USL Meetings Open in Beverton Oregon – League Say New Teams Ready to Join League

The USL is in Beverton, Oregon this week, home of Nike Soccer, the former owner and new league sponsors of the United Soccer Leagues. The teams are meeting in preparation for the Annual General Meetings that will take place in Tampa, Florida in a few weeks.

According to a news article produced by the USL themselves, they are stating that Owners representing Austin, Cleveland, New York, Puerto Rico, Portland, Rochester and Tampa Bay were in attendance as well as individuals representing USL-1 Canadian expansion teams in Edmonton and Ottawa and American teams in Baltimore and Detroit were on hand. Charleston was missing but only because they had previous commitments.

Obviously missing were the five TOA teams, Vancouver, Montreal, Carolina, Miami and Minnesota.

Rob Clark, owner of the Rochester franchise, took a shot at the TOA by stating, “The meeting went very well and set the tone moving forward. We are united as an organization moving forward and not as individuals.”

Jeff Di Veronica spoke further to Clark in his blog for the Democrat and Chronicle. The Rhinos owner said there will be “sweeping reforms in the league,”  and mostly from a business aspect for the USL clubs.

Di Veronica went on to quote Clark as saying: “There will be a new board of directors of the USL which will consist approximately five individuals (four team owners and NuRock rep),” Clark said. “We’re all partners, not individuals. We’ve discussed greater transparency among the ownership groups. The player component is one of those. Ticket sales, corporate sponsor sales is another.”

Just last month Tampa ownership was quoted in an interview as being very pro TOA and looking for changes from the USL. Yet Tampa was one of the teams at this meeting showing a definite shift for the Florida expansion team that is set to join the league this coming season. The Rowdies have already started tryouts and practices for their teams 2010 season.

Recently the USL had said it would set up some offices in Canada realizing the potential of the country and the success of Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto FC in MLS. Vancouver will join MLS in 2011 and Joey Saputo, owner of the Montreal Impact, is hoping to join that league as well, leaving a space for D-2 soccer in a country that seems to embrace the game more than the US.

Ottawa has already been mentioned as a expansion team but the mention of  Edmonton brings back NASL and A-League memories. Edmonton’s NASL team was named the Drillers and the city also had a team in the USL (A-League) previously named both the Aviators and Edmonton FC.

The Baltimore team is widely rumored to be Crystal Palace USA of USL-2, who have been wanting to step up to USL-1 for a while now, and Detroit seems to be the biggest surprise of all. It does seem like an excellent market for USL with a larger population but no MLS interest at the present time.

Alan Papadakis, CEO of USL, said they would be partnering with a company called Premier Partnerships which, according to Papadakis, “is going to bring a new level of sophistication to USL in enhancing corporate revenues for USL and its teams.” The USL have secured the firm to help in corporate marketing and revenues for soccer both in the United States and internationally.

The league also announced a partnership with Beswicks who will help teams find international partnerships for USL franchises to affiliate with.

If the TOA teams were to come back into the USL and with the expansion, it could mean a league of up to 15 teams. The league front office have also said they want to expand to Atlanta, Georgia, former home of the Silverbacks and Birmingham, Alabama, bringing the league to 17 teams.