I think Tampa will be okay. they got a good fanbase. San Antonio is a wait and see. Its the same with the new USL clubs.
Richmond at least seems like they have something to work with. The Puerto Rico teams on the other hand are already on the right track to proving they are a farce. Let's give it a few weeks though. you know, just to be fair.
If River Plate can only get 315 for a rival from across the island, how many are going to show up for Wilmington? This whole International Division thing has looked doomed from the day they announced it. Guess we'll all sit and watch as the games go on and the attendance numbers roll in. For anyone that cares to play along, somewhere in the earlier stages of this thread I think I predicted that at least two of the USL Pro clubs that started the 2011 would not be in place to start the 2012 season. I sure hope it doesn't wind up being too much worse than that.....
Welcome to real Puerto Rican soccer, if you thought the Islanders were bad at organization, you haven't seen anything yet! River has half of it squad stuck in Argentina do to visa issues. Sevilla is missing it coach and the Islanders actually had to lend them our GK coach until their real coach gets here. I don't even know what the hell is United up to! Oh yeah did I mention Sevilla just started training less than a week ago. None of the three teams stadium are completed and the only reason Sevilla can play in its field is because theres a baseball stadium with locker rooms they can use right next door, construction hasn't started yet on the stadium expansions. River stadium is just starting construction and United stadium, the city hasn't fixed the problems that got it disqualified as a Central American Games venue last year. Both River and United are playing in in Carolina, in Islanders territory. Atleast an hour from Fajardo (River) and almost two from Aguada(United). The stadium is a new baseball stadium with very hard turf, which is prone to cause injuries during soccer matches.
So the USSF sets pretty high standards for Div 2 soccer and more or less NO standards for Div 3 ? What a bunch of hypocrites and clowns
They need to set standards, asap. Otherwise the clusterfudge that is the USL is only going to keep stagnating. Or worse. edit: besides, it'd be nice to know that when the NASL fails FCTB has a quality league to fall back on
Let me be the one to suggest that neither of these two league systems will "prevail." Lower division fanbases will grow in ways we can't now foresee. Give it a few years and a meaningful number of fledgling clubs will demonstrate some sort of sustainable attendance in business terms. I figure we'll have a NASL/USL/NPSL stew for about 3-4 years. Given that span of time it's reasonable to imagine that 8-12 clubs might emerge with the ability to draw, say, a minimum of 2K attendance even on a bad day and become semi-stable financially. I'm suggesting that once we get at least 8-12 clubs capable of that kind of fanbase they will inevitably be drawn to one another regardless of the league where they originated. They will come together as the power brokers to scrap the existing lower division systems and create a new one in their own interests. They will do it because time will make it clear to them that they collectively represent the only realistic business opportunity available to one another. Once enough fanbases emerge of that minimal level, those team owners will be the ones to shape a new division 2 in some kind of permanent way. They will not need the NASL or the USL or the NPSL to do it. They'll just do it themselves. My crystal ball sees it happening by mid-decade. (in my dreams)
um ya, that system already exists. It is called the NASL. seriously though, if the NASL hangs on and becomes fully sanctioned I can see them siphoning off the cream of the crop from the USL over the coming years. I only see what you've described happening if the NASL either fails to attract new teams or somehow loses sanctioning for other reasons. The argument that in 4 years, or however long, the best of the best from the lower divisions will try to form yet ANOTHER league doesn't make any sense. If the NASL is still around in 4 years it will be because it is stable, has expanded to beyond 10 or 12 teams and would have zero reason to break down that structure for yet another experiment.
Well in 2012 USLPRO > NASL. At least in the US Open Cup. head to head; USL 1 - NASL 0. 3 USLPRO teams in the quarterfinal, zero NASL teams in the quarterfinals.
Congrats to Charlotte, we'll have to see if NASL can tie it up in head to head action against the USL Pro's Antigua in the Carribean Club Championship if the final teams are Puerto Rico Islanders and Antigua - hope thats the matchup for the final.
Pretty much meaningless to the actual quality of the leagues. But it shuts up WSW for a year, so it is all good.
NASL > USL Pro in 2012 Caribean Club Championship. Not the final as both Antigua and Puerto Rico didn't make it, but they played for 3rd place today and a birth in the Concacaf Champions League and NASL's Puerto Rico Islanders beat the USL-Pro's Antigua 2-0!