The PDL average was steady between 500-600 for years. Unfortunately, they stopped putting the numbers from the previous years in their media guides and the redesign of their website made the numbers hard, if not impossible, to find on a weekly basis. I am at the mercy of teams who will respond to entreaties for data. But, yeah, a lot of clubs could not get 1,000. Though I think the requirement was more for amenities than for capacity. At least a requirement of a thousand seater likely gets you away from A Flat Space In A. Community Park and into something that was actually planned and built with spectators in mind.
This. Unfortunately TB would be better off playing in most of our parks, at least they have basic amenities usually. These fields have nothing - I am not even sure if they have bathrooms (though one must imagine they do). It seems such a waste to not even try to market them as a team to follow for their own sake.
Let's be honest here: very few people who don't have friends and loved ones on the team are going to be that interested in following a PDL team that is a developmental tool for a USL team in a good sized market. Spending finite resources that simply will not result in more than a handful of people caring about players who are getting off-season reps (when the senior team is playing in the same market and tickets are more plentiful than discretionary time) would be a waste. Very few people are this hardcore, to express interest in PDL players who may never suit up for the parent club, relationships being what they are, when it's not much more than a training/development tool and a very slight brand extension. People don't want to watch the contractions, they just care about the baby. In standalone PDL markets, a decent stadium makes some sense. Marketing makes some sense. Not in this case. The Rowdies' PDL team has little chance of drawing much more interest than their NPSL team did or whatever that other NPSL team whose name escapes me did.
AC Connecticut @ACConnecticut 11m11 minutes ago NEWS | next big event - the @USLPDL will release our 2017 PDL schedule today!
http://www.northcarolinafc.com/news...n-premier-development-league-starting-in-2017 Cary, NC (February 10, 2017)- The North Carolina Football Club and the Premier Development League announced today that North Carolina FC’s Under 23 team will be joining the PDL starting this season, bolstering a South Atlantic Division that now houses seven teams based in the Carolinas. All home games will be played at WakeMed Soccer Park.
Interesting ... this has to be the first time a NASL team's development team was placed under the rival USL umbrella?
The former Railhawks had their U-23s in the PDL from 2007-2009, then they were in the USASA and then the NPSL. But, yeah, this would seem to signal a bit of a sea change.
Also if they announce the schedule today, at least that ostensibly means they have stopped expanding for 2017.
USL PDL @USLPDL 1h1 hour ago Divisions for 2017 PDL season revealed http://bit.ly/2lsnKAc Full 2017 schedule release at 5pm ET! #Path2Pro
OMG that is an annoying graphic on their site. Why could they not have just placed a normal graphic instead of the auto scrolling one that does not stay on one image long enough to see the divisions, with no way to pause it?
The new PDL team in Bryan-College Station, Texas has been named the Brazos Valley Cavalry FC. This team is affiliated with the Houston Dynamo but orange probably wouldn't have been a popular choice at the home of the Texas A&M Aggies. The soccer team will be run by (and share a stadium with) the Brazos Valley Bombers minor league baseball team.
I have to get used to how the PDL works with its geography again after all these years, if only for 2017. NSC U23 is in the South Atlantic Division (as the Metros were off and on during their PDL existence) with ten other clubs, playing just four of them three times each and two matches against a team in a different division and conference. I suppose it is all in the name of travel as the four South Atlantic opponents are the westernmost clubs in the division and Derby City in the Great Lakes Division (Louisville) is probably the closest to Nashville in the entire league. That and the bunching of the matches. NSC U23 will start off with four home matches (wherever they will be played) over a three weekend span and then nothing at home until their remaining three home matches bunched together in a week and a half.
Interesting thing to keep an eye on. USASA has been talking with clubs in the PDL, NPSL, UPSL and other major leagues under their umbrella about a massive restructure. Through my day job, I found out it will involve 'around 200 teams.' Looks like they planning to create their own versions of D4/5/6
I'm pretty sure USASA had made it public that they've been working with USSF in an officially recognized D4. Don't know what that would/could look like. If there's waivers for D2, imagine how many waivers they'd have to make for D4. None of these teams that claim "D4" right now operate anywhere in a similar fashion: leadership, venue, finances, etc.
I wonder who would actually administer that. USL has the best infrastructure but might not want to deal with 200 teams. And USASA would not be likely to handle it. But with critical mass of teams, they might actually be able to pull off pro/real between the levels. (Even if they are not truly D4/5/6.) And I would be interested to see what a D4 would look like. Given USSF doesn't recognize more than three divisions. If they are just planning a high-level amateur league, that's fine, but there ain't enough reasonable suspects and they are all spread out. There were 151 teams between the PDL and NPSL last year. There are 72 PDL teams this year and probably 85-90 NPSL teams this year. Whatever those midwestern leagues are called now (PLA?) and the UPSL would push the total higher. But a bunch of those are not sustainable.
If they brought everyone in as D4 for a year, and figured out what it would look like with extreme regionalization, they could possibly do pro/rel with a D4 and D5 in a year or two ... but D4 would have to be "less" regional than would be ideal. And if you divide the country into possibly 6 regions (northeast/southeast, north central/south central, north west/south west) you'd likely want 10 teams in each ... meaning 60 at bare minimum at the D4 level ... with double that in D5? Could they have an 18 game schedule with a home/away with the other 9 teams in each division? You're right though, season length would need to be figured out so if it's amateur or not. Maybe D4 is a longer season with "semi pro's"? Would be interesting because there may be more talent in D5 but since the player availability is only a 3 month summer they're deemed "D5" instead of D4?
I am not even sure there is a need for a professional level below D3. These amateur teams could all be put onto an amateur tier (or tiers). If they want to be pro, they should be D3 and meet D3 standards. Else you end up with nonsense like the ASL.
Completely agree, I was just thinking there might be a need/desire to have a more extended season. So not necessarily "professional" but not reliant on college kids? Is that realistic? I don't know. If it's all the same season length it likely makes it easier, but the summer schedule is so short. If the summer season is 14-16 games long, does that mean a "conference/division" is limited to 9 teams? I am ok with that, just not sure how big a division can realistically be if it has 9 teams I guess. If this "come together" aspect doesn't help regional play then is it worth it to many? I'm not sure. Ideally, the D4 level is a bit less regional than D5. Ideally it's the "best of the best" Amateur teams and their travel is still "regional" but maybe not "local". There really shouldn't be a D6 to be honest. The same reason you don't think there should be D4 professional tier. If you're professional, you should be in D3 and make it more regional. The teams that you'd think are D6 need to be in D5 and make it MORE regional and more cost effective for travel.
There are, apparently, more post-college players than I imagined on NPSL rosters, just for an example. Many (if not most) of their postseason all-star team players were post-college. Where you run into issues above and beyond the availability of players (there are ALWAYS players) is in actual dates on which you can sell tickets realistically, and while MLS and the NASL and USL have been extending their seasons on both ends and widening that window over time, I am not sure these clubs below that could sell tickets outside their current windows. Before spring soccer ands and after kids go back to school and have Fall club and scholastic soccer and fans in many markets have other options, I am not sure they WOULD be able to make use of an extended season. Nine teams big? Is that how big a nine-team division would be? We are talking about low-level, low-income teams here. Nothing about this should be less regional. Everything below D2 should be more regional in scope. A national D4 league makes no sense.
Sorry, I was meaning geographically. How far can you spread 9 teams out and keep these teams in bus's/van's? Can you split the country in 6 conferences? 8? I was meaning you divide D4 into 6 or 8 regions and D5 into as many as possible. What I was getting at, in a perfect world, D1 and D2 are "national". D3 is split into 2-4 regions, D4 6-8 ... D5 is as many teams as you can get you just keep breaking regions up into smaller ones! And I completely understand why MLS isn't even truly "national" since there is very little cross over between east/west ... and as they expand it will be even less.
Is this because NCAA-DI may restructure their season, so it may be more difficult to have summer leagues involving collegiate players?
The proposal on the able for the Academic Year Model for men's college soccer would have players report to campus for preseason later in August than they currently do, and bring the College Cup into the spring (perhaps as late as June, a la the College World Series, perhaps earlier). Obviously, players on teams that didn't make the postseason would be available earlier, while those whose teams went all the way to the final might very well not play for an off-season amateur team or report late. You could still conceivably put a season in there. Right now college players can't compete in the PDL before May 1, which is why the season traditionally starts around then (some clubs have started earlier, without student-athletes). But a longer amateur season at both ends just means fewer very good college players would be involved in your league and more of the post-college, local guy-type players would be dotting these rosters.
I wish I could find the post, but they commented on structure plan that Chris Kessel put together, saying they were pursuing a similar plan. That one is more regional and state based than national. From what I've heard, I think it might be an East/West conference D4, D5 would be more large regions, like Northeast and Midwest, and D6 would be smaller regions, like Appalachians and Texarkana. Don't know about any Pro/Rel plans. Yet
Burlingame Dragons @burlingamefc 28m28 minutes ago Dragons FC President Jordan Gardner (@DragonsPrez) will host an AMA at Major League Soccer's Reddit Page (r/MLS) Tuesday Mar 28 - 5PM PST!pic.twitter.com/1bT8YVsIUb