Any idea why? That doesn't make sense to me. Unless young kids are starting on USL one teams - very few get significant minutes in USL Championship from what I've seen. Most teams plays MLS washouts or wanna-be's rather than develop young talent.
I think it seems to be a move by USL to improve its brand as a stand-alone league. I don't have a subscription to The Athletic, but perhaps @don gagliardi can summarize this article for us: https://theathletic.com/1083944/201...hampionship-to-third-tier-league-one-by-2021/
All MLS-owned teams currently playing in the second-division USL Championship could be moved to third-division USL League One by 2021, sources from around MLS and USL have told The Athletic. Nine MLS teams—Atlanta United, D.C. United, LA Galaxy, New York Red Bulls, Philadelphia Union, Portland Timbers, Real Salt Lake, Seattle Sounders and Sporting Kansas City—field their own squads in the 36-team USL Championship. FC Dallas, Orlando City and Toronto FC all field teams in 10-team League One, which is in its first season and will expand to include at least three more teams next year. Each of the MLS clubs that operate teams in the Championship have developed their own strategy for their USL squads, with some building young, academy-driven rosters and others putting together older, more competitive groups. Their form varies, but, as a whole, the MLS-owned teams struggle on the field. Things don’t look good in the stands, either. The nine MLS-owned teams are all in the bottom 10 of the USL Championship in average attendance . . . According to sources from both leagues, frustration has been growing within the USL league office and among independent USL clubs about both trends . . . But while the MLS-owned clubs’ potential move down makes sense to the USL, it doesn’t necessarily square with the desires of the individual MLS clubs. Sources from several of the MLS teams in question said they’re strongly opposed to the idea of dropping down a division . . . The MLS team sources felt that fielding teams in League One simply wouldn’t be as valuable for their clubs . . .
It seems like the MLS teams are using this as a development league which would be mostly kids and fringe prospects but all under the control of the MLS club. There are independent teams that just want to win so they are grabbing the best available. Does not seem like a good mix to me.
It’s absolutely a good mix. In fact it’s an ideal mix. Young prospects get to play against seasoned pros fighting for a paycheck, in front of much larger crowds than they’d ever encounter in a purely developmental league. Independent teams that care about winning now and not about developing young players can... beat those teams to win more games and finish higher in the standings, pleasing their fans, who will be more likely to continue supporting a successful team, keeping up attendance numbers, which means more money for those owners. Sports leagues are a zero sum game, kick out Sounders 2 and other teams have to take those Ls... That seems like a pretty good symbiotic relationship to me.
I came, I saw, I conquered. Thank you @lagalaxy for making me feel alive again. To the Galaxy fans - you wanted Zlatan, I gave you Zlatan. You are welcome. The story continues...Now go back to watch baseball pic.twitter.com/kkL6B6dJBr— Zlatan Ibrahimović (@Ibra_official) November 13, 2019 Is baseball still happening?
No, and it just demonstrates how "in to America" Zlatan was. Happy to see him go he was a real A******
Or, he simply has enough potential they fear he could be lost to some club overseas and then you get nothing. They have enough roster spots to take a few flyers. It seems like other MLS teams do this too. I've never really counted but it seems like Dallas has a lot of homegrown signings that are in the door and then out again in a year or two and what they bought with the contract was some security while they took a longer look.
I think what he means is that instead of watching MLS next year without Zlatan we should all just watch baseball instead.
If Zlatan plays anywhere but LA , I’ll always watch him. Playing with the Gals is kind of sad though. I was glad when Flo marked him out of his element.
I understood him to be disparaging Americans, who as part of their exceptionalism (from a Swede's perspective) have an affinity for baseball.
Zlatan's dig at 'Murica reminded me of Don Cherry's disdain for "Europeans and French guys." I would pay to see the two of them in a room together. https://nationalpost.com/news/lower-slobovia-attacking-slimea-a-selection-of-don-cherrys-hits
Totally agree, We lock him in before the scouts from the top Mexican league teams can spot him at the South County Alianza showcase...chat up his parents and whisk him away right from our own backyard.
This may not be the right thread...but am I the only person who got a call from the Quakes today (Matt Bersano)?
I talked with JT Marcinkowski for a while, then he handed me off to Shea Salinas when we were talking about the homegrown GK trade for the first pick in the 2nd round. That was pretty cool.
I was in a meeting and so I can tell you exactly what he said. When I saw the voicemail, I felt kind of bad that the guys had to do the smile & dial thing, but had I known there was a possibility of talking to Shea... Here's the script: Hey, this is Matt Bersano, goalkeeper from the San Jose Earthquakes. I want to reach out to thank you for your support throughout the 2019 season. We've actually shut down normal business operations this morning to call and thank our devoted season ticket holders, since you guys are the heart and soul of the club, and we can't thank you enough. We're excited and looking forward to seeing you out here in 2020. Just want you to have a great rest of your day. Happy holidays. Take care. *** After all the complaining I've done about lack of outreach, this is unexpected but a very nice touch. (I have made these kinds of calls and it's not fun, especially as you inevitably run into someone with a long list of grievances).
I received a call from someone named "AJ". I wasn't able to take the call so it went to voicemail. No idea who AJ is.
it is a nice touch, and I'm sure it's not fun for these players, unless STH's are either too polite to speak up or just sit in stunned silence because someone actually reached out to them, personally, and wow, how novel. it's not really fair to put the players in this position imo. any sth who's paying attention is going to have a long list of grievances. how could you not? the lack of progress and success in San Jose is not their fault, it's systemic and derives from apathy, lack of investment and indifference at the helm of the organization. I'd love to know what season ticket sales have done over the past decade - I'm guessing they've tanked hard. especially once you remove the $200 season ticket giveaways they're promoting so hard. season ticket sales are a critical indicator of the health and viability of the club, without healthy season ticket holder base, clubs are even more strapped and unable to invest in players, etc., it's a cycle of decline that we're all too familiar with, unfortunately. so yeah, nice touch, amounts to nada. I remember getting calls too, back when I was a STH. invariably there was very little substance or strategy or reason for optimism on offer - it was more "thanks for being so awesome, look forward to seeing you next year!" Get Fisher, Fox or Jesse doing those calls, and not to elicit feeback, but to offer apologies for years of inpeptitude and a meaningful plan for how they expect to finally get things turned around in San Jose. That might even prompt me to become a season ticket holder again.
I wondered if any of the execs were calling people, but they probably figured that fans would not unload on the players, who are (mostly) doing their best. Poor Matt, if I had talked to him I would have been tempted to ask "did they offer to let you start a home game in exchange for making these calls?" I wouldn't have, but tempted for sure.
This is a safe bet. Even fans who yell at players at games or online or whatever rarely act that way when in contact with said players. Some late night show demonstrated this when Robinson Cano was leaving for the Mariners. Not sure how many people would really go into a tirade against an exec, either, but at least the execs are presumably in a position to change things, unlike the players. I feel bad for anyone who has to call anybody else in a professional setting. It's the worst. Asking players to do so is quite cruel, in my opinion.