Atlanta and Birmingham

worth noting that Atlanta's old USL First Division team, the Silverbacks, hasn't been officially folded yet and has until the registration period for next year to decided whether or not they will compete anymore.

 

The press release says that NuRock has the rights to Atlanta. I think that's a pretty clear statement that the Silverbacks no longer have any opening in the market.

Not that anyone expected they'd be back.

 

From experience, you usually have till August 1 to renew your D1 team - if not, you lose the franchise rights.

 

So does this mean we see new USL-1 teams in Atlanta and Birmingham? And if so, where do they play?

 

I think they just acquired the rights to those cities. I don't think a time frame has been announced, but I hope its for next season.

 

I hope not.

But I wouldn't be entirely shocked. USL1 teams have appeared faster than that.

I'd much prefer they hold off a year, get themselves organized and settled into being USL1 owners and see what they can do about improving the entire league before they go creating two new teams out of thin air.

There's already Tampa and NY coming in next year. With Portland and Vancouver leaving in 2011, it would be nice timing for Atlanta and Birmingham to come in then. It would keep the # of teams steady and the demand for players the same. But, most importantly, give them plenty of time to do the groundwork for the new teams.

But, as I said, I wouldn't be shocked to see them come in. All it will take is Miami leaving (and I'd say it's about 90% likely at this point) and at least one of those two will get nudged in earlier than they should be.

 

Rumors of Cary, Minnesota and Miami leaving - so that opens the door for B'ham, Atlanta and St Louis (from what I've heard).

It would be nice for them to have a front office in place for a year before they take the field, but that rarely happens.

 

Are those real rumors of Cary, Minnesota and Miami leaving? Or just your assumptions based on the reporting from Inside Minnesota/MLS Talk that those three were involved in the Traffic group?

I suppose it's possible that the Cary stadium will do perfectly fine without a pro team there, but the Railhawks have put together a very good organization and I have a hard time believing they'll walk away from USL1. And there's really no other place to go.

Miami, I can believe. Traffic has been completely unable to make the Blues work, so I don't think any of us need any rumors to come up with the idea that Miami is most likely gone next year, especially with how this season started.

But the Minnesota owners are fairly new, and Cary is a good organization in a good facility. I'll need a lot more reports before I can believe that they might walk.

Now, having said that, I wouldn't be surprised if there's some really heated words coming from the Railhawks and Thunder ownership right now.

 

Miami - we know they nearly walked last year and they were trying to put a group together to buy the league. Minnesota's owners were part of this group from what I heard.

Cary - One of their owners is not keen on the new league owners. Wouldn't rent out the silverback stadium to them and apparently there is long term bad blood.

 

One of the Cary owners is the former Silverbacks owner?

...ah, I see. Jerkunica is a part owner. One of four owners. There are three others. Just because one of them has a long term problem with the new owners doesn't necessarily mean the other three do.

 

Yep. That's why he moved Kalanji there last season.

 

I'm also not sure the other Railhawks owners should necessarily give much weight to the guy that mismanaged the Silverbacks into oblivion.

 

He gives money, they give weight. Hopefully they stick around, would be nice to have B'ham, Atlanta, Charleston and Cary in the league.

Then find a new owner for Nashville, get Charlotte to go to D1 and you would have a great division.

 

Charlotte don't have the finances to go USL-1.

 

If blowing up the team every other year, alienating a good chunk of the fanbase (who went with the Atlanta Beat, and didn't come back after the Beat folded), going though coaches like most people change clothes, and loaning his best player to Red Bull in the midst of a playoff run, not to mention building a stadium without restrooms or concessions stands is doing a pretty good job, then yeah.

 

they might in my new SE vision division

Longest road trip would be 8 hours I would think, that's not too bad and certainly better than driving to Ludlow, MA or New Hampshire as they have done in the past.

Charlotte, Cary, Atlanta, Nashville, Birmingham, Charleston...that's good division. play each team home and away and that's 10 games right there.

 

I've heard that Charlotte doesn't have the finances to move up, but I think USL-1 will eventually need to have a team in either Nashville or Memphis as a connector to Austin and everybody in the west.

Although I've heard that a lot of kids play soccer in Birmingham so it could work out there.

 

I could imagine Charlotte not having the funds, but would be great if they could move up. Of course this is just another option in my dream scenario, but Carolina Dynamo were once in the top division.

Austin is out there, but isn't San Antonio supposed to be getting a team?
Then they need OKC or Tulsa.

Ah... dreams are all we have.

 

The Spurs have said that they want to do a USL1 team. They've also said they won't do it without a stadium. There is a youth organization northeast of San Antonio, in Cibolo, that's in the process of building a stadium that might be a good place for a USL1 team eventually. That's where things stand right now.

Charlotte tried it once (promotion) and, like Richmond, realized that it couldn't afford it and self-relegated. I've been thinking about this sort of thing in my Richmond thread. I didn't consider Charlotte because, looking at the attendance figures I have, they aren't doing that well and haven't been improving like Richmond. Their numbers are far short of what's needed to support a USL1 budget. Richmond is getting close, I think, but not Charlotte.

 

I remember when Richmond bought that custom bus, spent $350k on it.

Charlotte - its just a dream, it would take some crazy lottery winner or Joe Gibbs to make that happen.

Richmond is too far north for my "dream division".

if B'ham does come alive, I hope they bring back the Grasshoppers name. Always liked that one.

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! One of the major problems with the USL in my opinion is that it seems too mickey mouse. They want to compete with the big boys then they need to act like it. This league needs a major overhaul.

 

Works for this club fairly well.

Grasshopper Club Zurich

 

It is actually a Eurosnob reference, not Mickey Mouse.

Grasshoppers Zurich from Switzerland is where they copied the name from.