Aside the whole soccer system ideology and stuff, but who in their right mind, wants to join the quite frankly more and more unstable looking NASL, instead of USL or at least sit it out until the dust settles?! Whatever happens I hope it doesn't have negative impact on SD's chances for Pro Soccer in the long term and LegenD isn't involved in that group. But if it comes to pass, good luck to those NASL SD folks
Agreed. With NASL in serious doubt at this point, I don't see the benefit of joining that league when the stable and MLS friendly USL is available. Particularly if USL makes the D2 jump.
These guys seem to think that moving to PDL will pave the road for moving into USL by 2018: https://www.soccernation.com/north-...r-club-join-forces-to-move-into-the-usls-pdl/
Misnomer. No one has ever defined "semi-pro" adequately, and, in the eyes of the NCAA, from which most PDL players come, there is only amateur and professional. There were, supposedly, some PDL teams that paid players (not much, and I don't know which teams, though I believe Kitsap was rumored at one point). You could, but you could then not use players with NCAA eligibility remaining. No matter how little you paid them. It's probably more hassle than it's worth, to be a quasi-professional team in an amateur league.
I think its a valid point to consider especially if they are really thinking of seeing the viability of moving up.
Playing pretend pro is going to show them their viability of moving up? They're going to need serious capitalization to be a fully professional team, even at the D3 level. If they can sell tickets, they can sell tickets. And if they can't, whether they pay the players or not won't really give them any indicators.
Yes you have a valid point about selling tickets but having some type of payroll will help them get a sense of what they need. I know they can do projections and such but actually getting hands on experience will be beneficial in my opinion.
Playing pretend pro and claiming they're going to move up is SOP in sub-D3 soccer. They'd not be following the manual if they didn't do that.
Owners meetings are wrapping up this week for both USL and PDL. I anticipate we'll hear more concrete news coming out of them. From what I gather on the Surftallion guys, they've got decent capital behind them already and will be building some sort of "stadium-esque" venue in time for the 2017 PDL season in Oceanside..
It's an option. Surf has a complex in Oceanside and in Del Mar. From what I gather of the Del Mar venue, its highly controversial. Oside might be a less dramatic place for them. They could always stay at Del Norte wheere they were this past year. I don't think they'll move south as a PDL team though since SD Zest plays closer to central SD.
Yeah reading up on the Del Mar situation if they do go to one of the Surf locations it definitely seems like Oceanside is the only option. Del Mar has the NIMBYs to end all NIMBYs plus restrictions on any permanent structures. Plus the Polo association they need to play nice with. I'm surprised they're using the site at all quite frankly even for youth soccer. http://www.delmartimes.net/sddmt-surf-cup-sports-polo-2016jul26-story.html
That is weird....I wonder if they have a new investor from the O-Side area. They had pretty decent attendance from what I remember so moving that far away from where they were is kind of weird. As for Surf..I always thought they were more mid San Diego than Del Mar (that is where Nomads are).
The Surf are based out of Carlsbad aren't they? Doesn't seem strange they have fields or interest in Oside at all. What is new is their involvement with the Battalion which is of course a recent development.
I think Nomads are more in La Jolla than Del Mar. Splitting hairs really though. Garber is supposed to outline the expansion criteria for MLS in the next week or so. I don't think anything happens at a USL level until it is more clear as to whether or not SD has a realistic chance of landing an MLS team. If we do, whoever the owners of the MLS franchise are will have quite a bit of say as to how their USL affiliate runs.
That's assuming of course we're still in the MLS mix. The biggest issue with San Diego MLS is seemingly how we're being passed up by markets like Sacramento, Tampa, North Carolina, etc... who are getting their ducks in a row, already have parts of an organization in place via USL, etc... Now it's plausible that the potential SD groups are working more behind the scenes and are in line somewhere already and just aren't being as public about it as some of the other groups have been. There is nothing that says you have to follow the USL/NASL/Public approach model. Several now MLS teams entered the league without any prior on field presence or a real media/public campaign until after the return was announced.
That's not really true. If the USL team owners are different than the MLS owners I think they proceed as normal.
Nah this MLS/USL partnership runs from the top down. It'd be one thing if there was an existing USL team here, and an MLS group game in afterwards. But with there currently being nothing above the PDL/NPSL level, the USL will take it's orders from MLS. I think there is already an identified MLS group in SD that is literally only waiting on the Chargers situation to be sorted before moving forward. I'd expect them to roll out a USL/PDL team as soon as possible to start collecting info and polishing their front office.
We'll see. Another report today saying the Chargers are gone out of LA, that they've signed an agreement with Kroenke regarding sharing the new stadium and are finishing negotiations regarding the Coliseum. That said who is this mystery MLS group? Are they related to the one putting out new stadium ST interest questionnaires earlier this year in concert with SDSU?