For me I think it looks like this for this year.. Expansion is the question on fast Florida teams move to East, but for this year I think it makes sense for them to start in Central. Did not put Edmonton (W) or Puerto Rico (E) as not sold they will be added East (12): Ottawa FC, Toronto II, Rochester, NYRBII, Bethlehem, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Richmond, Charlotte, Charleston, Carolina Miami FC Central (12): RGV, San Antonio FC, Energy FC, Tulsa, Swope Park, St Louis, FC Cincinnati, Lou City, Indy 11, OCB, TB Rowdies, Jacksonville, West (11): Whitecaps II, Sounders II, Timbers II, Sac Republic, Reno FC, SF Deltas, Los Dos, OC Blues, Phoenix Rising, Real Monarchs, Switchbacks FC
My guess is those putting Reno and RGV in a theoretical D3 league is based on their unique MLS connection not attendance or other such criteria.
He asked how many team's you can have 48 teams with 28-30 games as long as it 4 x 12 team conferences. That would be my Upper limit. no rush to get to 48 but that would be my limit. I would at the same time like to see PDL, NPSL and the other "semi pro" regional leagues work together to form a new Division 3 (less than current standards) With the long term goal to have pro/rel between div 2 and div 3. Only when the top (PDL/NPSL etc.) clubs are ready.
The D3 standards are not particularly onerous. Lowering them so that the likes of FC Hasental might have a shot at being D3 does not help us overall. Raising the quality of those clubs so they can actually be professional should be the goal, not lowering the bar. We have to stop with this, seriously. These teams are where they are because they have no ability or no desire to be professional and throw off their business model. Blah blah blah Fresno blah blah blah Des Moines blah blah blah all the amateur teams supposedly wanting to go pro blah blah blah. D3 had as many as 39 teams once and a lot of them were crap. It had as few as six teams before, too. It is not mission critical that we figure out how to backfill D3 yet. And teams moved between D3 and D2 for years based on their abilities and ambitions, not something as ephemeral as one season's worth of results. Almost no one gave a rat's ass about D3 prior to 2010 and now they are coming up with all these exotic ways to save it.
catfish9, why do you have Ottawa listed as not meeting Div 2? Their stadium holds up to 24K for CFL games and their ownership meets requirements as well. Your Conference setup has merit but I would probably break it up into East, Central, and West Conferences, then as more teams join a conference and it reaches over 16 teams, break that conference into North and South Divisions and then eventually conferences in their own right. The more teams that join the league, the shorter the travel will become.
Partly from being completely uniformed as to their situation - did it in 10 minutes with little research. But also because in the end won't they likely ;eave for Canadian league?
36 teams with 3 divisions of 12 or 4 divisions of 9. I like the idea of 4 divisions a little better, but either works for me.
Fierce regional rivalries are part of what makes college sports so great. I'm a fan of either of these models.
I'm sure Ottawa would jump to a Canadian League if it materialized (odds are probably better than 50/50 at this point that it happens). I plan to ask my ticket rep about that when I renew my seasons. I am curious as to how well both Tampa and Ottawa perform in the USL as a quality benchmark. However, Ottawa again has trimmed down their roster by half and it looks like they're going to get some players from the Montreal Impact on loan, so there could be some talent dilution. A lot of this year I think is going to be about controlling costs.
USL Exploring Three-Conference Config For 2018 or 2019 by Kevin Reichard on July 23, 2017 in USL With more growth on the horizon, the United Soccer League(USL) is looking at a move from a two-conference configuration to a three-conference arrangement either in 2018 0r 2019. https://soccerstadiumdigest.com/2017/07/usl-exploring-three-conference-config-for-2018-or-2019/
Has ABQ actually announced yet? Is SD 1904 official? What happens to Austin if Precourt moves the Crew? The rest of that looks pretty nice.