Yeah Vaporware as far as I can tell. Nothing in 3 months on their sanctioning as a league. And 1904 appear to be more sportsware marketing than soccer team. At least ASC have played actual soccer games for years, have an academy, etc...
The radio silence on sanctioning was expected because they submitted their proposal a year in advance. There was a midfield press post about this: the USSF was prioritizing the USL bid, since that one was more imminent. As far as team announcements, who knows. Philadelphia was last up, afaik, but we're in an awkward time of year for big announcements.
Well there haven’t been any solid that I’ve heard. And the NISA website has three whole markets they’re targeting... nothing more. Hell Miami and Cosmos, whom you’d have expected would go NISA are in on this NPSL Founders Cup play.
Supposedly they have eight. They're just drip feeding the announcements. They only requested one exemption in their sanctioning application (field size related), so they seem to think they have the necessary teams.
So there are three officially announced: "New England", Philadelphia, and Charlotte. SD 1904 was unofficially announced by the owner/league commissioner in a Midfield Press interview. Atlanta was confirmed today: #NISA president Bob Watkins confirmed to The Athletic that the league will have a club in Atlanta for its inaugural 2019-20 season, joining announced clubs in Philadelphia, Charlotte, Connecticut, and San Diego.More from our conversation later this week on @TheAthleticSCCR.— Jeff Rueter (@jeffrueter) November 19, 2018 Chris Kivlehan had word that Dallas was also on the sanctioning application: https://www.reddit.com/r/NISA/comments/9o71f3/what_teams_are_likely_to_join/e7u2q8j So that still only gets us to 6. If there's any truth is Kartik Krishnaier's initial, surprising announcement about this (FWIW I’m told NISA is close also to 8 teams. Mostly west coast.— Kartik Krishnaiyer 🇺🇦🌻⚽️ (@kkfla737) August 13, 2018 ) I guess there must be some west coast teams unaccounted for? But since then, Cal FC, Cal United, and Oakland Roots have all committed to NPSL Pro, so who knows.
Not to mention a competing team in San Diego for the Founders Cup NPSL thing. Just what we needed, market division.
2017 NPSL champions Elm City Express close up shop, and won’t be returning for 2019. They’ve had money problems since day 1; one former player told me they never got the promised bonus for winning the title in 2017.
Resolved: NPSL should have two separate playoffs, one for fully professional teams, the other for amateur teams. It's a goddamn outrage that, say, amateur Greater Lowell (MA) begins the season knowing that they could run the table and still not win a damn thing because (for some dumb reason) there's a professional team in their conference that's going to win every game by double digits. How are they supposed to get fans to their stadium when the season is over before the first kickoff? The collapse of every single team in the NPSL North Atlantic Conference bar one is absolutely guaranteed within a couple of years unless they figure out a way to give those teams a sliver of hope. And I presume there are conferences all over NPSL that have this same problem. It's patently offensive to have fully professional teams and NCAA code-mandated amateur teams in the same conference. NPSL needs to solve this problem. Maybe have a playoff for amateur teams and give the winner a spot in the Open Cup? I don't know. Anecdotally, they have one season, maybe two, to fix this.
Greater Lowell drew 78 people a game last year. It ain't 'cause of the Cosmos. They could run the table and not draw because they can't draw, period.
The Brooklyn Italians are averaging more goals scored per game than Cosmos. Should they leave too? Hartford City are nearly the same average as Cosmos, maybe that’s too many goals scored too? Life isn’t fair. Just be better. Scout better. Train better. Get better owners?
This might be the stupidest post that will appear on Bigsoccer in 2019. Seriously. That's not an ad hominem attack, it's a statement of fact. The Brooklyn Italians and HCFC are amateur teams with amateur players in an amateur league. The Cosmos are a professional team with professional players in an amateur league. There's no amount of "being better" that will change this fundamental fact.
Swing and a miss: https://www.nhregister.com/sports/a...en-s-soccer-returns-to-New-Haven-11317303.php "In the NPSL you have to declare yourself as an amateur team or pro team. We are a pro team."
Are you sure? I did a quick Google search and I found this: "The Express won the NPSL national title in 2017, but its players train just two or three times a week and are not paid to play." Also I recall they played college kids, which would make the team ineligible to field professionals. Even if I grant that Elm City were professional, I hope we can agree that there's a chasm between a team that might have slipped a few hundred bucks to some rando Brazilian player, and the Cosmos who have multiple fully capped internationals on their roster. Furthermore, the fact that Elm City Express went out of business weeks after winning the NPSL championship should tell you everything you need to know about sustainability. I know for sure that my local team runs almost exclusively on free labor (that is, players, admin, and staff are almost all volunteer). If they had to pay all those people, they'd be dead within weeks, just like Elm City.