USL Provisional D-2 Status

The United Soccer League Pro (USL PRO) forum
User avatar
Pounder
Site Admin
Posts: 2736
Joined: Tue Mar 23, 2004 7:01 pm
Location: Portland freaking Oregon!

USL Provisional D-2 Status

Post by Pounder » Mon Jan 09, 2017 6:05 am

USSF decided that, provisionally, both the NASL and USL are awarded Division 2 status for 2017. Social media followed up with way too many references to the Judgment of Solomon FWIW.

Apparently, USSF will make a judgment for 2018 based on how each league manages through 2017. They seek stabilization in the NASL... to which Jacksonville already has their owner stating he's trying to sell his franchise to the league (aka the other 7 owners). For the USL, they want several clubs to raise themselves to D-2 standards, mostly meaning a minimum 5,000-seat stadium and associated requirements.

So there's still 7 NASL owners plus the departing Jacksonville owner. The Cosmos were bailed out by Colombian Rocco Commisso, who offered to buy the team and play IF the league stayed D-2. FC Edmonton, Indy Eleven, Miami FC, North Carolina FC, Puerto Rico FC, and San Francisco Deltas flesh out the 8. Fort Lauderdale and Rayo OKC obviously have folded.

USL gets the Tampa Bay and Ottawa franchises from NASL, so will field 30 franchises (at least) in 2017. With the teams hopefully settled, alignment decisions can be made (either shifting Saint Louis back to the east or maybe three regional divisions).
Mean Spirited Blogger #107

suge night
Site Admin
Posts: 649
Joined: Wed Mar 01, 2006 4:09 pm
Location: USA

Post by suge night » Mon Jan 09, 2017 4:35 pm

Far to many moving parts, reminds me of the neighbor who enjoys working on his car, and losing a screw that appeared to be important when it was removed but now things will have to go back without it. That usually works out from lets see if it holds without it. :neutral:

nksports
Site Admin
Posts: 3669
Joined: Wed Feb 23, 2005 7:53 am
Location: Newton, KS (the land of Oz)

Post by nksports » Mon Jan 09, 2017 7:46 pm

US Soccer should have just bogarted the whole thing then threw out the deadbeats (that's how it would have worked out in the rest of the world), but here in the US we do have those pesky anti-trust laws for all but baseball.
Then they should have put the top teams in the second division and the bottom teams in the third division, but again, anti-trust laws would kick in and some owner would get too butthurt.
Think about what would happen here in the US if we would have had a Rangers situation (top Scottish team goes into bankruptcy and then gets booted to the fourth division). Somebody would have gone ape $#!^.

robster2001
Site Admin
Posts: 1046
Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2004 11:02 pm

Post by robster2001 » Tue Jan 10, 2017 12:40 am

US Soccer is too spineless to force the issue, so this may last for years until the NASL collapses of its own weight.

But a merged NASL/USL, with the NASL label for the MLS hopefuls and larger-market teams as D2, and the USL label for the MLS reserves and smaller-market independents as D3... that is the best (and ultimately unreachable) result.

User avatar
Sam Hill
Site Admin
Posts: 4142
Joined: Wed Nov 26, 2003 3:29 am
Location: Denver, CO

Post by Sam Hill » Tue Jan 10, 2017 2:19 am

[quote=""robster2001""]US Soccer is too spineless to force the issue[/quote]

No, they just prefer to not spend the next several years in court, which is exactly what would happen.
Old enough to remember when bashing the ABA was fun.

suge night
Site Admin
Posts: 649
Joined: Wed Mar 01, 2006 4:09 pm
Location: USA

Post by suge night » Wed Jan 11, 2017 3:37 pm

Very well said Sam, the industry of lawyers is quite similar to soccer there are level's of divisions. And in another one of those industries losing market share with layoff's and down sizing getting in on such a fight would save some jobs,there would be no end to the appeals. :cool:

Post Reply

Return to “USL PRO”