What's needed for NPSL Pro to work is the desire of several clubs in the same region of these 5 teams to give it a go for a longer 20-24 match season.... off the top of my head, Grand Rapids, Buffalo, Rochester, Minneapolis, Milwaukee in the midwest... Wichita, Little Rock, Tulsa Athletic, Ft Worth, Midland, Houston Dutch Lions, Shreveport, New Orleans, in the south/southwest... a few Florida teams, etc, etc. I think it's important for those same teams to at least maintain playing games against the summer NPSL teams to supplement a 20+ game season, at least for the first few years. If the NPSL can't achieve this, those member clubs will have their markets picked off by USL D3 one by one...
This is an old interview with Peter Wilt (May) but I just came across it and if you haven't read it, it's worthwhile. This was really the best chance to make a go of it and they couldn't manage to come together as a group. As time goes on, it gets harder and harder to do. Peter is always an optimist, at least publicly, about what he does, but here are his thoughts about USLD3 (where he is running the Madison team). The group wanting the more independent structure still wants too many different things; there's the D2 group, the D3 group and the NPSL+ group. Unless someone can come up with a vision that satisfies everyone, and apparently Peter couldn't, those cities will get picked off one by one. Not out of a desire to undermine the other leagues, just that they make good sense as expansion cities. If you have Madison, Milwaukee becomes that much better of a location.
Having been a CFC fan since season one, I've needed ways to take my mind off of the events of the last week (it hasn't worked), but one of them was for the full season teams to play an apertura/clausura schedule and start their spring season in April some time. The full season teams can play each other first, then when the summer league teams are eligible, they can join the league, playing each other on their midweek games. The fall season would require different conferences, but NPSL regions are set up hierarchically, so just move conference play up a level or two. I agree that the "mature" NPSL clubs have had their thumbs in their asses (for want of a better turn of phrase) for about 2 seasons too long. There are no more excuses and they need to do something or it could spell the end of independent soccer for a while.
I agree with this and part of why I think NISA has failed (thus far) is because independent soccer isn't ready for division 3 or the PLS yet. The very nature of these clubs is to grow organically, so the idea that we had these NPSL clubs that were ready to make the jump to NISA or NASL was premature. None of them would have ever played a full season. Half of their squad would need to be procured. It would have been as forced and as contrived as USL sticking a franchise somewhere. That's fine for USL, I am not disparaging how they expand, but it's the polar opposite of how the independents have operated. The notable exceptions to this are Commisso, Silva, and Palmer. This is why an NPSL full season league is so important right now: it gives these clubs an opportunity to operate within their budgets, but shift slowly to the larger demands of a full season. They will have a payroll, albeit probably small. They'll know what crowds are like in April and October and what is needed to grow them (hopefully). At that point, when they've outgrown the full season semipro league(s), they can begin to court the investors necessary for the leap to the professional pyramid. The gap will be much smaller from there. But most importantly, you'll have a path for clubs to form cheaply in any community, grow themselves and their fanbase in the summer leagues with decent quality soccer, thanks to the college players. When they've built themselves into something stable, they can move up without necessarily having to take the massive financial risks as jumping straight to D3. Until that pipeline is in place without major gaps between stages, trying to form independent fully pro leagues won't fundamentally be much different than the neoNASL: clubs that require 1% owners, spread thin across the country calling to the unprepared independents that the piranha infested waters feel fine, come on in.
NPSL: Miami FC 2 overcomes uncertainty to capture championship https://www.socceramerica.com/publi...mi-fc-2-overcomes-uncertainty-to-capture.html 2,143 at the NPSL Championship game
Nothing, really.. at least not in front of the camera. The judge rejected NASL’s request for an expedited trial a month ago. Might want to note that there has been an update since that piece was posted. The Judge rejected NASL's motion and will defer setting a trial date until after considering dispositive motions pic.twitter.com/WBJ8fIiSBJ— Steven Bank (@ProfBank) July 12, 2018 I’d imagine there is a fight to the death behind the scenes related to discovery tho?
The truth is that most of the fellow soccer fans I view as "dipshits" happen to either be BigSoccer moderators or part of a perpetually condescending little clique of BS regulars. Soccer Lawsuits: Sport of the 2020s.