News: USL/NASL discussion thread (continued)

Well, we're well past any facts on this thread anymore, so, yeah, let's go with that.

 

You say that but haven't we already gone past the point of mass defections? USL went from an 11 team league to 5 team league already. And there are questions about several of the remaining 5.

 

Aside from Tampa and Baltimore, we don't know where the other USL teams are going for sure. There is a lot of speculation in this thread about USL going belly up and assuming that if/when it does the remaining teams heading to TOA, but none of this is anything more than rumors and speculations here. I don't think there is anything credible out in the USL blogs about what the current status of the remaining USL1 teams are.

 

There are questions on this board, everyone else is in a wait and see mode. Everyone here seems to be under the impression that USL1 is going to go under one way or another. It wasn't to long ago that NASL only had 7 teams and one of those was nothing more than a GM sitting in an office in Minnesota looking at a mountain of debt and two others weren't much more than that. At this point it wouldn't surprise me if USL was able to pull a rabbit out of its hat, just like NASL did with the Tampa and Baltimore announcements.

 

No doubt about it, but I thought PR was sitting on the fence all this time.

 

I've never herd FIFA really say much about pro/rel in the USA. I mean they seem to gripe about the fall -spring schedule (which I never understood why) but not about a rel/pro system...

 

They've also never griped about the lack of Pro/Rel in Australia, Korea, Canada, or any other country that lacks the system.

 

They've griped quite a bit. Even passed a memorandum/regulation/whatever FIFA calls it when it wants leagues to follow something, but doesn't actually enforce. Australia has even said they'll implement pro/rel in the next few years in the hopes that it will improve their chances of getting the 18/22 WC.

 

Call me when Australia actually implements it. As for FIFA memoranda, they're not worth the paper they're written on. Otherwise all top level leagues would have 18 teams (which they don't), etc...

 

They can gripe and kick and scream as much as they want but they really have no choice but to shut up about it. I'd just like to see FIFA try to ban the USA from a WC or otherwise....If the USSF or the MLS or whomever wanted to fight them in court especially in the US Supreme or UN court I seriously doubt they would show up. It reminds me of a story former NASL1 Quakes coach Don Popovic told me once. Fifa was trying to block Steve Zungul from playing outdoor soccer. He had fled Yugoslavia to play indoor soccer in NY in the MISL and then was traded to San Jose. FIFA tried to block him from playing outdoor soccer and Don took it to the Supreme Court and they failed to show up. Basically , they had no case. I seriously doubt they would challenge the USA/USSF and/or MLS or whomever (not to mention their abundance of lawyers international or otherwise) in a court of law. They have no say in the matter.

 

That's a question that many people are asking. As I stated in my previous post, I don't know either. There is obviously something out there that is still unknown.

I am certainly not banging the drum for the USL, Austin only has a one year history there anyway. I just don't see Austin moving to a league that would compete with the MLS. I really think they like the previous structure they were in.

1. PDL team -develop and find young talent to move to the USL-1 or to other clubs they are affiliated with.
2. USL-1 -field a young pro side in USL-1, also finding and developing talent. Austin had the youngest side in USL-1 last year. I wouldn't expect that to change.

I am not currently plugged in to know the owner's thought on this issue. I just think he was happy with the old USL and the control he had, so he'd rather stay there and see where the cards fall. Do we really know that the TAO/NASL is going to be better? IMO, not really.

 

Sometimes the devil you know is not worth knowing. its about change, the team owners wanted change, and it appears the USL was not in favor of their changes. So they revolted and we wait and see.

Maybe I'm just a revolutionary, but I'm excited to see a new league develop.

As for competing with MLS, let's just wait and get more facts before we worry about it.

Has anyone found a new website?

 

I didn't say it was a good idea, just that they said they were going to start it. Sounds like a recipe for destroying A-league if you ask me. There are already teams in A-league that make FCD look like a well-supported team, promotion/relegation isn't going to help that.

 

Not yet. The Whitecaps have prepared a link for it at the top of their home page but it is not active

 

There's a wildcard in Francisco Marcos' relationship with USSF.

There's a wildcard in Nike's relationship with USSF and USL.

There's kind of an interesting scenario where USSF doesn't give a yay or nay right away, constantly begs for more info, thus really squeezing people back towards USL if they want to play next season.

So rumors of TOA being denied- that's an outcome that wouldn't surprise me.

Thing is, that does have to be weighed against the number of teams and owners and what-not that are happy. USSF slowing down the process likely causes Carolina and Miami and Minnesota to sit out. In two out of three cases, it's trees falling in a remote Siberian forest. However, USSF would need a very reasonable justification to vote down NASL IF they want more owners to take the plunge into the sport. There's more than one fine line to walk here.

Here's hoping this all works out somehow.

 

I did a "whois" on naslnet.com (just guessing) and here are the results:

Looks promising to me. Right now http://naslnet.com is just a generic goDaddy place-holder.

 

I guess they are following the lead of MLS when it comes to domain names...

Unfortunately the North Alabama Soccer League already has dibs on www.nasl.com lol. Although if they really wanted to use it I think Traffic or Cooper could pry that away from them.

 

The AFC might call your bluff on that in regards to Korea, they're threatening to strongarm them over it.

 

Korea is planning to implement pro/rel, and working hard for it.

 

I cannot tell you how I know this but I can tell you that USL-1 is finished, USL-1 and USL-2 are likely to merge and become Division 3 underneath MLS (Division 1) and the new NASL (Division 2). Bermuda is likely to drop out entirely and there has been talk that the Puerto Rico Islanders may play in an all Puerto Rican league at some point.
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what's the source of this e-mail?

 

I was wondering where that came from? Would have been nice to see a link from WSW.

 

MLSR ... the National Enquirer of MLS-related news. I'm totally convinced. Almost as stoked as the completely believable article about Montreal taking next year off.

 

Still with the planning however. Also still doesn't impact a country like the US which is larger and has a franchise based system, not a club system like most countries.