Any thoughts on how the MPSL is doing in its first season? I just got a major surprise the other day when I poked my head into the Maryland Pride (women's team) web site. They left the W-League and joined the WPSL. Was under the impression they were just on the west coast, looks like they are going national. Wonder if the MPSL will eventually follow suit and go after dis-enchanted USL teams?
WPSL did get the authorization to go national, they have another former W-League team but I cannot remember which one. MPSL took Arizona and a handful of other D3 teams, didn't they?
The MPSL consists of these teams ... I forgot which ones were originally in USL teams. Chico Rooks N. Nevada Aces Arizona Sahuaros Las Vegas Strikers Tucson Tiburons Utah Salt Ratz I haven't seen much of any information about how the league is doing though.
The Aces and Sahuaros were in the D3 league last year, Chico, formerly of the D3, was in the PDL last year. The other 3 teams are new. Interestingly, the first year Salt Ratz are advertizing themselves as "Utah's Pro Soccer team" or something like that and a few of their supporters are trolling a Utah Blitzz discussion board claiming they could easily beat the Blitzz if given the chance.
I thought MPSL was strictly amateur? Oh well I remember when the Memphis Express started up last year the headline was 'pro soccer returns to Memphis'. Unfortunately the MPSL and any USL teams will never play, according to the USL office. The USL did not like the way the MPSL came in and bad mouthed, etc, and now they forbid any competition between the leagues, they even forbid any USL owners to have anything to do with MPSL teams. They say it will 'validate the league' or something like that if they agree to play.
I was under the impression that MPSL players weren't paid too. They're paid for camps and the like but not actually playing itself.
Wonder how the crowds are. All I've seen to date is a Tucson news account saying that there were about 150 people at their opener. Any word in Utah? Chico would be highly interesting, since they drew relatively well for their level.
The MPSL was 'trash talking' the USL when the discussions started up last year and at that point, the USL decided that letting it's teams play the MPSL teams would be 'validating' their league. They put out a memo stating that USL teams could not play games against the MPSL, that any USL owner could not be in any way related to an MPSL team, coaches and things like that. They wanted a complete separation from the MPSL.
The MPSL wouldn't bother me so much if I better understood where they fall in our soccer structure. I have read things saying it is another Division 3 league, but I have also read that the USASA sanctions it, which to me implies that it is a Division 5 league (one step below PDL, like everything else associated with USASA supposedly). This same thing irks me about lower division women's soccer as well. Seems the USSF haven't taken it upon themselves to reclassify the WPSL as D3. I dunno. I'm sorry, but this all just seems kind of sloppy to me, structurewise.