NASL Future teams?

It may be rare, but it's not unheard of:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_Challenge_Cup#Coffee_Pot_Cup

 

Preseason games and friendlies do not make a rivalry. In fact, a rivalry only exists if both sides consider it a rivalry. There isn't a single MLS club who's supporters consider a lower division club a rival.

 

none of fans take this very serious. Sure we want to win but mainly so we get the free beer and don't have to pay to fill up the coffee pot. If anything it is more of a little brother/big brother type relationship....

 

NASL Commish Downs has been adamant that they will not put teams either in or near MLS markets. The expansion philosophy of the NASL is to serve markets that do not have a MLS franchise anywhere near them. They are not stupid enough to compete with MLS.

And like was said, teams from separate leagues that don't play each other competitively, don't have rivalries anyway.

 

There are only 2 cities i could see NASL maybe and i repeat maybe putting teams in that have MLS teams. Los Angeles and New York. But That is a small maybe and highly unlikely.

 

Those markets are large enough that you could be "in" them without actually being in close proximity to the MLS club, though. You could put an NASL team in Riverside or on Long Island and be "in" an MLS team's market, while still being able to carve out your own niche.

I wonder what in MLS team in Miami proper would do to their thinking vis-a-vis Fort Lauderdale, though. (Even though that would seem to be years away.)

 

That's not true... Vicenza Calcio has a strong rivalry with AC Nuova Valdagno and the last time they played against each other in an official match was in the late 90s...

 

Boca Jr vs River Plate.

Ah that joke never gets old (well it will now that they are about to get back to D1).

 

Millwall - West Ham.

In reference to Birmingham getting in on NASL, I would be the first season ticket holder. Not sure how many others might jump on though. There are plenty of soccer people around, but I don't know how well they might support a team. Though if merely people associated with BUSA showed up it would be decent attendance wise in NASL. But where they would play is a bigger issue. Legion Field is a dump and I don't think playing in the outfield of the Met would be ideal.

 

Aren't the Barons abandoning the Met?

Also, until last week, Milwall and West Ham were in the same league.

 

Milwall and West Ham being in the same league happens, but it isn't the norm. I have no idea what the Barons are up to. I don't keep up with them since I am no longer in Birmingham. They wouldn't have anywhere to go without building a new stadium if they were to though. Not many places to go. There has been talk of a domed stadium in Birmingham for years, but nothing has come of it to date. There were even a few articles in relation to a pro soccer team inhabiting such a stadium which would be of the NASL variety but that was some time ago and as far as I know no traction has been gained.

 

Promotion and relegation allows team to be in the same league from time to time (in theory at least). My comment was speaking about the USA, not clubs in other countries that have existed for decades and have been in the same leagues at one point.

Rivalries wax and wane over time as well depending on how often they meet and how competitive the teams are in those meetings. Orlando City is not a rival of the Rowdies even though they are much closer than the Strikers. We will never play the Lions except in an odd open cup match, where we play the Strikers at least four times a year with something on the line at stake.

 

According to the information given to the media at the NCAA Men's College Cup, the Barons are about to open a new downtown stadium.

The NCAA Men's College Cup returns to Hoover this December.

I will say that, of all the NCAA College Cup venues I've been to, that one has to be the worst functionally for soccer. You're always going to struggle to comfortably put a soccer field in a baseball stadium as far as sightlines for fans and facilities and layout for those working the event, but what a trainwreck that venue was.

The fact that they're going back tells me that it must have been offered up cheap.

 

So with all the SSS facilities across this country that are now available, the NCAA is going to have its premier event in a baseball stadium? Ridiculous.

 

Two years running.

 

WakeMed is expanding to try and change that. Cary wants to have the tournament permanently, which spurred the renovations. Back on topic, I wonder if college soccer interest would translate into pro soccer interest. It seems to have a different fanbase, but some locals could show out.

 

I now see that in 2013 the men will be at PPL in Philly and the women at Wakemed. Much better.

 

Just look at the successful pro teams in St. Louis and Bloomington and Santa Barbara.

 

College sports interest and pro interest are often times mutually exclusive in all sports. Tuscaloosa, Auburn, Baton Rouge, Athens, Ann Arbor, Knoxville, Austin, Lincoln (and I could keep going on and on) all pull in 80 to 100 k for college football but are not serious NFL candidates.

 

The emotional attachment to a college team is different, and many college students get in free to various sports on campus, too. You're not building fans, you're giving college kids something to do.

 

And a big change over the last 5-10 years is that many of the larger schools with more students than seats available at high demand sports (read: men's college basketball) have implemented loyalty programs where students who attend other events get preferential treatment when it comes to issuing tickets to those high demand sports or games.

http://www.carolinafever.org/default.aspx?PageId=10

Any time you've got an NCAA school with one or two crowds that are statistical aberrations, there's usually a reason beyond "the sport is really popular".

 

At Auburn the student tickets for football amounted to something like $10 a game and the priority was based on your class, but some tickets were held for new freshmen so everyone had a shot at the cheap tickets. I managed to get my tickets every year for five years (and then I bought them off of someone for last season). College football is king around here and that won't be changing. I don't like the pro game and even with an NFL team in Atlanta (the state of Alabama's default pro town) nobody here really cares. I watch the Super Bowl...sometimes.

That being said, the soccer culture is completely different. While not many people around here care about pro football there are plenty of soccer people and these are also fans of college football. I see more soccer jerseys around Auburn than anything else aside from Auburn gear. If Birmingham could get the proper facilities, with all of the soccer going on in and around that place, I would think an NASL team would have a chance at doing well, I can't say for certain people would show up, but there is a vast soccer population in the area. If a team were marketed properly it has potential.

 

The Barons are set to open a downtown stadium (Regions Field) in 2013. It's currently under construction. The Hoover Met, which is now called Regions Park, will still host the SEC baseball tournament for the foreseeable future. UAB nixing the idea of a new football stadium hurt soccer in Birmingham because Legion Field is in need of repair and is too big anyway for most events (over 70k even without the removed upper deck). I'm not sure of other suitable venues. The infrastructure is in place to redevelop Regions Park into a soccer stadium and makes more sense than keeping it as a baseball stadium in my opinion.

I would certainly be a big supporter of a return of professional soccer to Bham. If marketed well, I think it could succeed.

 

Interestingly enough, some digging around on the US Trademark Search site shows that the league registered the name "L.A. Aztecs" on March 2 of this year, complete with the old logo from the 70s.

LOL I'm sure Tim Robbie could tell them what happened to the Miami Sharks/Freedom, the last (and only) time a team in MIA tried to directly compete with the Strikers in the same league.

Setting aside that it would surely be a colossal disaster for the league, it would be fun to have a 35 minute "road trip" for a season or two, one in which the away fans would probably outnumber the home fans.