Sounds a bit heavy-handed.

It looks to me like USSF did what was best for the future and progress of both leagues.

Surely having two teams in the ballpark of D2 designation (which after all is more a rating than a tier) is more positive than having a D2 and a D3? Much as it's better to have a town center with a pair of 2 Michelin Star restaurants, versus one 2 Star and one 1.

Now the void looks set to be filled with a new D3. If NASL and USL can get themselves beyond that provisional state, that's an improved soccer landscape and one where the argument for pro/rel gets stronger.

All ribbing aside, whatever else we disagree on, we should be happy about that and also happy that when it came to the crunch, USSF went out of its way to provide NASL with a lifeline when all looked lost.

And no, this is not me "pretending to be reasonable". You've been plain wrong every time you've accused me of doing that.

 

Why would anyone who is investing, say, $200 million in a club decide to cap their salaries and put their investment on a level playing field with those who cannot afford to spend as much?
MLS can have a salary cap (kind of) because failure means sucking and being mocked at winter meetings. Pro/rel is survival of the fittest, and while for fans the fittest might be defined by an even competition that anyone can win, the owners who massage their egos by buying a super club do not see the world that way.
I suppose it could work if the salary cap was placed far above the level that most folks could dream of affording, but that defeats your point.

 

Will Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal join that setup, or remain in MLS?

 

Remain in MLS but the CSA is expected to have a better deal with MLS.

Those 3 teams are not members of the USSF but of the CSA. The CSA sanctioning is the only reason why those teams are in MLS.

The CSA might pursue a greater integration of Canadian players in the league

 

Toronto FC wanted to put their reserve team in the CPL, but the CPL doesn't want reserve teams in their league. Aside from that, they'll stay in MLS.

 

Because there's a chance to win without losing money on the team. The permanent membership in the league is much of why teams are even worth $150M in the first place. It's why some municipalities helped stadium deals get done. It's why the Adidas deal is $120M/year. It's why Target is a league sponsor.

 

Which is the exact same notion people on here have been suggesting for the US. If there is interest in pro/rel in the US, it can be started now. It doesn't have to, and almost certainly will not in the foreseeable future, involve MLS.
The Canadian notion makes sense. If owners want to take part in a league with promotion and relegatin, they will join a team with promotion and relegation. Clubs that were build to be in a league that does not inlculde pro-rel are unlikely to see any advantage.

 

Okay, but the entire reason the top end folks who buy franchises buy franchises, which is to feel good about how much better they are than everyone else.
Caps can work in the big US leagues, but they do not have pro/rel. It seems one or the other would be accepted, never both.

 

Regarding Pro/rel in Canada, a journalist said during a podcast that a pyramid-wide revenue sharing model would be the only way in his opinion that pro/rel could work in Canada.

He stresses however the need for the teams generating the most money to be protected.

The best way to do that is to just make pro/rel harder to happen.

• Division 1 will have at least a decade head start
• No automatic pro/rel. Division 2 champion should go in a playoff against Division bottom team
• International players allowance should be much more restrictive for Division 2 than 1.

If after all that a Division 1 team is relegated, perhaps they deserve to be

 

Forgive me if somebody has already said this.

The basic fact that pro/rel advocates citing the Deloittes study don't seem to understand is that liking the concept of pro/rel and favoring the immediate introduction of pro/rel into US pro soccer are not the same thing.

 

You, Andy, Beau, Kenn, Roger, and several other bigsoccer pompous windbag MLS apologist know-it-alls have been on my shitlist for years.

 

You're adorable.

How come we're on your shitlist and not on your ignore list? Do you enjoy constantly getting your ass kicked rhetorically?

 

In before "belittle, ridicule, marginalize... so typical of the bigsoccer anti-pro/rel herd... converted Tulsa ballpark... I once touched bell-ends with Peter Wilt*...".

*Not that there's anything wrong with that.

 

One day you might get name-checked, if you keep trying!

 

I'm not quite up to your, Dan or Beau Dure's status, but I do hold a special place in his heart...

I do love the built-in plausible deniability. I wonder which piece "Faux-pen Mindedness" shook his fundamental belief that I could be anything more to him than an (and I quote) "obnoxious prick".

 

I like when I ask a politely phrased fact-checking question of someone else on Twitter and suddenly he arrives, invoking Dan for some reason, throwing insults and pejoratives, then tries to indicate that I'm the one poisoning discourse by politely, non-insultingly, continuing to rephrase the easily answered original question.

It's really swell.

 

That's actually who our interactions turned sour to a point.

I asked him questions on his views and apparently he got upset with me "constantly asking him 20 questions" and started resorting to snark and condescension.

There's actually a few examples of me calmly trying to explain to him that his reactionary responses are why he gets so much flak. However, I eventually responded in kind, he reacted in line with his usual MO and it escalated from there.

In his defence, I've certainly taken the mockery a bit too far at times. Then again, I've also offered olive branches.

Ironically, I'm not a lover of vendettas and bad feeling and a small part of me would sincerely like to get past all that and get to know the USRufnex that is clearly a devoted and active soccer fan. But then he posts the stuff above and you remember how it came to this in the first place.

 

pro/rel threads always get out of control--and then the fun begins!

 

Belittle, ridicule, marginalize.
I can practically set my alarm to it.

Keep repeating your same lie(s) over and over again (europoseurs/proles/prawns), and maybe you can dupe some American soccer fans outside your little clique on bigsoccer into believing it.

I'll take being on Dan Loney's "ignore list" as a badge of honor after he twitter spammed me, sports journalist Roy Bragg, and several others.

Bigsoccer forum = the MySpace of soccer social media

***Also Dan, if you'd not had me on ignore, you'd have found out about Peter Wilt's pro-Pro/Rel presentation to the NPSL and NASL wasn't just the ravings of some "prole/prawn," it's an ideal that has some momentum and actual money behind it.

Have a nice day, MLS apologists.

 

Well he didn't mention the Tulsa ballpark, but 3/4 ain't bad.

 

Thank you.

 

Yeah, for a second, I thought, "Wow, why did Kenn wind up on Dan like that?"

Then I saw the "Show Ignored Content" link.

Is he the same guy who posts as Rufnex on Twitter? He tries to be reasonable every once in a while, then gets really angry when facts are introduced.

 

You confuse facts with your one sided opinions, Beau.
Instead of mentioning me in the 3rd person, maybe you should ask me who I post as on twitter?
Naw, that'd be too easy.