This week! That's depressing. If my soccer club goes out of business I'd be heartbroken. It would be the worse thing that's happened to me this year and I've had part of a toe amputated and lost my job.
LI does have plenty of good clubs, but no designated Developmental Academies, basically the gold standard for an academy. Kids who are good enough to be in it don't pay one cent. It takes an owner with a long term vision someone with roots in the community. Very tough for that to happen.
I had forgotten about Kelmsley. Man, going back and reading all the articles about the rebirth (v1 and v2) would be comedy gold there. Also...NASL down to four teams, according to Quarstad.
Unless that debt is only marginally higher than the cost of an NASL expansion fee--not that those should cost anything right now*--any rational investor should simply start a new team. Particularly as the organization is still probably tied into some poor contracts and an unsustainable cost structure. But people can't let go of the idea that this "brand" has some special, magical right to keep existing. Basically, they cheer for laundry. *Really, anyone even the least interested in an NASL team should be demanding free entry. And forget paying a bond. If anything, I'd want the other owners making covenants to ME, backed by personal guarantees.
If they never made it clear, then you'd have to assume it was 1 mil over 3 years. I've never seen a club obfuscate to seem like a smaller deal.
Exactly. Hubris thy name is Cosmos. They could have played nice and adapted to the MLS model, which had been and continues to be proven as the workable model in the US. But no they wanted to spend spend spend like their namesake... well predictably the results were the same.
I would like to see the logic for this be unpacked.. It's not like NYCFC forced the Cosmos owners to make unrealistic demands of MLS. If they want to blame NYCFC for "taking over" NYC's soccer fan base and depriving the Cosmos, sure go ahead.. But again, that's on the Cosmos for putting the team out on Long Island..
So who are the four teams? Because that article says the Cosmos are dead, but that they're also one of four left, along with the previously suspended operations RayoOKC. Along with dire straits Ft Lauderdale and Edmonton. Are they implying the teams not listed have already jumped ship? Or is their writing just not very good and those 4 teams are the ones now gone and the other 4 active teams left in NASL (Indy, Carolina, Jacksonville and Miami) are the ones that need to figure out what to do going forward?
Jeff Rueter@jeffrueter 33m33 minutes ago UPDATE: The four teams not negotiating with USL are FC Edmonton, NY Cosmos, FTL Strikers, and Rayo OKC. #NASL
I wonder if it is worded wrong? NASL is currently Carolina, Edmonton, Ft. Lauderdale, Indy, Jacksonville, Miami, Cosmos, Puerto Rico, OKC, and San Francisco. Ft. Lauderdale, Cosmos, OKC, and Edmonton are apparently not continuing, that leaves Carolina, Indy, Jacksonville, Miami, Puerto Rico, and San Francisco. That's 6 clubs for next year. All of the remaining 6 teams have reportedly paid their fees for next season and Jacksonville, Miami, Puerto Rico, and San Francisco still have 2-3 years left on their expansion bonds. *shrug* Of course, Carolina and Jacksonville could have been released from their obligations by NASL.
Barney Boyce was one of my counselors at soccer camp when I was a teenager during his one season with the Diplomats and I will not, good sir, have you besmirch his good name!
Yeah those tweets seem to provide some clarity. The rest of NASL is in negotiations with USL to jump ship. The four teams listed, NY, OKC, Edmonton and Fort Lauderdale are not. And that makes sense. OKC and NY are all but dead. Ft Lauderdale is in dire straits financially and may be in a legal mess before long. And Edmonton just doesn't make much sense location wise with USL (and would be better served in a Canadian league). Just wonder how many of those negotiating with USL the league will want.
Yeah Barney Boyce was actually my neighbor when he played with the Quakes from 1982-1988 during the NASL and after it folded in the WSA league. He also ended up playing with the amateur San Jose Oaks pub team. He was a nice guy but his skills were lacking. He was a semi decent coach though. Average players usually are.
Well negotiating doesn't mean they will end up in USL. It's just that they're not dead team walking like the other 3 US teams. And they may still either be rejected by USL I'd presume or choose to go their own way (or fold yet).
Other tweets indicate it's IndyXI and not Rayo OKC that are added with FtL, NYC & FCE. Rayo negotiating with USL but for a different location than OKC.