It's better not to have any set expectations about minor-league soccer. Better to be pleasantly surprised than to be disappointed.
That's part of Sunil's dry wit. The USSF would be willing to sell the naming rights. Of course that assumes anyone would actually be interested in buying, but he left that part out. It was a good line, but I wouldn't read too much into it.
Two huge news items from the NASL (neither involving the D2 schedule): The 2010 Nutrilite Canadian Championship schedule was released today: http://www.canadasoccer.com/tourney/FIFA_Clubs/national.asp and Vancouver Whitecaps FC announce three-match preseason tour of Arizona against MLS teams: http://www.whitecapsfc.com/archive/feature02011001.aspx
I like the new schedule. Every Wednesday. Very easy to follow, I hope all the games are online like last year. I'm pissed though, I can't go to Toronto for the game this year cause I have a final the next day. ARGH! Other than that, Montreal is in first 3 games, which means by week 3, well know if were in or out almost. Cool. Good news!
BTW, I talked to the folks at Inside Minnesota Soccer via Twitter and the word they have on the schedule being released is on Monday.
By the way, I heard MN also signed 3 new players: can you beleive they signed that old bald guy! Sorry, I couldn't resist - the picture was too cool to not post somewhere!
You've got to be kidding me. With only six teams, USL-2 gets USSF sanctioning for 2010. http://www.uslsoccer.com/home/399721.html Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the USSF's own bylaws state you must have at least eight teams for sanctioning? They get sanctioning and the NASL doesn't? WTF? What am I missing here?
USSF allows exemptions all the time. If it is the difference between having a D3 and not having a D3, why would they deny sanctioning?
No offense intended, but where were you in the months of discussion on here about this during the offseason?
Maybe Montreal and Vancouver wanted to have that settled before they make any commitments. That way there's none of that "at Puerto Rico on Sunday then hosting TFC at Vancouver on Tuesday" stuff
The fact that there is no war over D3 right now. And if they didn't sanction USL2 D3 would cease to exist. Plus I'm sure they put a condition on the sanction which is why the USL2 press release mentions a western conference expansion. It will be interesting to see where they expect to expand to in the "west" however seeing as USL2 is entirely a Mid-Atlantic league right now.
Well, there are - I believe - 5 PDL and NPSL professional teams out west. So they're not starting from scratch. If they can scrape together another team or two they should be able to get the pro teams to move up to D3.
Most of the western pro teams have been talking about moving up for a couple years, so they do want to. The question is whether they can afford to and whether there are sufficient teams to make it worthwhile. Of course, with everything that's still to get settled with division 2, it's hard to know whether they'll decide to go for it in 2011 or not. I expect they'll decide to wait until things get a little clearer on the d2 level. The Kitsap owner (one of the former Sounders USL1 owners), for example, has always talked about going to the d2 level. So many possibilities now, we're just going to have to wait and see what happens. Hopefully there'll be some more clarification in the next few weeks, but since the USL is "fully committed to the aggressive expansion of USL-2 in advance of the 2011 season in a manner which will include the addition of a Western Conference", I don't expect clarification on this continuing morass until this time next year. Or maybe even longer.
Just going off memory skills, I believe there are 4 northwest PDL teams that are interested in a jump up to D3, but they want to have a West Coast division in order for that to happen. The teams I'm remembering are Tacoma Tide, Kitsap Pumas, Washington Crossfire (formerly Seattle Wolves), and Victoria Highlanders. Throw in a couple of California or Oregon teams and you'd have a very respectable Western Division for D3. Of course, there is a huge difference between "interested in" and "going to".
The statement now says that the schedule is expected on Monday. Classic! I'd really love to know who is running this show. Because I'm not convinced anyone is. Thank God this is only a one year arrangement, because USSF bit off way more than they could chew on this one.
That was what I got from the Inside Minnesota Soccer folk on Twitter when I asked them about it earlier today after seeing a post on here that the schedule would be out today.
Is it USSF that bit off way more than they can chew, or is it just an indication of just how screwed up D2 really is? Tampa Bay finally got a stadium nailed down a few weeks ago and isn't Miami FC still looking at its options? Kind of hard to set-up a schedule when you don't know where a team is going to play their matches.
Oh, and in the NSC Minnesota press video event, the interviewee said 'early next week, hopefully Monday, maybe Tuesday, maybe Wednesday.'
It's just an indication of how difficult it is to get two groups of people that don't like each other to work together. Thrown on top of those stadium issues you mention. Who knows what the communication mechanism is that they're using. Before it was probably through the USL offices. But now? Through an ad-hoc committee at the USSF? Before, or after discussing things directly with the teams involved and/or the USL offices and/or the still-being-organized NASL offices? We all knew this was going to be a 'fun' year months ago. This is just the start of it. Just wait until discipline issues need to get resolved, teams field ineligible players, etc.