USL League Design Superthread

Discussion in 'United Soccer Leagues' started by Bubba1971, Dec 7, 2016.

  1. Bubba1971

    Bubba1971 Member+

    Nov 12, 2010
    Los Angeles
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Because this is clearly going to be a thing this offseason I thought I'd start a catchall thread.

    Please post any and all ideas about what USL is going to look like in 2017 here, including USL1 and USL2, NASL teams coming over, etc.
     
  2. SoccerPrime

    SoccerPrime Moderator
    Staff Member

    All of them
    Apr 14, 2003
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Seems rather too soon since no decisions have been made in regards to division or clubs.

    But have at it!

    I wonder mostly if a D3 will still exist.
     
    Bubba1971 repped this.
  3. Bubba1971

    Bubba1971 Member+

    Nov 12, 2010
    Los Angeles
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    If it does it looks like it will be USL 2. I can't imagine that D2 will be 40+ teams, which is where this appears to be heading.
     
  4. Yoshou

    Yoshou Fan of the CCL Champ

    May 12, 2009
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Let me get this started off right...


    There had better be pro/rel or any design of the league can get the f**k right out! :)


    But seriously, I don't see it being any different than it is now with regional split and the NASL teams being stuck into the appropriate division. I wouldn't be too surprised if they add a central division once everything sorts out and the teams that don't want to/can't meet the D2 requirements drop down to PDL and the NASL teams USL will accept move in.
     
  5. Baysider

    Baysider Member+

    Jul 16, 2004
    Santa Monica
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    I don't see anything wrong with that. 4 regions of 12 teams each. 12 teams give you variety and it's pretty easy to carve the country into 4 regions.
     
  6. Bubba1971

    Bubba1971 Member+

    Nov 12, 2010
    Los Angeles
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I would actually love to see the regions play a balanced schedule. Then the top 2 teams from each region get in the playoffs.
     
  7. SoccerPrime

    SoccerPrime Moderator
    Staff Member

    All of them
    Apr 14, 2003
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Can Tulsa Roughnecks and Harrisburg City Islanders even operate as D2 teams?

    I'm all for regional play for stability, but without the biggest waiver in world history, no way 100% of USL and NASL can just merge to form a new super D2 league.
     
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  8. Yoshou

    Yoshou Fan of the CCL Champ

    May 12, 2009
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    From what I understand, there are only a handful of teams that don't meet the D2 requirements and USL is going to be working with those teams to get them up to that level, or politely suggest to them that, perhaps, PDL is a better option for them going forward. And yes, most of the teams that don't meet the D2 stadium requirements are the MLS2 teams, but, allegedly, they've been told to get in compliance in fairly short order..
     
  9. fighting muskie

    Mar 30, 2016
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Anyone have a strong preference on league model? Two divisions? Three conferences? Four conferences?
     
  10. Bubba1971

    Bubba1971 Member+

    Nov 12, 2010
    Los Angeles
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    LAG 2 are not going to want to spend a lot of money on a stadium. Unless Vagenas is abandoning the philosophy of LAG 2 entirely (it's 100% about player development) there's no way they either play all their games in the Stub or build out the track stadium to 5,000 seats. What to do?
     
  11. Yoshou

    Yoshou Fan of the CCL Champ

    May 12, 2009
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    All signs point to them playing at StubHub.. :) I believe the directive came from MLS FO.
     
  12. ArsenalMetro

    ArsenalMetro Member+

    United States
    Aug 5, 2008
    Chicago, IL
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Two conferences with almost exclusively intra-conference play until it gets to 40 or so teams, then split into a USL-1 and USL-2. Keep USL-2 regional, if possible.
     
  13. Bubba1971

    Bubba1971 Member+

    Nov 12, 2010
    Los Angeles
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    So much for cutting costs and becoming profitable!
     
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  14. Yoshou

    Yoshou Fan of the CCL Champ

    May 12, 2009
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Do the Galaxy pay rent for StubHub? And I mean legitimate rent, not the fake ass corporate shuffling numbers from one column on a spreadsheet to another.
     
  15. Bubba1971

    Bubba1971 Member+

    Nov 12, 2010
    Los Angeles
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    No, they fake ass corporate shuffle the numbers to AEG Facilities. But they do need a certain number of people paying for tickets to recoup the cost of security, gate staff, turning on the lights, etc. It's all around a much bigger operation than the track stadium which has porta-potties and a staff of literally about 6.
     
  16. Traumer

    Traumer Member

    Feb 25, 2016
    Cincinnati
    Tough to say, part of me wants to keep travel costs down for good of clubs, while other part is worried about uneven quality between divisions. I have heard multiple times that USL wanted to go to three divisions (correct me if wrong). Let's say 36 teams, three divisions of 12 means 22 within division and then 6 against each of other divisions total of 34. Alternate out of division matches home and away year to year.

    Example for Cincinnati
    22 - Central Division (Home and Away)
    6 - West Division (3 home / 3 away)
    6 - East Division (3 home / 3 away)

    This also means never get bored of who you play keeping each home match to an event feel.

    Playoffs be top 16 teams (should be roughly 4-6 from each division) based on single table point total.

    Much of the structure will be influenced by total teams in USL. Going from 29 to 32, 36, or 40+ would effect this decision. I'm not sure what that number will be yet.
     
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  17. Mmmcounts

    Mmmcounts Member

    Dec 28, 2013
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    It seems like USL is headed for 2nd tier status. But it also seems like roughly half the teams in this rather large league don't meet 2nd tier requirements. On top of that, it seems like the third tier may remain empty unless USL finds a way to be on two different tiers. Maybe USL could have USL1 at the second tier, and USL2 at the third tier.

    It's obviously much easier for a new team to settle in at the third tier, right? Expansion has been easy for the USL while they've been there. Perhaps they could continue with this type of expansion and then bump teams up from USL2 to USL1 if they perform well and meet the requirements with the stadium and so forth. It also bears mentioning that current NASL teams, along with some USL teams, typically pay their players 30 or 40k a year while plenty of other teams pay their guys 20k.

    Didn't there used to be a USL1/USL2 split? I think that was more of a professional/amateur thing though. Is this sort of thing being seriously discussed at this time?
     
  18. Elninho

    Elninho Member+

    Sacramento Republic FC
    United States
    Oct 30, 2000
    Sacramento, CA
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    USL1 and USL2 were both "professional" in that players were paid, but USL2 was mainly an East Coast regional circuit while USL1 had teams across the country. PDL was (and is) amateur, and several USL2 teams self-relegated to the PDL over the years.
     
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  19. SoccerPrime

    SoccerPrime Moderator
    Staff Member

    All of them
    Apr 14, 2003
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Mod Note:
    I am going to try to keep the Future of the USL and its leagues all in one place, here. Expect merging.
     
  20. catfish9

    catfish9 Member+

    Jul 14, 2011
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Posted this quick and dirty mock up of possibilities in another thread. Far from perfect but just a general look at potential frameworks. We can debate some teams' "placement" for sure - I wasn't trying to be perfect. I did it with some limited knowledge of some situations and spent all of 10 min on it. I was just curious how things could look.



    upload_2016-12-8_11-47-14.png

    upload_2016-12-8_11-47-29.png
     
  21. Owen Thornhill

    Dec 22, 2012
    Club:
    Cork City
    I personally want 4 conferences to reduce travel. Makes it possible to make another away game or 2.
     
  22. fighting muskie

    Mar 30, 2016
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    I'm a fan of three or four regional conferences with the vast majority of games played within the conference, if not all of them. None of this USL-1 and USL-2 stuff. Keep travel costs low and build regional rivalries which will generate fan interest. Give these teams a chance to generate some revenue. I'm also a fan of moving away from the B/2 team model and having teams for the Bethlehem/RGV model of placing USL affiliates in smaller markets near the MLS market to generate a secondary market that backs the parent club. It works for MLB so why not MLS.
     
  23. catfish9

    catfish9 Member+

    Jul 14, 2011
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    How many total games do we think is the end game for USL teams? 25, 30, 35?
     
  24. Baysider

    Baysider Member+

    Jul 16, 2004
    Santa Monica
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    I would think 28-30. I don't hear a lot of demand for a longer season than they have now.
     
  25. greenroom

    greenroom BigSoccer Supporter

    Apr 16, 2012
    Club:
    Colorado Rapids
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Rio Grande should be Div2 standards. They are finishing a new stadium that will seat 9600. Assuming it gets finished this winter. If Stadium is issue. Assuming owner meets financials since also owns NBA Development team in Edinburg as well.

    Reno also fits same bill with 9k stadium and I assume the owner of the Pacers would meet financial requirements.
     

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