What a derby THAT was! You can claim all you want. I can claim I'm Mayor of Phoenix, just job-sharing with that other guy. But that don't make it so. Yep. "Kidding themselves" is putting it mildly.
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. God, are all Cosmos fans dopes, or does it just seem that way? The NASL can't even approach anything one would call Division I in an actual developed nation. You'd be Division I in a lot of Banana Republics, but not in the US. And it wasn't a conspiracy and it wasn't because anyone is afraid of the league that crowns half-champions based on nine games and plays in baseball stadiums and trains in local parks. Arbitrary. Funny.
I know it's hard, but let's all try to be calm. Over reaction does not need to meet over reaction in all things. Consider this everyone's warning in this thread.
For the record, I don't care how it happens, I'm just glad Hill is gone. Tampa needs to freshen things up. Getting local soccer celebrity Quraishi as new GM will be interesting.
I mean, it's sooooooooo transparent that they set things like stadium capacity at an absurd level to be considered Division I. 15,000? Don't they know 8,000 is just fine for a first division league in the third-largest country in the world? TV? Youth development? Why set the bar so high, USSF? It's obviously because you're scared of the awesome power of the NASL!
Trolling.. How you are able to do this is amazing. If you do not have anything productive to post please do not post. This is the NASL thread where we support our league and would love for it to be the best league in the world. That is the goal of every league right? You do not seem to have a problem with the USPro leagues wanting to be better than NASL, but have an issue with NASL wanting to be better than MLS. And I am willing to bet MLS would love to be better than the Premier League.
Man, i see know why you got fired from your announcing job. The point is the stadium requirement was just added AFTER the remaining MLS teams in the temp venues under that threshold had moved out. Prior to that USSF was fine with not having this requirement for D1, but now, hey we can clearly set a rule like this and MLS can meet it, and NASL can't. Its an artificial roadblock just like the net worth provisions, etc. These are not real and legitimate competitive factors that go into the sanctioning of leagues. There is already a general requirement for all pro teams to play on regulation pitches, be bonded and pass financial oversight from USSF. USSF does not require professional leagues sanctioned under its authority to adopt a vertical integration scheme, therefore there really isn't a tier status for the actual teams that play in these leagues. Since there is not integration, the only hope for a league not named MLS is to meet D1 sanctioning criteria then is to force USSF to deny them that despite meeting said criteria then file a complaint or suit. (outside USSF granting it which no one believes they would do). USSF can get around this by technically implying that NASL doesn't meet the requirements based on the rules they adopted (rules with a lot of MLS input). Then you have to look at the rules, are they adopted to serve a legitimate purpose or are they arbitrary in nature and are unfair restrictions on competition? Setting new rules that coinsidentaly apply to MLS only for d1 sanctioning, or applying rules and/or limits that do not serve a legitimate purpose (like 15K stadium, enclosed stadium, 70 million net worth, ect). Maybe USSF really is that obtuse and they just said hey lets codify the staus quo for now, but that seems pretty unlikely. More plausable is that the MLS people that have enormous influance over USSF had a hand in the drafting of these requirements and the limits set where done intentionally to make it harder for NASL to meet them short term, while reserving the right to change them going forward. Wake up dude, or better yet piss off to MLS forums. You have to be the most anti-NASL "NASL fan" in these forums. Constantly posting here to agitate real NASL fans and telling everyone to shut up and just be a meddling lower league. Honestly, i wish some broadcaster would just hire you again, maybe you would transform back into a semi-decent human being.
I dunno.. Operating budget of MLS teams is significantly higher ($20+ million) than that of the lower division teams, I can certainly see why they would want a wealthier ownership group for a D1 team vs. a D2 team. Additionally, since a majority of the revenue for MLS teams is raised via game day tickets, I could also see why they would want to increase the stadium capacities to meet the operating costs of what it costs teams in the existing D1 league.. As far as waiting until after the last MLS team moves out of their temp stadium.. It is probably worth noting that, according to Forbes, San Jose lost $4.5 million in 2012. From what I understand, that is more than the operating budget for most NASL teams.. Toss a NASL team into a league where the operating cost is 5x higher than their current operating cost and you've got a recipe for disaster.
1.) Why not continue to hold you leagues to a high standard? Sure, many years ago USSF would have been happy with any pro teams in D1. Now? The league is able to attract wealthy owners who can afford to keep the club afloat and they can play in nice sized stadiums. The league has made progress. But your right, the USSF should remove those sanctions so we can get some clubs playing in vacant minor-league baseball stadiums a chance to play in D1, oh yeah and don't worry about the net-worth requirements, they can just trade hotel rooms for players! These USSF sanctions are so stupid!
Also ... it's good to raise the bar so to speak ... as MLS grows, the D1 standards are raised ... as NASL grows, the D2 standards are raised, etc. Nothing wrong with raising the bar as leagues grow.
Lowering the requirements wouldn't mean anything either. The fact would still remain that MLS is lightyears ahead of the NASL in all relevant measurements. The same issues would still exist. All it would do is allow some of you to feel better about the league your team is in.
I'd rather USSF use the D1 standards as a carrot to NASL/D2 teams ... as well as the D2 standards as a carrot to the USLPro/D3 teams (although I don't think there's an issue of them wanting to be anything more than a lower division league (D2/D3 is insignificant to them I think).
I know it is hard to post news in a thread about news.. But the new owners of the Strikers just sent their GM packing and rumors of their Head Coach not being offered a new contract: FB post from Tom Mulroy announcing his departure and thanking everyone for their hard work and support: https://www.facebook.com/tom.mulroy.338/posts/844831238871965:0
If Gunter gets sacked maybe Tampa Bay Rowdies will take a look at hiring him - he did an excellent job with the players he had in Fort Lauderdale.
Two Minnesota groups making presentations to MLS on Thursday Here's a nice little op-ed piece from an active local supporter on why Minnesota fans don't feel the matter boils down to "one billionaire vs another."
New York Cosmos Legendary Marcos Senna Pledges to play in 2015 http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/teams/cosmos2.php?article_id=39444 “Right now I’m still a player, I’m ready to play [and] I’m ready for next season. After next season, I can’t guarantee if I’m going to be playing yes or no,” he told BigAppleSoccer.com through a translator before Thursday’s practice.
Carolina RailHawks just re-signed Colin Clarke to a multi-year deal. I'm a bit surprised. I had a growing feeling that Clarke was going to end up working for NYCFC in some capacity, leveraging his long relationship with Jason Kreis. Throw in the way this season petered out, I figured this would be a good opportunity for the out of contract Clarke to walk away. The press release doesn't indicate anything more than "multi-year".
My iphone is acting up and not letting me paste a link, but Empire of Soccer has a story up about the Cosmos head coach stiff arming the Dynamo so that he can see through what he's started in NY.
Hopefully a healthy pay raise from the loosened wallets over at Traffic pays more than an assistant at NYCFC. That, and the relationship with Curt may have been enough.