Teams without a "2" team: Earthquakes (Going to have an RGV style relationship with Reno next year) Rapids Dallas Chicago Columbus Revolution NYCFC DC United Atlanta* Minnesota*
MLS teams have to have their own "2" team or be affiliated with a USL independent. Columbus is currently affiliated with Pittsburgh (and haven't had an affiliate last for more than 1 year ... Dayton & Austin were previous Columbus affiliates). Minnesota currently doesn't have an affiliate or "2" team ... Atlanta has an affiliate (Charleston).
NYCFC hasn't exactly gone without an affiliation yet though, right? The season just ended for Wilmington. If you want to count NYCFC as "not having an affiliate" then you might as well count Minnesota too!
It means as much as the MLS club wants it to mean...The Rapids have a guy on staff in Charlotte for instance.
As much as the MLS club and the USL club agree to. Any autonomy that the USL team gives up is 100% up to that USL club.
No autonomy is given up by affiliates...Affiliates that give up autonomy have hybrid in front of that designation. My point is Rochester is NE affiliate...hardly used...Affiliate in name only Colorado uses Charlotte a little more and has a person on staff. Affiliates come down to usage by the MLS club for it to have any meaning at all.
An MLS franchise owner/ownership group does get exclusive rights to a USL team within a certain geographic radius however, so there are indeed partnership aspects to the MLS/USL relationship.
Spoke to USL about starting a team in South Florida, they informed us that because Beckham & Co. currently hold rights to MLS franchise in South Florida, likewise is same with USL per agreement between them.
San Diego group NBC reported on is now focused on NASL for a 2018 debut. Las Vegas group could go either way. http://midfieldpress.com/2016/10/14...otball-club-aims-to-bring-pro-soccer-to-town/ http://midfieldpress.com/2016/09/26/exclusive-california-nasl-expansion-bids-take-form/ NASL is working to get a cluster of teams in the west with the San Francisco Deltas being the first one. Nothing new recently on El Paso or Boise. All rumors are summarized once a month here: http://midfieldpress.com/2016/10/10...ion-news-rumors-tracker-october-2016-edition/
USL president Jake Edwards on California's role in USL: http://www.soccernation.com/jake-edwards-talks-expansion-attendance-and-californias-role-in-usl/ - Includes tidbits on San Diego
Ive talked to Toledo Uniteds president/owner and their plan is to eventually be in USL or NASL. They currently play at a high school football stadium but have plans to renovate Ned Skeldon Stadium (the Mud Hens, our AAA baseball teams old stadium) into a soccer stadium. I dont know if its contingent on them moving up or not but "the ned" seats about 10,000 so its a reasonable size venue.
As a Crew fan i would be ecstatic if their USL affiliate was Toledo but I think its more likely that we would link up with a future Detroit MLS expansion because of what you said. I could see the Crew being affilated with a Cleveland USL side which there have been some rumors of.
This is kind of off topic but it's also kind of on topic as well. It appears that there is a rumor going around about a secret meeting between MLS, USL, and NPSL ( no NASL). Could this mean a well defined professional D4 league? What does this mean for club soccer in North America? Well at any rate it's an interesting development and discussion. https://www.reddit.com/r/NASLSoccer/comments/58hygv/rumor_npsl_working_with_usl_mls_now_instead_of/
Yeah it already has cool old roofs over the seats. I feel like it could have a mini - Providence Park (Portland) vibe. I dont think we're very close to this happening yet since weve only been a team for one season but im hoping for the best for our team.