Not when it doesn't involve pro/rel. You see having stability and growth takes a back seat to something that can only raise the sport to heights unseen. I mean the second it happens the NFL, MLB, NHL AND NBA will all cease to exist and soccer will reign as the top sport in this land. The only thing stopping it from happening are the NFL schills that are holding it back from happening....... P.S Man these scrooms I took are BANGING!!!
Pretty good for the players too. Seattle Sounders 2015 base salaries > $100k $ 3,913,008.00 $ 2,400,000.00 --------------------- $ 748,000.00 --------------------- $ 276,665.00 $ 275,000.00 --------------------- $ 180,000.00 $ 165,000.00 $ 165,000.00 $ 165,000.00 $ 165,000.00 $ 160,000.00 $ 130,000.00 $ 108,000.00 Seattle Sounders 2019 base salaries > $500k $ 2,502,500.00 $ 1,800,000.00 $ 1,087,500.00 --------------------- $ 772,000.00 $ 740,000.00 $ 619,600.00 $ 600,000.00 $ 600,000.00 $ 596,542.00 $ 564,365.00 $ 528,671.00 $ 500,850.00 --------------------- And all credit to FC Dallas today for dressing 8 home-grown players in their 16 man squad today.
But they can’t get relegated so all the money going into growing the game here and building a legitimate league is vaporware because we all know that getting kicked out of a league for one bad year trumps everything
And how many of those teams that folded were in the USL after 2015? How many were victims of the NASL being destabilized by the Cosmos? Pro soccer in the US is as stable as we have any reason to expect given both the popularity of soccer and the high travel expenses. About the effect of travel expenses, see: the high rate of clubs folding in the Russian lower leagues even with government subsidies. In the third division, the average lifespan of a club appears to be about 4 years.
USL and MLS are very stable over the last decade. The “disruptor” NASL was doomed from the getgo as is its heir apparent NISA. But just because two bit leagues fail doesn’t mean the sport isn’t healthy. I mean no one is accusing the NFL of being in serious trouble because the AAF folded this spring or MLB because the Golden League failed. Third rate leagues fail, it’s their sole purpose for existence.
5 US based teams went "out of business" after their first season. Enforcing pls will help prevent that scenario going forward. 4 teams failed after more than one year of which 3 were competing against another team in the same market.
Even so, some of the teams from the disruptor NASL still exist. They include North Carolina, Minnesota, Edmonton, Tampa Bay, Indianapolis, Ottawa, New York and Miami.
True, a few wised up and stopped fighting reality. A couple continue to piss money away trying to break the paradigm that’s got almost a century and a half long proven track record in the US.
Not even counting the Puerto Rican expansion clubs that never played, you have 12 teams in the USL in the last decade that no longer play professional soccer. Let's put to bed this myth that USL is somehow more stable than NASL: they were both insanely turbulent when they both existed because you had two lower division leagues competing against each other in a time when most Americans simply didn't pay much attention to soccer. It's actually kind of testimony to the clubs that played in NASL as to how many still exist despite having been in a doomed league run by crooks and charlatans.
An average of 50% per position on the roster. 2019 _______ 2015 $1,100,050.00 $750,000 $1,100,000.00 $400,000 $650,340.00 $350,000 $506,668.00 $325,000 $335,004.00 $304,000 $300,000.00 $247,500 $275,000.00 $245,000 $275,000.00 $203,500 $268,008.00 $190,000 $250,000.00 $150,000 $250,000.00 $145,000 $225,000.00 $142,000 $168,000.00 $140,000 $165,000.00 $115,500 $165,000.00 $105,000 $160,000.00 $90,000 $160,000.00 $78,750 $155,004.00 $71,250 $145,008.00 $60,375 $72,361.00 $60,000 $70,875.00 $60,000 $70,250.00 $60,000 $70,250.00 $60,000 $57,225.00 $60,000 $56,250.00 $60,000 $56,250.00 $60,000
Antigua Barracuda Austin Aztex Charlotte Eagles (PDL) Dayton Dutch Lions (PDL) FC Montreal FC New York Penn FC Phoenix FC Rochester Rhinos Vancouver Whitecaps 2 VSI Tampa Bay Wilmington Hammerheads
A decision as to whether or not to field B teams doesn't reflect the stability of the league. Rochester and Penn FC are still in business according to their owners, while Charlotte and Dayton self-relegated.
USL being stable over "the last decade" is a bit of an overstatement. Five years is more accurate. The thing that stabilized the USL was the introduction of MLS reserve teams in 2015 which finally gave the USL a critical mass of teams to allow regional play and cut travel expenses. The last clubs to fold or self-relegate did so around that time as the league raised its stadium and financial requirements in the reorganization that year. (Austin was put out of business by a natural disaster at the same time.)
As for the teams that went bust after one season, the league now insists that each team ownership group must demonstrate the financial capacity to operate the team for three years.
Seriously?? C'Mon Paul, you're better than that......... I realize that technically you are correct. That said, the EFL Championship is part of the EFL league system, or fully integrated pyramid. Teams move up and down by design. A closed league losing a team is not by design.....
My statement was the 12 teams are no longer playing professional soccer. I don't see how it makes any difference if they're MLS reserves or not. All of that is true. I really don't care what Rochester and Penn FC say, until they come back, they're not playing professional soccer. It doesn't really matter the reasons why the teams aren't playing, the fact that they aren't means it's not stable. It should be far more stable now: the conditions are the best that they really could be for USL, so hopefully this is mostly a thing of the past. There will almost certainly be some more "hiatuses". Teams will run into financial difficulties. Owners will decide they don't want to lose any more money. That's fine, as long as the overall health of the league is fine.
It's relegation, whether you self-relegate or are relegated on merit. 5 teams failed after one season. They didn't have the resources to play professionally. These days they wouldn't be allowed in the USL-C in the first place. Other teams self-relegated after USL was given D2 status, so Richmond Kickers for instance, are back in the division they've played in since 1993. Reserve teams will come and go depending on financial decisions made in MLS board rooms. And of course the foreign teams have disappeared with the exception of TFC II, who could end up homeless, and Ottawa, who are bound for CPL. The core of the USL Championship is very stable. The biggest threat to that stability is MLS expansion.