You summed it up pretty well. The standards cover the fairly obvious categories like market demographics on potential fan base, marketing strategy to reach that base, primary/secondary/tertiary facility plans and financial aspects of the investors. So nothing that is rocket science but a more formal and consistent process than prior. This was in place for Orange County and San Diego.
Lol, I was actually at Orlando City's (USL) First Match vs FCNY at Belson, I still have that ticket stub. FCNY's FO was so horrible, that it makes the Delta's FO look like Manchester United.
Cosmos finish* up 28% in average announced attendance at 4,826 v. 3,535 a year ago. *They will host Puerto Rico in a rescheduled PRFC home game, but we may not see a figure for it, I still have not seen one for the game in Cary that was a PRFC home game.
2 new fans! They are saved! In other news they're giving away free merch at their "final game" as they're terming the season finale...
So San Francisco is toast, and Puerto Rico has a perfect out (not that one needs their out to be perfect). Sounds like eight teams again. Yes, that's progress that should be given more time to take root.
Oh, and Edmonton has apparently decided to go CPL, which is also not terribly surprising. I love the people who then say Calgary will also come in, creating an instant rivalry. Here's the thing about these instant, natural rivalries: they are not played every week. You host your rival, at most, two or three times a year.
They are the only cities of consequence in Alberta, and apparently, they are rivals. I do not doubt that. My skepticism is for how much a rivalry in some proximity affects a team's fortunes. The Rowdies/Strikers rivalry was supposed to be the NASL's big thing. When you only play a team a handful of times a year, it simply cannot save you from the the otherwise obvious truth that few people care about you.
But it starts with the rivalries. That gets people interested in the club, which helps the league grow to the point in which it can introduce pro/rel, which brings in the billionaire's to invest and viola.
So the WUSA's problem was less that it spent itself into oblivion and mostly because it didn't offer pro/rel with the W-League.