According to this article by Ives (which quotes Clavijo), the answer is "Yes." http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/the-...s-draft-lafc-looks/1wqzbeknt3kak1ph4dir2nuxzo
"We'll definitely have (a USL affiliate) next year and we'll definitely find our young players a place to play this year," Clavijo said. Isn't an affiliate is what we had with Energy FC. I thought the news here was that we didn't really use our affiliate last year. We sent Coy Craft to the NASL and others to Tulsa Roughnecks. From USL: "Each MLS club will eventually be expected to either affiliate with a USL Pro team or operate an independent reserve team in the league."
I think they're discovering what a lot of teams in Europe already know and that's that teams accepting loans have different styles and different goals and those don't easily mesh with what you want for the player being loaned. Why would they put a short term loanee's interest in front of players they control? This is one reason I'm intrigued by the baseball model of rookie league, A, AA, AAA and major league teams where you control all the development of your own players and the style and instruction they receive at each level. The rest of the world style works but is it the best? Is it the best to loan out a player to a lower division team that plays differently and doesn't really care about your player?
I tend to agree. I think in the rest of the world, young soccer players who flash some talent are almost a fungible commodity. I mean, the entire transfer market is built around this, right? Therefore, I think the cutthroat "sink or swim" mentality is just brutally efficient. Excel? Wlecome back to your home club. Show something but it's not a perfect fit? Take a few Euros and and send him on his way down the table. Team you're loaned to gets stuck in a relegation fight and sacks everybody and a young kid never makes the first team? Oh well. In America, if we are going to prioritize our own players, and particularly prioritize getting them onto MLS sides as cheap talent that needs to excel HERE to bring any profit or to provide decent cheap starters, then I think the baseball model makes more sense. MLS already IS the lower level club where the young players can get noticed and bring some bucks. With our coaching system still very much evolving, I also think American players (speaking collectively) are going to continue to be "late bloomers" who can benefit from a little more support during their late teens and early 20s.
El Paso 2019: http://www.uslsoccer.com/news_article/show/891979?referrer_id=2333971 MountainStar Sports Group to lead new club as USL’s expansion continues
FCD II is rumored to be one of the 10 teams that the USLD3 submitted for D3 certification. 7 of those teams have been announced, and the recently announced Richmond Kickers, are actually considered the 11th team. USLD3 has been announcing about 1 team per week, and FCD II is expected to be one of the last 2 teams announced. So to be clear, 8 out of 11 teams have been made official. USLD3 is rumored to have as many as 14 teams lined up, which will include teams like the Kickers, who may still drop down from the USL. So take all that into account, and we likely will have to wait until late October or early November to find out.