NY Cosmos to Join NASL

I'll defer to New Yorkers to tell us how the location of Hofstra helps or hinders.

In my opinion, Hofstra is a horrible idea. I grew up in Garden City (which is right next to Hempstead). Hofstra is a "minor, minor" league sports university. This is stadium would be considered an insult in Texas for high school football.

Now, what is very, very interesting is that in 2-3 years, the Town of Hempstead could build a new soccer stadium on the current Nassau Vets Collessium (where the Islanders play and are most likely about to move to Brooklyn). There was just an RFQ sent out for ideas for a "sports location", which could mean an arena or soccer stadium.

Bottom line, both MLS/NASL are rushing the Cosmos brand out there. With no real place to place, they are going to tarnish one of the most popular soccer brands in the world. They should just wait for the stadium to be built and start in MLS in 3-4 years. Give Orlando the 20th and have NY and Atlanta be 21 and 22. Have Chivas move to SD and then keep the league as is. Start Pro/Reg with NASL/USL.

 

I think you're jumping to conclusions that MLS has anything to do with this. The only thing I've seen MLS do recently in NYC regarding NYC2 is try to get the stadium plan in Queens off the ground. This NASL move looks like it was all on the impatient owners. But you're right it could tarnish the image or it could help. We won't know until they succeed/fail.

As for 21 and 22, unless MLS has changed course we won't see those teams for several years after 20. They still want to take a break at last report. And NYC does appear to be their favorite for 20 so it'll be a while until 20 is started to say nothing of 21-22.

Chivas isn't moving to San Diego, Vergara has already made that very clear on many occasions that they're staying in LA. San Diego might get an NASL team if the Flash can pull it off, but MLS will have to wait for an expansion team like Orlando and Atlanta. And pro/rel will have to wait for the owners to decide they want to voluntarily lose their investment, which will happen about 5 minutes after we become a utopian society where money doesn't matter (so in other words, never).

 

It is a bit perplexing that you think the stadium, not the location, is the issue here. Replace the surface with a proper pitch and you would have the best NASL stadium until the Scorpions open theirs.

And Hofstra Stadium is better than Heroes Stadium as is. Is Heroes Stadium an insult to Texas HS football?

 

Since we now know that the Cosmos will play at Hofstra, this is moot -- but, how is Belson (St. John's) not easy to get to? It is a short bus ride (10 minutes) from the subway. The only way it could be easier to get to would be if it had its own subway stop, as the baseball parks do.

Also: most places in New York City are easy to get to! If we don't count Staten Island, then the only places in NYC that are really hard to get to are located in far-southern Brooklyn and in eastern Queens -- by which I mean much farther east than St. John's. (Having grown up in remote eastern Queens, I can tell you that places out there are indeed truly hard to get to.) But, everything else is either walking distance or a short bus ride from a subway. This is the very definition of "easy to get to".

 

Athletics, I think you are right. However, it is a huge plus that there is a small soccer stadium with a nicer artificial turf pitch to train on, and to have as a home for a more than likely reserve (pdl) team within close proximity to the first team.

We played San Antonio in the 4th round of the US Open Cup at Heroes Stadium, and it was horrendous. The lines are so distracting as a player.

We also play at a football stadium in Charlotte, so I know all to well how terrible it is to play soccer on a turf football field, and I hope that for the sake of Cosmos and soccer as a whole, they either reline the field, or re surface it all together.

 

Well that's a bit much! (Though you are absolutely right about the morons who go around calling the Triborough Bridge the "RFK Bridge".)

Randall's Island is like a park wonderland! I am there about once a week on my bike. It's really a great place.

Of course, it is true that the one bus line would not be enough to bring in thousands of fans. And, while the 103rd St. pedestrian bridge is open all summer, and is a short walk from the 6 train at Lexington Ave., this also doesn't provide enough access.

So, I don't really disagree that Randall's Island is impractical as a site for a pro team. But it is far from the hellhole that is described above. It is actually a wonderful place to spend a day.

 

Okay, then. You seem to be in the minority, but whatever you say. I didn't realize New York was like Jack Bauer's Los Angeles, where everything is close to everything else.

 

you have your sports confused. Baseball has minor leagues. Soccer does not.

 

maybe they don't want to be a part of the MLS? Wouldn't they have give up 51% ownership to MLS LLC?

 

Aside from the fact that the only thing the Cosmos are talking about is using this as a stepping stone to get into MLS.

 

redevellopping the brand in the NASL untill New York City has a SSS

 

Except - for the kabillionth time - MLS, LLC doesn't own 51% of the franchises. We've been over and over and over this.

And their pronouncements yesterday intimated that, yes, they want to eventually play at the highest level, which is MLS, not "the" MLS. Oy.

If this group was to ever eventually join MLS, their owners would pay a fee and receive stock in MLS, LLC and the right to operate an MLS franchise in New York City. MLS, LLC would not own 51% of their franchise. It doesn't work that way.

Trust me - I've been over and over and over this.

And, yes, soccer does have "minor leagues." Sorry if that term offends you.

 

there's a difference. The Brooklyn Cyclones will never be a part of MLB. With the NY Cosmos there is a chance to become part of MLS. Some of this will likely hinge on the support they get as a NASL club.

there are no minor leagues in soccer. Or at least how we view minor leagues in the U.S (as being static leagues whose teams are affiliates of major league clubs). It's not that i don't like the word minor. Just ask Portland, Seattle, Montreal, and Vancouver if they were minor league teams. They weren't. Does anyone think those teams would be where they are now if it weren't for their history as lower tiered clubs?

So the person who asked "why would new yorkers support a minor league team" is just way off. Maybe its semantics to focus on the word minor but i don't think so. The word minor is not used to describe lower tiered teams anywhere else in the world and i've rarely seen anyone from the U.S use it.

 

Welcome back,
Your dreams were your ticket out.
Welcome back-
to that same old place that you laughed about..............

Welcome back Cosmos!

 

Maybe the plan to join the EPL.

 

Actually, it's only been in the last 40-50 years or so this has happened to some of the US consciousness. There was a time when even baseball "minor league" teams were independent and were not tied to any one American or National League (later MLB) organization. It's an even more recent occurrence in the NHL and NBA (and in the NBA at least a few D-League NBA teams are till independent of any one parent club). And in football the UFL, USFL and other minor leagues that have made a go of it are all independent of the NFL. So a "minor league" doesn't have to be tied to any parent league.

So in soccer the NASL, USL Pro, PDL, NPSL, et al are all minor leagues as they are below the only Major League, MLS. They don't need to be tied to MLS directly to be minor. Remember just because some of the "minor league" teams have and may continue to move up doesn't mean they aren't still minor now. For instance in baseball the San Diego Padres of the minor Pacific Coast League did exactly what the Sounders/Timbers/Whitecaps/Impact have all done back 40 years before the soccer teams did (ie: ownership of the minor league team was granted a franchise at the major league level and moved their ownership and the team name up to the top level)

 

but its viewed differently in soccer. Would you call the Championship the minor leagues?

I was responding to someone who asked why anyone would support the Cosmos because they are a minor league team. But they aren't a minor league team in the same way for instance the Albuquerque Dukes are a minor league team. They are a team that is in the 2nd tier of our pyramid and history tells us sometimes those teams have the chance to move up.

 

Yeah but its all perception though. You're dealing with American sports fans not global sports fans. Here in America anything below top division is known as the minor leagues and there's no way around it. The marketing team can come out and spin it anyway they want to but in the eyes of most Americans they're thinking its just another minor league team

 

i guess it depends on the type of fan and how they view the sport. If they view it through an American-centric narrative or see soccer as a global game.

I know fans of NASL teams and they don't consider their team to be minor league. They recognize it as second tier.

 

Smoke & Mirrors is right. Orlando City fans and supporters would love to see their team play the other Florida clubs. Attendance numbers, for these matches, would go way up. No doubt in my mind. But there are reasons, up until now, OCSC has played in the USL.

First of all, Mr. Rawlins (that's what we call him), is a business man. And a good one at that. Let's be honest for just a moment. Before the success of S.A. and announcement of the new NY team, the NASL has sucked. Matches in metro areas as big as South Florida and Tampa only drawing 4,000 fans is a joke! Why not play in the USL? This "Division 2" label that fans of NASL teams cling to means nothing. I assure you, the 8,000 fans that will show up to tonight's Orlando vs. Rochester match do not care that the USSF calls their team "D-3".

Second of all, I believe it is the NASL that has a problem with Mr. Rawlins. He has approached the Rowdies about a friendly and they told him to f#%k off. Apparently, he was not a supporter of the rebellion.

I do, however, believe the NASL is enjoying an up-swing right now. There is hope for this league. And I would love to see the best of both leagues compete on a regular basis. Perhaps things will work out in the end.

 

Did not know about this, but if this is true, very counterproductive

 

As with all things you read on Bigsoccer, take caution and keep the salt handy.

The dislike is mutual and very much so. No matter what this OC$C lackey would have you believe.

 

of course I do not always believe what I hear - read

 

It will be interesting to see what kind of affect, if any, all the noise coming out of NYC lately has on Rawlins' plans. Garber could not be making it any more clear that he still prefers NYC2 to be the 20th MLS team. With this looking like a multi year process and with MLS so far sticking with their statements that expansion will slow way, way down after #2o, Orlando City might be in for a much longer wait than Rawlins had originally hoped for when he brought his franchise to Mickey Mouse land.

The NASL has hardly "sucked". It is a work in progress and it is a brand new league that has issues, but please. Spare us. Your histrionics are even more absurd when you choose to ignore the vast divide between your own club and nearly every other outfit in USLpro when making your case regarding the "suckiness" of the NASL vs USLpro.

Also, lol at 8,000 fans showing up at your game tonight. You guys are averaging a couple Gs south of that and even then there is plenty of evidence that even those numbers are fudged. So spare us the attendance smack talk as well.

Your opinion of Rawlins being some soccer angel who could never have possibly done anything at all to have pissed off entire fan bases, cities, other pro soccer owners and entire pro soccer leagues is lolerific. At best. I'd feel bad for you guys if the time ever comes when Rawlins treats you like he treated Austin fans, but I won't. You've just drank too much koolaid.

Won't argue here. Would love to see the cream of the crop from USLpro move up and help solidify the NASL as a solid teir 2 and compliment to MLS. The NASL still has a ways to go in order to prove its stability and that its business plan is sound, but so far there is nothing "sucky" about what it has accomplished.

Enjoy beating up on children in your precious USLpro while your club spends the same amount of money, if not more, that it would if it competed in the NASL. THAT is the only real reason Rawlins has for staying in D3. Winning in a league where his team vastly out muscles the entire field.

Even your own fans are tiring of the lack of competition. Join us!