i really hope so too, listening to D&Cs sports reporter today on the radio, there is already an interest from multiple possible owners. the citys lease with the rhinos was up on the turn of the year, so they didnt cancel the lease, it just expired and they said they will renew the lease with the rhinos just as long as clark is not the owner. and the league didnt foreclose the franchise rights, they are holding the franchise rights, the team is still apart of USL and the league said the team will operate in 2016.
I would agree that the Rochester situation has good some good elements especially the stadium. I wish you all good luck on finding a committed owner that will turn things around on the financial side. The on-field side of things looks pretty good.
thanks, me too. As long as the product on the field doesnt suffer... the USL has been doing some big things (this included) id imagine they would want a rich owner for one of their flag post franchises. we will probably stay in these league for a long time, so they will not want someone who can just get by. id think they would want one of the these guys they have been with cinci, Sacramento, OKC, reno, louisville, san antonio, to raise the overall league. because all these teams arent going up to mls some will be just like rochester so a strong league with strong owner ship is what they are pursuing, and they have the last decision on that. So if they screw it up, its on them.
It's official San Antonio is 31st franchise http://www.uslsoccer.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=32800&ATCLID=210620025
Back to the Rhinos for a moment... Update article from the Rochester D & C. A few prospective new owners mentioned, including one who appears to be very interested: http://www.democratandchronicle.com...e-strong-potential-new-rhinos-owner/78414528/
from the article, the razor sharks looks the most interested, and said the stadium needs about 2 million more to finish it off. It seems like he has alot of money, but im not sure. we need a deep pocketed owner
That would be Dr. Severko Hrywnak; owner of the Rochester Razorsharks of the Premier Basketball League, and also co-owner of said league. He developed several multi-million dollar commercial, residential, and medical complexes in the Chicago area, and is President and CEO of four different companies that operate them. He doesn't have MLS owner type money, but his pockets are plenty deep enough for a USL franchise. He's originally from Rochester, and a huge Soccer fan. According to the article, he was putting together a proposal for the USL and had "calls out" to the league.
I will say that being at the press conference of San Antonio. The biggest take away I got was that USL is already thinking of its self as the best Div2 league. Which I think is important for SA and for those that think it is a step down from NASL. The Commissioner really hammered that point home saying that with the new owners and location of where teams are playing are extremely important. Was very impressed with what the Commissioner said and what he laid out as the future. I do wonder with 30-31 teams how much more room there is for expansion and if they go D2 officially how the MLSII teams help or hurt.
It's really very simple. There's very little difference in terms of competition quality between USL and NASL. In NASL, you're essentially paying for the "privilege" of fronting a larger bond, having to fly to almost every match, and being called "second tier". USL instituted a split conference regime last year. There were a handful of outlier matches between eastern and western teams (Tulsa and OKC both played Louisville), but most matches were in-conference, and most teams only played in-conference schedules. There probably won't be many more in-conference matches going forward. As long as that is the case, a larger league will be manageable. And that also makes travel more manageable. You still need to fly to some matches, but in most cases not all of them.
Josh Beerman's website, Indomitable City Soccer http://indomitablecitysoccer.com/ has been picked up as an SB Nation Blog. Logo is pretty slick, too. Congrats to Josh. Way to represent Sacramento!! Congrats to my friends at @BlurbsIndomita! pic.twitter.com/PBHseUnADE— Scratching the Pitch (@PitchScratching) January 6, 2016 Pretty cool. Sac Republic and Cosmos are the only two non-MLS clubs with a blog. (cross posted)
It looks like a couple minority Sacramento Kings owners are purchasing the Rhinos. http://www.uslsoccer.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=32800&ATCLID=210639086 And it sounds like the whole thing is moving toward a very quick resolution. Which would seem to speak highly of how things are going for the USL these days.
MLS wants to test instant replay, and use USL as a testing ground for this. Feels a bit like MLS views USL as a minor league affiliate, rather than an independent league... https://medium.com/crossbar-soccer/mls-wants-to-test-instant-replay-in-usl-3b934395db3a#.5ixncujbe
The colors on this map make zero sense. NEWS: The Official #USL Conference Alignment has been released!https://t.co/9jk4JNycqf pic.twitter.com/E6pJMpptdz— USL Championship (@USLChampionship) January 20, 2016
Quote from a USL communications staff: "Green dots for the East, Blue dots for West. The states themselves? We thought it looked cool."
They were wrong. And I didn't even notice the dots. Who would? Really dumb design choices in that one ...
Only thing I can think of is maybe they were trying to distract from something in conference re-alignment, but I'm not sure why they would want to do that.
Sweet. Fancy. Moses. They should have left the background as grey. Then at least it would have communicated the damn point. I really hate bad maps.
Maybe not spoken the best by MLS and by USL. FIFA tests different systems and things across the world in various professional leagues. I imagine this is another one of those aspects. Add on that, maybe Garber and the MLS2 sides are working instant replay at their venues or something along those lines? Surely USL isn't dumb enough to try to force it on teams that cannot afford to expand their operations, or we'll see more Austin happening.
Agreed. Grey background, assign each team logo a number, and put the numbers on the map in their appropriate locations. No lines, no dots. The old KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid). It looks like some pimple-faced javascript kid got hold of it, and went to town. Egad!
So what are the red states for... Canada doesn't exist, and Florida & Oregon are grey states just because? "Looking cool" sure can be confusing.
Neither do some of the team placements. They've got Orange County Blues playing in Los Angeles and the LA Galaxy II playing in Escondido (near San Diego)?
By the way, there are now 16 teams in the playoffs: "The top eight teams in each conference will then advance to the 2016 USL Playoffs, which will see a single-elimination bracket crown two conference champions. The two conference champions will advance to the 2016 USL Championship." (note that the first line of the press rel called it the "USL Cup.") Also: "The 30-game regular season will be conducted over 27 weeks, which will kick off on March 25 and conclude on September 25." http://www.uslsoccer.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=32800&ATCLID=210650693 Did USL state that intra-conference teams will play at least a h+h? That would take up 28 of 30 matches for West teams, and 26 for East. (I would think that the Midwest teams, even though they're divided between the two conferences, would like to play each other more.)