might be seen as a positive to them.
Screw the Rhinos FO. Rochester is yesterday news. They had there chance at MLS and they had there chance at NASL, but they will never be anything more then a D3 team.
An updated count of deposits for season tickets in Indy is at 1,250. http://nasl.com/index.php?id=3&newsid=3661
Barbara and Campos sign with Minn Stars: http://www.twincities.com/sports/ci_22429953/stars-sign-past-two-nasl-mvps and rumors that they signed GK Sattler.