Highlanders may look to jump to pro USL to fill Whitecaps' vacant spot By Cleve Dheensaw, Times Colonist The Victoria Highlanders could replace the Vancouver Whitecaps in the professional United Soccer League when the Whitecaps vacate the circuit to move up to Major League Soccer in 2011.
I wonder if buying Vancouver's USL-1 franchise rights would be any cheaper (or, on the other hand, more expensive) that coming in as an expansion team (or would they even have to, seeing that they're already PDL)?
unless there suddenly becomes a few more Canadian USL1 teams, or a team in say Tacoma, or Everett, it doesn't really seem to make sense anymore. When they first started planning about eventually getting a USL1 team a few years back, Seattle, Portland, and most importantly Vancouver were still in the mix. I think the only reason they were really interested in USL1 was for the rivalries and close proximity.
They'll still get those rivalries as entry into USL1 ensures entry into the Voyageurs' Cup and games against Vancouver, Montreal, and TFC.
Unak, good thinking! That would make the V's Cup even more delicious. I do wonder though, at the previous point made. If you are Victoria, and your closest league opponents are in California and Texas...well, you get the point, I think. Love the idea of a Vic franchise, but it would not be a cheap propoition and no local rivals.
They don't need to go straight to USL-1 if they buy the Whitecap's franchise. Kitsap owns the Sounder's franchise and they play in the PDL. They, along with the Seattle Wolves) have expressed interest in joining a USL-2 western conference if it ever formed. That makes more sense for a Victoria team to test the pro waters than jumping to USL-1 ehere the closest opponent would be pushing 2,000 miles away.
What a great idea.......the logistics of it would be fun......or at least interesting. A whole soccer team getting on a ferry to head over to Vic, with the rival fans on the same boat......hmmmmmmm.......or even their own fans. The distance would be the real challenge. The Voyageurs Cup would be better. Maybe even join in on the championship between Portland and Vancouver, throw Seattle in there again for giggles.
Well the Highlanders are barely into the first ever PDL season. I go to PDL games here in Rhode Island, they draw on average about 100-200 people max. The Highlanders (IMO) need to play at UVic stadium or RAP. I just don't know if a USL-1 budget is in this guys plans. I mean the La Colina bakery on Cedar Hill Rd is nice but this guy will need some serious money to finance this thing. (My parents go there for lunch all the time and my dad talks soccer to the guy) My best and only advice to the guy is see how the PDL works out. The difference between driving to Abbotsford and flying to Puerto Rico is a ton of money. The difference in fans between hosting Tacoma Tide and hosting Austin Aztec is not enough to support it in my opinion. I hope it all works out for him. Dheenshaw has been with the TC since about 1986 so he knows the local scene but this is a real league with real dollars and real costs.
I don't want this thread to get too sidetracked, but I always wondered why they didn't combine USL-1 and USL-2 into one league, then split them again into separate West and East Leagues (i.e. no interleague play). This would cut down on travel costs. League Champ of each League gets silverware, then take the top 3 teams from each league and throw them into a playoff with the champs getting a first round bye. Winner of that playoff is the North American Division 2 Champion. It would seriously cut travel costs, increase regionality, and presumably make owning a franchise more attractive for a lot of people. Victoria would work in that sort of setup, I would think. It worked for German soccer for, what, half a century?
..because USL-2 is almost exclusively an east coast league. Your western division would be solely comprised of Austin, Cleveland and Minnesota.
And USL-1 isn't once Portland and Vancouver leave? USL had better start working on getting some PDL teams promoted to USL-2 or they are in trouble.