I was thinking, what if the NASL hadn't folded? How do you think the landscape of football/ soccer in America would look now?
a NASl western division with the Whitecaps, Sounders, Timbers, Quakes, Aztecs, Soccers, Tornados, Minnesota, Sting and Columbus Crew a NASL eastern division with the Blizzard, Manic, Cosmos, Diplomats, Atoms, Rowdies, Revolution, Strikers, Houston and Roughnecks
If NASL hadn't folded, then nobody would be bitching today about following FIFA player signing rules, or field conditions.
For World Cup Qualifiers, in addition to the off-season Euro players, the US would also have a full pool of MLS players to choose from, since Bob Bradley wouldn't have to play nice with the clubs to get them (being FIFA dates not conflicting with MLS' season).
If the ASL had anywhere near decent leadership, the NFL would be looking to construct "gridiron specific stadiums"
Don't forget about the imfamous offside line, 35 yards out in lieu of the center line. That was awesome and designed for more scoring. Yes, it is against the rules of the game as we know it, but an interesting addition to the game here it was!
I really think that FIFA should have an experimental trial with that and see if the fans in Europe like that
I recall reading that it was found to be counter-productive, as it meant that it was more risky for defenders to push up and support attacks. Teams who did want to play offside also found it just as easy to play offside from 35 yards as they did from the half-way line. Most "trapped" offsides tend to be within that range anyway. As for the thread's question, it really depends on whether the league thrived or survived. An NASL hanging on by its fingertips would be much worse than MLS now, and being seen as a consistent loss-maker, would have been unlikely to attract much investment. Going bust, and allowing a completely new league to form a decade later, might have been the best thing for the game. Then again, in the mid 80s in England, the accepted view was that the game here was going down the toilet and that crowds would dwindle to Victorian era levels (read sub 10,000 average for the top division) within 20 years or so, so any kind of extrapolation is prone to huge errors.
The absurdity of the NASL was how they tried to alter a close to perfect game to make it more interesting to Americans. It was the pure game the Americans were craving. Even the MLS started out this way. Thank God they have moved more towards the side of good. -No draws. The NASL had the shoot out. An intersting way to end the game that had FIFA in seizures. -In a home and away playoff game, if the teams were tied, they had a 30 minute "mini-game". -as mentioned before, the 35 yard offside line. -cheerleaders -astroturf -the "Soccer Bowl" While we were in the middle of it, we were happy we had some soccer games to go to, but hindsight tells us how stupid it all was. Some of the stadium events were quite remarkable as well. Tampa Bay Rowdies would have wet t-shirt contests after the games. In Las Vegas, we had a guy who was going to stay camped out on the scoreboard until the Quicksilvers "Sold out" a game. Word was out the guy was coming down after games and going back up a couple of hours before the next one. The Quicksilvers never sold out a game. Towards the end of the season, for one game, they had a huge promotion and opened the gates for free. They got the largest crowd of the season at 11,000. Only 4000 short of a sell out. To make a short story long, and to finally answer the question. The NASL did nothing to improve soccer in the US, and probably dragged it down to it lowest point in the world view. If it were still around, under the same management, not very many people would be interested.
I like the idea of no draws to tell you the truth. NASL did it wrong though. They did a hockey-like shootout where the penalty taker would start out at 35 yards from goal and charge towards the goal, trying to shoot at the right time. I would like to see an overtime procedure similar to the NHL, where we would have 15 min. segments, and these would continue until the draw was broken(sudden death). As for points, we could have 3 points for a win, and 1 point for an overtime loss. Hey, it would be better than the current overtime procedure, which is.............nothing. -------------------------------------------------------- The Soccer Bowl was just a single game final at a neutral location if I'm not mistaken. Exactly like the Champions League final, except for the name idea. -------------------------------------------------------- I will agree with you about the astroturf. That stuff is hell to play on, no matter which sport you play.
I grew up in Tampa and practically lived at Tampa Stadium for Rowdies' games. I do not believe a team-sanctioned wet t-shirt contest ever happened. That statement is absolute, complete and utter bullshit. First quote by Jack Bell of the New York Times. Second from Clive Toye. Both know a thing or two. Both from an article in one of the few issues Striker magazine published in 2005 before it went under.
Nah, the NFL's only problem was getting the public to accept professionalism in their sport, which had been the domain of the Universities, and getting people to believe the NFL product was actually better (people actually believed college teams were better than NFL ones until the late 40s or so). Once that happened, they were probably fated to pass the ASL, because that league was still, even in its heyday, heavily dependant on immigrants for both the playing talent and the fans. And immigration policy tightened up big-time once the Depression hit. When the NASL died, American pro soccer essentially went into a coma* for 10 years. My guess is that if it were still here, even if it had gone into full cost-control mode, we'd be close to 10 years further along. (Yeah, yeah, indoor. Almost worse than nothing, as much as it pandered to American xenophobic stereotypes about the game.)
Aside from starting this country playing youth soccer, planting the seeds of the US National team as we know it and making MLS possible. Other than that, yeah, not a thing.