Ideally, they should have a "2" team. Whether they play at the practice field like the old reserve league used to, or if they are set up as a formal team somewhere else fairly nearby Providence, Worcester, Springfield, Manchester, Portland, Hartford, etc.) it doesn't really matter. I don't know the statistics, but I would bet that the teams that do have a "2" team like this have a much higher percentage of players who move up after a couple of years than those teams who park 3-4 draft picks with independent D-2 teams.
Ideally, they'd have an SSS. Ideally, they'd have a coach with first division experience. Ideally, they'd have a GM who actually can relate to agents. Ideally, they'd have an owner that cares about soccer. Ideally, they'd benefit from their sister club in Portugal. Ideally....
The fact that the Revs don't have a "2" after 20 years in MLS is, I'll be nice, preposterous. Watching Nottingham Forest vs Arsenal yesterday brought back memories of when I first got to watch English football and the power house NF. Then NF decided it couldn't compete with the big money teams and moved down to lower levels of English football. I feel the Revs should probably think about doing the same thing. If BK doesn't want to spend any money on his team, then maybe he should think about joining the USL. He could still get 10k to 15k at games and not have his stadium sitting empty for 6 months.
While I'd be willing to concede that distance and affinity shouldn't necessarily matter, comparing a New England Revolution-Rochester Rhinos affiliation to that of the New York Yankees-Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders situation is comparing apples and oranges. The Yankees' Triple-A affiliate is located a mere 128-mile drive from the Bronx. That trip could probably be made inside 2-1/2 hours. The drive from Gillette Stadium to Capelli Sport Stadium in Rochester is nearly 400 miles and over 6 hours in duration. Unless, of course, we're just assuming that Kraft pere et fils would sign-off on Revolution farmhands making the jaunt back-and-forth between Greater Rochester International Airport and T. F. Green on one of the two 767 Boeing wide-bodies that they purchased for the Patriots last year.
[QUOTE="Brian in Boston, post: 36216017, member: 42946" Unless, of course, we're just assuming that Kraft pere et fils would sign-off on Revolution farmhands making the jaunt back-and-forth between Greater Rochester International Airport and T. F. Green on one of the two 767 Boeing wide-bodies that they purchased for the Patriots last year.[/QUOTE] Hey, I'm assuming a lot. If the Krafts actually did something like this, it would stand to reason they would hire their own people with specific instructions on how to manage the players. They could also use such conveniences as telephones and e-mail to relay their wishes. Also, players assigned to the Rhinos would most likely spend the season there. I'm not assuming Brian Wright, for example, would be jetting back and forth on a regular basis. Also, before the Yankees AAA affiliate was in Scranton, it was in Columbus, Ohio. And the Dodgers AAA affiliate is in Oklahoma City.
Yes, I know. And the Cleveland Indians Triple-A affiliate was in Buffalo, New York. I wonder why the Columbus Clippers are now affiliated with the Cleveland Indians? Could it have anything to do with minor-league prospects and major-league players on rehab assignments in Columbus being an hour closer to Cleveland than they would be if they were playing for a Triple-A team in Buffalo? Further, might baseball fans in Columbus feel more of an affinity for the in-state Cleveland Indians as a parent-club than for the more distant New York Yankees? Similarly, might it be more convenient for the New York Yankees to send down and call up ballplayers from a Triple-A affiliate located just 128 miles away from the Bronx, than to have to deal with a farm club over 500 miles away? Yes, but that's because Peter Guber's Mandalay Baseball Properties owned the Oklahoma City RedHawks prior to Guber joining the Los Angeles Dodgers' ownership group. Once Guber purchased a stake in the Dodgers in 2012, he and his new partners in the MLB team decided to bring the team's Triple-A farm operation in-house and move their top-tier minor-league affiliation from Albuquerque to Oklahoma City. Trust me... there isn't a Major League Baseball team in the country that wouldn't prefer to have its Triple-A affiliate located as close to the big-league club as possible. The parent team-farm team proximity enjoyed by the likes of Atlanta/Gwinnett, Seattle/Tacoma, Boston/Pawtucket, Detroit/Toledo, Philadelphia/Lehigh Valley, San Francisco/Sacramento, Toronto/Buffalo, Cincinnati/Louisville, and Cleveland/Columbus is something EVERY MLB team would kill for. Why do you think the New York Mets recently closed a deal to buy the Syracuse Chiefs? Because, they were sick and tired of their top prospects and rehabbing big-leaguers being in Las Vegas, more than 2,500 miles away from Citi Field. So, they went out and bought the Chiefs, which gives them complete operational control of an in-state Triple-A affiliate located just over 250 miles away from Queens and just 76 miles from their Double-A affiliate in Binghamton.
Two MLS-owned USL clubs shut down for 2018, Vancouver and Orlando: The ThunderCaps are Officially No More Nov 17, 2017, 2:44pm PST 86 Forever Orlando City B Elects to Forgo 2018 USL Division II Season January 12, 2018 orlandocitysc.com
If MLS B teams are going to play in the USL, then drawing fans and making money will be a concern. So I can see where the MLB model of putting your B team/affiliate in a separate market makes sense. The NHL does it that way too and the NBA is getting traction with that model with its G League. From a Revs perspective, a B team in Providence or Hartford might make a lot of sense. Then again, there's rumblings that their A team is looking at Providence too.
Didn't see this Hartford news posted here yet Dillon Stadium Project Receives $10 Million Boost http://www.uslsoccer.com/news_article/show/887976
North American Soccer League Announces Cancellation Of 2018 Season Lawsuits against U.S. Soccer Federation and certain members of its Board of Directors will continue while league and clubs explore playing options for 2019 Season NASL Staff Feb 27, 2018
I'm one of them. It's not like the most important thing in the world to me, but I see no reason we couldn't do it here (other than being protective of Bob Kraft's money). Lots of problems with the NASL, but if MLS devoted its energies toward creating a stable second tier I'm reasonably sure we'd have one.
MLS operators who are now paying (or already own franchises whose worth is into 9 figures) are not going to be willing to play the pro/rel game.
I get that they care about their money, but I don't have to do it for them. Yet there is an argument that their franchise values would do just fine in a pro/rel setup. However, that's not my issue because I don't own a team. I'd prefer to watch a pro/rel league, particularly because it would activate the nervous system of a team like the Revs. So I'm for the thing I'd enjoy the most.
USL is now division 2, and based on growth in the last 5 years, seems pretty stable. However, if we already had pro/rel, the Revs would be division 3 by now. No thanks.
Ah yes, American Capitalism at it's finest...restrict competition to guaranteed profits. That's the whole point; if we were threaten to be put in the third division, Kraft would have already sold the team or made the necessary investments to improve the team.
And that is the great fallacy of pro/rel, that it will force owners to do whatever it take to get back to the top. But in reality, it doesn't work that way. Just ask fans of Leeds United. Financial trouble caused them to be relegated out of the EPL in 2004. By 2007, they were in League 1. Fourteen years after leaving the EPL, they still haven't made it back. Again, no thanks.
Another thing about Pro/Rel (as opposed to playofs) that I don't like ... there are 7/8 games left in the BPL (for example). There are already multiple teams who basically already have nothing to play for with around 20% of the season still left.
That's no different than the major US leagues, the only difference being that at least teams aren't actively trying to fail in order to get a better draft pick.
I agree that it would be great to see (and good for US soccer), but it's not going to happen - that was my only point.