Yes that is what I'm saying. I'm sure the USL would love to assume the remaining what are more or less (if there are any left) the profitable or viable NASL teams. At this point it sounds to all of us like the NASL needs the USL as opposed to the other way around.
"Two leagues enter. One league leaves!" "Two leagues enter. One league leaves!" "Two leagues enter. One league leaves!"
And really, it's not as drastic as you think. USL is likely adding Carolina, Jacksonville, Puerto Rico, Indy XI, FC Edmonton. The Cosmos are likely out until they get their financial ducks/stadium ducks in a row (probably playing in the NPSL for 2017?). Rayo OKC require a move before coming into USL (which rumors are saying they're up for) but this would require a likely hiatis in 2017 and likely coming in as a "new" entity sometime down the road. Ft. Lauderdale likely need to clean their financial mess up before being admitted (USSF won't force a team that can't pay their bills into USL so they have an out for not admitting them in for 2017). Miami FC and San Francisco are the "wild cards" in my mind. Sure they could be allowed in, but do they want to? I'd say San Fran more likely than Miami, but who knows. Edmonton and Ottawa are likely only in for 1 year before moving to the CPL. Yes, adding those teams could be an issue, but since no schedule has been released or even divisions set there is time. Heck, you still could have a team like Harrisburg announce they're "relegating" themselves to PDL. I'm guessing 36 total teams in 2 conferences would allow for 34 games. Let them get conference realignment figured out by going to 3 or 4 divisions next year after the dust settles.
I'd have to assume the Cosmos are Master and Traffic sports was Blaster, no? And while yon Rowdies owner isn't exactly Mad Max I'd say he's the one blowing the whistle. Would that make Sunil Gulati Auntie?
I was just talking about 2017. CPL won't start until 2018 at the earliest. PR is a question for sure. Don't see why USSF would force the USL to take PR so they may not have to if they chose not to.
Alec Papadakis of #USL is in Atlanta meeting separately with several NASL owners present for league's BOG meeting, per multiple sources.— Neil Morris (@ByNeilMorris) November 30, 2016
Sooner or later, it was inevitable.... Source: Gulati, USL executives at NASL board meeting as tensions rise...
Brian Quarstad @IMSoccerNews 2h2 hours agoSt Paul, MN Source also informed me that San Francisco, Puerto Rico, Raleigh and Jacksonville all have interest in joining USL subject to negotiations.
The cracks in NASL continue to form. Vis-A-Vis SF I wonder how the Quakes territorial rights will play into that.
Well that's assuming SF ever sniffs MLS. I wouldn't count on it with the Quakes current owners. They've already had enough practice with being the red headed stepchildren to an SF team with their MLB team. I highly doubt they'd let the same thing happen to their MLS team.
Yeah, you would think you would negotiate all that now while you are in a good position rather than have the whole A's To San Jose scenario play itself out a second time. Just say if the Deltas are ever in a position to movement up, the market bounty fee is $X. (The Raiders and Jets and the Nets had to pay for territorial damages when they were in mergers, IIRC.)
The NFL took the best assets from the AAFC (well, the Browns and 49ers, the Colts were...well, I don't quite know why they did that, they were gone shortly thereafter) and cast off the rest. The NFL does not even recognize AAFC statistics, which is a shame, but they didn't think to negotiate that in during the talks in late 1949. The NBA (which was nowhere near as strong in 1976 as even ten years later) took the four strongest ABA clubs (there were only like six left at that point) and paid the Silnas to go away. Those four clubs had to give up a lot for the privilege. And the NHL called the acceptance of the WHA clubs an "expansion," officially and didn't even let the clubs keep all their players. The AAFC probably could have kept playing, though the bidding wars were hurting both leagues, even in the post war boom period. The ABA was on its last legs. The WHA was struggling, too. Only the AFL was strong enough to be able to push back on some things. The NASL does not appear to currently be in a position to dictate terms. At some point, it may become get the best deal you can for yourself. Thing is, the ABA and WHA and AAFC and AFL had things the established league wanted: players (Erving, Gretzky, the Browns, Namath, etc.) and markets. I am not sure there is a lower-level player anyone covets. Or many markets. Raleigh seems like a pretty good one. But they don't bring much else to the table.
One....the NBA was in real poor shape in the early to mid 70;s. As for the ABA....Go Tropics! The Rangers wanted Helberg and Nilson desperately from Winnipeg....and there was LA Galaxy type wrangling to get them.
Flagship Footy@FlagshipFooty USSF has brokered a deal that would allow exiting NASL teams to pay USL fees over a 10 year period. 805945799234428929 is not a valid tweet id
They do. I wonder if this refers to the fee one would pay to buy a USL franchise if you were just starting from scratch. USL is in what one would call an advantageous position and can dictate terms, much like the NBA and NHL did when the vagabond ABA and WHA teams "merged" into them. This would seem to be a decent sweetener for anyone on the fence about what to do. I wonder what happens if, say, Edmonton agrees to it and doesn't last more than another couple of years?
Sure, for league expenses, as did the NASL. Of course since USL has several times as many teams as NASL and wasn't actively propping up failing teams, so USL annual expenses these past couple year have been a lot lower. It's a main reason (along with lower travel costs and the stability the MLS partnership provided) that teams started jumping to USL.
Scratched this up real quick (not perfect and some spelling errors) Lots of variations and possibilities. But gist of it is USL could easily form Div1 and Div 2 Leagues with fair amt. of viability. Or they could stay huge and have 4 divisions. All of it has good mix of small teams, long established teams, good geography covered, even allows for defection to MLS without a whole bunch of impactto the whole structure.