So... this made ESPN. USL has petitioned IFAB to permit them to experiment with the "concussion substitution" in 2020. What they propose is a new concussion protocol, where a player suspected of a concussion can temporarily be subbed. If the player is cleared, they can return to the field, and the temp sub is pulled. If the player is told they cannot continue, then the temp sub is made permanent, and charged against the team as a regular sub. If they have no subs left, the temp sub is pulled off the field.
Anyone know anything about Nyeman #44 for Loudon United? 15yr old making his debut and seemed to have incredible speed for his age, and a pretty awesome cross.
Lots of USL expansion rumors... From what I'm hearing, upcoming 2020 1 USL-C and 2 USL-L1 expansion teams will be in the same markets as purported NISA markets.Before anyone assumes that this means foul play re: USL, I'll clarify - I have no idea which league moved for those markets first.— Nipun Chopra, PhD (@NipunChopra7) June 7, 2019 Something interesting I'm hearing:Several NPSL teams are currently planning on switching to USL2 for 2020 with specific plans to go pro in USL1 for 2021. At least eight so far, might reach 12.— John M Lenard (@JohnMLTX) June 8, 2019
TBH, I find these sorts of "scoops" to be exhausting. They're like /r/MLS clickbait. Kivlehan does it too, and then I feel we never really get a follow up and two years later some random club goes from NPSL to L2 and the speculation starts anew. That said, John's follow-up tweet mentioned California, the East coast, and "scattered" Midwest teams: All I'm comfortable saying now is pay attention to California, the East Coast, and some of the scattered Midwestern teams. Every one of them has mentioned going pro in some way before, several had previous NASL aspirations.— John M Lenard (@JohnMLTX) June 8, 2019 Let the speculation begin! Oh, and re: USL/NISA, I'm going with Providence and San Diego.
Here's the thing: take the under. If you hold out a hammer at arm's length, waist-high, and drop it, it doesn't go up to the ceiling, it hits the floor. There are still forces that govern the universe on which you can rely. And one of them is that most NPSL teams are where they are because they cannot afford to be anywhere else. Some may switch to USL2 (that has happened), but a quick move to the pro level, even D3, is less likely. It has rarely been pulled off.
And off hand I would suspect the rare ones that have successfully pulled it off are rebounds. Teams that had previously been pro, but went amateur.
Setting aside the unlikelihood of most NPSL teams successfully going pro, what team owner would look at L1 and its sea of empty seats and think that's that's the path forward? You're either part of the select crowd of amateur clubs that draws, in which case, you're probably already doing better than L1 teams, with a fraction of the cost, or you aren't, which, well... good luck. That is, unless the Venn diagram of NPSL owners who also own MiLB teams is more overlapping than I realized.
What...do you think...they see...when they look around their own league? Also, who decides to invest in a USL1 team based on what Orlando City B draws? Do you mean to tell me they completely overlook what Madison does? How does what North Texas SC draws impact anyone's decision to move their NPSL team to the pro level? And even Greenville and Statesboro outdraw most NPSL teams. (Hell even Tucson would be above average for an NPSL team.) The number of NPSL teams that draw anybody is very small based on the research I did over the last two years. I would be stunned if their California and Midwest teams could make the jump and further stunned if they made that decision based on what Lansing draws. Which, by the way....
This isn't quite my point. If you're Asheville or Little Rock, you can take a look at the two teams that went from PDL to L1 and see that their attendance has risen roughly... zero... for quadruple the cost (or more). And if you aren't drawing in NPSL or L2, it's pretty easy to infer that tacking "now professional!" onto your logo and calling it a day isn't going to change much. And I realize that "tickets distributed" is the coin of the realm, but that doesn't change the fact that if you look at the highlights for every Red Wolves or Ignite game, you see maybe a quarter of their reported attendance. Greenville is a little better, but it's still maybe half what they claim. On a gate funded league, that matters. I don't really know what they need to break even, but I have a really hard time seeing it working with less than 1,000/game.
Call it "The 2019 Swope Park Train Wreck". They are dead last in USL-C with only 8 points after 14 matches (1-8-5). How can they be this bad this fast? SPR was league runner up in 2016 & 2017. Last year they were 15-11-8 (53 pts) and made it to the 2nd round before being knocked out by 2018's runner up, Phoenix. This year they are on pace for 19 points. I know SPR's job is to develop talent, not win USL honors. But even SKC is bad this year- just 3 teams are below them point-wise. That new training center is not working out so good. Take away the fancy ping pong table until you win some games. Turn off the ice cream machine. SPR has just 1 win and we're getting close to the halfway mark in the season. At this rate they'll finish the season with 2.4 wins. Their record is dead last. Their attendance is dead last (down 60.4% from last year). If this doesn't qualify as a train wreck, what does?
Could SPR be in complete development mode right now based on the massive injury problems at SKC? That is, is their performance an aberration based on the needs of the parent club? After all, SKC was about at the point last month to receive a roster hardship waiver.
That's a good point. I looked over SKC's injury reports. During March - April, SKC was dealing with between 1-4 (seems normal). In May the bottom fell out and they had as many as 10 (for one game SKC only brought 17 players). I looked at SPR's record in March - April: 0-4-2, the misery was well underway. Their only victory was May 6, when the injury bug was biting SKC the hardest. I did look more closely at SPR's 2018 roster and 2019 roster: only 7 players have carried over out of 30. They had 2 on the U17 during May, 1 on U20. I looked at SPR's 2018 roster and saw no players currently on the SKC roster. I guess the only explanation is that they didn't much potential in the majority of last year's squad to move up and so have brought in a new batch? (With so many injuries, is there something out of kilter with that new state of the art training facility?)
Well their head trainer of the last ten years - who is highly regarded and generally shows up to work All-Star Games, Homegrown Games, and the Player Combine, left the team recently. Whether he as scapegoated or not is a matter of opinion. I doubt there's anything physically wrong with Pinnacle. I also believe that SPR has stayed at Swope Park, meaning both teams now have more space to themselves.
And my point is that absolutely no one looks at what is possible based on the worst drawing clubs in a given league. If they did, no one would ever invest in a franchise in any of these lower leagues. Everyone who decides to go pro (whether by moving up or buying in) thinks they're the smart ones. It's going to be different for them. They're going to be Albuquerque, not (ersrwhile) Bethlehem. The rest stay where they are not because Lansing is struggling, but because most of them don't have the wherewithal (financial or operational) to even consider it. What struggling teams do rarely factors into it.
It can both be true that nobody is going to Ignite games and that's not representative of L1's as a whole. I mean, I could argue that was the case for Madison, but there's the possibility that Jake Edwards has found a way to clone Peter Wilt and will put them in charge of any new expansion clubs: The Boys from Wisconsin.
More about the SPR Train Wreck: I was looking at the USLC website power rankings. They say this about the bottom rated team: "The Rangers rolled over early in North Carolina and are now the only team in the Championship without a pair of wins on the season." Ouch. That'll leave a mark: "The Rangers rolled over early in North Carolina."
I showed up at halftime. Nagamura was on the bench just staring at the scrubs warming up. I started to say something to him, but decided not to. (I was working the second game of the double-header)
At this point, I hope the organization is looking at dropping them to L1 and moving back to Swope. I think as we've tried to get younger and play more Academy kids (and get fewer loans from SKC due to their injury issues) we see that we won't be competitive at this level. I'd be fine playing Des Moines and Omaha and Dallas and Madison in L1.
Well there were 5 SKC players on the gameday roster. I noticed Wan Kuzain when they announced him being subbed out. I got a couple shots of Busio on the field when I went down to get ready for the Courage game. And in general, here's Coach Dave! I actually tried to get the Sporks into hiring me, but USL teams have no money. I was the RailHawks team photographer in 2010-11, but they can't afford me - though they recommended me to the NWSL for the league Courage job. I'm between the benches because the NWSL coaching staffs are right behind me in the tunnel waiting to take the field at the final whistle to start setting things up for pregame warmups. The USL teams use the newer locker rooms through the tunnel on the other side of the field. The NWSL teams use the original locker rooms behind me. I'm also just holding a wide angle lens at this point, my big, game shooting, lens is elsewhere.
Awesome pictures! I wasn't really talking about the game vs NCFC specifically, just in general. I think some of the reasons for Swopes stuggles to be competitive is the lack of loans from SKC compared to other years. But I think that's tough to "plan for" as well so maybe a move to L1 isn't necessary, just understanding that there will be years like this. I lived in Durham and worked in Burlington, NC for a couple of years while my wife went to grad school at UNC after we got out of college in Missouri ... and then we moved back to KC! Great place to live out there!
I think that is a good idea. I read an article on SPR's attendance problem from The Blue Testament on SBNation. The comments at the end of the article were very interesting. This made the most sense to me: "On twitter and Facebook we got some comments about things being better at Swope Soccer Village. Smaller venue, autograph lines, events for kids, etc." Also: "There’s a reason other sports generally don’t have their minor-league affiliates in the same cities as the major-league ones... Can you imagine the KC Royals trying to draw fans to (minor league) StormChaser games at Kaufmann Stadium? Why would anyone bother?" It's only 20 miles back to Swope Park, and it would create a much better environment for fans and players. https://www.thebluetestament.com/2019/6/15/18655599/whats-with-swope-park-rangers-attendance
IF MLS-2 teams are really there to develop players and some teams attendances are really bad, does it matter? Having said that, I think some of those teams are hurting USL-C and need to more to USL-1. LAG 2, Real Monarchs, Colorado Springs, Swope Park, RGValley would make excellent adds to build up the west- knowing that Tucson, North Texas and now Omaha are there. - I would be more concerned in USL-C adding good markets and getting the attendances up across the board, especially if some of the weaker teams drop.