End game for the NASL

NASL owners don't have the money to compete with MLS. If they try, they will end up exactly like the old NASL did.

 

In 2012 the NASL's average attendance was much closer to the USL's average than to MLS's average. I don't think MLS and the USSF would want two unconnected leagues competing to be the best.

 

That is why USSF sanctions NASL D2 and MLS D1.

 

It cannot be parallel. That's impossible.

I don't see how this is possible either. The MLS already has the major markets (a small sprinkling not withstanding). The NASL simply won't have the ability to do this based on where their teams are located. When one league has only a tiny spattering of clubs in truly "small markets" and the other has only a tiny spattering of clubs in truly "big markets" there is and won't be any competition or equal footing.

TV money is still slow rolling in with the MLS ... how exactly is the NASL going to gain any traction with sponsors/tv/etc when the MLS already has the biggest/best markets locked up ?



Like you, I feel that the NASL won't exactly be the AAA of baseball but a mix between younger fringe players and guys that are getting older/got injured that can still play at a relatively high level.

 

I'd like to see the day when NASL becomes a league that teams are satisfied with. I'm tired of all the teams hinted that they want to move up to MLS. I'm just ready for some consistence and stability in NASL.

I think MLS should stop expanding after NYC2 & Orlando - and then I'd like to see 20 teams in NASL. As the NASL markets realize that NASL is the end goal and here to stay then hopefully 10k attendance becomes the norm which leads to teams being able to get more sponsorships & better talent. MLS would always be D1 and NASL always D2 - but you'd probably see the leagues alternate years winning the US Open Cup. (much closer talent gap than today).

 

Not with out TV money, and for that they need NYC (Cosmos to stay in NASL and survive 2 MLS NY/NJ teams) and they need an LA team.

 

I think that day will happen once there are no more NASL teams that have MLS-potential. But, we're not there yet.

MLS isn't going to stop expanding until there are no more viable expansion teams. I know, that sounds circular, but it's reality. MLS will continue to poach teams from NASL so long as NASL has teams worth poaching.

 

To play devils advocate: The WHA (hockey) targeted medium and large markets and posed a real challenge to NHL across the continent. NASL could replicate this, in fact, they are to an extent. They are already in a lot of markets that could have potential, and can add more, particularly on the west coast. There are several threads that explore the potential expansion opportunities, but they are also decent MLS opportunities. They would also need to unseat the USL in some markets like Orlando, Austin, and LA.

The real issue is that the NASL owners do not consider it a top league, they almost all have MLS aspirations. The NASL would also really need to make a stadium rule, something like a team must have a SSS plan to enter the league and then build out in 5 years.

Just some thoughts.

 

Given enough time, anything can happen, of course.

That said--is "MLS competitor" a realistic goal for the NASL in the short or medium term? No.

The NASL:

1. Is a regional league, despite USSF requiring them to try to recruit teams from across the country. Right now the league has zero teams west of the Rockies, and only three teams play in states that don't have beaches on the Atlantic Ocean.

2. Is a tiny league. The first half of this season will have seven teams in it (6 American and 1 Canadian). If all of the current teams survive, and all of the prospective expansions happen, in 2014 they'll have ten American teams and two Canadian, and still no presence west of the Rockies.

3. Is an unstable league. This is their third season, and while they've to their credit improved on the old USISL game of musical chairs, there was still a lot of uncertainty about a couple of their existing teams in the offseason.

4. Is starting a long way behind. There are already MLS teams in most of the major U.S. and Canadian markets. The Cosmos may make noise about competing against MLS in New York, but unless they can scare up similarly nutty investors to start teams in Los Angeles and Chicago and northern California and Dallas and Houston and Washington, D.C., they're only going to be in two of the top ten U.S. media markets. MLS is in nine.

5. Is on the wrong side of Occam's razor. The Cosmos want a team in New York and feel shut out of MLS, so competing is their only choice. If the Silverbacks want to be top tier, and have the money to compete, they can just jump to MLS. Until the MLS bus is full--full of the best NASL teams in the best NASL markets--there's no reason for anyone to push this idea but the Cosmos.

Short version: The NASL is three years old and doing better than the average minor American soccer league...but that's a pretty low bar. Division 1 material, they're not.

 

Furthermore, if an NASL team in a big market (Cosmos, Atlanta, maybe San Antonio) does have success anything like an MLS team, MLS will poach them. That will deprive the NASL of any chance of directly competing with MLS.

 

Maybe. MLS charges millions to join. If a NASL team has success and is profitable in the NASL there may be no reason to join MLS and spend a couple million $ expansion fee....but that assumes the NASL starts to be seen as a potential competitor to MLS by the NASL owners, which at this times does not seem to be the case other than the Cosmos.

 

Boy its an interesting time to be a soccer fan in the US. I wish I knew what the NASL was really thinking, whether they want to try and compete with the MLS, or be a strong D2. Ultimately, its up to them, but personally, I don't see any reason they couldn't be a solid D2 down the line, one that would even have nice stadiums and well attended games and solid play. Claiming to want to compete head to head with MLS might be the best way to get investors in, then slowly fade it out.

Who knows? Maybe in 20 years we'll have our own 'Creation of the Premier League' moment

 

according to David Downs , the former commish of the NASL, the end game was pro/rel between MLS and NASL.

I think most fans of NASL clubs feel this way also. It's just going to take some patience and a lot of time to let the league grow.

 

Really now? To quote David Downs,

http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/01/q-and-a-n-a-s-l-commissioner-david-downs/

In said article, he states in his wildest dreams there would be pro/rel between MLS and NASL. Which is like saying, in my wildest dreams; I would be dating Scarlett Johansson. But that statement up above, and others Downs has made, indicates that economically it isn't very feasible.

And the recent MLS/USL agreement makes it less so. Unless you see this as the beginnings of MLS2. And that is the only way we will ever see MLS experiment with pro/rel.

 

To quote David Downs,

http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/01/q-and-a-n-a-s-l-commissioner-david-downs/

In said article, he states in his wildest dreams there would be pro/rel between MLS and NASL. Which is like saying, in your wildest dreams, you would be dating Scarlett Johansson. But that statement up above, and others he made, indicates that economically, it isn't very feasible.

And who are you to speak for most NASL fans? Or know what they feel? I don't see you posting in the NASL section here. Most NASL fans aren't that daft.

 

most NASl fans wouldn't want their clubs promoted to top tier? Huh?!!?

Most NASL fans i talk to want pro/rel. I've never actually talked to one that said "yeah, if my team wins the league i'd hate for us to get promoted"

That's just one article by Downs. He has spoken publicly that the perfect end game for NASL would be pro/rel with MLS. He hints at it in that article. By wildest dreams he is actually saying what he wishes would really happen. But he's realistic about it and recognizes MLS owners would resist it.

You anti-pro/rel zealots are a scourge to the growth of soccer in this country. I'd like to call you a lot more things but don't want to be red carded.

 

The ones that aren't blind monkeys are realistic about it. Yes, there are those (I speak from experience as I myself am a fan of a NASL club here in my current city of residence) that wouldn't want the promotion right now. It wouldn't make sense and the club wouldn't survive ... or wouldn't be viable longer than a year or two. The gap is simply too big at the moment.

Yes, and 6yr old girls across the country want a unicorn. Both are equally fantastical.

I suggest you revisit the meanings of the words "wildest" and "dreams" and come back after you've digested them.

I also love you you know what he's actually saying. Seems that with that skill you'd not need to waste your time on here.

For one thing, many of the people you are slamming with that label actually aren't anti pro/rel. In fact, many of us love the system in of itself. However, using it in the context of our construct here in the US, it's simply not a fit. There are many variables that lead to this. You anti American soccer folks simply don't get it. THAT is much more of a hindrance to the growth of soccer in this country than any other single thing out there.