Another New England team?

Just because there is going to be a reserve league does not necessarily mean that there will be one reserve team per MLS team.

Just thinking as I type here.

 

My best guess is that any reserve team (note the lack of a plural there) would be close to, if not in Foxboro:

* It would be most consistent with current club operations from a logistical standpoint.

* It would save a fair bit of money rather than having them train and/or play at another venue.

* With the emphasis on player development, you'd want both teams interacting with each other on a regular basis.

* It would be one reserve team: if the league/Adidas are subsidizing this effort, they're not going to share the wealth with a U-19 "Reserve" team, or something similar that may be involved in the USL. For example, I'd bet that the league would tell the Metrostars and Fire that their "reserves" must fall into line and join the league effort. Perhaps these clubs can put a U-19 or U-21 team in the PDL if they want, but if the goal here is to legitimately develop players, what's the point in doing that?

The Magpie

 

Would you expect this potential team to be profitable?

 

By not necessarily one per team, I meant that there may be a six team developmental league or something along those lines, I didn't mean that there could or would be more than one developmental team per MLS team.

As I indicated elsewhere, in Chicago's case, the Fire Reserves are nothign of the sort. There is no connection between the teams except the name. It's a cross promotional thing, not a player development thing.

Metros and DC do sponsor youth programs that develop actual players in the lower levels of USL (Super Y) I expect that if the league expands rosters to permit additional developmental players and puts those players into a pooled league, then Metros and DC will have an advantage in identifying local players low in the draft who would make good prospects.

Any sort of involvement with local teams is going to improve a team's chances of identifying good picks, but that doesn't mean they're going to actually make them.

MLS coaches and teams have a very bad track record in general of scouting even NCAA 1 tournament college players let alone youth players in their own backyard. Often the combine is the only place that MLS teams expose themselves to what's available.

Some teams do better than others, but you see a lot more USL teams scouting college games than you do MLS teams.

 

I think it is a real and open question as to how many reserve teams there are going to be.

MLS intends to provide an environment where developmental roster players can get playing time week in and week out.

You have a few options here:

1. The often discussed "expansion of P40 into four regional Bradenton type programs" scenario
2. The tag along developmental team scenario (where you would have 15 developmental players PER TEAM (an increase of about 9 from the current permissible level, which I don't think all teams are even fully using).
3. The expanded rosters and small developmental league scenario.

Option 3 would be similar to the roundly criticized MLS P40 team in the USL experiment, where P40 players from around the league competed as a team in D3. They sucked because they never trained together and the team occasionally found itself in positions where they were unable to field enough P40 players since P40 players were highly valued by teams, being essentially roster exempt stars of tomorrow types, instead of workingmen developmental players (in these circumstances they would invite other league players to the team, and they still sucked).

The thing is that any option that involves flying around another 15 players to every game (remember that teams can only suit 15 players for an away game, so they don't usually tow along players who aren't going to play, so you're talking about bringing an entire extra roster here). That would significantly increase travel expenses.

However, you could create a situation where you locate "MLS Reserve player" teams in undeveloped potential markets that are also airline hubs. This would reduce travel costs and also reduce the amount of roster expansion necessary to get all those players out there.

Say that an MLS team is on the road during a particular week. instead of toting along the dev roster players, you send them to Atlanta or St Louis or Houston or, I dunno, Rockford to play in a dev game. Say two dev games a week, and four total dev teams.

Players would be assigned to dev teams based on some random allocation.

The downside is that you lose some of that esprit de corps stuff, the upside is that half the time the dev players are training all week with an MLS team, and the rest of the time they're training and playing against other players of their age and experience level.

 

The current plan as I've been following it is:

to have expanded MLS rosters and use the leftover players for reserve matches. They'll be in the city (or nearby) at a smaller facility or a MLS controlled facility. They won't be a "minor league" team. They will be 1 per team although the possiblity of some integration with USL is a remote possibliity. Expect games to be against conference teams only, 20 games plus some scheduled exhibitions. Nothing fnal has been reported.

 

FWIW, I've heard something quite similar to this.

The Magpie

 

So this scenario would have the reserve teams flying to away games and playing the host's reserve side? And some of the new Adidas money would help pay for travel expenses?

 

They had something very similiar, at one point, with the Bulldogs.

They could play games reasonably anywhere within an hour or so of Foxboro and still train regularly with the Rev senior team.

But, if they played on the stadium grounds (Patriot's practice field?) for cheap admission, they would be competed with the parent club (a certain segment would prefer to pay $7.50 to watch a game of young kids fighting for promotion, rather than spring for $20 plus parking, etc.).

If you push the games into a new area, you can use it to expose the Revs organization to new fans. An urban site makes the most sense to me. Some place like Nickerson, BC, Somerville, Medford, Everett, Franklin Field, Parson's Field, ...

 

EXCITING News.
This all is consistant with what the GM of the Fire said (to Fire fans a few months back)would likely happen. Expanded DV Rosters, Train with the team and Play the other teams Reserve Teams. This system will allow regular roster bench players to keep game fitness, injured players to regain fitness and young players to be developed.
EXCITING

 

I have also heard something very similar to what swedcrip34 says. I may be totally off-base here, but this is how I imagine it would work:

Think of the Revs-Revs Reserves relationship like high school Varsity and JV teams. All the players train together and any JV player who impresses enough can earn a shot to get in a Varsity game. The guys who are healthy and don't play at least a half of the varsity game will end up playing a JV game, either against similar players of a nearby MLS team, an A-League team, D-3, PDL, good college team, whatever. The only thing that is important is that next year's versions of Belleh, Thomson, Dorman, Brillant, Singer, etc. get to play a competitive game against a competent side every single week.

Now if the Revs take a bus to the Swamp to play the Mutts, it doesn't cost any more to bring the whole team, other than hotels and meals. Let them play a game the Sunday morning on the Mutts practice field or some local Open Cup-worthy field. They probably wouldn't fly everyone to the other coast, but instead give them a bus trip to someplace closer like Montreal. They'd probably play several games in Ludow, New Hampshire, RI Stingrays, etc. as well as USISL teams in the mid-Atlantic area, BC, Hah-vid, UConn, etc.

Right now, unless a young player can become the next Noonan/Dempsey or even Dorman right away, he doesn't have a whole lot of opportunity to get seasoned and make an impact the following year. Hopefully this will change all that.

Tom

 

I have heard something similar to what has been said so far... rosters to be increased (the numbers I have heard are by around 6 players) and the reserves would play the day after the regular game... the reserves would also include players who did not get in (or did not get enough work) in the regular game as well as players working their way back into fitness...

I mentioned that I would like to see these games spread around (within a 1-2 hour bus ride, to familiarize the region with the revs) but I didn't see eyes light up when I said this... nonetheless, I think it would be good to have a game in Portland, Nashua, Hartford, Springfield, Providence, etc, to spread the word... I suspect that they will all be in one place though:-(


rand

 

the cart usually goes behind the horse

 

As far away from Nicol as possible.