NASL is no longer considering suing US Soccer for anti-trust over division 1 status

I agree. I've always thought the desire for D2 should not be the focus. If you have a regionalized league, you're going to need 4 regions, to make bus trips viable for half the games, and 12-18 teams each, so you have enough variety.

If a few things break the right way, that's not impossible in 5 years. 6 teams come over from the NASL, 4 more MLS teams, a few more teams develop internally and there you are.

 

Why would L'Impact move to a smaller city with more pro sports teams competing for fans, sponsors, and media coverage? That doesn't already have its organization's history and infrastructure? And isn't where the owner lives?

Toronto FC for Ontario, L'Impact Montreal pour les Quebecois, and Vancouver Whitecaps for western Canada. The country should have three MLS teams. (But not much to gain with a fourth.)

 

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

 

Their only hope is to affiliate with Chicago and rebrand the club as Tulsa Dumpster Fire FC.

 

I'm not so sure of that. You don't need to have a whole lot of teams in a league. As soon as the USL reaches 32 clubs, that's enough to have Eastern and Western leagues with 8 teams each at each level.

And I would expect MLS to start mandating USL reserve teams within the next 2-3 years, because with only one or two exceptions the affiliations don't seem to be working very well for player development. That, along with expansion and NASL defections, would push the USL to over 40 teams.

The one real obstacle may be the geographic imbalance of strong clubs. Right now, the wealthier owners in the USL are mostly in the West, and the clubs that aren't capable of D2 play are mostly older USL clubs on the East Coast. If the USL splits into two divisions on purely financial lines, the divisions are likely to be very different geographically. But bringing in NASL clubs, which are mostly on the East Coast, may solve that problem.

 

If you pull the "2" teams out, the west is pretty barren, requiring a significant increase in travel out to Midwest.

 

I still think Tulsa Riot will be a better name

 

I don't know what that is?

 

Maybe they are waiting to see what the Big 12 does?

 

Some guy in the other Virginia is going to be upset.

 

So in other words, back to the situation that was status quo for about 25 years under Pepe Pinton.

------RM

 

Not true.

Non "2" teams west of the Mississippi:
Sacramento Republic
OC Blues
Arizona United
Reno (2017)
St Louis
Tulsa
Oklahoma
San Antonio

That doesn't include rumored expansion teams:
Albuquerque Sol
San Diego
Boise
Tucson FC
Austin Aztexs (hiatus)

San Francisco & Edmonton (only if NASL folds)

 

We'll do that the day Rayo Yukon rebrands to 1995 Bombers FC and Energy FC rebrands to Fracking FC.

 

Don't forget the Virginia Cavalry.

 

The problem with the top 8 is that if you're the OC Blues, you have 3 away trips by bus and 4 by plane. Ideally, it would be more like 5 by bus and 2 by plane. Regional leagues really need to be regional leagues to put everyone on a solid financial foundation. Adding in the NW is tough as it is, but since they are MLS teams, the cost doesn't matter that much to them.

But once (if) it's set up as a western league, I think you'll see San Diego and Tuscon and Fresno and maybe Bakersfield or an Inland Empire team. The more that teams are around California, the more costs are kept down, which makes it more attractive to develop new teams in California - a virtuous circle.

 

Actually, with a huge assist from the pond scum at Traffic Sports, I think the faux Cosmos are far more culpable for the issues surrounding the current NASL than the original Cosmos were for the demise of the original NASL -- but that's another thread.

 

Any discussion of culpability needs a heavy dose of Traffic, which wanted to develop a property that would allow them to challenge SUM as a soccer marketing company.

 

I said Midwest. And that is besides the point. West of the Mississippi is not what you'd call "regional". All those teams have exponentially higher travel without the "2" teams.

USL 2/3 ain't happening for quite a while. If NASL fails, and their teams join USL, you'll see four regional divisions before a separate league

 

The lead actor from Matador, which featured the LA Riot as its team.

 

Well, we all know the former of those isn't going to happen, but the latter would be apt

 

Fortunately for the NASL's short term survival prospects, they may be able to rush some unintelligent owners who buy the snake oil. Snake oil wouldn't be a thing if it weren't possible to sell it.

 

If you're going to try to be cute, at least get it correct: "l'Impact."