WUPSL - Another WoSo league launches

Discussion in 'US Women's Lower Divisions' started by holden, Feb 20, 2017.

  1. holden

    holden Member+

    Dundee FC, Yeovil Town LFC, Girondins de Bordeaux
    Oct 20, 2009
    Los Angeles
    Club:
    Dundee FC
    http://www.upslsoccer.com/news/upsl-announces-creation-and-launch-of-women-s-unit

    So apparently there's a men's league called the UPSL, and they've recently started expanding rapidly across the US (it started in the SoCal area) and have added a 2nd division that teams will be promoted/relegated from... (let's just... um... ignore that topic for now, though) and now they're launching a women's league too. I'm not sure what all teams will be in it, but they say there will be a SoCal and a Colorado conference.

    One team that I see tweeted about joining is L.A. Wolves FC, whose men's side recently announced that Eric Wynalda will be their head coach... so I guess they have big ambitions, but I never heard of them before.

    Another one I spotted is the Santa Clarita Storm, whose men side used to be in the NPSL and is now apparently in the UPSL. So it seems the Santa Clarita Blue Heat will have some competition for WoSo fans.

    One nice thing, at least, is their domain is wupsl.com. No redundant "soccer" tacked on at the end.
     
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  2. kenntomasch

    kenntomasch Member+

    Sep 2, 1999
    Out West
    Club:
    FC Tampa Bay Rowdies
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Two words: Yan Skwara.
     
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  3. holden

    holden Member+

    Dundee FC, Yeovil Town LFC, Girondins de Bordeaux
    Oct 20, 2009
    Los Angeles
    Club:
    Dundee FC
    #3 holden, Feb 20, 2017
    Last edited: Feb 20, 2017
    I think you'll need to use a few more words to get your point across (unless it's about promotion/relegation).
     
  4. kenntomasch

    kenntomasch Member+

    Sep 2, 1999
    Out West
    Club:
    FC Tampa Bay Rowdies
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Nope. Has nothing to do with that.

    The UPSL is run by Yan Skwara. His most recent transgressions (among many) involved what the Securities and Exchange Commission called "a fraudulent scheme involving the company's stock, illicit kickbacks, and phony agreements to mask those kickbacks."

    And that's not even the half of it.
     
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  5. holden

    holden Member+

    Dundee FC, Yeovil Town LFC, Girondins de Bordeaux
    Oct 20, 2009
    Los Angeles
    Club:
    Dundee FC
    Well that's indeed worse than promotion/relegation. It appears he started (if he's the one that started it) the UPSL after that whole fiasco. So if teams are willingly joining it and they are launching an avenue for more women to have a chance to play, where is the problem? Should we be telling players that they should not join WUPSL teams? And if so, why shouldn't they (i.e. how would it negatively affect them)?
     
  6. kenntomasch

    kenntomasch Member+

    Sep 2, 1999
    Out West
    Club:
    FC Tampa Bay Rowdies
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I would only say caveat emptor.

    A player is going to do what's best for them, as they should.

    But if you know it's a scorpion going in - to paraphrase the old story - don't be surprised when it stings you and you drown.

    Lower-level women's leagues have not exactly been great examples of organization when run by people without shady pasts.

    All I'm saying is when you shake the guy's hand, count your fingers.
     
  7. holden

    holden Member+

    Dundee FC, Yeovil Town LFC, Girondins de Bordeaux
    Oct 20, 2009
    Los Angeles
    Club:
    Dundee FC
    #7 holden, Feb 20, 2017
    Last edited: Feb 20, 2017
    Well of course if I were a potential owner, I wouldn't invest a lot of money into it. But I don't think anyone is coming here looking for sports team ownership opportunities... at least I hope not. ;) (Though if there is someone browsing these forums looking for ways to spend your money, let me know, I've got tons of crazy ideas!)

    But, from a player standpoint, the WPSL hasn't exactly been the best run operation, so having another option to compete in doesn't seem like it'd hurt.
     
  8. SiberianThunderT

    Sep 21, 2008
    DC
    Club:
    Saint Louis Athletica
    Nat'l Team:
    Spain
    #8 SiberianThunderT, Feb 20, 2017
    Last edited: Feb 20, 2017
    Oh geez, this is sounding almost exactly like the joke that was WSL, down to the pro-rel aspect and lack of national ambition. Then again, WSL didn't have a men's league backing it... (Albeit a 5th [and maybe now 6th?] division men's league)
    To be fair, even though WPSL has a lack of organizational skills, I haven't heard a ton of downsides to the players themselves. It just depends on what team you're on, since far too many of WPSL teams are just glorified amateur rec league teams. Intentionally flexible and low-budget; no real chance to "get stung", as it were.
     
  9. holden

    holden Member+

    Dundee FC, Yeovil Town LFC, Girondins de Bordeaux
    Oct 20, 2009
    Los Angeles
    Club:
    Dundee FC
    #9 holden, Feb 20, 2017
    Last edited: Feb 20, 2017
    I don't think they have a lack of national ambition. They are starting out focused on regions with teams in SoCal and Colorado in order to keep travel costs down (which I think is smart). That's more than their men's league started with (it was just SoCal), and now the men's league has teams in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, and Idaho and they are looking into expanding into the Northeast and Midwest. If the WUPSL is successful (and that's a big if), I'm sure they'll look to expand it as well.

    Interestingly, looking at the USSF Professional League Standards from 2014 (the latest I can find that's been made publicly available), the Women's 2nd Division does not have any requirements for teams being located in different timezones. But if you go off the men's 2nd division requirements, they say 2 timezones the first year, which the WUPSL has, and gives 6 years to get to having teams in the Eastern, Central, and Western.

    Well, this is a similar problem to what we see with the UWS and WPSL. Some may say the PDL is/should be higher, but unless it's changed the PDL and NPSL are both officially the 4th division (though, I guess that's cause everything under the 3rd division is just considered the amateur division and so there technically is no 5th or 6th). And the UPSL is getting a lot of former NPSL teams and is affiliated through the USASA just like the NPSL (and UWS and WPSL too). I think they would like to think they are 4th and their goal is for the Pro Premier Division (the one teams are promoted to) to be the now vacant 3rd division (not saying that's gonna happen, but I think that's their desire). So while you could argue that the NPSL and UPSL are both really 5th division, not 4th, I don't think the UPSL are 6th. At least in terms of player quality. They did beat a PDL team, a NPSL team, and even a USL team (albeit on PKs) in the US Open Cup. So... *shrug* I guess we'll have to see what happens and whether Yan Skwara ends up fleecing everyone or not.
     
  10. SiberianThunderT

    Sep 21, 2008
    DC
    Club:
    Saint Louis Athletica
    Nat'l Team:
    Spain
    Well, fine, call it a lack of national footprint then. We have no clue as to whether WSL would've expanded past two divisions in the same region since it flopped before it could do so. With currently two divisions in just the southwest, I don't see WUSPL any differently.

    UWS is entirely independent. WPSL came before NPSL - NPSL was founded as a men's expansion to WPSL.
    I never said NPWSL was 5th - I've always seen it as even with PDL, as you hinted at earlier. (Though USSF doesn't "officially" recognize anything below 3rd division pro, i.e. they don't rank the amateur leagues. USASA would be the organization to do so, if anyone did.) I mentioned 6th with UPSL since your OP said they were beginning pro-rel, so I was saying they'd be 5th/6th (as opposed to 4th/5th) since starting 2nd-division teams means your new level is below the one you already have.
    And still overall had a losing record against those divisions.
     
  11. holden

    holden Member+

    Dundee FC, Yeovil Town LFC, Girondins de Bordeaux
    Oct 20, 2009
    Los Angeles
    Club:
    Dundee FC
    Also, I've started mentally pronouncing this league's name like whoops plus an l at the end... :D
     
  12. SiberianThunderT

    Sep 21, 2008
    DC
    Club:
    Saint Louis Athletica
    Nat'l Team:
    Spain
    Yeah... X-D
    I think a bunch of EuroWoSo people kinda did the same to WPS when it was around.
     
  13. holden

    holden Member+

    Dundee FC, Yeovil Town LFC, Girondins de Bordeaux
    Oct 20, 2009
    Los Angeles
    Club:
    Dundee FC
    #13 holden, Feb 20, 2017
    Last edited: Feb 20, 2017
    Uh... that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying the argument about what division PDL and NPSL really are is similar to the argument about UWS and WPSL (some think PDL should be higher than NPSL, some think UWS should be higher than WPSL, but officially they are the same). As a reference for defining where UPSL lays.

    Yes, but the new division is promoting current UPSL teams, so the new league is supposed to be higher, not lower. That's why I was pointing out that I think it's a similar level with NPSL, and perhaps NPSL could be considered lower than PDL and thus 5th.

    Not sure about overall if you mean previous years, but in 2016 they were 1-1 against PDL, 1-0 against NPSL, and 1-0 against USL. The only league they had a losing record against was MLS.
     
  14. SiberianThunderT

    Sep 21, 2008
    DC
    Club:
    Saint Louis Athletica
    Nat'l Team:
    Spain
    Ah, gotcha, that wasn't clear.

    Previous years, i.e. full record. In any given year, you can have oddities, (e.g. USL going 7-0 over NASL the other year,) especially when you have so few teams involved like UPSL usually does. And technically in 2016, if you want to use on-field quality and not what ultimately went into the books, UPSL was 1-2 against PDL before a technically caused a forfeiture, and 0-0-1 against USL.
     
  15. holden

    holden Member+

    Dundee FC, Yeovil Town LFC, Girondins de Bordeaux
    Oct 20, 2009
    Los Angeles
    Club:
    Dundee FC
    I don't think that's so much of an oddity... ;) Will be interesting to see how the 2 match up this year now that they're both officially 2nd division.

    Well, I wasn't trying to say the UPSL is as good as the USL or anything. Just to show that, when competing against these other leagues (as that's the only way to really compare them) they have had some successes, just like some PDL and NPSL teams have had.
     
  16. SiberianThunderT

    Sep 21, 2008
    DC
    Club:
    Saint Louis Athletica
    Nat'l Team:
    Spain
    *blows dust off the thread*

    While UPSL claimed to be starting a women's division in 2017, and several articles on their website similarly claim the women's division started in 2017, I can't find any solid evidence of women's teams playing until just this spring, when there have been two games played to date - which you can only find on the schedule page, as they've both been friendlies, so they aren't going to show up on the standings page. Standings pages only exist for Fall 2018 and Spring 2019, and both are still zeros across the board.

    That said, venturing around to Twitter or FB suggests that many of these teams have indeed been around since 2017, so IDK what's up.
     
  17. holden

    holden Member+

    Dundee FC, Yeovil Town LFC, Girondins de Bordeaux
    Oct 20, 2009
    Los Angeles
    Club:
    Dundee FC
    Hmm.. It seems wupsl.com no longer works. But looking at http://upslsoccer.com/women-teams, it looks like there's now more divisions and teams. So... *shrug* Strange that they don't list any info about 2017 and 2018.
     

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