I am iffy about the new PR team, I would not be shocked if they go away. Also I can see more defections, from NASL to USL, if we include those we have San Antonio sold to USL ownership. Ottawa to USL Tampa Bay to USL. No USL to NASL right? I do believe USL has pretty strong rules against defection (after the 2010-2011 split headaches).
San Antonio (NASL) was not sold to USL ownership. The NASL franchise shut-down/went on hiatus/whatever, the City/County bought the stadium, and the San Antonio Spurs activated a USL franchise they already had a license for. San Antonio FC (USL) has no connection to the Scorpions other than playing in their old stadium.
Exactly. We know SF is all but dead already by their own CEO's admission. We know PR is in trouble. We know OC has an uphill battle before they've even played a game. They can deny all they want, but they're shouting into the wind.
I'm gonna look at all of this as a positive as we move forward as a soccer nation. We had the charlatan named JK taking advantage of folks. We had Peterson and the Cosmos actually getting publicity spouting their charades and fantasies. We had all those pro/rel articles every other day on semi reasonable /rational sites. There was a lot of noise. Well....now we have Silva as Cosmos 2.0. His shameless 4 bill ploy made some headlines, but not as many as it would have three or four years ago. It was actually swatted away quickly for what it was. Didn't happen in Cosmos/Peterson world. They got some decent play. JK was the master manipulator, taking ad of us at the worst time. Even his biggest supporters have moved the goalposts so far where they are now just trying to show he was an OK coach, and not the genius the used car salesman fooled them into believing. He gets little play. Did anyone even ask Garber about pro/rel this year at his ASG conference? Every year, over the last few came multiple questions and follow ups. Soccer rags and media rarely comment on it anymore. Mostly the crazies, posers and clueless. That type of hysteria ranting will naturally burn itself out. The dumb will continue, but even the main stream will move on. There comes a point, even in social media driven stupid world, where the more rational will just say enough. We are there to some extent thank goodness. The proof is in what happens, not the fantasy world, or the worlds of the net geniuses. Another hold your breathe off season for NASL looms. We will find out soon enough.
I think you've described one of the primary reasons why I am pretty much anti-NASL (even if it means San Diego doesn't get a team). I see NASL dying as a sign of this type of thing burning itself out, in large part because NASL itself has been one of the principle vessels for the pro/rel hysteria since the day it was founded (never mind all of NASL's other issues). Every time it looks like they've moved beyond this nonsense and I might actually be able to support their survival as what they are, you get someone like Silva bringing all this bullcrap back to the forefront. Even if it is getting less play than in previous years as the rest of the world moves on.
They can talk about all they want, but they are in it for the promotion, not the relegation. Nothing is stopping them from becoming the "top league" with relegation to the NISL or NPSL or some other league. The part that I find really weird is that they (Silva) doesn't even try to invest outside to even half the levels MLS clubs do with youth and community outreach. Edmonton FC has an academy, Jacksonville seems to be a US Soccer Developmental Academy, and NY Cosmos have an US Soccer Developmental academy. NCFC has more of a recreational youth set up.
That's because Silva, and Cosmos before him only care about promotion....as u said. I say that they just want in on the cash without having to put the time, effort, resources and investment into it that was required by all who came beforehand. A snake acting like a snake....shocking. Yeah, it does kind of make you wish they would go away, but it is what it is. The more successful MLS becomes, the more the snakes will look for a cheap way in. Happens to every burgeoning business, and it is actually a sign of MLS value and success.
Does anyone really believe that NASL will survive after this year? I think the large teams are seeing the writing on the wall and defection is eminent. These few owners are blindly hoping they can get promoted to Division 1 somehow but with diminishing attendance and no serious regional affiliations to save on travel expenses I think NASL has dug their own grave.
I feel this split has run its due course and USL has a better model for survival then NASL does. I would like to see all teams in one league, and all the MLS 2 teams in their own Division 3 league.
Trying to decide if this is a troll and should be ignored. New teams coming in. Surely 1 more year at least is guaranteed.
While the league will most likely survive into next season at least, it's not unreasonable to doubt it. With several existing clubs (SF, PRFC, Edmonton) in question for next season, and the rumor that teams like Carolina and Indy could leave for the USL relatively cheaply, it's not a sure thing. The remaining clubs, including the expansion clubs, could decide to call it quits, or USSF could remove sanctioning (which is doubtful). In either scenario, most viable clubs would likely survive and be accepted into the USL.
One thing I think people are forgetting is that the NISA is starting next season and they'd be a landing pad for teams that wouldn't get accepted into the USL if the NASL collapsed (Cosmos, Miami, Etc...). That's one of the reasons I'm excited for that league since it gives even more options to clubs if they want to keep going instead of folding.
Stadium was, franchise wasn't. The USL franchise was not the Gordon Hartman franchise, which (remember this?) was supposed to move to Las Vegas (but did not, and won't now).
Except for the not-insignificant but terribly inconvenient facts that one of those leagues doesn't actually have any teams yet and the other has maybe four who could even remotely hope to be fully professional, much less get there in the short time between seasons. These lower-level leagues that say they're going to try this system are going to find many of the same issues that keep it from being realistic between D1 and D2. Unless the UPSL has been going great guns and I just haven't noticed.
Repeat after me: There is no fourth division. Short season, amateur summer leagues designed for college players are not the "fourth division" of American soccer.
What? You mean the league that my D-III reserve friend played in 2 years out of college isn't a well-integrated part of the mythical "American soccer pyramid?" I'll be damned.
Grain of salt and all that jazz but according to Peter Wilt on this podcast, USSF is working on an official 4th division. This quote starts around 24:43 in the podcast: "How does NISA work with a lower division, call it a fourth division, which at this point doesn't officially exist in the US but I know US Soccer is working toward that with the idea of having a full-schedule fourth division."
Let's say you take the D3 standards as currently written and cut everything in half. Most NPSL teams still could not get there. Why go through the trouble of creating a fourth division? So these people like Hartford's "Don't call us amateur" guy can feel more important? So people don't have to go scrub Wikipedia pages? It pains me how many of these six home game at high school stadium people insist on calling their teams "professional soccer." You're not professional soccer.