Oakland's temporary digs does have a pitch. "Inside the track is a Bermuda grass soccer field with dimensions that fall within FIFA guidelines for width and length. The spectator area features a natural grass hill and one set of small bleachers."
Nipun Chopra, PhD @NipunChopra7 8h Lansing United President, Jeremy Sampson, confirms that this season was the team's final season in the UWS (or anywhere). The men's team played in the NPSL and then briefly in USL League One (as Lansing Ignite). 2013-2021 is (sadly) a heckuva run in the lower divisions.
Plan for pro soccer stadium gets rolled out to Portland officials Tuesday Demolition at Dico Superfund site begins Monday, paving the way for downtown Des Moines soccer stadium development Looks like two potential USL expansion teams is rolling out nicely.
Good. USL's gonna need them. Sources tell The Striker Texas that all but four MLS-affiliated #USL teams will leave for the new MLS development league in 2022. The teams staying are LA Galaxy II, New York Red Bulls II, Atlanta United II and Loudon United (DC United). Story to come.— The Striker (@TheStrikerNews) July 21, 2021
The teams above have won 11 games from 53 between them this season so they'd be better off in USL League One, which needs a boost. If they did self- relegate it would leave the USL Championship with 24 teams with another 5 on the way and League One with 13 teams plus 4 on the way. I'm surprised that Tacoma Defiance and North Texas are leaving. They seemed to be carving out a little niche.
At the league meetings going on in San Antonio, USL has proposals to start pro/rel between USL-C and USL-1, as well as switching to a Fall/Spring calendar. NEW: In a joint Board of Governors meeting on Wednesday, #USL president Jake Edwards charted an ambitious course without MLS's involvement. Reporting from San Antonio:⚽️ seismic structure changes under consideration☑️ update on Charlotte🎮 much morehttps://t.co/EXUvTbhLgd— Jeff Rueter (@jeffrueter) July 21, 2021 I guess USL will be a test bed for either a split season, or what happens when you play through winter in the US.
All MLS2 teams are leaving League One as well ... they're all joining the MLS U23 league that is going to be D3 sanctioned. Yes, with those 4 teams left in USLC for another year they'll have 30 teams in 2022 ... with 3 more currently scheduled for 2023 (which may keep the league near 30 if those 4 MLS2 teams ultimately leave). USL L1 will be at 10 teams next year by the looks of it, with 2 more scheduled for 2023 (I assume more than just those 2 will join).
Why are you surprised the Defiance are leaving? The Sounders have been very heavily leaning into the development side of the team, so shifting to a league where all of the teams also have that focus would be beneficial. It also sounds like the MLS2 teams that are staying in USL are only staying for 1 year, at which point they'll get the boot and move to MiLS.
The Defiance have been pulling in around 1,000 per match and that's with Covid and clashes with Sounders games. While they're a reserve team they do seem like they're getting a following. I don't know why anyone would watch a team in a reserve league. North Texas are pulling in just under 1,000 too, and with the number of home-growns they produce you'd think there might be room for both teams. Of course there are restrictions on calling up players from USL teams that won't be an obstacle for a reserve league.
The Defiance aren't going away, they are just changing leagues. If anything, it will help attendance because there shouldn't be a measurable change in how well the Defiance play, but they'll be playing teams with similar goals and skill levels and the Defiance will actually win a few games... While coming to see future Sounders has some appeal, you still want the game to be interesting from a fan perspective and it isn't fun to see your team lose a vast majority of their games season after season.
Where are you seeing that the teams staying will be leaving in the future? The article is behind a paywall that was linked above.
Why in God's name would they go to a fall/spring schedule with what will be required to be a very long winter break when the current MLS parallel schedule works just fine? And pro-rel remains a terrible idea. Especially with the league just forming rivalries and having teams set up at the two levels with geographical footprints generally beneficial to their teams? And they're going to go cock that up? ********ing stupid.
Oh my, what is the USL thinking. Hard enough to draw in good weather when you are a 2nd-3rd-4th division team, but in bad weather??? Only way I see this working is a LONG winter break (like the whole month of January) and using all your southern or desert weather based teams for February and then hope March weather is good. And who knows about December. The pro-rel idea within the parameters of the USL family is interesting, but I think they need to look at finances. If you are an EPL team that drops, you get a nice financial parachute. I don't see that in the USL. I think the league REALLY needs to get together with MLS now and come to some agreement regarding the new MLS league plans. I feel sorry for USL since they have spent a lot of time and money getting to the 3 league set up and now MLS to roll in and upset the apple cart. Bigger picture, this still shows the poor structure of our soccer pyramid in this county- too many alphabet soup leagues and divisions past and present. It is still not working and I am afraid the USL is going to have troubles going forward when they should , besides getting this MLS thing sorted out, but really try to fully rebound from the down period of Covid and get the fans coming back fully.
There’s a huge difference between dropping in a European league (where there is tv and league prize money) and USL, which almost 100% gate and sponsorship funded. I’m not sure parachute payments are really necessary in this scenario. Not like MLS -> USL would be.
Unless there's compensation for the team that spent $12 million to join the league now playing alongside teams that spent $2 million to join the league. But parachute payments are there essentially to cover payrolls and I don't think that would be too much of a problem in USL.