As for the Edmonton side of things, FC Edmonton's reno of Clarke Stadium to 5000 capacity by this April is seen as a temp situation for a few years until they get a 10K SSS that the club owners will pay part of. The SSS will also be used for Canadian NT games and Canadian Championship games between the NASL and MLS clubs. The Mayor and province realizes the need for a stadium this size as their CFL stadium is way too big at around 60K. FC Edmonton doesn't use the MLS card and there's really been no talk of it among the fans, even when talking about the SSS, they just want to be a part of a strong D2 NASL that they hope the future will bring. I can see and understand how the other markets use the MLS card though.
I know that any stadium in Edmonton would be a private/public partnership. If the provincial government forks over their part would Fath have his share? I had not heard of any concrete plans for a new yard up there. The fact that they can't get temporary seats squared away doesn't exactly inspire confidence.
No concrete plans yet, the Mayor see's the need, and he commisioned a study last summer to be done by the city on a SSS. The owner Tom Fath has said he will fit part of the bill but who knows how much it will be. The red tape in the province of Alberta has been an unforseen problem with the extra seats, and Fath purchasing them from the US and then the Province having problems with them not being to Alberta code was the main issue. Modifications have been made to the grandstands to meet provincial code now and they're supposed to be shipped very soon to Edmonton. Guess he should have bought the seats in Canada.
Cary already got what it wanted -2013 Women's college cup and discussions to be the permanent host. We should live up to our stadium though. We already sold one end as advertising, so capacity will normally be around 7000. Now we need to keep up the progress.
I'm just wondering how is this a win for USL? For MLS it is develop players on the cheap. So basically once USL develops good players MLS will take them up, So how does that make USL teams better?
By putting better players on USL teams? By getting more MLS teams to watch USL more closely? By getting 4 free starters? By making expansion franchises more attractive? Take your pick.
We don't know if their better players? It's a downgrade for those players. Expansion franchises? which ones? you still need SSS, $50 million and a fanbase of 10k at least.
MLS fringe players > Nearly all players willing to work for a USL salary. And USL expansion, not MLS expansion. When you have MLS tied to your brand and lower costs, it can only help.
No. They will be minor league affiliates. In hockey the AHL performs the exact same function. It gives a place for fringe players to hone their skills in regular competition under the watchful gaze of the NHL staff. The AHL team provides professional hockey entertainment for cities that can't support the NHL. It is what normal people call a win-win.
Stay on point. We are talking about affiliation and then you jump to switching leagues, which is irrelevant. But to answer your question two years ago Winnipeg's AHL team moved when the NHL came to town.
We're talking about the teams, not the players. Actually, getting to play competitive soccer on a consistent basis is an upgrade for those players. And the team it was built for folded.
It probably would be built too late to host any women’s world cup games. I can’t remember if Edmonton is on the list for cities to host any games, and if they do it probably will be inside the Commonwealth stadium.
[quote And the team it was built for folded.[/quote] I wish I had some idea of what you are talking about. You obviously get info down there that I don't have access to. Can you please explain?
Traffic doesn't own 100% of the team, I beleive the number is 65%. The orginal owners have the other 35% of the franchise and own 100% of Silverbacks Park, which continued to operate even while the team was out of the league.
Some little nuggets from everyone's favorite USL-Pro GM. http://blogs.democratandchronicle.com/devo/?p=8668 Interesting to hear from a player about what this could mean for them. And one who is a fringe MLS type. I believe he is talking about that the Silverbacks would never have come back if Traffic didn't agree to buy 65% of the team. As you probably know, Boris Jerkunica folded the team back in 2008 due to the economy and lack of interest. Traffic cash was the only thing that brought them back.
The big win comes after this season when you'll start seeing MLS owned teams in USL-Pro. I doubt it will be a large number initially, but it should at least be a couple of teams that wouldn't otherwise exist in USL if it weren't for this agreement. If USL-Pro can get enough teams to become a regional league, then you're looking at a pretty big reduction in operation costs. I've also seen some quotes that said that the MLS team would have the ability to call-up not just the players they loaned down to the USL-Pro team, but also players owned by the USL-Pro team. This means that MLS affiliated team might get access to players that would otherwise go to a NASL team as the player might feel there chances of playing in MLS might be greater on the affiliated team than a NASL team.
This could also affect NASL expansion prospects. If the Galaxy decide to start a USL-Pro team in San Diego, for example, that's going to affect the market for any other minor-league soccer teams in town. That's going to make it harder to grow the NASL footprint west of the Mississippi.
Can you link to these articles with the qoutes? Thats interesting if true, though would suck for the fans of the D3 USL Pro team whose best players may be lost during the season if called up, and makes the deal more of a farm team situation and one where the USL Pro teams lose even more independance and control in the process.