Obviously it's not a pure promotion as they have in other leagues around the world. I was wondering: For a new team like Cleveland/OKC or whatever, there's an expansion draft, right? The new team gets to pick some new players and players from existing teams to make up there roster. But what happens with Rochester? Would they just come up with the team they already have? If they did participate in a Draft, what would happen to their old players. . . (I guess this would also apply to Chivas if they made a team of mostly scouted "discovery" players) Is there a thread already explaining this?
have always assumed that they would be treated like a normal expansion team. They would take part in an expansion draft and then be given a large number of “discovery” picks to get the players on their A-league roster they still want.
As good as they regularly are in the A-League, I doubt that Rochester would be very capable of competing in MLS day in and day out with the roster they have now. I'm sure they would jump at the chance to have their picks in the Expansion draft and then would move forward in picking up the best players from their A-League team to fill out their squad.
Basically, no one knows. If Rochester were to enter MLS, it could be as an entirely new team (either called the Rhinos or not) or as a "promoted" A-League side, presumably retaining at least some of its players (along with head coach Pat Ercoli). BUT, the existing A-league club cannot simply be promoted as-is since, in the A-League, the clubs own the player contracts while in MLS the league owns them. So, for any current roster players able to make the jump to MLS, contracts would need to be renogotiated with MLS. Again, no one really knows. Seems doable in theory. Though I agree that the Rhinos would need an influx of talent to compete in MLS day-to-day.
Should Rochester join MLS, the team would work under very different rules to the ones employed in the A-League, with an expansion draft determining the make of the playing squad as the team becomes part of the centrally controlled MLS. This could open up the possibility of a continuation of a team playing out of the USL divisions. http://www.ussocceruk.com/news/?CatTypeId=2&ContentId=1467 http://www.wroctv.com/news/story.asp?id=12759&r=l artificial turf, YUCK The franchise fee, now at about $10 million, required by Major League Soccer to enter the league. The team has said it has, or could obtain, the private funds to pay the fee or to meet other league demands if an MLS slot comes open.http://www.democratandchronicle.com/opinion/0318ES3KQEA_opinion.shtml
I would guess they would use about half their active roster. They would be fools not to take advantage of an expansion draft, just for the sake of trading a good portion of those picks for future 4th and 5th round picks in the MLS draft. Go with the grass. It would make the stadium the perfect site for the Nats for WCQ's versus teams like Grenada or friendlies against powerhouse draws like New Zealand. 15,000 fans would seem pretty good on those days.
I just heard that the Rhino's are plannnig their stadium to hold about 12,500 and have artificial turf? Both of these would make them not an option to play in MLS....I thought they are building this stadium to help them with their MLS bid? Why not build their stadium to hold 17,000 permanent seats and use real grass? Even if they had no intention of ever playing in MLS both of these would seem to be no brainers to me.