Don Garber's State of the League :: Tuesday, December 2 @ 2:00 pm ET

So, what up with Canadian player classification and the away goals tie-breaker rule in the next playoffs and the stadium hunts for NYCFC and LAFC?

 

Pretty sure he left BigSoccer due to stupidity of certain posters (which I have on ignore) that keep bringing up fall to spring schedule, pro/rel, etc. He is active on Twitter.

 

1) Allegedly can't happen. Get on it, labor lawyers of BigSoccer.
2) Keep it and quit changing ****.
3) MLS hypocrisy. Though I understand the calculus on Miami - they've shown that they can't support soccer teams (or sports teams overall) well, so everything needs to be top-class in order for MLS to act on that. Having that Miami presser looks ridiculous in hindsight, however. All of that should have been happening behind closed doors.

 

I disagree with your interpretation, but as has been pointed out elsewhere in this thread it doesn't much matter anymore. The CSA is trying to work with MLS to find a compromise solution that provides incentives for American teams carry Canadians, but doesn't technically change their designation.

If that doesn't happen -- and the league is fine with it, it's certain people at the USSF that are not -- the CSA is prepared to test the legality of MLS/USSF's position in court. The legal opinion they have is confident they'll win.

That's me reporting. It's up to you whether you want to believe me or not.

 

I'm willing to believe you but you provide no evidence. I just don't see what you're reading in those articles that makes MLS's statement "fiction" even when the sources provided state in plain text that its a grey area.

 

What would it take for MLS to contract or relocate the 3 current Canadian teams?

 

Yeah, I'm wondering where LAFC fits. Or Orlando. Funny coincidence that the loss mentions is $100M and the expansion fee looks like ... hmmm ... the same number?

 

Three of the most profitable teams in the league?

Stupidity.

 

Read the post above mine. I *think* he called tab's point stupid. Then tab repped the post.

Back on topic...I thought it was interesting that Garber seemed to say that NYCFC had a deal but somehow it blew up. I guess Yankee Stadium was a fallback plan.

 

The conundrum may end up being that MLS could eventually need the Canadian franchises far less than the Canadian franchises need MLS.

It is a delicate and interesting inter- and multi-national balance, and certainly MLS wouldn't be in any rush to lose or to have to try to replace those Canadian franchises, but at the same time I'm sure there's only so much "trouble" that anyone involved with the league would want the CSA stirring up. But yes, for the most part all of MLS/USSoccer/CSA have mutually beneficial relationships that all will/should hope to maintain.

 

I repped it because it was a good reply (with which I basically agreed) to a question and a positive contribution to the thread.

My read on those comments by Garber is that MLS HQ honestly or likely at one point thought they had or could soon finalize the Flushing Meadows location, and once that didn't materialize, the Yankees and their venue (as a temp/shared site) were added in to the new and still-forming ownership group for NY2.

 

Normally we're able to trust the regulars in this forum not to make it necessary to moderate every thread. It's generally a pretty handy forum that way, and means that if all of the moderators are in meetings or otherwise busy, that things don't normally go off the rails. Because folks in this forum, once asked to get back on topic, generally do in that thread and in others in the future. We shouldn't have to tell the same user/users to avoid the same points ad naseum.

 

The reality is that this thread is or should be a virtually all-encompassing "on-topic" depot, given the number of topics that were touched or re-introduced by Garber and his guests during the 70-some minutes of the 2014 State of the League address/round table.

Many of the posts that were binned after the first request were insightful "state of the thread" type posts (and did not reference the schedule, as requested). And a pair of posts were made (and then deleted by a mod) as responses to earlier on-topic points (related to the state of MLS) but as posts that were made prior to the poster reading the full thread or seeing the initial "request."

 

So anyway....how does Don look?

Cancer beaten....right?

 

We agree there. (And you may have misinterpreted the post you were quoting.)

Absolutely.

 

I'm not a doctor, but his ears certainly aren't getting any smaller.

 

I've never seen mods so active before, not to mention rude. My two cents.

 

Sometimes we all criticize the man but when a person is overtaken with an illness such as his, you can not help but keep him in your thoughts and how precious life is. I hope and pray that he did in fact beat it.

 

Since you have a more hardy constitution than I, is he still on about the group stage playoff thing?

 

Yes, and someone tweeted side-by-side pictures of him from something recent and from when he first signed with the league, and my reaction was not one of those "Oh, my God, /insert name of President/ looks like hell eight years later" things.

 

Unfortunate that this entire thread was moved to YBTD.

Was that the first time they actually acknowledged the plans for the not mentioned Flushing Meadows Corona Park site falling through?