AFCCLE Is done for 2018.NEWS: The #NPSL today announced the termination of the memberships of AFC Cleveland (@AFCCleveland) and Sports Club Corinthians USA (@SCorinthiansUSA) in line with the NPSL Bylaws for teams not in good financial standing with the league. pic.twitter.com/Teog7N61vM— National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) (@NPSLSoccer) December 12, 2017
What options do they have? Is the PDL a league above the NPSL? Is the AFCCLE ownership the same group that is trying to get a USL team here?
I think NPSL and PDL are roughly equivalent depending on who you ask. If finances are the issue...UPSL might be a like taking half a step down. Different ownership.
I do remember reading somewhere that the cost of entry and general operations in the PDL is higher than NPSL. If they left for not having enough money I doubt they take the half step up and end up in UPSL instead.
They and a number of other NPSL teams were offered free entry to PDL last year. Maybe that offer is still on the table? Either way there is no affiliation at this time between AFC Cleveland and the USL group so the move to PDL wouldn’t directly be about that as in Nashville, Birmingham and likely Memphis where the NPSL teams were incorporated into the USL group and then moved to PDL.
Is AFC Cleveland like on hiatus or something? They haven't announced what league they were going to play in this year, and they haven't put out any kind of statement about their future, positive or negative.
NPSL came out and said AFC Cleveland is no longer in the league. Tons of rumors why, probably legitimate ones that I heard. Other rumors that they are exploring other leagues. They've never really shown much "care" in communicating what's happening with the club during the offseason months in their existence. Even during the NPSL announcement, AFC Cleveland stayed mum. That shows enough of the leadership.
Any strong USASA teams in the area that could join NPSL now that the territory is open? It’s only like $20k including league dues
Why sooo much constant talk about Cleveland? It's not like there's a possibility of team being placed here. Heck it would be like me wanting a Wichita folder for expansion, and make comments every week about the non existent progress of a team being placed in Wichita for USL. So I guess I will demand a folder for Wichita and other Possible Cities..
Why is there no possibility? I think there's an extremely high possibility. Cleveland already has history in the USL and a team coming on board at the present height of soccer hype would easily be successful with the right ownership. There's 2 million people in Cleveland, and over 4 million just in NE Ohio with no level of professional soccer and possibly not even AFC Cleveland. There's already a rumored ownership group.
Well, FC Wichita has made it public they would like to go USL (or, another pro league). So, I guess you could have that folder. I know, for a fact, that there is interest in Cleveland. March 2017 I was contacted about potential partnerships for a USL team there. In the end, I blame Don Garber...he started it when he announced that MLS would be in Cleveland back in 2004.
I asked this before the person who hasn’t been following the Cleveland USL stuff derailed the thread ... does anyone know the answer here? Any local clubs that could form the basis of a new NPSL team?
The previous NPSL team couldn't garner support or pay bills. What's to say another club would try? It's been a tough market for soccer at a higher level.
Well for starters you simply can not play at a HS football field. You cant. The soccer fans in Cleveland and a lot of places will not take it seriously. I dont care about AFC Cleveland most others did not. It was exactly what it was and that is an amateur team with very good local players, playing outside the city at a high school. When i lived in Cle, City Stars games did much better at Cleveland State until they moved to another HS stadium and then folded. It has to be done right and my advice is call up FC Cincinnati and figure out what they did and do exactly that. Dont forget Cinci had other teams before FC was around. The Kings played in the same league as the City Stars and were largely irrelevant.
Look, I get that a HS football field isn't ideal. But, if that's what keeps "support" away, that's petty. I don't like it. But, I'd much rather have soccer than no soccer. If a few extra lines keeps "fans" away, how true or good of fans are they anyway? I went to numerous Cleveland City Star games at Krenzler. There wasn't great support there either, at least at the games I went to. Yes, the championship game was a nice crowd. I'm extremely critical of FCC and their fans too. I've been to 4 home games so far. Everyone talks of the atmosphere and how it's "exploded" in Cincinnati. You hit the nail on the head, there was no support a mere 5 years ago for the Kings...and they played on a soccer specific turf field. Know what worked for them? Carl Lindner III. When his name was attributed to it, immediate support because he's local and has done so much. Playing at UC and having cheapest tickets in USL helps too (seriously, $50 season tickets for UC students). They found out a way to tap into the casual fan, which is mainly what is at UC. So casual they have to put a "Laws of the Game for Dummies" insert in the game program (no lie). Good for FCC. They've captured an audience that the Bengals and Reds fail (expensive tickets, extremely long games, and no hipster culture). Hard to capture that audience. There's no script for it.
Paid attendance for the City Stars was HIGHER at Beford than at Krenzler. Attendance had zero to do with why we folded. 1,000 more people a game wasn’t going to offset the massive travel costs.
If football lines are a deal breaker, an amateur team won't work here unless they can rent Krenzler or Coughlin (St. Ed's soccer field) because the only way we are getting an SSS is a USL team.
No where did i say it was attendance is the reason they folded. There are soccer fans in Northeast Ohio and playing in a HS football stadium does not draw them and the supporters group with 10 people singing in fake accents only made the group i know look at the operation like the WWE. You know the athletes are real but largely it was unauthentic and fake. You can get mad and dispute all you want but its the truth. Like i said.....I dont have all the answers but find out what ever it is FCC did and replicate it. FCC also had the team announced a year if not more before they played their first game giving time to build excitement.