17 years of being involved with US soccer, I have no idea who this guy is. Unless he says he will install pro/rel, I’m not buying it, more mediocre soccer coming this way, more excuses.
Italy has pro/rel and missed the world cup, too. Pro/rel will not solve any problem we have. We need a fully developed pyramid with properly trained coaches, scouts, etc. Until that is completed pro/rel is a false narrative. We need the proper people running the show and additional positions such as TD. The president needs to be a facilitator/director, not running every bit of the show.
Italy was second in their group behind Spain and lost in a playoff to Sweden. Both those countries have quality teams and have pro/rel. I also believe Italy has won a few World Cups, so I didn’t think that is a great argument against it. I get that the extreme pro/rel crowd can be a bit much, but I think the folks who dismiss the idea are even worse. I think if people could move torward a more neutral place there could be rational discussions of how to implement to meet our needs or decide another structure is better. I believe these decisions should be made sooner than later. I see no reason to defer them until other problems are solved. They are all interrelated. We need over 500 “professional” teams/clubs in this country to serve the population and geographical size. A structure is needed to organize the teams and also encourage their creation. The creation of teams would also increase the demand for improved coaching and scouting as well as provide a career for those with those skills. There are obviously issues with pro/rel, but also think the incentive of being able to move up the structure would likely encourage more to sign up.
Oh my god. Pro/rel is/was never going to happen anyway. You could have appointed Ted Westervelt as the President of USSF, and it still wouldn't have happened. Because MLS decisions are made by its commissioner and its owners, just like every other league. The President of USSF has no more authority to direct MLS to install promotion and relegation than he does to direct them to the men's room.
We'll never have a fully developed pyramid until there's incentive to invest in lower division clubs with the intention of climbing the ranks, which in turn provides a much greater reason to invest in coaching, scouting and player development. A closed system is what largely prevents greater investment in and by extent, stability of, lower division clubs. There's no reason for a wealthy investor to come in and buy the Deltas as any upward trajectory is severely capped. This is common is business. When potential is severely capped, investment suffers and businesses fold.
So in essence you are saying if we invest in the financial well being of teams it will solve all of the problems. Apparently you have missed the last 40 years of what happens when you cater to the financially well off and how that has worked for the rest of the plebes in this country.
Many dismiss the notion that pro/rel is the cure for all ills. Maybe it is part of a solution, maybe it is not. I think one large issue in this country is the bottom line trumps all else. If that is somewhat over come then I think we will move forward. We definitely need to be looking at things from all fronts and placing them in the proper context and not emphasizing one to detriment of all others as has gone on for the 12 years at least. I agree we need more professional teams. We still have a need for growing the game domestically as it feels as though soccer is still a fringe/Olympic sport in too many eyes. That is changing for the good, but will be a long term project as is all of the other points being discussed. The growth in the game has been quite rapid recently so the infrastructure is behind the growth and in need of catching up. Patience is needed as none of the rest of the countries built their pyramids in a short time.
Of course there is no silver bullet. We obviously need to be better at coaching, player development, and scouting among other things. In my opinion, our biggest problem now is taking talented youth players and making them productive professionals. I see a massive increase in “minor league” teams as one of the obvious things we can do to improve in this area. Having the potential to get promoted will provide an incentive for people to create teams. All these teams with something to “play for” gives the actual incentive to invest in player development, better coaching and scouting. A slow integration of pro/rel would part of an integrated approach to improve the game and reward the teams that focus on the key areas of the game that needs improving. I just wrote in another thread that there more than 65 minor league baseball teams that average over 4K a game. I think at a minimum, we shoul/could support 2 levels of “major” leagues and 3 levels of “minor” leagues. An integrated system like this would grow the game significantly in this country. Concerns about current MLS owners investments could be alleviated by mostly promotion initially and I find it would complete mismanagement for a current MLS team to fall below the second level in the next 10 years.
Okay, someone already mentioned Italy isn't a great example because they have won WC. But we can say the same thing about Chile, Netherlands, Paraguay etc. They all have Pro/Rel and it is not some type of magical thing that all of a sudden gives you soccer world domination. Liga MX is looking at having its league as a closed circuit, no more Pro/Rel and they don't mention anything about if they take it away they won't have a good NT team. Another great example I can look at is England. Pro/Rel plus one of the best, if not the best league in the world, with a mediocre NT. With everything they have in their league they should always be among the Top 4 at every WC.
Re: USSF presidential task #1. Organize the league structure. Personally, I think a MLB style, which seems somewhat the direction we are heading is better than traditional pro/rel. Break into four spheres. First sphere: “the Major Leagues” MLS 28-32 team league (could be as high as 40) broken into 2-4 conferences. Obviously, Don Garber and his group run this show. Second sphere: “The minor leagues”. USL/MLS eventually buys out NASL clubs, and every MLS team fields a reserve team. More so, in this second sphere, I would like to see promotion/relegation. Meaning there would be a D2 and D3, and teams can move back and forth there, but will NOT be promoted to MLS. Definitely regionalized into at least 4 conferences. Ideally, each conference will have two divisions, with approximately 10 teams in each. MLS clubs will need to field their own reserve team which needs to place within close proximity, but they can also affiliate with another club...ie Atlanta Utd still would have AU2 but could also affiliate with Charleston Battery. We need to nominate someone to oversee the development of this sphere. Third sphere: a national u23 league that focuses on that 18-23 age group. Yes, there’s the PDL and the NPSL but it’s currently disorganized and incoherent. Again, we need to look to nominate someone in this sphere to reorganize and lead in the right direction. Mainly, the clubs need to be a mixture of MLS u21 teams, separate from the reserves - just like we see in Europe; and also clubs that are focused in the major college towns, the hotbeds for 18-23 year olds to live. For instance, even though there’s Lander University, it doesn’t make any sense for Greenwood, SC to have a club when Clemson, SC does not have a club. Ultimately, this is where we need to counter the “NCAA dilemma”, although that should always still be a net to catch some players that fall through the cracks. Ideally, we’d see at least 4 conferences, probably need more, with even the possibility of promotion/relegation in this sphere, as well; playing year round. Fourth sphere: under 18 youth and academies. MLS and USSF seem like they’re making strides in trying to build youth development, but there are some points, asides from the obvious (pay for play, etc) that need to change: for instance, while inner city kids need to be targeted, “rural” kids need to be targeted, as well. Note: I’m laughing at calling some places rural when some of the towns I have in mind are big enough to have their own pro team in Europe. Meaning, all the talent that is scouted does not just need to come from ONLY the major metro’s. For every Atlanta, there’s still Augusta, Savannah, Macon-Warner Robins, Columbus, etc.. which are a giant black hole for scouts. Part of this plan needs to be very strong incentives for MLS clubs to invest in their HGP. Also, coaching licenses need to be more accessible. And other initiatives (which would be a subject on its own) to build the u18. Nonetheless, we need someone in charge of this sphere as well. *Fifth and more spheres: Women’s soccer, NWSL, adult and rec leagues, etc To conclude, Cordeiro needs to build his cabinet around these areas. He needs four heads of each cabinet, and build a council on how to best improve US soccer. We need some coherence on what is the plan, and we should all be working in the same direction.
Specifically pro/rel, it doesn't even have to include MLS. They are single entity anyway and it makes no sense and their owners would likely not do it until it's proven that it will not lead to disaster. England has balloon payments for teams that go down. So they know they can come right back up. Martino laid out a decent plan to try and implement system wide pro/rel by I think 2038. Needed work but it was at least feasible. To me if you want pro/rel right now treat NASL or USL (depending on lawsuits) as division 1, and work back. Build it slowly and over time. Try non traditional outlets like facebook watch to try and garner attention and see what happens. Not like they are making money hand over fist anyway. They just wouldn't be able to make it to MLS right now. There's more But there's a ton of threads and no need to bash it out here. Regarding Cordeiro, he is a guy who wants to step away from this and let the board do it's thing. Then come in and say I told you so. I really believe the only reason the athletes council switched to him was the world cup bid, as many of them believe that's a big factor in development. But he has very limited soccer knowledge and will relay on the board to appoint people, the same board that Sunil will sit on and who has lead the way to failure after failure. And with Sunils speech, you can see he was basically sick of hearing about change. So you'll have the board appoint the same people they did before but now just give them more power, and Cordeiro taking a big hands off approach(which is fine, if he knew more about the sport). Its just going to be more of the same. So if you believe small tweaks were needed, you're probably fine with Cordeiro. If you thought the system failed/is failing and needed to be changed, Saturday left you bitterly disappointed.
Your post just argued for pro/rel. Our entire system right now caters to the handful of select financially well off MLS/SUM owners and shareholders while everyone else's potential is heavily stunted. And you're right, look where its gotten us. We aren't going to the WC.
Carlos' most important task is to fill his technical director position (or GM as they're now calling it) as quickly as possible....................and then get out of the way. We should all be willing to give him a chance (while reserving the right to eviscerate him at a future time). Frankly, I think a lot of folks don't understand what the job of the USSF president is. In fact, some of the candidates didn't seem to.