Talking about pre-Commisso ownership tenure though, you know when they were owned by a Saudi sports marketing group and Seamus O'Brien, they lost ALOT of money before Rocco saved the club.
Depends on how you define "a lot" (two words, not one), and whether you believe quoted figures or not. It is both easy and really hard to spend $30 million for a minor league soccer club over a 2-4 years period, much less lose that much. If they decide to pay a couple high profile name players $5/season (is there any evidence) that would get you a good chunk of the way there, but that's completely on the ownership group. There's no way anyone would rationally go into that agreement expecting to recoup any of the money. It's crocodile tears for Rocco if he wants to complain about overspending on player salaries after the fact. Yes, stadium rent, and training facility rent, and apartments and transportation for players, and payroll for staff add up, but every D2/D3 club has those issues, and I can tell you that most of them aren't losing more than a couple million per year - which is a lot of money, in context, but it still doesn't get you to $30 million. If half or more of those losses were paying Raul and Marcos Senna to play for Cosmos, then that's really on Rocco. This wasn't going to be the thousands upon thousands of people around the globe wearing LA Galaxy jerseys with "Beckham 23" on the back. I can't believe that Rocco signed Raul for anything other than the opportunity to collect a nice shiny toy.
A lot of that $30 million may be related to legal fees. USSF managed to spend $9 million on legal fees last year, some of which would be related to the demi-frivolous NASL case.
Right, that too. The losses are mostly self-inflicted and not germane to the typical (though substantial in context) losses faced by most minor league sports teams.
9 million is all he has, and he loses 500K? I can't see any future of a profit in indoor, without TV. Heck Pluto TV would be a fantastic start for the league. If I had 100 million I wouldn't buy an indoor team that loses 500k a year.
So... Another island team in USL? What the hell. Except for a run with the Puerto Rico Islanders (and much of that in the NASL, not USL) all of the island teams have been financial disasters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Bascome_Bermuda
League Two team. Who knows how this will work out, but I would think the travel costs would be quite prohibitive for a League Two team.
That would essentially be 1 time travel to the island/summer. The League may be assisting teams with that if required. I also assume Bermuda would make 1 trip to the states and possibly play their entire "away" slate in 1 (or maybe 2) trips. Since it's just for a short season 8 games or something it may be feasible. Much more than a 8 month long season.
I'm surprised they were put in the Mid-Atlantic division when Bermuda is such a short hop from the Northeast.
Be careful of the curve of the earth. And the way that the coastline moves west as you go south. Bermuda is due east of South Carolina but it is farther away. Miles from Bermuda to New York City: 774 Bermuda to Charleston, SC: 883 Not a huge difference but it is definitely closer to NYC.
That distance is a non factor ... the smart play would be to look at what airports have non stops to Bermuda and at what price ... USL2 has such small conferences that most teams would be flying out of the same airport (New York, DC, Raleigh) ... that's more of a factor than actual distance in this case (IMO).
I scanned those airports using Google and these were the shortest flights I could find: Boston 2h 11m New York 2h 13m Atlanta 2h 44m DC 5h 0m (stopover New York) Philadelphia 5h 15m (stopover Boston)
Reporting coming out that Canadians will no longer be treated as domestics in USL-C. I confirmed with USL that starting in 2021 all Canadian players (minus those with green cards, etc.) will be considered international players on USL rosters. This will mirror the MLS rules and will make it even more important that the #CanPL expands to provide more jobs.— Duane Rollins (@24thminute) January 24, 2020
Flights to Bermuda from Philadelphia (which most of the division is near) are $400/ticket right now for any date in May and June. Even assuming that a travel agent could get that down for a group, it's going to be a hell of a lot more expensive than a coach from Allentown to Ocean City. You're still going to have the coach to the airport anyway.
============= This is crazy. Ottawa leaves USL- C and we turn around and add another country in USL-2 no less. The league must have some money if that are going to subsidize the travel ?? Or the owner of this team must have some money, even if they are not paying the players. What college kid is going to be able to play on this team? Must be expensive even to live there, even if short term as the season is pretty short. US- Canada should be working to get the USL-2 teams into Canadian leagues for cost/exchange rate savings, travel etc. The only current exception of x-over should be the 3 MLS Canadian teams and even then some day, i would like to see them actually in the CPL.
Canada doesn't have USL-2 teams across the entire country yet. Right now, the only USL2 equivalent leagues are in BC and Ontario and, as such, you're seeing USL2 teams in BC and Ontario leave USL, while others remain. Well, except the Chill, who are in BFE Ontario, so it is better for them to be in the USL from a travel perspective.
That's the big plan. BC League One is in the works and BC Soccer already issue a warning that BC Clubs are expected to play in BC. Victoria Highlanders already left USL-2 in preparation of BC League 1 while TSS Rovers are expected to the same. Alberta and Manitoba/Prairies will need to do the same to get the remaining teams out of USL completely, which I believe is in the work Once their waiver for being exempt from reapplying for sanctioning in MLS, it will be Ottawa Fury scenario all over again.
I don't see them having the MLS 3 pulled from that league. Canada has teams in the NBA, MLB, and NHL (which is a US-based league with HQ in NY) and in their respective minor leagues. I do not see them wanting to remove their only toe from the top soccer league (US TV money). Minor league, smaller money soccer is a different beast. I think the CSA has some gain in having three domestic markets in MLS in the same way that the hockey, baseball, and basketball teams do. Hell, someone in Toronto still pines for an NFL team and vice versa.
They won't be pulled. Their sanctioned won't be renewed, meaning they can still play in MLS, just not based in Canada. Like Ottawa, ownership can sell or move the team to the US. Thanks to Gary Bettman for that, but it's different with FIFA...Article 73 of their rulebook states "that clubs may not play in other country's leagues except under exceptional circumstances". The CSA doesn't get a dime on the US TV money, so that's a non-issue for them. Actually, since Montagliani era at the CSA, the organization is actually seeking to exit the USSF altogether and they are enforcing a moratorium on sanction clubs to USSF leagues Actually, quite the opposite. Former CSA president was so frustrated with MLS that he even threatened to pull the 3 clubs from MLS. (yes, the CSA has that power) 'We're second-class citizens': why MLS in Canada benefits everyone except Canada https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/sep/13/mls-canada-american-citizens Football being a global sport compare to the North American leagues means that the same logic can't apply. Also, contrarily to the other leagues, MLS is not the best league in the world nor the region. The NFL series in Toronto was a failure...I don't buy we'll ever see a team in Toronto...demographics just work in my opinion
I'm not seeing a definitive thread or subforum for San Diego Loyal, but I was watching an instagram story and it looked like (I'm guessing) their practice jerseys have a sponsor now, but I don't think they are the match jerseys. It's Chosen Foods, which I had never heard of. Any locals (small first l or big first l) aware of this?