What a disaster. The NASL is on its heels now. That MLS/USL partnership maybe the watershed moment for lower level American soccer.
I think that's a bit of an overblown statement... NASL is pretty stable as-is, if a bit small. Missing out on one (or two if OKC doesn't work) expansion possibilities isn't going to hurt the existing teams.
The site would still be good for a DC United II in USL, but only when DC United get their own stadium situation taken care of. Right now they cannot be looking to start a reserve minor league team when their 1st team is bleeding so much money each week.
That's a major overstatement. This is more Old Ed, who was dying for years. When he actually died, it was very sudden, but it's certainly not a disaster, not with the other clubs that have come and are coming online in Division II. It certainly appears to be a pivotal point in DIII. But I still think the actual watershed moment was the split in 2010 and the USSF standards that both tracked it and came about as a result of it. That shook up the status quo, added some stability and, while painful, was very likely for the best.
And when they have a reasonable solution in Richmond, just down the road. Loudoun County's demographics certainly appear favorable, though they're still untested. And it would probably be more likely that a DCII would play at the Soccerplex than in a purpose-built stadium in some other suburban location, I would think.
NASL in a bit of a funk. Puerto Rico never came back, Northern Virginia appears dead, USL in OKC got off the ground before the NASL did and no new expansion news since JAX coming on. They appear to be doing their homework and I could see another Indy situation of popularity. But where to beyond this ? I was thinking they should get a working agreement with the NPSL, much like MLS and USL. I could see a point if more and more MLS teams field a U23 team, those could go in the PDL - If MLS doesn't stop at 24 and goes say to 32, I see that as the death knell for NASL. If MLS were to take SA,MINN, Carolina or Indy, NASL is dead. NASL will never make nice with MLS, but I sure think a MLS 2 could be the ultimate destination for many other cities, NASL included. - Agree with other post, I feel a weak USSF caused this NASL/USL split and the NPSL/PDL split. MLS>USL>PDL is really all we need in this country , unless we are going to go the baseball farm team route and have multi levels for players to move up.
There was no NPSL/PDL split. A couple of teams have bailed on the PDL for the NPSL, but that's because they had even less money and ambition. MLS could go to 32 teams and there would STILL be D2 markets. That's silly. The NASL only needs to expand RIGHT NOW to appease people who are more interested in teams that don't yet exist yet than teams that do. That's also silly.
But those teams that don't exist yet may reside in prime markets that USL-Pro might get to first with a team that doesn't exist yet, so the NASL has to expand RIGHT NOW to beat them to the punch. That's even sillier
Well going by USSF standards for D2, NASL should be at 12 teams by now right? so if OKC does not join the league next year (and I do not think they will), NASL would again get behind on the D2 standards, and they still do not have teams in 3 time zones (unless USSF allows Edmonton to count as that team).
Noooooooooooo. Seriously, it's not hard to find the standards. They missed the 10 teams by year three bit (2013), but USSF wasn't going to quibble because they had other teams in the pipeline. They don't have to have 12 teams until 2016. But they'd better get on that, because the last teams they announced - OKC and Jacksonville - happened on July 25, 2013, a year and a half prior to launch. No, they would not. Not yet. But the clock is ticking. Why would they do that, when the standard says By 2016, the US-based teams must be located in at least three different time zones. Edmonton can't count for that. Assuming they don't lose anybody (like Edmonton doesn't throw in the towel), they need one more team for 2016 and to make everything simple, it should be a US team in the Mountain or Pacific time zones. When Atlanta MLS starts, they'll have to do something with the Silverbacks and if the Vikings get an MLS team, that doesn't bode particularly well for United. Those franchises might continue to exist to count against the team number, though. (Again, this all assumes USSF waivers, which do not appear to be that hard to get.)
So what happens if they don't meet those standards by 2016? Does the league have to go one hiatus til they do? Would suck if they did.
Mentioned waivers. They obviously missed having 10 teams in year three without repercussions. They also pulled sanctioning once, for a brief period (perhaps to get their attention). To be fair, a whole lot else would have to go wrong for USSF to really hold their feet to the fire.
What are the chances that the USSF ever steps in and trys to protect the NASL in anyway? Could be helping identify D2 markets where USL clubs need special approval form the USSF to expand into, slowing down MLS expansion (highly unlikely I know), etc? I've always thought a good way to do it would be to say any level should be able to "protect" 5 "hopeful" expansion markets for a 5 year period ... if they can expand there then great, if not in 5 years then those markets are opened back up for everyone ... and the markets would be picked via preference from top of the pyramid down. Something to that effect. Obviously anything outside of the 15 "protected" markets are fair game to anyone or something like that. Just seems that a strong D2 helps everyone (maybe not D3, but cases could be made) ... and that USSF needs to wear the big boy pants and start making everyone understand and respect that. And I know ... very unlikely to happen.
You mean like moving the vote for sanctioning away from the membership at large and into executive committee where it had a better chance of passing? Like that kind of help? Like what they did? There's a limit to USSF's regulation, I think. That would probably be anti-competitive behavior. Or at least, you could make the case. If you believe in the free market, yeah.
Sorry, I ment help beyond what they have already done ... didn't know I needed to say that, my bad. Otherwise, I'm aware of the reasons this wouldn't happen, but the USSF, MLS, NASL, USL Pro don't always do things based on sound reason. I don't think I needed to say this, but I know all of it is highly unlikely, and boarderline impossible ... was just asking if it might still be done in the best interest of the sport/pyarmid/etc.
I would imagine market compensation would not be a terrible idea (like if MLB expands into a territory where a minor league team is, they have to pay), but I could not see rendering some markets off-limits.
I don't see why they don't put a cap on market size for D3 - like the minimum population cap that D2 is limited by.
Because it is a free market. We let the people with the money decide what they want to do with their money. Marxism died a while ago. I'd also like to see you survive the backlash as you label and classify what cities are "worthy" of a league level. You can't go purely by population levels. Salt Lake and Kansas City are among the smallest markets in MLS yet they are the strongest clubs. Where would you put a city like Milwaukee? They only worthy of a D2 team or are they D1 caliber? Des Moines draws better as a PDL then most USL Pro and some NASL, are they D2 or only D3 worthy? Don't be quick to place judgement on anything.
http://m.bizjournals.com/washington...nvestor-edelman-financial-open-to.html?r=full Still no comment from the Cavalry and NASL is not aware of the issue with the stadium @@
And more from the Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...ds-lawsuits-say-yes-owner-bob-farren-says-no/
And I believe it even works in soccer ... I think MLS is doing this to some extent and it's allowed some stability to teams and I think we see less teams folding up shop than previous top level US teams before the MLS.
Hard to argue against the collectivist approach working for MLS, certainly, where the other models have failed. It's artificially depressed player wages, obviously, but that's a feature, not a bug.