Maryland Bobcats vs Club de Lyon match is canceled due to a forfeit from Club De Lyon. This leaves with three matches left of the 2024 NISA regular season. Irvine vs Arizona will not take place for sure and maybe Michigan Stars vs Savannah? Either way, can't see the point of playoffs if like 4 or 5 of the 9 teams in NISA don't exist on paper anymore.
Isn't this the grass roots/bottom up model that would have won the US a World Cup by now (if you listen to some NT forum posters)?
Just as I thought, the Michigan vs Savannah game has now been canceled with Savannah forfeiting. This leaves with one match remaining, and it will likely be the last for NISA.
Because they're not very bright. No, seriously, it's that simple. They have no vision as a league. No realistic plan of how to achieve anything. The commissioner's children have jobs, good for them. But one of them is in charge of expansion and he doesn't seem too swift. They* let absurd organizations into their league, with expected results. They actually believe this is a selling point, to wit: "The National Independent Soccer Association (NISA), currently one of the three leagues sharing the position of the third division in the USA, is the professional soccer league with the most distinct proposal in North America. Unlike the others, NISA adopts a club model rather than a franchise model, where the league has much less control over the clubs compared to rival competitions. "As happens worldwide, leagues that bring a club model rather than a franchise model will occasionally face problems." Oh. Okay. You know who else occasionally faces problems? Underfinanced and rudderless "clubs" and the leagues that let them in. "Worldwide," the problem is rarely "too little money." *USSF should bear some responsibility, if they are, indeed, supposed to vet all ownership groups according to the PLS.
NISA Announces 2024 Playoffs Schedule | National Independent Soccer Association (nisasoccer.com) Looks like Maryland has been disbarred from the playoffs despite a win record. Only three teams are in the playoffs: LA Force, Irvine and Michigan. Apparently, Maryland is ineligible and not in compliance with NISA or the US Soccer Federation. Maryland Bobcats FC on X: "Official Statement https://t.co/vZ0UqqiNtx" / X Maryland seems to be disputing this. At the end of the day, NISA has multiple league guideline violations anyway, yet they chugged on with 9 unstable teams earlier this year thinking that it won't get blown up in their faces later. There's no way the league survive past this year, unless they added new suckers into the league.
WTF is this???? The @MDBobcatsFC dominated @NISALeague play all season with a 16-2-1 record 🏆Today NISA announced that the Bobcats won’t be able to play in the post season 👀 ⁉️“The league regrettably announces Maryland Bobcats FC is ineligible as it is not in compliance with the league nor… pic.twitter.com/RAPNmjmDi0— DMV Soccer (@DMVSoccer96) October 2, 2024
"Ineligible" Champions | Protagonist Soccer TLDR: Maryland Bobcats owes almost half of a million dollars to NISA. NISA also failed to attract investors and Maryland now is in half million of dollars in debt. No one should be surprised that the league is ran by the three stooges.
Wait, they owe the league a half million? Raise your hand if you're old enough to remember when "no franchise fees, so you can invest that money into your club" was a selling point. And how can anything associated with this league cost a half million? Lastly....is anyone starting to see that it's about more than whether or not you can win?
I suspect the DIII performance bond is a large part of it. "League must demonstrate adequate financial viability to ensure continued operation on a season‐by‐season basis either in the form of a performance bond or similar instrument for each team in the amount of $250,000, or readily‐available league funds representing such amounts." Even if they moved to USL L1 or Next Pro they're going to have to come up with that amount.
Personally, I'd be surprised if The Bobcats make a move to USL League One - some on X/Twitter, whatever it's called are lobbying for them to head to the USL Championship. However, with this debacle, I doubt they'd be able to afford moving to either league. Maybe NPSL? I'll give them props for this though: that glitch jersey that they released a few years ago was beautiful. In other NISA news, the Savannah Clovers are seeking season ticket deposits from supporters for the 2025 NISA season. If I were them, I'd hop on the NPSL train like the Flower City Union did.
They couldn't afford the $250k bond to play in NISA. How are they going to find the money for the bond in L1 or USL-C never mind the expansion fees of $5 million/$20 million? They'd have to bring in new investors. There's a breakdown of the costs of running a L1 club here. https://www.vettedbiz.com/usl-league-one-franchise/ The franchise requires a significant investment, ranging between $7.68M and $11.42M, indicating a premium positioning in the sports industry.