Job posted for a COO of a 2019 USL Expansion Club in Iowa. Mentions coordinating affiliation with an MLS club (I would guess Minn Utd) Well this little nugget popped up in our Indeed Job Alert feed...#USL to Des Moines, Iowa. pic.twitter.com/RJkkoqyncL— Prost Soccer (@ProstSoccer) April 26, 2018 I also posted in the D3 thread since it didn't specify level, but mods feel free to delete one if you'd rather not have duplicate posts
Albuquerque is officially in the USL. https://www.uslsoccer.com/news_article/show/924766?referrer_id=2333971 Hmm. "Fifth new club"? Who are the other four? Austin, El Paso, Hartford, Memphis, Birmingham. Is one of those not official?
"New Mexico joins teams in other thriving soccer markets in Texas, Alabama and Tennessee that will become part of the USL for its 2019 season." No mention of Connecticut there...
The USL's official website has hyped Hartford's stadium progress and even gone so far as to mention their "anticipated 2019 debut" but they have not announced the club just yet.
Looks like San Diego 1904 FC will not be joining USL... and may never play at all. Their petition to join USL was denied. Several staff including the COO have left with no replacement. http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...soccer-1904-usl-expansion-20180607-story.html
No local investor (20% has to be locally owned) and the investors they do have weren’t being forthcoming with financials and/or wouldn’t pay the $5 mil expansion fee.
One could do some seeking to find out that many USL owners haven't really paid the asked expansion fee. Many haven't paid the league dues through the years.
True, but I doubt the league will put up with those shenanigans in the future as it no longer appears they have to.
It's not that surprising to me that an expansion bid led by a group of random Euro soccer players who don't really know what they are doing didn't work out. That any ownership group in the last 2-3 years would pursue NASL over USL raises a few red flags just by itself.
I’m. it that worried. The league still seemed bullish on San Diego. And there’s at least one other group that was exploring D2 in the Albion/ASC San Diego guys... And they’re almost entirely local.
The league will do whatever it takes to get the markets it wants to get with the ownership groups it wants in the league. No different than how MLS is/has operated. Exceptions will always be made with the franchise model.
Also we do not know if other teams are coming in. Baltimore and DC2 are possibilities. We did not know what the alignment for this year was until January so why should it be any different this year. As much as we would like to know the alignment we will need to wait until the teams finish their moves.
I'm personally hoping that USL caps D2 at 36 teams (2 18 team conferences playing a home/home in conference for 34 games). When D2 level expansions squads want into D2 instead of D3, they buy out existing MLS2 squads of thier D2 franchise slot (and MLS2 teams buy back in at the D3 level). I think with the official expansion announced to date, TC2 moving down, FCC moving to MLS and Ottawa's expected move to CPL, USL D2 is at 36 teams for 2019. Anymore expansion ideally buys out existing MLS2 squads. I know they've talked about a 3 conference set up, but I think that's a mistake and 2 conference is "regional" enough for D2. D3 should then go to a 2x2 setup with 2 division within 2 conferences.
I think they were looking at 6 conferences in D3 to keep travel costs to a minimum. I think that is also the reason behind 3 conferences in D2. I do like the 18 team conferences so we have home and home scheduling instead of the uneven scheduling we have now. Interesting idea on buying the 2 squads out of their D2 positions.
I get the "travel costs" issue, but I don't see a HUGE advantage to going from 3 to 2 cost wise, especially if you play any games out of conference. You can't get to a small enough footprint to become a "bus" league vs air travel, so until you do that, you're just messing around. The reason I think the "Expansion Clubs buying out MLS2 squads" is likely on the table is it gives MLS teams an encentive to get out. I can't remember where I saw/heard, but I remember recently Jake Edwards saying they had a "cap" in mind on how big D2 would get and it was 40 or less (he didn't specifically come up with a number). And with markets like Detroit, Baltimore, Cleveland, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Oakland, Omaha, Chicago, San Diego, Riverside ... I think you can reasonably get to 36 fully independent markets from where you're at now. These markets should be able to be big enough to sustain a 2 conference alignment. This allows D4 to get to 4 conferences and you get closer to "bus league" if you go West, Central, North East and South East which would help the economics there.
If 32 is the eventual cap for MLS (which seems likely given the BIG FOUR), then 36-40 works well for D2. Keeping it in multiples of four allows for easier regional breakdowns. Even numbers of conferences and divisions are much easier to work into a playoff structure than odd numbers. Ultimately, it will be amazing if and when we reach a full and stable league structure. To some degree it will resemble baseball and hockey, but I kind of hope that D3 becomes the "minors" and D2 is its own mid-market thing. MLS - 32 Major markets USL - 40 Mid-market independents US3 - 40 Smaller market independents & Reserves "Amateur" Not true divisions, but how they more or less fit into the current hierarchy. D4 PDL & NPSL High Level National Leagues D5 UPSL Low Level National Leagues D6 USASA organized regional leagues
================== That is not a bad pyramid, if we want to call it that. I still await the big July announcements regarding USL3
It is an open question to me what MLSs endgame is regarding expansion. Cincy, Nashville, SacTown and PHX have to be the limit on how far the poaching can go, otherwise I just dont see USL gaining much relevance nationwide.
Their current plans are to add 2 more teams. So, right now, 2 teams at the most. Detroit is looking to get a team son maybe only one more from USL. We will have to wait and see. There may be more teams interested in USL and we have not heard of them.