http://www.90soccer.com/articles/?ID=4&ArticleID=575 I caught this link on the NAS list serv and I'll use the same response that I used on NAS. For some reason, that just excites me. Reserve teams is one of the "next steps". But I think they should place Reserve teams in different cities, like the prospective expansion cities. See how they draw (attendance wise) and make decisions based on that. I am aware this takes away part of the point of having reserve teams close, but you could put the Dallas Reserve team in Houston and the Crew reserve team Cincy, etc. While I'm sure this won't happen, I think it would be cool. Do you think these reserve teams would be better than, say, the A-League? How does that work in the EPL? Are the arsenal reserved better than D-1 teams?
The reserve teams would have to be in the same place as the main squad. All the players need to train together, have the same coaching, facilities, etc.
Re: Re: MLS reserve teams. In fact, all it probably would be is a practice league of all the teams, so everyone plays a match every week. It would probably mirror the real league schedule and the reserve players would travel with the first team to play any away games and play the day before or after the main match at the team's training facility. Extra spots could be filled by trial players or youth training with the team, I guess. Maybe they could even play in the PDL, I dunno. Logistically it probably wouldn't be hard at all, all the pieces are there, they just don't interconnect yet. The problem is it doesn't produce revenue, so the teams need to be in good or at least positvely progressing financial shape before it happens.
The way I'd like to see it done is for someone to set up a bunch of regional leagues. For example, in the Northeast you could have the reserve teams of the MetroStars, Long Island Rough Riders, NY Freedoms, Brooklyn Knights, et al play in a league of say 10 teams. Another way would be to have the MLS reserve teams play each other before the big game with the first teams of each. Or, like they used to do in high school with JV and Varsity football, the reserves can meet in one stadium and the first team in the other team's stadium. But the fact that reserve teams are being talked about is a MAJOR step in the right direction.
From the news we read, MLS still looses money every year. Here is my rough estimate of the cost of the reserve team: - Each team has only 15 players - a small team so that everyone has chances to play more. - 20K/player/year salary (cheap) - There are 10 teams - Total of players salary = 3 millions/year - Then you need to add traveling, hotel, etc. As the article states, while the league is still losing money, it is not a priority. Since I love MLS, I do not want to see the league go under. So, I rather see them save the money so at least I still have the real teams to watch. Let's use A-league, PDL, etc as "reserved team".
Some teams already do this. I know that the Chicago Fire have had a reserve team in the PDL (Heartland Division) for at least 3 or 4 years now. I think the Rapids have one as well. The structure is actually pretty much in place for youth as well. With the new Super Y League, you have elite youth teams that are tied to PDL 1st teams. Granted, this doesn't create ties directly to MLS, but I'm not sure that they are ever going to do that, given the current process of drafting, player allocation etc.
I know reserve teams aren't really economic feasible right now, but as dan roudebusch (sic) has pointed out, if you develope exactly two players or so over the course of five years, and end up selling these guys for maybe two million apiece at some point or another, you've paid for the whole project and then some. Something along those lines anyway. It's really an investment, not only in improving the quality of the league, but in the league itself. Players, looking at it from a purely standpoint, are a commodity, and investing in them is a sure way to ultimately increase their (economic) value.