NASL Future teams?

If you want a team in SD, best thing you can do is go support your local teams.

I'll be there for the SD Derby, June 16

 

OK, both teams probably don't meet NASL requirements... why the hell don't they join forces?

ps: I can imagine the answer, but it's non-sense anyway.

 

I think this might have come up before, but the short answer is they just can't find it in their hearts to do it. I think the rivalry, along with some of the turf wars that have happened (Balboa Stadium), have kind of left some bad feelings there. Also, the stress that comes with the possibility of leaving semi-pro and going pro is too much, and then they end up having trouble agreeing on anything.

I could be wrong. I hate to make assumptions without much information, but that is what I'm gathering: one team is just going to have to "win," so to speak.

 

Collaboration is not usually something we do well here in American soccer.

 

Yes, and these guys already collaborated once with the A-League Flash back in 1998-2001 timeframe. Yan Skwarawas the majority owner and Clenton Alexander was a minority owner.

 

And if you've collaborated with Yan Skwara once, that is why you did not collaborate with Yan Skwara twice.

 

What happened there? I'm not familiar with the history...

 

Not too sure, but I think it was "financial issues" that caused the team to go under. I don't live in the area and don't have any personal history. But, I would imagine that the investment in a soccer club with financial issues could be part of the problem. The understatement is intentional.

 

I'm not sure what happened on the financial side, but I do remember when the team moved their home games from Southwestern College in Chula Vista to Mesa College in 2001 attendance went into the shitter.

Torero Stadium, where the WUSA team played, would make a nice NASL stadium though, so if we get a team I hope they play there.

 

I was thinking more USL-Pro. If they want to go the NASL route, they may need their own SSS... And San Diego often scoffs when stadium issues come up for their beloved Chargers...

I mentioned it in another thread (or maybe this one, don't remember) that maybe tearing down Sports Arena and putting an SSS there would work... It's right in Point Loma, close to Mission Beach and OB and PB, not far from downtown or Old Town or Clairemont... Or there's plenty of space in Kearny Villa I'd say

 

Plus, strip clubs, IIRC.

 

The problem here in SD will always be NIMBY's.

That has been bandied about for awhile but I believe the owners of the Sports Arena land didn't want to sell and decided to sell rights to Viejas instead of the group that wanted to trade land in a Chargers stadium deal.

I think the ideal spot will eventually be in the southbay.

 

One have to win? maybe... I see what happened here with AlbinoLeffe: Albinese and Leffe merged they have two owners with a 50-50% deal and both are considered presidents of the team. I don't know if now something has changed, but it worked pretty well: in a few years they reached Serie B and remained there for 9 year... a nice feat for a team representing two towns that togheter have about more or less 23.000 inhabitants.

Could something like that work there?

 

I think it could. I really think it's just a matter of getting Boca and Flash to get along... And then...SD United? Union SD? SD Armada? Or maybe even just FC Armada... I like that one.

I hope not... But yeah, you're probably right. The way local politics are in SD, I could see it eventually passing, but it would probably end up in Todd Gloria territory...

 

There is already a SD United but Union SD has a nice ring to it.

Well I don't mean all the way down in IB or in east Chula Vista. I mean in National City or West Chula Vista.

 

http://www.prlog.org/11909622-flash-look-to-the-future-and-second-tier-pro-soccer-with-the-nasl.html

 

Good find.

Emphasis mine. So they can't be one of the oft-mentioned two potential expansion teams (one new, one established, one in the current footprint, one outside) that we're expecting to hear about, if they're just now expressing interest.

 

How about Union-Tribune SD?

 

Pretty much my read of it. The guy is not one to work with if you want your endeavor to succeed. Frankly with how disjointed his SD Boca effort has been I wouldn't want them to include him anyway. The Flash organization has been running far more professionally off field of late and has been doing great on field since day 1. If they had more $ backing them they'd be well on their way.

But that's the rub at this point. They get the money and approval to move up, great. But with the Blues on the verge of calling it quits and no one else up even if the Flash made the move up they'd simply flash in the pan and die as the lone west coast team (pun intended). The only way this works is if the Flash come up as part of a package of 2 or 3 teams (and the Blues don't fold after this year (and preferably move into the IE away from the LA basin)).

 

As would we all.

 

And of course if the Blue make the jump (in case it wasn't clear that them moving would be a pre-req of them being in the equation). Which frankly if they didn't move and remained USL Pro's lone money losing west team when there was another league with an actual division they'd be crazy.

 

Yeah, but unless we go from 0 to 60 pretty quickly, the Blues would have to hold on until the Flash could afford to actually move up. It would seem unreasonable for them to join in 2013, wouldn't it? Barring an angel investor?

That would mean the Blues would have to hold on in USL Pro for 2013 and continue to lose lots of money (the owner said they'd be there in 2013, but I wouldn't necessarily hold him to that) before they jumped to the NASL where they'd likely lose a lot more money, or they'd have to jump to the NASL right away and lose all that lots more money straightaway.

Or USL could come up with a team close by to placate the Blues for a year, but, like I've said before, just one neighbor isn't enough to make a dent in a loss of potentially three quarters of a million or more.

 

Not only that but what incentive would USL have to come up with a second west coast team if the Blues were just going to jump ship a year later to NASL. I probably shouldn't have even mentioned the Blues because their involvement would be a long shot. But without their involvement that's just another team you need to add if you're NASL along with the Flash since you probably need at minimum 3 to make it work (and as you're fond of pointing out 4 works even better). If the Flash come up alone they'd just end up as the NASL's answer to the failing Blues.

 

The only reason would be to get them to stay. I thought that was obvious.

I'm not sure the Blues in particular or the LA market in general are so important to USL that they'd do that, I'm just saying that as an aside, that if proximity would be what swung the deal for the Blues, you'd rather lose less money than more.

At this stage in the life of DIII, I don't know that a coast-to-coast setup makes sense. It may not make a lot of sense for DII, but they have to do what they have to do in terms of the USSF standards.

 

True, the 2013 USSF benchmarks might be the ONLY reason the Flash would be rushed into the league along with the already planned Ottawa expansion (assuming no one else is on the table out west or in general to get NASL to 10 or more teams). But if they did the Flash would have to be subsidized in some form or again they'd end up like the Blues only faster due to the cost of running an NASL team. Given the uncertainty about the Flash's finances some form of support might be even more imperative.