News: Indoor Professional League ( IPL )

It's beyond tired. It's comatose.

Maybe even mummified

 

I think I've said this a few times. I just want a stable league, so I can take my boys to go see the Blast. I don't care if it's the MASL, MISL, IPL, whatever. Just enough f this.

 

Yes, as Kenn says, Hale should apologize. He promised 8-10 teams in the IPL this season. To date, he has four with about 3 months to go before the season begins. It's not going to happen.

 

Even though Ed Hale publicly and repeatedly insulted the MASL as a league as a whole and most of its owners - especially the Missouri Comets owners - I would still like to see all the defectors return. Like it or not, it would be the best thing for the sport. How would Hale act going forward if they returned has to be taken into consideration. If representatives of the two leagues are meeting then presumably that is being addressed.

Now, the annual indoor soccer beat-the-clock ritual. Either way the re-merger goes along with any other expansion or even expulsion of teams, the MASL has to finalize its teams and schedule sooner rather than later. It would be great if everything could be settled and in the books by early August.

Tic...tic...tic

 

They still don't believe he's serious. That's why in a sport where owners line up like lemmings for the next shiny new thing, no one followed Ed to his latest boondoggle.

 

These guys are rich. They fly all over the place. Why did Ed Hale fly to Las Vegas to meet with Meir and Mike Zimmerman? Those guys didn't end up joining the IPL did they?

The IPL peaked at four teams. What kind of idiots on this board keep insisting that that is a viable number of teams? I mean for crying out loud guys, try to use your own brains a little bit.

 

Why is it senseless to announce 4 new franchises? Do the people in those markets plan on buying season tickets only weeks or even days away from the season opener?
Arena dates? Sponsors? Staff? Players? Are these all necessities that will just fall into place at the 11th hour?
Call me crazy, but to me it makes all the sense in the world to announce the new teams. Right now. In fact, it should be shouted loud and often.

 

I gotta go with the venerable new guy on this.

 

I second that motion. Venerable is calling for actual common sense to be implemented by an indoor soccer league. It has been a while since any league used common sense and an actual vision for the future, though. My hair is turning grey waiting for that to happen.

 

Cricket's Indian Premier League does, in fact, have more than 4 teams.

Oh, wait... you weren't talking about cricket's IPL, were you? Given that you were posting in the "Indoor Professional League (IPL)" thread of BigSoccer's "Pro Indoor Soccer" forum, the IPL you were trying to claim currently has "more than 4 teams" is the indoor soccer circuit launched by Ed Hale.

Frankly, unless it is comprised of Baltimore Blast A, Baltimore Blast B, St. Louis Ambush 1, St. Louis Ambush 2, Florida Tropics SC Orange, Florida Tropics SC Aqua, Harrisburg Heat Rash, and Harrisburg Heat Stroke, Mr. Hale's IPL does NOT have "more than 4 teams".

Additional Indoor Professional League franchises "were never announced" because they don't exist anywhere but in the fevered imaginations of Ed Hale, Sam Fantauzzo, Andrew Haines, and apologist fanboys for said gentlemen.

The reason that the Baltimore Blast, St. Louis Ambush, Florida Tropics, and Harrisburg Heat may soon "be in one league" with current MASL teams is because Ed Hale, Sam Fantauzzo, and Andrew Haines haven't been able to attract "more than 4 teams" to their Indoor Professional League start-up.

Whatever happened to rumors of IPL franchises in markets like Atlanta, Buffalo, Chicago, Lehigh Valley, Portland, Syracuse, and Utica? Despite all of the claims and rumors and whispers of so-called discussions with AHL and NHL and NBDL and NBA ownership groups, Ed Hale's vaunted IPL is shaping-up as nothing more than an underwhelming 4-team disappointment.

The reason that the Blast, Ambush, Tropics, and Heat may soon "be in one league" with the MASL teams Ed Hale was/is so disdainful of is because Mr. Hale's IPL is looking as if it will be stillborn.

It is, to quote another Ed Hale apologist, such a - wait for it - "SHAME".

 

What's funny, is in the article, neither Sam or Milliken say there was a meeting, rather, Milliken indicates that no meeting has taken place. So, does anyone know for sure these meetings have taken place, other than a couple of Blast fans, who I might add, have been known to be wrong several times when reporting things? Matter of fact, the linked news reports it all as speculated reports of talks on social medium. Might this all just be along the same lines of the "super league", aka the IPL with 8-10 teams, and when Ed can only get 4, it's reported that they have more, the people that know everything say there's more, their just keeping them a secret? Tic Toc Tic Toc.......


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They're going to use the ASL 2015 marketing strategy.

 

Fossilized

 

If the IPL clubs did crawl back to the MASL, why would the IPL clubs want to be placed in the same division? Isn't one of the advantages of the MASL is the regional setup--why would the IPL clubs not want to take advantage of that? It sounds silly to place Bal, StL, FL and Har in one division, especially with Syr hanging out there. The travel costs would be vitually the same with this set-up as if they were a seperate league (though FL will be paying out of the nose either way).

Is the reunified league planning to have another ridiculous MPS/SPS arrangement with the IPL clubs playing under MPS rules and all others playing SPS?

Also, if Bal is allowed back to the MASL, will they choose their away opponents as in the past (will they choose to play CHI, MO, MKE, SD, DAL or will they travel to play the smaller rec center clubs)? I am assuming they will play HAR six times in a 20 game season.

 

Well, considering the last 2 seasons the division has been identical, I don't see any issue. Other than Florida, the teams in the "IPL" aka East Division are the same as the previous 2 seasons. Florida was going to have to travel large distances regardless of IPL or MASL play, the East is probably their best option as well. Syracuse, Baltimore, Detroit, Harrisburg, Florida will most likely be the Eastern Division.

Let's hope not. No matter which side of the fence you're on with this, I think we can all agree to just pick 1 and use it league wide. Mixing and matching just makes the league look even worse than it is, if that is possible.

Does it matter? It's going to be this way regardless, league wide. Dallas will have a schedule, as always, filled with mainly Southern Conference crap teams. Milwaukee, Missouri, Chicago will play each other 4 times each, at least. San Diego will have 10-to-12 of their 20 games against Turlock, Sacramento, and Vegas (if they stay). Without the IPL teams joining, the MASL already said it will be even more regionally based...prepare to see the same set of teams over and over for every team.

 

This statement is the very definition of a crock of revisionist taurine fecal matter. How so? I'm glad you asked. Let's take a trip down memory lane, shall we?

So, at this point, cardshopmd would have had us believe that Chicago, Milwaukee, and Missouri - the latter two admittedly "long shots" - were possibilities to join Ed Hale's IPL.

In point of fact, 4 teams - not "5 or 6" - were announced at the May 3rd press conference: the Baltimore Blast, Florida Tropics SC, Harrisburg Heat, and St. Louis Ambush. No other IPL franchises - including teams based in Chicago, Milwaukee, or Missouri - were "announced later in may". In fact, no other IPL franchises beyond Baltimore, Florida, Harrisburg, and St. Louis have been announced to date.

Here, cardshopmd was responding to a list of rumored potential IPL markets that was comprised of Atlanta, Buffalo, "a new Chicago team", Lehigh Valley, Portland (Maine), and Utica. He also shared the opinion that the return of the Rochester Lancers and Wichita Wings was a possibility. To date, none of the markets has been announced as being the home of an IPL franchise.

Hmmmmmmm... I wonder how cardshopmd defines "soon"? Would 3 months fit his definition?

It seems that the IPL leadership also forgot "NY Teams".

While IPL franchises based in "buffalo and Rochester" would be "NY Teams", clubs in those cities have not been unveiled to date.

Hmmmmmmm... if 3 months isn't cardshopmd's definition of "soon", maybe 2 months and 3 weeks fits the bill?

Well, technically speaking, beyond the Baltimore Blast, Florida Tropics SC, Harrisburg Heat, and St. Louis Ambush, no other franchises will "ever [be] joining the IPL", because Ed Hale and company appear to be on the verge of having to slink back to the MASL in the wake of not being able to secure more than 4 teams for Mr. Hale's indoor soccer vanity project.

It turns out that cardshopmd had every reason to worry.

Since when is "jump[ing] ship" defined as staying put and waiting for the franchises that bolted from your league to return to the fold?

It would seem that Mr. Hale and his partners in the IPL did quite a bit of TALKING with regard to the launch of the league. It was the FOLLOW-THROUGH - particularly when it came to securing additional member-franchises for the league - that tripped them up.

Well, cardshopmd has a well-earned reputation for being willing to believe just about anything and everything his sources with the Baltimore Blast/IPL are willing to feed him. Not much of it panned out.

Would those be the arena leases for the "2 teams [that] are still a part of the MASL", or for nonexistent franchises in markets like Atlanta, Buffalo, Lehigh Valley, Portland, Utica, etc.?

There's that pesky word "soon" again. Let me guess - this time it meant a month?

Good thing they vetted those potential owners, because it would appear that the candidates weren't stable enough to get their teams to launch, let alone through "longer than 1 season".

No! Really? The Honorable Ed Hale & Company would abandon all of the promise and potential of their breakthrough 4-team indoor soccer competition in order to crawl back... oh, pardon me... negotiate a return to the MASL? Go figure.

Well, they were either a couple of figments of Ed Hale's imagination, fictional franchises concocted by the IPL brain trust in order to make it seem that the league was comprised of more than 4 teams, or the 2 MASL clubs that cardshopmd is now seemingly implying were prepared to bolt the MASL for the IPL.

Well, everything except the number of franchises - 4 - that Ed Hale and his partners in the IPL were actually able to announce to the public. Oh, and the fact that those 4 franchises represent a number that is less than what cardshopmd has been touting would be the total number of IPL teams introduced since back in April.

Yeah... namely, figuring out how to negotiate the Baltimore Blast, St. Louis Ambush, Harrisburg Heat, and Florida Tropics SC into MASL where they can join the pair of teams that the IPL brain trust supposedly have "lined up".

The less heard from the IPL staff the better, as anything they have to say, whether disseminated through official channels, or their favorite leak/mouthpiece/rumor-monger, is usually utterly lacking in credibility.

 

You think? Kinda like "meetings" that nobody knows about except a select few. So secret that even Milliken didn't even know about them, let alone the writer of a news release that deemed the meetings as "rumors in social medium". Now, admittedly, I don't have an owner calling me up and telling me everything that is going on in this new league, however, even though I wouldn't consider Milliken to be a star witness, I dang sure would consider him a more reliable witness than some that can't keep the IPL story straight, and dang sure not Ed Hell.


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[QUOTE="Brian in Boston QUOTE]
You're not seeing the forest for the trees my friend. The 4 very strong IPL teams was a catalyst to get things moving in either direction. The IPL is/was poised to play under the aforementioned banner. The IPL Governors is/was open to allowing the MASL to merger or join, under better business practices. You see, the business acumen of the MASL's owners is poor....very poor. There is a reason the Blast has been in business for so long. There is a reason the Blast made money over the years or broke even.

If by your point of view, the IPL teams join the MASL under the SAME business cloud, than I will admit that people like you, Kenn, NSL2004 and the Shelts was right from the beginning. However, if there is some sort of merger and the business practices are different, much improved, franchised etc, than I would say game, set and match Ed Hale.

PS: Since the Shelts is never right (see Kansas City's Hockey team), please allow me to take his name out of this conversation.

SHAME

 

When it comes to professional indoor soccer in this country, there is no forest filled with trees. Just a pocket park containing a handful of saplings... and a lawn covered with the nuts who are hell-bent on deifying Ed Hale.