Oakland Roots starting an affiliated amateur team in the NPSL. https://oaklandrootssc.com/news/project51o
For Immediate Releasehttps://t.co/F0bKIL3oHN pic.twitter.com/Tctago879K— NISA Official (@NISALeague) December 11, 2019
Huh. Honestly didn’t see this coming. BREAKING: The Miami FC is close to joining the #USL Championship, sources tell @TheAthleticSCCR. The club will buy Ottawa Fury’s franchise rights and play under the existing #TheMiamiFC brand. More on a potentially seismic move in U.S. soccer: https://t.co/02e1U5xCLO— Jeff Rueter (@jeffrueter) December 11, 2019
Second time in six months Riccardo Silva has screwed over a fledgling league trying to get off the ground. That has to be some kind of record.
If only NISA had a mechanism like single entity or a clause like what USL has where teams aren't allowed to move to another league if the team owner/investor is choosing to leave. Actually no, that doesn't sound that independent of them.
I mean, good for him, but it's not like the team's gonna regain that spark they once had during the last few years of the NASL, not to mention frigging Inter Miami is starting up in a few months (and surprisingly, their home opener will be sooner than I imagined). This is gonna be a shitshow.
Right?! Not to mention the planned Ft. Lauderdale USL team that Inter Miami will launch in the not-too-distant future.
And it's official. Currently, the USL team will be in League One and will probably play to 80-100 fans (probably the homeless and/or relatives of the players involved) if it's treated as a true reserve team, but a possible move to a higher level and a chance at legitimacy at being treated as something like the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers, then it may eat into the Miami FC's audience.
Right, I figured that would be the case... I was more or less questioning whether there is enough interest to support all three levels in Miami. After all, it is a notoriously fickle sports market. My thinking is that Inter will have plenty of support and those looking for a family-friendly, affordable option would be drawn to the reserves. Considering FC has been a dumpster fire that plans on joining its fourth league in a very short time span, while going counter to its long-stated goal of avoiding the MLS-USL mainstream, I just do not see a lot of support coming their way.
I think it's a little more complicated than that, though. 1. Inter and Inter 2 will be playing about an hour outside of Miami, whereas FC will be playing within the city - if your goal is an "affordable option", unless you already live around Ft. Lauderdale, it may be FC 2. Depends a lot on who wins FC is certainly capable of drawing like the Rowdies (5-6k) and being competitive simply by having the geographic advantage. That said, they've never been a major draw (attendance-wise), so who knows.
1. Currently, both Inter Miami and their reserve club are playing at Not Called Lockhart Stadium Anymore, but they will move closer to Miami proper when said stadium is actually built. Also, who knows how much Miami FC will charge. Sure, Florida prides itself on low and nonexistent taxes, but places often counter those with high admission and entertainment fees (unless you're the Florida State League, where you're probably just giving those tickets away in most markets). Miami FC might end up being the most expensive USL Championship team there is. 2. That may be true, but you always have to consider that Florida is a lousy sports market, especially if the teams are losers. Orlando City may be getting decent attendance right now, but eventually fans will get tired of the team underperforming, and I don't know if the newness factor will be sustainable for Inter Miami. I don't think Miami FC will be able to get those 5K figures they had during their NASL run so easily unless they are pretty dominant on the pitch right out of the gate. Casual fans like winners. In the meantime, let's just look at the sorry state of NISA right now; the Cosmos won't arrive for another year, the Fury are unorganized, they still haven't confirmed or denied the existence of those New England clubs, and it seems like the southeast has to be anchored entirely around the town of Chattanooga. But, think about that zero admission fee.
Currently, the Lockhart Stadium renovation (it's still Lockhart, dammit) is coming along faster than I thought, given I expected the team to play the first half of the MLS season on the road like Portland did this past season and DC United the year before that, with Inter Miami having a home opener in March. However, as for their actual home stadium, I haven't heard anything after that chemical composition story as far as soil replacement at the site.
COSMOS CONFIRM PARTICIPATION IN THE NATIONAL INDEPENDENT SOCCER ASSOCIATION STARTING IN THE FALL OF 2020 The Club will not participate in the 2020 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Dec 13, 2019 https://www.nycosmos.com/news/2019/...4bQ87Z8rmxK5u1r1v8mGlEhc-w6cEM7oVcXIRDv6GDGeI
This certainly implies that there will be no Cosmos B next year, since they had qualified for USOC through the NPSL.
Speculation that with Fort Worth Vaqueros getting a USOC invitation, this may mean Atlanta SC might not be playing in the spring: The timing of this announcement with the pro team deadline today for #USOC2020 indicates there are more Open Division slots available than the @opencup committee initially predicted. Official announcement of teams from USLC, USL1, NISA, USL2, and NPSL will be made on Jan. 9— TheCup.us (@usopencup) December 31, 2019 The assumption is that their invitation is at the expense of a pro slot (and Atlanta would be the most likely candidate) but I don't think that has been confirmed.
Sure, but Cosmos B was originally more of a U-23 side than a reserve team, IIRC. I don't think the NPSL team was professional until after NASL collapsed.
More evidence towards Atlanta SC being the likely reason for another berth: From what I have heard NISA is still looking for new investors for Atlanta and they are not likely to be part of the Spring. https://t.co/MXmP0MFK6W— Chris Kivlehan (@kivlehan) January 2, 2020
Good look at the league’s strengths and weaknesses. http://www.midfieldpress.com/2020/01/19/2020-goals-for-nisa-its-clubs/
That read less as a "dig" to me and more that NISA doesn't have forever to get its shit together: the longer they remain amateur hour and don't improve the perception of stability, the greater the likelihood of clubs jumping to USL. And if that happens, it exacerbates their problem. Basically, the clubs that are there prefer to be there, but ultimately, they're going to have to do whatever they have to to survive. But at the same time, USL should want DCFC, Oakland, Cosmos, CFC, etc. But there's not really another verb for that than "poach".