putting a second union team in philly accomplishes nothing. in fact it probably makes things worse ("their reserve team gets a stadium in the city but the first team cant")
The "new" soccer stadium at UofD is a perfect place for a Union USL team. Soccer-specific, grass field, decent parking and relatively easy access from 95. Also, UofD is a rising D1 soccer program that would make a good partner. Unfortunately, I suspect Widener, Chester and those that think it's the Union's job to re-build Chester would object.
http://www.mcall.com/sports/columnists/mc-ppl-park-feature-0703-20150706-story.html Interesting article with lots of odd tidbits.
Yet another reason why we should only have 1 large catch-all thread. http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/philadelphia-union-in-the-media.1519562/page-62#post-32544446
Apparently there is not need to merge this thread. According to the article this thread will be irrelevant in October anyway.
What do you mean? Harrisburg will no longer have an attachment to the union thus not many will care about them anymore. The fact that the union will own the players and how they are used will already put them in much higher standing to the fans the the city islanders, who are not obligated to start or even play union players
All about control of player development. Union prospects just go to waste at HCI, so its time to end that relationship. Any club-controlled entity -- whether its Union 2 playing locally, or a wholly-owned club playing in an outlying area -- is a huge improvement. And it might be a good thing to have the team play in the Lehigh Valley, too, where it could grow local fan support and be a viable business. NYRB II and LA Galaxy II are playing to average attendance of <1,000, and our market is not like Portland where they will show up for anything dressed in Timbers gear.
Because it just replicates the Harrisburg situation under a new boss. I think the effectiveness of this team will be reduced by having them two hours away. There's a facility here. This USL team is the bridge from the academy to the first team. It looks less like a bridge this way. The two coaching staffs should work closely together and I feel like this is an out of sight out of mind situation. I really don't care about the expansion of the market either. Not many are coming down from there and I think you could spend less than a USL team to draw whatever number of fans you'll get from up that way from the local market.
By placing it elsewhere it can be a vehicle to gain more geographic lock on "homegrown" territory, something that the Union is pinched on both sides at the moment. Not that they can actually develop the talent anyways...
So by placing a team near - or outside - the 75-mile radius they might be able to extend/increase said radius? AND OLDIE BUT A GOODIE! (from May 2013) -------------------- Curious to see how the league's radius rule affects the Union and it's closest neighbors. http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...ademy-demographics-favor-big-market-mls-teams Union: 75-mile radius from PPL Park, excluding a 25-mile radius of RBA and all of MD. NYRB: 75-mile radius from Red Bull Arena, excluding a 25-mile radius of PPL Park. DCU: 75-mile radius from RFK Stadium. Blue radius - Union's allowable reach (except for portions of Maryland) Purple radius - NYRB's no fly zone Yellow radius - NYRB's allowable reach Orange radius - Union's no fly zone White radius - DCU's reach
I don't think that's true, but the Lehigh Valley/Allentown area would face a similar squeeze from Red Bull/NYCFC anyway. The academy is here, not up there and the deepest pool of talent in the I-95 corridor anyway.
You make some good points. If it really is to be an effective bridge between the academy and the first team, then why don't they put the USL team in the King of Prussia region with the Academy/school? I'm still in favor of a location other than Chester. Besides the FO relationship with Chester is tedious at best. Let's be honest as far as traveling goes, the players/coaches don't live in Chester anyway, so KoP or Philly is a better location than Chester. L.Valley might be a different story since it's further out, but does give you more brand/marketing reach. FYI. As far as developing USL goes. We saw what MLS teams in NFL stadiums did to attendance. USL games in MLS stadiums is no better. They need a right sized stadium.
Primarily, the players need to be training together and the coaching staffs working together. That's the advantage of an MLS2 team so that's why Chester should be the location IMO. Whether there's attendance is another issue altogether. There are lots of creative ways to deal with that, doubleheaders or make it practically free for STH to go, for instance. You want consistency. The bridge is training alongside the MLS team, not being out somewhere else like KoP or Philly. Philly is probably the worst location. To have the second team actually in the city is weird, but having the much lower paid U2 team saddled with the freaking wage tax on top of everything would suck too.
Credit to /u/solprose315 on reddit for this: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sonsofthesusquehanna/979293072111461/?notif_t=group_activity Is this something as simple as a friendly between the U and HCI or more fuel on the U2 fire? Even if it is just friendlies, it interestingly coincides with Sak's article about a U2 team. Perhaps these friendlies will be testing the waters.
They would also need to play there if the HCI stadium funding deal got approved while the upgrades happen. One of the highest attendances in USL Pro and doesn't comply with size requirements by 2017.
Perhaps a friendly. I saw the HCI - Crystal Palace friendly there in 2009 and it was actually a pretty cool place to watch the match.
Not sure how HCI has one of the highest attendances in USL Pro. They are 15th out of 24 teams this year. And 6 of the 9 teams below them are straight up MLS II teams that are clearly making player development the priority over attendance. WRT a friendly, HCI and the Union usually play one every year but it could be tough this year because HCI has a lot of mid-week games. And in Lancaster they would need to contend with the Barnstormer's schedule. The only really open dates are around 8/5 and 9/9. And both of those dates would only allow one free day to covert the field.
HCI signing two Jamaican U20s for the rest of the season smells like a Union initiated move (maybe with some insight from Blake). Maybe Sak's interview this week was a shot across the bow and HCI management is waking up to the need to repair the relationship.
Maybe it's a friendly announcement along with a continued partnership with the Union, but not necessarily an affiliation? The Union establish their own USL team while remaining partners with HCI. Just spit balling here.