As sad as it is for fans, self relegation at least allows clubs to keep breathing. It seems that the team just needed more time to prepare because they weren't quite ready yet for the rigors of USL-Pro. Hopefully lessons were learned and now they have the time to put plans together to try again. Who knows, within a few years perhaps we may see FC NY skip USL altogether and go directly to NASL!! There's always hope...
I organize the FC Vipers of New York City, and we've had aspirations to have a successful soccer club that challenges for the US National Championships, at both the youth and adult level. I see that the relevance of amateur soccer far supersede professional teams. Hence, I've focused on keeping youth and amateur teams, without having to deal with professional players, who would otherwise not be if they were in another country. The FC Vipers respects all clubs that have invested their time, money, and effort to put together a team to compete in the various Semi-Pro local and national leagues in the US. I feel that there needs to be more focus on sponsoring players under 21, aged from 5-21. If we can have these "pro teams" work with the youth clubs who need aid with their clubs, there will be more response in fans if the "pro teams" showed some genuine interest (of building a fan base), and not about ticket sales(Red Bulls tried to get me to buy tickets, and I'm not supporting them for I've reached out to them multiple times to sponsor us without any response from the Metro/Bulls). The FC Vipers welcomes any scrimmage with any of our current teams Boys U 11, Boys U 14, Boys U20/U23 and Mens open.