Let me understand, if a federal judge already ruled last month that the relegation / promotion lawsuits have no grounds, isn't this case dead and buried? Do the NASL or whomever have the financial means to pursue an appeal?
This lawsuit is to get rid of professional league standards, collaborated and agreed upon by MLS, NASL and USL before. Getting rid of division sanctioning (D1, D2, D3), which ironically would lead to turning American soccer to major/minor league model like the NHL, MLB with no pro/rel.
I think the federal lawsuit was pretty much dead a few years ago when they failed to get a preliminary injunction from the original judge. Now it's mostly a jobs program for lawyers so they can all buy new cars and send their kids to college.
Exactly. I’m not sure what the point is to continue their fight. Aside from the fact that relegation / promotion is pretty foreign to any professional North American sports league, I don’t think any judge will rule that it’s illegal to have a closed league. The NASL or whomever is wanting this should give it up already.
Bullying? Money that could be spent on youth development is being diverted to lawyers. Mind you, even the USSF Foundation is suing the USSF.
The owners who formed the NASL originally really did have a point. However, once they dumped Downs and drank the Cosmos Kool-Aid, they completely lost the plot. It's too bad to see, since they could have been a very strong part of American professional soccer.
Which point? Are we talking about going all the way back to TOA with the owners wanting to buy and run USL?
A second division run like European leagues with no salary cap and no expansion fees I think. It could have given the US and Canada a chance to evolve into something like Europe under the wings of MLS. I think that was the idea. Once NASL decided to try and compete head to head with the incumbent it was dead.
Miki Turner is updating his status of the various cases involving USSF and MLS as things happen, which isn't very often. https://socceresq.com/2019/12/30/your-guide-to-every-soccer-lawsuit-in-the-united-states-and-beyond/
Yes, that's what I mean. The USL of that era was extremely poorly run, as evidenced in the sheer amount of turnover the league had. The problem ended up being that all the original owners who broke away were gone within I believe two years, either moving up to MLS, selling out, or just folding. You also then had Traffic getting involved. . .
5/12 teams involved in the pro- league now play in MLS, 2 in USLC under different names, 2 exist only on paper and 3 failed relatively quickly.
Nothing to do with the thread but since you mentioned the second teams....honestly, although it may not matter to the parent clubs, I still wonder how much USL really want the MLS B teams playing in their league drawing less that 2000 fans a match. I can't imagine whomever is in charge likes looking at attendance figures that low. Again, maybe MLS clubs don't care but eventually, I'm assuming the USL league office will....
The Red Bulls II moved out of RBA to a suburban stadium and they are definitely getting bigger crowds as a result. Bethlehem Steel now call themselves PU II and play at Chester, which has not done them any good. RB II are the only team I would leave in the USLC as they've proved themselves over the years. The rest I would put in USL L1.
The bottom line is , I can’t imagine MLS owners want to lose money with their B squads. Wouldn’t they all want to earn somewhat of a profit especially since the USL commissioner just declared their league is one of the best second divisions in the world? Maybe they don’t have to pay for training facilities and stadium rentals but still , playing games and paying players in front of nobody can’t be all that profitable. I mean they are bound to lose something somewhere.
If its not a single-entity and there's no revenue sharing for away games, how are non-MLS teams losing money?
Traveling from one place to another, Paying for players contracts, hotels and plane tickets. Where is the return with an average of 800 fans per game? That isn't losing money? If they aren't losing, I doubt they are profiting but I have my doubts they are breaking even either and if they are, isn't the goal to make money sooner or later? I doubt teams will want to continue their MLS2 franchises if they don't get a return on their money at some point.
But MLS teams don't need to field a reserve team, so there must be a financial return. I guess producing the likes of Altidore, Miazga and Adams must be paying off.
Only Adams played for an MLS2 team but the others were signed and utilized by parent MLS teams and then sold to European teams who paid handsomely for their services. I don't know the statistics but I doubt there is a huge return on MLS 2 players being sold between clubs. I saw Adam Jahn was sold for $100,000 to Atlanta United from Phoenix but that isn't much money and he is 29 years old and, was a journeyman at MLS clubs and initially came up through the college system.
Well, Montreal and Vancouver got rid of their reserve teams while the Red Bulls invested money in upgrading a stadium for theirs.