NASL is no longer considering suing US Soccer for anti-trust over division 1 status

Carolina and Indy make perfect sense for USL given their proximity to other nearby USL teams and their good fan bases.

Actually, if you assume those two are also ready to jump along with the rumored Tampa Bay and Ottawa departures, that means the top five best attended NASL teams would not be in the league next season. Three of those (Carolina, Tampa Bay, and Ottawa) are the only NASL teams to post attendance gains this season (Minnesota is marginally off). That's crippling no matter how you try to spin it.

 

What we do know is that all the comedy NASL fan boys will be blaming MLS for everything when that league does eventually fold. They will be insisting the NASL "only" failed because they were "unfairly" labelled a division 2 league. Nothing to with lack of investment or overpaying 40 year old Spanish has-beens and some frankly laughable ownership groups. Nope, nothing to do with that.

 

Sure they did. It was a PR stunt. If anyone really thinks the nasl had the means to actually do that, then I have a team to sell. The letter was over a set of proposed standards that were never even considered by the ussf.

 

I suspect there are a lot of people that were considering suing USSF, that aren't going to, these days

 

As always, the amusing team to speculate on is the NeoCosmos.

They have enough trouble trying to explain why they're in a Second Division league (MLS/USSF conspiracy). Let's see what they come up with to explain being Third Division.

And if, as appears likely despite the protestations of the increasingly deranged-sounding Bill Peterson who swears he's got upwards of 40 (40!!!!) investors ready and willing to plunk down five million dollars to join his flatlining league, the NASL ceases to exist, what then for the Moes?

Particularly now that they're a) struggling to paper the house enough to hit attendance of 4000 and b) apparently going to play next season in a minor league baseball stadium. The Belmont project is as dead as Julius Caesar; New York State is just not convinced the Cosmos are a viable concern.

What would you pay to be in the room when they make a presentation to the USL board on letting them into USL?

And what would USL say? "In addition to the five million dollars, we want you to sing 'I'm a little teapot" please"
NASL will be lucky if they have six teams to start next season

 

The NASL fanboys were just pro/rel zealots. None of them gave a bleep about the league and never watched any games. Guys like Ted only fanboyed Bill Peterson and the NASL when they thumbed their nose at MLS. Now that it is all crashing down, they are quickly jumping off the sinking NASL ship like a bunch of rats. They will find some other cause to prop up in the future.

Actual fans of NASL teams know it is likely over and just want to know where their team will play in the coming years. At least the ones that aren't basically dead like Rayo and the Strikers.

 

better yet bashed MLS non stop over NYCFC but were completely silent over Rayo OKC

 

If NASL does go under I hope to see the valuable assets move to USL. Then I would like to see the USL split into a DII and DIII with MLS II teams staying in DIII. I know how much it matters what I hope for

 

I couldn't believe what I was reading when some of the NASL crazies on a local NYC sports blog posted things like "I don't like it but its a good move", REALLY!?! NYCFC is a "joke" but Rayo OKC with its Chivas USA like stench is cool?

 

The whole point of MLS coming to an agreement with the USL was that the MLS Reserve League wasn't working. They wanted young players to face more experienced pros in a competitive environment. That is what they felt was best for player development. Making D3 the new MLS Reserve League doesn't really meet those goals.

 

I never said only MLS II teams being DIII. I would envision other teams also staying in DIII.
My personal opinion is it would be really dumb to have MLS II teams just one division below MLS. Those teams are much lower quality from MLS than just one division IMO.

 

And the NASL has only ever paid lip service to pro-rel. Remember when the NPSL made some noise about partnering with NASL, and the NASL immediately shot it down?

Ted and company always shrugged it off by insisting pro/rel was something USSF had to impose, so NASL was powerless to do it themselves. That's not how it evolved elsewhere, and USISL did some pro/rel experiments several years ago without USSF ordering them to do so, but whatever.

I think one major issue is USSF's insistence that these divisions need to be national. How much more affordable, and how much more fun, would it be to have regional D2 and D3? How many more clubs could participate if they knew they were traveling about four hours by bus instead of six hours by plane? And a "Northeast League" trophy makes more sense than a "Champion of the League That Is National But Isn't Division 1" trophy. (You could still have a League Cup for lower divisions if you like.)

 

Looks to me like MLS2 teams are pretty comparable to the other USL teams. They are well distributed in the standings. Especially when you consider that several of them are 1st or 2nd year teams.

Current USL standings with 1 week to go:
MLS2 teams in RED


STANDINGS
EAST
1. NY Red Bulls II 29 g.p. 66 pts +39 g.d.
2. Louisville City 29 g.p. 59 pts +25 g.d.
3. FC Cincinnati 29 g.p. 53 pts +13 g.d.
4. Charlotte Independence 29 g.p. 49 pts +19 g.d.
5. Charleston Battery 29 g.p. 48 pts +6 g.d.
6. Rochester Rhinos 29 g.p. 48 pts +12 g.d.
7. Richmond Kickers 29 g.p. 45 pts +9 g.d.
8. Orlando City B 29 g.p. 32 pts -16 g.d.
--------------------------
9. Wilmington Hammerheads 29 g.p. 31 pts -12 g.d.
10. Harrisburg City Islanders 29 g.p. 28 pts -19 g.d.
11. Bethlehem Steel 29 g.p. 28 pts -9 g.d.
12. Toronto FC II 29 g.p. 26 pts -21 g.d.
13. Pittsburgh Riverhounds 29 g.p. 25 pts -18 g.d.
14. FC Montreal 29 g.p. 23 pts -20 g.d.

WEST
1. Co. Springs Switchbacks 29 g.p. 49 pts +14 g.d.
2. Sacramento Republic 29 g.p. 49 pts +12 g.d.
3. Rio Grande Valley 29 g.p. 48 pts +20 g.d.
4. LA Galaxy II 29 g.p. 44 pts +8 g.d.
5. Swope Park Rangers 28 g.p. 42 pts +5 g.d.
6. Vancouver Whitecaps 2 29 g.p. 42 pts -1 g.d.
7. OKC Energy 28 g.p. 42 pts +3 g.d.
8. San Antonio FC 29 g.p. 38 pts +3 g.d.
----------------------------------
9. Portland Timbers 2 29 g.p. 37 pts -5 g.d.
10. Orange County Blues 29 g.p. 37 pts -6 g.d.
11. Real Monarchs SLC 29 g.p. 36 pts -8 g.d.
12. Seattle Sounders 2 29 g.p. 35 pts -13 g.d.
13. Arizona United 29 g.p. 34 pts -5 g.d.
14. Saint Louis FC 29 g.p. 33 pts -2 g.d.
15. Tulsa Roughnecks 28 g.p. 19 pts -33 g.d.

 

This
There are currently 29 teams in USL with 3 new ones slated. If several NASL teams were to move to USL there would be over 35 teams pretty quick. I just feel like that is a lot of teams for a DII league. Just an opinion.

 

As it currently is, USL is more two leagues than one. Interconference play is very limited, and only done by the teams in the middle of the country to play more regional games. West and East Coast teams only play in the finals. This is ideal for minor league soccer; there's no point separating into second and third divisions if it will once again significantly raise travel costs for everyone. I hope the NASL crisis causes USSF to understand the importance of travel cost containment for lower divisions.

 

Bird is the Word.

It's so nice not to think about this debacle.

 

"Debacle" is what happened in the last 10 minutes against Ottawa Saturday night.

Possibly losing 5 teams out of 12 and replacing them with 1 has moved beyond mere debacle to full blown Dumpster Fire status...

 

They know all about "travel cost containment". They didn't just land in soccer last month after a long career in potato farming.

But until recently, what choice was there? When the USL/NASL split took place there were fewer than ten teams in each league. You can't have "regional competition" among two or three teams and call it a league or a season. They had no choice but to travel and play.

Point being, it wasn't up to USSF to tell these guys that flying a team from California or Texas to Puerto Rico costs a lot of money. If the teams wanted to do it this way, their business. When I buy something I can't afford it's not up to the store management to refuse to sell it to me.

It seems likely that the Fed was willing to let things sort themselves out. All they said was that you can't claim to be the official second division league for the US unless you can serve the whole US. If you can grab that designation and run 8 teams in New England, that doesn't do anything for the rest of the country. If you want to be the USA's second division then you have to be the USA's second division.

USL has evolved into a league with enough teams to conduct meaningful regional competition. Which I believe was always the intent.

NASL was more interested in becoming Div 1 than they ever were in developing and growing a meaningful Div 2. Their choice, but choices have consequences.

 

well it looks like we might soon!

what is unexpected is that its not clubs but whole Leagues!

***as a note, i hope this doesn't hurt soccer in America, having NASL did push USL and certain MLS clubs at certain points. but I do remember reading a really good quote... "pride goes before a fall" and NASL leadership just seems to be too arrogant to learn from the past or pick the right battles.

 

Ideally, they could have 4 regional leagues who only play each other. Then have a post-season tournament for the 4 winners. Semi-finals, and then the 2 winners play, and might as well let the 2 losing teams play a 3rd place game.

 

Why can't they just forget about everything and merge with the USL already? what is their main beef? If the problems are their big egos, that won't last too long.....