News: Indoor Professional League ( IPL )

Card. The original question was based off of the idea "Any validity to the rumor? (About new Chicago team).

You respond with "not really".

Is it

Not really. - as in, not really any validity to the new team.

Or

Not really. - as in, not really, you have no further information

 

FWIW I saw a Florida Tropics magnet on a car in Tampa yesterday, so they are having some exposure in the area...

 

Wow, we've gone from 5-6 teams to 3-4. This sounds like a fiasco. SHAME.

 

If they only announce St. Louis, Baltimore and Florida then the league is probably doomed....We were promised ten teams or more just two months ago, each update the # gets smaller???

 

Historically Ed's leagues have had as few as five teams, but no fewer; there was always a palooka tossed in if there were only four legit teams. My bet for this one is at least six: Balt, StL, Fla, Syr, Harrisburg, and one more (maybe a team in Rochestor?) at a minimum. If they can convince one or two of the Midwest teams to follow there could be a domino effect there, but I'm not betting on that. Then it depends on how many new owners he can drag in. He very well could surprise but if the over-under number is 8.5 I'm taking the 'under'.

This doesn't mean the league won't survive, or that it won't find a niche to settle into. I just think that if Ed could pull a 10-12 team league out of thin air he would have done it years ago.

(For the record, I have no particular insight or wisdom as do so many others in the forum, just a fan playing at prognostication.)

 

The Midwest has to have some teams, if they don't St Louis is in desperate trouble. If any Pennsylvania Roar/Mass Twisters pop up this time it will be in the Midwest. Florida seems like a vocal point during a lot of interviews, up to 3 Florida teams keeps getting thrown out. Andrew Haines eluded to the fact they were "first" and wanted to get a footprint with players and fans before the others showed up.

Sam also had the NBDL owner on his show Saturday, and he seemed at least willing to listen to IPL proposals for Rochester. Where it goes who knows, but he did seem eager for what it's worth.

I think the teams announced in Florida will be: Florida, St Louis, Baltimore & either Syracuse or Harrisburg. I think as we move forward other teams that could pop up are Rochester, Chicago and/or Milwaukee. Sam mentioned on his show rumors of the 2nd Chicago team (as mentioned in this thread already) as well as a 2nd team in Milwaukee. These two 2nd teams would most likely be your doormats thrown in to give St Louis a lifeline and allow them to put some W's on the board. In a perfect world, Missouri and the real Milwaukee and Chicago would come over.. I just don't see that happening right now.

 

NBDL owner of what team? There is not an NBDL team in Rochester. For another Midwest team, what about Indianapolis? Especially if it will be like a Reading or Springfield type of doormat.

 

Will Cedar Rapids stay in the MASL or move to the IPL? No word anywhere on their plans that I have seen. If the IPL can get at least 3-4 teams in the Midwest & mid-south (including Saint Louis), it will help travel costs a lot. The Ambush rented 15 passenger vans for a lot of the road trips; as far as bus travel goes, those are cheap to rent. I too agree that the new league will have less than 10 teams in the first year, probably 8. A couple of them will be Roar/Twisters/Washington Generals outfits, albeit in real arenas. Several comments from Andrew Haines, Soccer Sam & others suggest more IPL teams in Florida for the upcoming season. We will see which new teams actually make it.

 

Of all the stupid things I've seen as an indoor soccer fan over the past 35 years, this break-away to form the IPL is hands down the all-time most stupid.

 

Cedar Rapids and Chicago have reaffirmed their commitment to the MASL. Baltimore is the only team that has resigned from the MASL. The league will likely enforce its no-compete clause against anyone else who tries to leave.

 

Of course they will, considering how well that strategy worked against the Blast this year.

 

The league accepted the Blast's resignation because most of the owners were glad to be rid of Hale.

 

Yes, but it certainly didn't stop the Blast from playing in the MASL playoffs.

 

Good luck with that, MASL. The MASL will then face evidence of not following its own guidelines and contracts. I don't think the Blast and other teams leaving are that worried about it. The most the MASL will get is nuisance value settlements, more than likely. How many other times have indoor soccer leagues split. Non-issue IMHO.

 

Really?

The all-time most stupid?

This would be a fun parlor game, actually.

I think the split into the NISL and XSL was the all-time most stupid, just off the top of my head. Completely and utterly unnecessary, stupid on the face of it, and left us with two leagues that, individually, were crap (one had four teams!) and collectively were no great shakes.

Let's make a stupid list. I'm not saying the IPL wouldn't be high on it (it probably is, and could go higher if it's just more of the same and the supposed AHL-owned teams don't materialize), I'm just saying there's competition for the top spot. And I think the 2008 split is the leader in the clubhouse, but I'm willing to be swayed.

 

The original MISL dropping the "Indoor" from the league name. Being in an AISA city (which itself changed to NPSL to eliminate the "Indoor" from indoor soccer) I don't recall all of the minutia in that decision.

I seem to recall that the new MSL wanted to play outdoors, too, to expand its reach. To me even then, it smacked of desperation (which it apparently was).

 

Yeah, they were trying to position themselves to potentially become the D1 outdoor league mandated by the awarding of the 1994 World Cup to the US.

To be fair, at the time, they were about the highest caliber league we had (indoors or out), so it wasn't completely out of the realm of possibility. But they had so many problems by that point, that it didn't matter why they did it, it wasn't going to help.

(So we had an indoor soccer league that dropped the word "indoor" from its name and now we have an indoor soccer league that drops the word "soccer" from its name. But, hey, you can buy Facebook likes.)

 

I would agree that the split into the NISL/XSL was this sports most self destructive event, so far. I remember the XSL was supposed to offer fans not only indoor soccer, but an "experience".

However, I am still waiting to see what happens with the IPL situation--I believe it has real potential to race to the top of the list. Not only because of the usual league drama, but because Ed may have painted himself in a corner this time. He left the MASL and if the IPL doesn't pan out, what happens to the Blast, which is supposed to be the sports poster child? Will they crawl back to the MASL, take a season off until another league is found, or will this be it?

So, if the IPL falls through, and the Blast end up not surviving because of it, then this would definatly race to the top in my opinion.

 

My all-time favorite indoor soccer-related quote...

"Soccer played a major role in my life, and those of my partners," said Viktor Jakovljevic, co-owner of the Chicago Storm. "To be a part of this lifestyle brand is a dream come true."​

 

And the next league to split off will drop both, and just call itself the "Professional League" or something like that.

 

To me, it always seems desperate when a league puts the term "professional" in their name (PASL-PRO, NPSL, IPL, USL-PRO, PFL). It is like they are trying to convince the world that they really are a professional sports league. Of course, they acronym for the latest attempt for a rugby league is PRO (Professional Rugby Organization).