I phrased that wrong, obviously. Must have looked really empty in Toyota Stadium. Even worse, apparently, was that the cameras were on the same side as the fans, so as empty as it would have looked in person, it was even worse on TV.
Those watching THAT game on TV are either very into FCD or into youth national teams ... and neither of those groups of people are all that concerned with the number of seats filled. One other group would be fans of the visitors ... and while it may be more enjoyable to watch your team in front of "road fans" ... it doesn't keep you from being a fan of your team if you really want to be a fan of your local team.
To be honest, I don't think it's contradictory to say that I agree with you completely and think this probably looked like a game played in a closed stadium because of rascist fans or whatever.
------------------------- Some random thoughts.. To help Tucson and North Texas with travel, I would look to LAG2 and RSL Monarchs to hopefully join at some point as "2" squads, then maybe Swope Park and RGV. Colorado Springs maybe based on market size and western. --- Off similar thoughts, Bethlehem, NYRB2, Loudon, ATL 2 and maybe Charleston would make good Eastern additions, in addition to Rochester and Penn coming in next year.. still makes east too large. -- Bottom line, some of these teams dropping would create space in USL-C to add larger market cities (beyond Oakland and Chicago-2) coming on board to keep USL-C at a reasonable size. This combined with SAC and STL markets going up to MLS at some point helps too. - I would like MLS and USL-C max out at 32 teams (16W/16W) and USL-1 maybe gets to 20 (10w/10e) 84 professional level teams would be a very good footprint.
Maybe Swope Park? Given their attendance, I'd say definitely Swope Park. I'm of the opinion that all O&O's should be Division 3 if they can't keep up in terms of attendance with the rest of USL-C. I think the clear exceptions should be RGV (which isn't entirely owned by the Dynamo anyway), Tacoma, and maybe T2.
I don't think attendance matters, really, although it would definitely make more sense for these teams to be able to play in stadia more to scale to the pittances they draw. The bigger issue, imo, is the weird dynamics reserves squads have on the rest of the league: whether they're playing to win or not, if they're stocked with 1st team players for a single game (cough, cough, Defiance), etc. I don't see how this helps by pushing them all into League One, but it certainly reflects people's perceptions of League One that so many clamor for it.
Why do you want to max USL-C out at 32 teams? Why is that a "reasonable size"? Right now it is basically two 18 teams leagues that have a championship game. Why couldn't USL-C have three or four leagues of 16 teams?
Can't speak for him, but I like the 2x18 format too. I think you run the risk of spreading out the talent too thin if you populate D2 too large. I'd rather they spread D3/League 1 out to more regional and keep D2 an East/West layout. 18 teams fits due to a 34 game schedule of home/away's. If current teams in cities like Richmond and others are moving down to D3 ... the number of D2 markets isn't 40+ anyways when you take out a lot of the MLS2 teams (which I think we can all agree would be ideal).
Maybe. But I don't know what is magic about 34 teams in terms of available talent. Schedules and the number of leagues can always be adapted to the number of teams. I think there are a lot of markets that can support a team. I don't see the cost differences between D2 and D3 so why not let the teams sort themselves out. I'm in favor of teams trying to play at the level that they think they can support. And I don't agree that the MLS2 teams should be taken out of USL-C. If they choose to drop down, then fine, but if they want to stay at D2 then I'm OK with that too. I don't know what is "ideal". What I do think is that some arbitrary number of teams in D2 based on what people think looks nice is not a good way to organize things.
I suppose we'll know more after the Open Cup, but I'm very curious if and what the difference in talent will be between D2 and D3. My hunch is "not much", which really throws into question the value proposition of forking out $7mil for the Championship, but we'll just have to wait and see.
I'm with you. Sure, some MLS 2 sides should drop, but others should not. It all depends on how invested the owner is in making the squad a draw in itself. Decades of minor league baseball and hockey have taught us that it is possible to have a farm system that is competitive, great at developing players, and has (relatively) strong attendance. Minor league soccer is fairly new as a concept, but a few teams have already proven successful. Why punish them because a few sides cannot be bothered to worry about winning games or bringing in fans? In a few of those cases, the owner hasn't quite figured out how to do that in MLS either...
I no longer follow MLB much anymore, let alone their minor league operations. But I always felt a version of this could work for Soccer. If an owner/operator of a team only really had to work about operations, stadium ticket sales etc and the soccer parent team supplied most if not all the player, does that help the local owner? Does that seem to apply in baseball also? I don't know if minor league baseball teams go out and get any of their own players? Maybe independent league teams if no MLB affiliation ? Soccer would if you went all the way down the pecking order, MLS>USL-C>USL1>NPSL>USL2>UPSL, "could" easily match baseball or maybe exceed the number of teams of baseball. Soccer's lower levels acquire players in all kinds of way- that maybe would have to be looked at. Also now with many MLS teams getting academy set ups, would have to figure once the player maybe finishes high school at the academy, where would the parent team want to place the player? Lots of interesting possibilities.
Affiliated minor league teams receive mot - if not all - of their players on assignment from their MLB affiliate. In most cases this is also true of coaching staff. Hockey works the same way. It has helped meet the profitability and development needs of both parties while also maintaining a competitive environment. People that say that minor league sports do not matter obviously do not live in minor league markets. When the Iowa Wild make Calder or the I-Cubs make the AAA World Series, they sell tickets. Hell, when the Menace make the PDL playoffs, they sell tickets. Minor league fans want wins as much as anyone else. It's kind of like saying NCAA games do not matter...
TFC2 has thrown away multiple chances against Orlando in this first half. Endoh should hang his head in shame.
10 on 9 game in Greenville. Three second yellows; two by Lansing, one by Greenville. And yet another red card for OCB. Attendance: South Georgia: ? OCB: 224 Richmond: 2,853 Chattanooga: 3,527 Greenville: ? Someone needs to tell Greenville it's okay to report attendance now. Especially if they're willing to report unsupported MLS O&O numbers. It was definitely close to full on the camera side, not many empty seats at all, but who knows how many were unused under the camera.
They did report it: Greenville, we 💚 you!Tonight you made history with a sellout crowd of 4,014!#TogetherWeTriumph pic.twitter.com/3PmNi733RT— Greenville Triumph SC (@GVLTriumph) April 7, 2019
Sorry, I see they had a game on Wednesday, by process of elimination, it appears there were 1,573 there: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_USL_League_One_season
Also, according to that, OCB only had 125. One hundred twenty five. No team saw even half the number of their first home game.
I just now saw the tweet. It wasn't in the match report when I gathered that stuff up. I figured it'd be found somewhere; the showing was too good not to. I was referring to Wednesday, when they hosted Tucson. Not Saturday, when they were at Richmond.
Drumroll, please... *drums on his desk* The next market for USL League One is going to be... ...Omaha. They will begin at a baseball field, Werner Park, the home of the AAA Omaha Storm Chasers (formerly Royals, still Royals-affiliated). It's a pretty new field, opened in 2011 with 6,434 seats and a total capacity of 9,023. The team will build additional locker rooms and offices at Werner Park to accommodate the soccer team, suggesting they're planning on sticking around for a bit. Apparently they sniped the GM of the Des Moines Menace to be their COO. They are planning on fan engagement to help develop the team's identity and crest.
It has the same owners as the StormChasers, so I would have to think Werner Park is intended to be their "forever home".
I did notice that part. If USL is similar to MLS in their upholding their public desire to get all their teams into SSS's, then that likely will be the case.