I love how people do this. Take ridiculous premise and then immediately make any dissent go away by intimating that there's enough money that could make that happen. Ooh, Double Down Stupid! Cosmos fans really do believe the universe revolves around them. Were the NSC Minnesota Stars an homage to the Cosmos, too? How about the Cleveland Force? Jesus. It's enough to make you just want to go follow wrestling.
You seems way more upset about this than the New York Cosmos are. Unless u have info to share? Just goes to show the love/hate that's there for a team who just played first game in 30yrs. Seems to me that a good percentage of MLS fans wants the Cosmos in their league. these comments are exhibit A. I believe most Cosmos fans are preoccupied with working out the Stadium issue than being part of the MLS.
( a ) Stop calling it "the MLS." Just stop. ( b ) For the kabillionth time, we don't hate the Cosmos. We hate you. ( c ) Most of us believe most Cosmos fans are preoccupied with pretending they're defenders of the legacy and that they support a team that's going to win multiple US Open Cups, CONCACAF Champions Leagues and FIFA Club World Cups.
Speaking for myself, I'm not affiliated w/anyone. I support the Club. Not all those things you've stated. BTW, I don't hate you. I don't know u. NY Cosmos are re-establishing their brand & building a competive team. That's fine with me. In the event they end up working out a decent stadium, we know what team will rein in NYC. True hurts. I believe the successful return of the Cosmos, has forced the MLS to expand & ramp up expansion. With NY Cosmos in NASL w/ owners investing in their teams/facilities, & the MLS minimum wages scale the MLS was quite aware of potential competition. so now the MLS expansion list is growing then the MLS threw the starving USLPro a bone, to help protect their flank. Hopefully NY Cosmos, NASL & fans are obsesses w/Nasl building facilities like INDY Eleven cost $87mil, not the MLS. The MLS & their fans are like that kid w/ a new ball thinking everyone better do what I say if you wanna kick my ball. But that kid w/ his not so new ball, well that can be kicked well to w/o compromise. You guys are at the stage where that kid w/the new ball is realizing, not everyone really has to kick my ball to play.
As Norm once asked Cliff Clavin after one of his delusional soliloquies ... .... What color is the sky in your world?
Good ol' clueless Cliffie would have made a great Cosmos fan I counted "the MLS" 7 times in his last post. I have to go lay down, my head hurts.
Damn...Frasier asked! Not Norm. Oh well...It's a dog eat dog world out there and I'm wearing milkbone underpants.
I'm not upset at all about the Cosmos blowing their chance at being in MLS. Would I have liked it better if the Cosmos were in MLS? I don't lose sleep over it but I think it would have been nice. What bothers me, as a fan, is having to watch the bullshit parade from club and psycho fans. The audacity that the Cosmos DESERVES to be MLS, and that MLS is a pale shadow without them, is just flabbergasting. The Cosmos deserved only one thing: the option to pay the entry fee and to follow the rules of the organization. They chose not to. That is their choice and they made it. From the info I have and understand, I feel their choice was unwise. But that is me and it is not my money being spent. Cosmos 2.0 (the Kemsley era) was a circus. It surely hurt the Cosmos chances of getting into MLS. Seriously, if you were the Don would you have had open arms for that clownerly? I wouldn't. Cosmos 2.5 (O'Brien era) have been much more stable and professional. Have they made a few choices I disagree with? Sure, but at least they haven't been clown moves. (Sorry, I seem to have Bryce Harper on the brain with my catchphrases) I get bent out of shape with the delusional Cosmos fans. They seem to have been marinaded in Kemsley's kool-aid and placed reality in a shiny box up on that top shelf. Really? You think relocating a team from the second largest market (you could argue it is 1.5 or even #1) to the largest market, where at best, that market would be divided by a 1/3 is a great idea because you feel that the Cosmos NEEDS to be in MLS? It is not a conspiracy by MLS keeping the Cosmos out, it was their choice. You support them, you have to live with those choices.
Please, don't get me started on Norm Peterson quotes. I'll be posting in this thread until March. So...what was the topic of this thread again?
Don't want to get into this thing full-bore...I have years of posts (lol!) on this subject...but to touch briefly on one subject… Many seem to accept at face value the assertion that the only reason they're not in MLS is their refusal to give up control of the brand to the league. Well, we've just seen a very famous brand enter and leave the league, does anyone believe they're leaving without full brand control? Our team is named after a very famous and incredibly lucrative brand, does anyone believe Austria's control of that brand is in any way jeopardized? Folks who follow the business end of the league can enlighten us (me) as to exactly what revenues through use of the team brand is and isn't shared with all teams but this idea that you relinquish control of your brand to MLS is IMHO a) just not the case and b) isn't the real reason the nasl cosmos aren't in the league but simply part of a cover story the owners are using. I've always speculated that the revival team just didn't want to ante up the $100 million fee, in fact I'm not sure they have the money. O'Brien is rich but not MLS rich and they've never revealed the ownership role of Sela Sport a Saudi marketing not team ownership company. No one knows how much of its own money the team is contributing to the Belmont Park stadium development project and in other respects they don't appear to be spending big bucks. Hofstra not Citi Field...tape delay and next day local TV broadcasts for home games only...$400K practice site (our team spent $20 million)...I'm guessing Senna is paid less than a million and the rest of the roster less than the MLS cap. I think the main holdup was O'Brien/Sela's position that the league needed them and had to reduce the entry fee to something that made business sense for them given their finances. The smoke and mirrors has disappated some since Kemsley left but remember O'Brien and Sela were Kemsley's partners and O'Brien still often speaks from the Kemsley script. Not sure they could afford to buy CUSA...
They can afford it. The expansion dialogue between O'Brien and Garber fell apart largely because O'Brien didn't feel like investing $100 into being a part owner of MLS LLC while surrendering all rights in the NY Cosmos over to MLS...then also not have control over a stadium pursuit was a sound investment. Additionally, at the time Garber was really just using the Cosmos as a means to get what MLS owners really cared most about...a big money payout from Man city. This reduced entry fee narrative is something some mouth breather came up with because they didn't really understand what was going on. If this was only about if the fee could or couldn't have been paid...it would have been paid. Either way, with respect to this thread nothing changes with Chivas USA being run by the league. It has no bearing on the Cosmos at all. They are in NASL, and will be for a good time i suspect. At the end of the day its probably in both MLS and Cosmos best interests for the short term future.
I'm still hoping the Cosmos can someday buyout Red Bull or at least partner with them so the arena and jerseys can remain red bull but the logo, team name and colors would be cosmos.
That is comedy gold right there, a perfect caricature of a delusional NASL fan... If MLS expansion ramped up due to the return of the Cosmos, how do you explain the 9 team expansion from 10 to 19 over less than a decade prior to that? NASL aren't investing in their teams/facilities to nearly the extent MLS are... drawings of unbuilt stadiums by teams playing at freaking HOFSTRA don't count. The MLS salary cap is miles above what NASL teams are paying their players. Has a single star player moved from MLS to NASL? If you could see things from a non-NASL-centric perspective, you'd realize that MLS partnering with USL Pro has nothing to do with protecting their flank, and is about getting young players professional minutes so that they're better prepared to handle the jump to MLS. I have bad news for you, if Indy Eleven actually do build a new stadium for $87 million, they'll probably be kicking the MLS kid's new ball soon after.
That all good . Once in this Country , we break up monoply. MLS is building a nice example of a monoply.
I agree we have never seen a star player moved down but I am under the impression NASL are paying some of their starters more money than a MLS bench player who makes $36k.
I think there is bad blood at this point because of the things that happened behind the scenes---even if Cosmos offered to buy, I'm not sure the MLS Board of Governors would approve the transaction.
Well, if MLS sticks to its word of holding at 24 teams, that well be great for NASL. Miami 22, Atlanta 23, and lets say Minneapolis 24. That means a whole bunch of really well run clubs and some with SSS will remain in NASL (like Indy, San Antonio, possibly Minnesota U even if MLS goes into Minnesota) for several years which will help stabilize and grow the league. I think NASL should get a little daring and start attacking weaker MLS markets -- Chicago comes to mind. Big enough city to support 2 clubs and the MLS club that is there is a dud. Boston should be another target. There's plenty of cities still to be had San Fran, San Diego, Vegas, Louisville, Cincinnati, Nashville, Memphis, Detroit, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Boston, Chicago, Austin, New Orleans, Calgary, Cleveland, Buffalo, Oakland, Sacramento, Phoenix, St. Louis, Milwaukee... That's 22 cities. Even if MLS goes to 32, that leaves 13 markets at least that are still very viable for NASL to have. That could give them a league of 20-24 teams which would be very respectable.
Pretty sure that MLS never said that they will stop at 24. They won't. MLS has said that would like to get to 24 teams by 2020. In the end MLS will probably be between 28 and 32 teams.
I would agree. The league office is getting inundated with expansion requests. Four years ago they probably never thought people would actually fight to get in the league. It's come a long way.
I didn't mean hold indefinitely but Garber has said that he plans on slowing the expansion frenzy at 24 teams for a while to allow for things to be sorted out. http://www.soccerbyives.net/2014/02/latest-expansion-update.html Like I say, I could see them going to 32, easily, but the slower nature of expansion will still be a good thing for NASL because every year they can hang on to good clubs like Minnesota United, Indy Eleven, and San Antonio Scorpions, the more opportunities they'll have for their own expansion and stabilization. The soonest MLS will likely pluck any NASL team away again is 2018, 19, or 20. That's 4, 5, or 6 years away before even 1 team leaves the league. The NASL isn't even 5 years old yet so that's a pretty heft amount of time.