Is that right?! Their goalie situation must really suck at PRU. Their main goalie had to sit out because of his red card at Orlando City.
Rumors are that PR United is at the point fo collapse players have been let go or havent been paid. Their talking about a merge with another club just so it can me it through the season. Theres a bunch of shit flying out there right now waiting to see some definete info.
This isn't good. Please keep us posted. Thanks. (I know this isn't really the right thread for this, but did you see this? This seems like a big deal. I included it only to shine some positive light on the PR soccer scene. I know so little about it. No offense intended.) http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nIV4cvPkWIw/TcAaK2nm1DI/AAAAAAAAB6I/yC_iMEnT1Mw/s1600/PRI-ESPNcover.jpg
Ya its the second time Islanders get the cover. More on the situations in PR it's not only United but another team in trouble that plays in the local league and the ref havent been paid for local league games aswell. It just a huge mess that the former fed president has created here.
Looking at it, it didn't seem like too much of a soccer scene existed before the islanders. The expansion seems like too much saturation, especially when three teams play in the same general area.
See I don't understand why USL forces to have a certain number of teams it's like they especially get the expansion fee just to keep the league going for one season, teams fold and they find new suckers, reminds me of a "ponzi" scheme.
Islanders on the cover = no big of a deal. My bad. So are all three USL teams in trouble, or just the one? Which team is the most likely to survive to next year? How many teams can PR support at one time?
Here's a story about the Rhino's home opener this weekend. Sounds like they have already sold 5k and depending on the weather hoping to get to 7 - 8k. http://www.democratandchronicle.com...opener-losses?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Sports
"Ponzi scheme" is right on. USL has settled on few solid markets (Rich, Roch, Charls, Charlotte) and a few decent supportive markets (Pitts, Wilm, Harrisburg). Everything else is up for grabs, even Pitts, and Wilming sat out years along with Atlanta. H'burg is low budget and Austin shut down after 2 years and moved to Orlando. Crystal Palace, West Mass, Real MD, Cleveland City, New Hampshire, etc. have come and gone in past couple years like numerous predecessors (e.g., Rhode Island, VaBeach). Some retrenched as PDL only, others folded. Clubs suffer minimal league support, poor marketing, poor financing, lack of quality stadiums, and sparse crowds. Spring-Summer (baseball-lacrosse-vacation) season also contributes to lack of interest for all US pro leagues: MLS, NASL and USL. Only PDL thrives in summer when college kids home to play and crowds are not important to supporting large professional payroll and travel expenses. USL is in the business of selling franchises. There are 100+ PDL teams (you kidding me?) - some excellent, some not. In an effort to squeeze out NASL, USL Pro was created and more franchises sold (Dayton, NY, LA, PR, ANT) to form a league. USL doesn't care about quality of soccer (which is why NASL formed to elevate level of play under MLS). If NASL folds next year, USL will attempt to gobble up Ft Lauderdale, Tampa, Atlanta, and MN and new San Antonio team. They will try to lure PR Islanders into USL Pro, as well so they can boast a CONCACAF representative. They may even seek USSF Div. 2 status (no way) now held tenuously by NASL. We'll end up with what we started out: USL1 and USL2 with about half dozen quality teams and a lot of teams on the brink of folding.
PR United of the USL Pro will be merging with Mayagüez FC of the PRSL and with talk that Orlando's trying to get the 20th MLS spot is there a future for USL Pro??
I'll translete later, To cover some of the important points. A bunch of players haven been pay, United let go several players, players where housed in a room inside the Aguada Stadium and had to use the stadium bathrooms for personal use. Welcome to PR Futbol!
USL needs to restore USL Pro to what was USL Second Division, and the big clubs that actually take pro soccer seriously (Orlando, Rochester and Wilmington; plus Richmond and Charleston despite how their ownerships apparently feel about it) should go to the NASL.
Richmonds main objections was single table and travel and clubs like Vancouver, Montreal and Portland that were dictating to the USL how things were going. Richmond got stuck with 4 west coast trips in 7 weeks in 2005 and that was it. August 13 @ Seattle August 14 @ Vancouver September 3 @ Portland September 18 @ Vancouver October 1 @ Seattle* *Seattle was supposed to pay for the Kickers to come out as part of their deal with Generlisimo Marcos to host the Championship, but it turned into more of a reimbursement then an actual "here are your tickets" deal that was promised. When Richmond didn't get some of the $$ when all was said and done. They said screw it we're going to D-3 where the farthest they had to travel was Cincinnati and Manchester, NH, both easier bus rides.
I agree that's why Tampa went to NASL, seriously I don't know what to think of the ownership in Orlando....
Remember this from Sept 8 2010: “After much analysis of the current landscape we’ve chosen to combine our synergies into a single professional league that will operate within financial and competitive models that make sense,” USL CEO Alec Papadakis said. just wondering did those PR teams get their expansion fee back?
Good read by Devo... http://blogs.democratandchronicle.com/devo/2011/05/10/black-mark-on-usl-wont-fade-anytime-soon/ It's nice to see a journalist act like one and not be a cheerleader here. I usually have some issues with his point of view but thought he was very level headed here.
An interesting read. As a crony of that Soccer Sam idiot, it's tough to give him much credit, but I can't argue too much with what he hd to say. As I posted not long ago on a different thread, I think this guy is spot on when he says that Clark simply took what appeared at the time to be the safer choice in self-relegating to D3. The league just lost 20% of it's franchises, and while it will indeed cause a huge mess, the league is still alive. From the perspective of "safety" you can't really argue. But then there's the idea that who ever really got ahead by always playing it safe? Ok Clark, you jumped to USL and get to watch Season 1 of NASL from a safe distance. My question for him would be this - if it looks like the grass definitely wound up being greener on the NASL side, do you have the intestinal fortitude to go crawling back to Davidson and beg back in? Maybe Orlando is the lynch pin. If Rawlins decides to stick it out in USL hoping for a jump to MLS, then along with Charleston, Richmond, and Wilmington, maybe Clark feels USL has enough to at least stay afloat, especially with no real USSF standards. But what if USSF finally get around to doing what they said they would, and over the next 9 months puts some D3 standards in place? What if those standards make USL Pro look even more shaky then it does today? What then? There are a LOT of things we'll just have to wait on and see how they affect the D2 - D3 landscape. But I think it's only going to take one big domino to fall, and many more will follow suit.
Sorry for the LA Blues and the Antigua Barracudas but a USL pro 2012 with Rochester, Orlando, Pittsburg, Harrisburg, Wilmington, Charleston, Charlotte, Richmond and maybe Dayton and New York would make more sense
Dayton is going to be lucky to get through the season. Even with their backing from FC Twente. You can barely survive in the PDL with gates around 300ish.
Unless the full western expansion materializes, LA Blues is doomed. Antigua is doomed regardless, unless they get connected to the TT Pro League. The largest clubs should seriously consider going to the NASL. Orlando City, Rochester and Wilmington should definitely. If they actually cared, Charleston should go as well.