It's a wonderful idea in theory. In actual practice, I'm skeptical. The Ebbsfleet United thing became the puppy that wasn't so cute the second year. Fans say they want to own a team, but all they really want to do is design scarves and badges and pick colors and fire the coach and decide who plays left back. They don't want to actually put skin in the game or make all the myriad of mundane decisions (and suffer the potential consequences) that a business like this has to make every day. They don't have the stomach for the actual cash calls, once the reality sets in. After, "Dude, we own part of a soccer team!" comes, inevitably, "Dude, I own part of a soccer team and it's not making money and I have to come up with money again this year to keep it going." The fact this is rarely done should tell you something. You want to help fund a team? Buy season tickets. There, sorted.
According to this tweet and website, Lansing is in . https://twitter.com/jeremysampson10/statuses/383170399426457600 http://soccerinlansing.com/ https://www.facebook.com/soccerinlansing
Zanesville seems unlikely to be back, though I haven't seen any official confirmation. This is what I know: * Their website is more or less gone, and has said "please check back later" for weeks, if not months. * Their Facebook page is gone. * They haven't tweeted in months. * Their Wikipedia page is written in past tense. * They were all but giving away memorabilia at the end of last season. They gave my son a t-shirt for free because I bought some stuff. That's never a good sign. * A friend of mine, who's a high school soccer coach near Zanesville and is friendly with the ZAFC front office, tells me he heard something about the team moving. There's an awful lot of smoke, if no fire at this point. Feel free to not believe me about my personal knowledge of the situation, but the other stuff is pretty easily confirmed. I'd consider it a minor miracle if they're back.
Temecula (California) FC was announced today. There will be an announcement tomorrow of another expansion team. The NPSL had a "3 teams in 3 days" social media blast. We are in day 2.
Welcome Storm FC, newest member of the Sunshine Conference (Lauderhill, FL.) https://www.facebook.com/StormFC13 https://twitter.com/StormFC13
Michael Hitchcock @Hitchnewbiz12m Happy to share that we just approved another @NPSLSoccer expansion team; in the Heartland area of America. Announcing soon. #growingthegame
Untill now 6 expansion teams for the 2014 season Storm FC Virginia Legacy Cincinnati Saints Flower Mound FC Temecula FC Lansing
I'm sure many more have been approved but the league has decided not to announce quite yet. Here's a tweet from the Commissioner dated October 3rd... "With 16 new teams already approved for 2014 NPSL season; is @NPSLSoccer the fastest growing national sports league? #growingthegame" https://twitter.com/Hitchnewbiz/status/385815049815617536
Wow! 16 new teams already approved...they've only announced 6. I'm looking forward to more announcements.
Great way to go, hope this form of ownership catch's on here. best form of ownership in the long run.
Hitchcock tweeted, yet again, about another NPSL team gets approved. With all those comments, there HAS to be some big press releases coming about new clubs.
Thats one example of a badly run football club For good Examples you can look at Every club in Germany, AFC Wimbledon, FC United of Manchester, Shamrock Rovers, Cork City, AFC Telford, Portsmouth, Austria Salzburg, Rapid Vien, AFC Rusden and Diomonds, Cambridge City, Chelmsford City, Chester City FC, Darlington 1883, Exeter City, Wycome Wanders, Panathinaikos F.C, Sligo Rovers, Derry City, Finn Harps, Cliftonville FC (Since 1879) Cruesaders FC (Since 1898), Coleraine F.C., Linfield FC (Since 1886, with 51 League Titles, 42 cups and 13All Ireland cup's), Rosenborg (Norway's most successful club), Motherwell, Dundee F.C., Dunfermline, Barcalona, Real Madrid, Atletico Bilbao, CA Osasuna, All Swedish Clubs, All Turkish sides, Wrexham. So to summarize you are picking the 1% failure. Please stop bringing it up in every tread that fan owned clubs is suggested. Even Green Bay Packers is a example how fan owned club works in US Sports.
So Samba from hoodriver Oregon got a game Friendly game tomorrow against a greater portland soccer league side. Ill be going, still not announced but again im not sure is the NPSL the best league for them. If the Oregon Soccer Premier League or Greater Portland Soccer League would take them that would be a better option but im sure NPSL is still their aim.
Nashville Atlas FC announced as the latest franchise to join the NPSL. http://internationalsoccernetwork.com/blog/?p=7091
so the fan ownership with Nashville has sailed? So Samba's game was cancelled but have another friendly for next Saturday.
There HAS to be a major press release or releases coming soon. Hitchcock just tweeted another franchise has been approved AND there are three more pending approval. There are so many teams that need announced.
I haven't heard anything official about Oklahoma City going for 2014 NPSL other than the rumors on here.
There a 2 Oklahoma franchises; the first one is the former Oklahoma FC PDL franchise that will start in the NASL in 2015 http://www.uslsoccer.com/teams/2013/58151963.html#MAIN http://www.okcnasl2015.com/ and the second one is the new USL-Pro franchise you mentioned
I guess I was referring to OKC FC, who played in the PDL last year. I really doubt that they will be in PDL THIS year after all the acrimony that went on in the last year about the move to NASL. Even on the USL website, OKC FC is still listed as a team but the team website URL is gone. And apparently if you look at the team website there is no mention of, or logo for, USL anymore.