Have you ever had Vietnamese head cheese (giò thủ)? A wonder to behold, and seasonally appropriate at this time of year!
Ahhh, it all comes out in the wash. What about @ElJefe’s post didn’t you understand? MLS has delivered, and then some. We have the game being played by the same rules in the same way as most of the rest of the world. We have development academies. The things you are asking for. So there’s no pro/rel. Who was going to do it in 1996? It took what, 15 years give or take for teams in the USL to even get their shit together and make the jump to MLS. Remember Rochester? Everyone’s darling to be the “next” MLS club around the time of contraction? Let me know when they next kick a ball in anger. Look, I get it. You want “your team” to have a shot at glory. Well, MLS wasn’t set up that way. Sorry. Once upon a time I used to dream MLS could be more like England (although the Scottish playoff system made-and still makes-a lot of sense). But without 50 years or so of successful soccer in today’s business climate, I just can’t see how you can make your pipe dream work without bankrupting club after club after club on travel. So go ahead and incrementally move the goalposts with your comments until everyone’s eyes are open to the benefits of p/r. Which are what exactly? Cutting in the lower leagues on what MLS has established? Never going to happen. Maybe one day when you have 30 billionaires willing to get in a room and divide MLS in two, then you might see the olive branch extended to the lower divisions owners who are rich enough to make the leap. Which is probably another 15 years down the road at a minimum. So sit back, relax and enjoy it for what it is. Or follow the English pyramid. Ask yourself if the fans of Oldham, Portsmouth and Wimbledon enjoy p/r as much as you. Thx, Jay!
And this? LOL I grew up in the 70’s/80’s. NASL was a zero register to me living in DE. Two hrs away from NY, DC, Bal & Philly. You’d be relying solely on people in their late 50’s to 70’s who remember world greats playing at the Meadowlands. The same people who won’t give your league five minutes today. There’s been no salary cap on the American second division for years, why haven’t they started to sign these household names like the NASL did in the 70’s? The potential audience of geezers pining for the logo of the Washington Diplomats to return is small enough to begin with, and dwindling every time you open the obits. Time to move on and embrace what we have. Thx, Jay!
Did you mean Muenster? So the league with the right model failed within 8 years, while the league with the wrong model is thriving. No they made worse mistakes. The old NASL lasted 16 years. And seeing as you mentioned old NASL names, Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps seem to be selling out every game. No, promotion and relegation were never part of the new NASL's business plan. They only jumped on the bandwagon when the league fell apart. No goalpost moving. The standards were introduced in 2010.
The "Pro League Standards are killing us" argument is so tired and so very, very wrong. The PLS were revised in 2010, mostly with the intent of settling the USL breakaway war. Frankly, it benefited the NASL. They were able to trumpet themselves as a D2 that had legitimately tougher standards than D3. In 2014, they were tweaked a bit more, and the NASL didn't object. In 2015, a proposal to revise them again DID draw objection from the NASL, and that proposal was withdrawn. Now you can argue that the PLS are hurting would-be D3 clubs that can't find a decamillionaire. I'm working on something on that front. It's a legitimate question. But for NASL 4.0 owners and the front office to gripe about standards that were just fine for NASL 2.0 and 3.0 in 2010 and 2014 is sheer baloney.
I once went to a game at Elland Road and the guy in the place where I parked my car was Boomhauer, reincarnated with a Yorkshire accent. "Roit, mate, free quid. Yuh mumble-mumble-mumbe, an aafta thu match, ge ba' onna moa-uh-way an Bob's yuur ooncle..."
I actually work with a guy with the nickname Boomhauer. I've worked with him long enough that I don't have any trouble understanding him.
Y'ever see "Henri pis sa gang (Les Rois du Texas)?" I was in Montreal once and it was absolutely hilarious to see KotH in French. No, Boomhauer is no more understandable with a Quebecois accent than he is speaking Appalachian.
[QUOTE="ToMhIlL, post: 36347790, member: 3921No, Boomhauer is no more understandable with a Quebecois accent than he is speaking Appalachian.[/QUOTE] That is East Texas. Pretty thick stuff especially when fast.
OK, what do I know? I live in a place where they take the R from one part of the word and move it to the end, as in "You caaan't drive a caah t' Chiner, it's too faaah. I remember reading an article about when Mike Judge was doing Beavis and Butthead, someone called and left a message on their answering machine in a thick Appalachian accent that they couldn't even understand, and they figured they could spin that whole thing into a character. Must have been one of those "Dude, you GOT TO listen to this!" moments.
First time I went to Elland Road , I was getting off a local bus and this kid with as bunch of leaflets asked me if I was a racist. When I said no he started screaming at me. Ah, good times.
No but an ultra right wing party was using soccer as a recruiting ground back then (early 80s). A similar thing happened to me at Chelsea.
So it just came out that the appeal has been rejected and the NASL will NOT be receiving an injunction to be D2! The lawsuit will continue but the league is all but dead at the moment.
This tweet and the following comments.............. BREAKING: 2ND Circuit Court AFFIRMS District Court's Ruling denying preliminary injunction. #NASL v. #USSF pic.twitter.com/BRHAGQ8thk— Miki Turner (@turneresq) February 23, 2018
That’ll be all she wrote for NASL 2.0... If the organization exists at all going forward from the owners who want to continue the suit... it’ll simply be as a legal entity. As a functioning league they’re done.