If you asked a college coach whether or not he/she preferred their player(s) compete in a 8-game summer season as opposed to cramming in a 12/14 game season, they would prefer this. Personally, I think a 10-game season works best in the mid-May to July time frame. Maybe why they haven't officially announced the West lineup may mean they're working out a potential 6th team to the Western conference? I hope so. The fact that UWS can make themselves into a national league in their first year of existence speaks more to me than having what you say is a "light" 8-game schedule in the West. Just from my perspective. From all that I've heard, if UWS takes care of their business in 2016, 2017 will be the year for them to truly take off. The lateness of all this forced some teams who were on the UWS fence to choose the cheaper-but-known option in the WPSL. "The devil you know," so to say. Also, travel is a big issue for those teams on the fence as well. Anyways... I'd like to hear an official announcement this week. It is getting a wee bit late in the calendar.
12 (or even just 10 like most WPSL teams do) isn't cramming, though... One game a week for the three summer months. But I do agree, I hope they get at least a sixth Western teams and actually go to 10 games. My hopes aren't incredibly high, though, since the RSL coach sounded fairly certain of the schedule. I can definitely see how travel would influence on-the-fence teams. With less in UWS there's going to be more travel - in most cases. RSL's choice to switch to RSL actually makes much more sense travel-wise than their situation had been in WSPL, which is something I'd harped on a few times before. Yeah, an official announcement soon would be very good...
When it comes down to the nuts and bolts of it, the regular season schedule goes from mid-May to mid-July... but most opt for a June 1 to mid-July. Certainly not 3 months, although it used to be that way. From the college coaches I've spoken to (college players are the backbone for both UWS & WPSL, no matter the status), they prefer the 8-10 game schedule. 12 regular season games is pushing it while 14 is too much in that time period. From an in-league scheduling perspective, the same holds true. You can work around possible weather, etc. cancellations with a 8-10 game schedule while any more games can make any re-scheduled contests a real hassle. Just speaking from experience.
Ah, I see; yeah, if you don't have a full three summer months to work with, then things get slimmer pickings.
I was thinking the same thing. I think (and hope) we'll see a lot of the better teams jump to UWS in 2017 if it proves it's got its act together.
Looks like a Western conference is happening: .@UWSSoccer officially announces 5 team West Coast Conference to compete this season. pic.twitter.com/OtbycKwrma— Jennifer Gordon (@jgordon0319) February 5, 2016
Nice! Glad to hear it's officially happening. Too bad about not getting more teams, but maybe next year. Also glad to see the confusion removed for the Colorado Pride (listed as the Denver Pride in the RSL article I posted earlier - they just got it wrong, apparently).
Hear hear! Great news for the fledgling league. Here's the link for the press release - http://www.uwssoccer.com/news_article/show/608168?referrer_id=2294922 Looking forward to possibly some more expansion news? It seems these five teams have been mentioned all along with the UWS West Conference. I'm wondering why it took so long to announce... maybe there were other teams possibly in the mix? Midwest? I know they're doing their due diligence with who comes in because you know... standards and all.
The official release makes it sound like they're done for now. Besides, they initially stated that they were only looking to have two divisions. However, if they come up with a third Midwest division for 2017, that would be perfect for Dayton, and it might convince the NWSL reserve teams to come over as a group (since Boston and Washington would fit just fine in the east, but Chicago would not like flying to Santa Clarita, which I bet is a mutual feeling)
Sounds like the Canadian clubs didn't get approved quickly enough to participate in 2016, though might be coming on (with others) next summer: http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/leagues/uws2.php?article_id=43860 Speaking of the schedule, should we split off a separate thread for the 2016 season itself and leave this thread for general league news, or just keep everything UWS-related funneled in here?
From what I've heard, I don't think that timing really had anything to do with the Canadian teams not competing in UWS. There's been talk north of the border about that federation starting up its own "premier league", not only on the men's side but the women's as well. The behind-the-scenes board-room politics of that may be what's going on here. I hope that UWS comes out with some sort of clarification, though. On the flip side, it certainly makes the schedule and travel easier for the other six teams. I agree that once the schedule comes out we should start up a new thread... "UWS 2016" sounds fine to me.
Interesting! I had heard of the men's CPL being formed, and I had heard of reviving the PCSL women's division to compliment L1O, but not of a women's CPL.
Random thoughts.... I would love to see NWSL endorse UWS by filling it with Reserves teams (new **) to add to swapping WPSL teams teams (*) back in, resulting in an alignment like this: UWS West : Santa Clarita, Sounders Women*, RSL, CO Pride, CO Storm [could potentially add Thorns Reserves** and/or Reign Reserves** but I don't want these ballooning] UWS South : Houston Aces, Silverbacks Women*, Charlotte Lady Eagles, Spirit Reserves* (Academy stays in WPSL), Pride Reserves** [maybe even Dash Reserves**] UWS Central : Lancaster Inferno, Dayton Dutch Lions*, Red Stars Reserves*, FCKC Reserves**, (pick one other new team) UWS East : New England Mutiny, Breakers Reserves* (Academy stays in WPSL), Long Island, TSF Academy, NY Magic, NJ Copa Could even see ASA Charge and Tampa Bay Hellenic joining, at which point I'd put ASA and Spirit Reserves in the Central Conference for better pairing with Lancaster. I know FCI always has big ambitions, but I'm not sure they want to leave WPSL (nor do I think they'd be a good fit for UWS based on professionalism.)
I'd rather the 2nd division be a strong independent league, with the reserves in a division below that, like is currently in place for the men (even though yes I know that USL Pro is trying to lay claim to division II, and NASL wants to be division I). But I'd like to see NWSL division I, UWS division II, WPSL division III (with NWSL reserves), and as yet non-existant division IV with UWS reserves (and maybe NWSL college/academy teams?). But that's probably way too far fetched from reality.
I don't necessarily disagree, but the thing with WPSL, as it currently stands, is that it by-and-large is competitively a level below where NWSL teams would ideally be. WPSL basically is college/academy-level teams, while UWS is trying to be the professional lower division. As such, I think (future-)pro NWSL reserves would only fit in UWS unless WPSL either steps its game up or splits unto upper and lower leagues. The only reason MLS Reserves are in DIII at the moment is because of the rocky politics that have plagued lower-division men's soccer in the US - of note, USL teams beat NASL teams in all 7 USLvNASL matches in last year's USOC, so the competitiveness of USL is not an issue. In Spain, for example, all of the reserves sides are free to play in the second division as they prove fit to do so. Barcelona B and Real Madrid Castilla are often there (though not at the moment) and Bilbao Athletic B is currently there. Ultimately, I don't think having reserves sides in a league stops said league from being a strong, independent league - and considering my UWS model is 2/3-to-3/4 independent teams, I don't think it would be acting like NWSL was propping it up at all.
Good start to season. First two matches played. Impressive website at www.uwssoccer.com All scores and stats posted right after the games were played.
....was there a point to you quoting different posts with an unrelated comment in two separate threads?
*blows dust off thread* Well, look at what UWS retweeted... Ready for a @grandrapidsfc women's team? They're coming next summer, per Tuesday announcement. https://t.co/yJbSbLbWkC— Pete Wallner (@petewallner) November 1, 2016 First team in an upcoming Central division? Could be West if it was the only team joining for 2017, but UWS has hinted at there being more upcoming announcements (which would match some of the things mentioned on these threads, too).
So it's been a busy day for me and I didn't get a chance to read the article until just now... They explicitly say it'll be a Central division with teams from Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. Not Illinois, so apparently the Red Stars are sticking with WPSL still... Oh well. But is FCI in? I guess we'll see next week.
Considering that the stated goal of the league is professional women's D-II, I'm not sure that Grand Rapids is the size of market for this.
This is a sport that currently does better in Buffalo and Portland than it does in Chicago and Houston. I don't think general market size considerations apply. Also, it's not like UWS current cities are exactly impressive either. Lancaster? Springfield MA? Even Salt Lake isn't that impressive compared to other cities. Besides, the other big thing about WoSo is that simple survival has always been the key factor, not national footprint or market size. DI has only just this past year bucked the grim trend, so if Grand Rapids works for the survival of a DII pro team, then it's the perfect-sized market. And it's not like "Grand Rapids" doesn't have name recognition, nor is it really the "wrong" size. Its CSA is bigger than OKC, Memphis, Albuquerque, etc., and it's just behind NOLA. None of those are bad DII cities. It's not like we're talking about Omaha, Des Moines, Charleston, Reno, etc.
A month or so later, and we have an answer! http://www.excellesports.com/news/u...sion-detroit-fort-wayne-grand-rapids-indiana/ Just four teams announced at the moment, but they're looking to add another one or two to the new Midwest Conference. The teams are Grand Rapids (as previously leaked), Detroit Sun FC (looks like a pure expansion team), Fort Wayne FC (I thought previously existed but maybe not?), and - color me honestly shocked - FC Indiana (from WPSL).
Detroit Sun "Stadium Project" http://www.detroitsunfc.com/stadium-project/ Which I'm taking with the biggest grain of rock salt that was dumped on the snowy Detroit roads Sunday. Well, I guess if you want to be D2-Womens-Pro, you need a 5K stadium. (The USSF standards say 2K for Womens-2; The Ultimate already takes care of that.)