a four-round draft of college kids is more of a publicity stunt than anything else anyway - what are we talking about? 4 players out of a camp roster of 22-25?
The discussions I've read made roster sizes more likely 18, no more than 20. You can also expect some undrafted rookie signings, especially next year with an incredible talent pool expected.
presumably when they start pre-season they'll have a few "free agents" or whatever and cut down to that 18-20.
What it mostly does is get the coach/GM off the friends & families list on their phone. Because of the low cap I see most free agents being regional or players with past associations. That works fine for a team with a solid club history to build on. If ur KC or the like, the draft gives u a shot at four players u normally wouldnt have a chance at, two of which may actually give u some minutes.
No news leaks?!? Hasn't anybody got any information about anything? When and how the allocations will be announced even? It is clear to me that USSoccer wanted to wait until after Ballon D'Or, but do we even know who actually has the allocation information? Have the teams been informed? Have I missed something?
From what I've heard, I'm almost positive something will be announced anytime now. Possibly tomorrow, probably later in the week.
Well, instead of just saying "From what I've heard" with no references, I'll point out something Brian Budzinski (@kcsoccerdome) tweeted yesterday: Also, what he posted on the 5th: Still pretty vague, but it's more than nothing. He hasn't responded to a direct question asking about when the list is made public.
AAAAAND The lists seem to be in circulation among teams now: http://equalizersoccer.com/2013/01/08/nwsl-allocation-finally-moving-along/
Not really... I mean, it's not much, but now we know the teams have (or at least should have) their allocation lists by now (at least as of yesterday). Again, no hard evidence or confirmation, but it's a date we didn't have before. And if they've kept to the date, then the teams now know who they have and leaks or official announcements of "first players" could be coming even by late today. Now, I doubt that, but it's at least possible now.
It would at least be nice if the 3 Federations put out the list of players they will be allocating (maybe they did, my bad).
Am I reading the story right, that the teams have just submitted their choices and that the actual allocation is still to be decided? Or has everyone agreed to things and the submissions are just a formality so to speak? "...NWSL team allocation lists were due to be submitted to the National Women’s Soccer League and U.S. Soccer, a team source disclosed...."
A third party is doing the allocation itself, so if lists are being submitted TO the league and feds, I took that to mean the allocation itself is done....
If the players were smart, they were less concerned where they played than who they played with. Sure, some of them want to maintain local ties but lets say the "new kids" (Cheney, Heath, Rodriguez) decide they want to play together in the league. They just pick a city like KC and make it their top priority. It's better than ending up anywhere with anyone.
I forgot about the third party; which did the allocations based on the teams' and players' choices? (and whichever players that had to agree to go to KC )
I though they were vaguely saying that both the players and the teams had finished with the lists, submitted their priorities and were now going to the allocator.
I took it to mean that the lists are being submitted by the teams, not by the third party. The third party has yet to parse the team and player preferences and come up with a set of allocations. But if that's being done algorithmically, one hopes that it won't take long.
My main concern about playing in KC would be less about the local and more about the coach. Whether he turns out to be a genius or not, most of the other teams did a better job coach wise. They either offered a known quantity from the old league or a name of note like Parlow or Harvey.
Well, I created my own random model, and used the website random.org (min # 1, max #24, and then clicked generate) to randomly place the 24 players with their designated random player # I gave them ahead of time, and randomly generated them to each roster. Here is how the randomized allocations turned out. Ya see, my model took like two minutes. Their model is taking forever. Seattle Reign: (Abby Wambach, Shannon Boxx, Becky Sauerbrunn) Portland Thorns: (Christie Rampone, Heather O'Reilly, Jill Loyden) FC Kansas City: (Amy Rodriguez, Amy LePielbet, Nicole Barnhart) Chicago Red Stars: (Megan Rapinoe, Rachel Buehler, Ashlyn Harris) Western NY Flash: (Lauren Cheney, Melissa Henderson, Heather Mitts) Washington Spirit: (Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd, Kelley O'Hara) Sky Blue FC: (Tobin Heath, Stephanie Lopez, Hope Solo) Boston Breakers: (Sydney Leroux, Lori Lindsey, Ali Krieger) Actually I kinda like this allocation. Some of these players would look better in a fresh new uniform. Abby would actually look really cool wearing the Seattle Reign logo.
I guess you read it better than I did... I'm still confused by the previous wording, but Goff just tweeted that the allocation itself is happening today/tomorrow, unclear when the results will be announced. Meh. =-/
Sky Blue FC has announced dates for two sets of open tryouts. (Who says things are not getting done?) http://www.skybluefc.com/home/687164.html My memory is that no one from past open tryouts by Sky Blue made the final rosters, but there was the comment : "...“We will also be having a reserve team this season, which presents even more chances for players..." I don't know if that mean a relationship with a W-league team (like the Wildcats) or "development" like players to fill rosters when National players are away. Any thoughts?
I talked yesterday to a parent of a player and I asked if the player knew anything and the answer was she had made her choices, but as far as the parent knew, she had not heard back yet.
55? Someone back out? Not a biggie, but figured the teams were going to complain about the lack of allocation. Hopefully, they just use $$ to compensate.