NASL v USL Update – 12/14/09
Even though the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) placed a gag order on the Team Owners Association (TOA) the United Soccer Leagues (USL) and all of their associated teams, the news still continued to trickle out last week from all the parties involved.
I participated on a round table discussion on the Kick This radio show from Rochester, NY on Saturday morning. The topic was the ongoing TOA/North American Soccer Leagues (NASL) v USL battle and 3 of the 4 panelists Jeff Di Veronica, Kartik Krishnaiyer and myself, felt there would be some sort of decision coming this week from the USSF. James Weise was the dissenting voice feeling that we could still be waiting for a decision mid-January.
Last Wednesday was the deadline for the associated teams from each side of the league battle to prove they had a stadium lease for the 2010 season. The special task force for the USSF was then going to take that information under advisement.
Recapping some events last week:
Monday the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) held a press conference for other reasons but several reporters spoke to the CSA about the chances of sanctioning the NASL. In short their answer, not unless the USSF does.
On Tuesday AC St. Louis was announced along with a coach and staff. The press conference was led by Jeff Cooper who is also acting league commissioner for the NASL.
On that same day the USL filed a lawsuit against 3 teams involved with the NASL. The suit names Crystal Palace, Tampa and Rochester as defendants.
The Kartik Report also reported that the NASL is already working towards its own TV deal.
Kristian Vazquez of Pasion Naraja updates us on happenings in Puerto Rico with several interesting articles, one saying that the USL is wooing Ponce River Plate who would be a second Puerto Rican team in the USL.
It was also announced on Thursday that MLS Commissioner Don Garber was in Montreal negotiating with Joey Saputo for the Impact to be the next entry into Major League Soccer. The pair also met with the Quebec Minister of Finance Raymond Bachand and Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay.
On Friday, St. Louis Today had a quote from Jeff Cooper saying, “Rochester, Tampa and Baltimore are committed to playing in our league and there is nothing that will stop them from playing in our league this year.” Check out the article for more quotes from Cooper.
So much for the gag order from US Soccer!
One last thought: As the week progressed it was very sad to see the message boards and comments concerning the debate between the TOA and USL get uglier and uglier. Something seemed to snap this week and people went on the defensive for both sides. However, if one can gauge anything whatsoever from comments and message boards, the lawsuit brought on by the USL, which really was the only logical thing they could do to protect their interest, was not taken kindly to by those posting. A strong edge in public sentiment seems to be going towards the new proposed NASL league. It seems that the USSF will need to act soon to put out this flame that is quickly turning into a 3-alarm fire.
Comments are closed.
Go NASL! I support the TOA and their decision to seperate themselves from NuRock USL. Frankly, the only division 2 soccer I will watch in 2010 is NASL…thats a promise.
Just pay the USL for what they have contributed to American soccer. After they receive their $1 check, the USSF should send them off…permanently.
I am a Rochester fan but will not support a Nurock owned league. I hope the USSF sanction the NASL.
if the ussf decides not to recognize NASL, we, the us soccer supporting public, should boycot: US national games, MLS, Nike and even group up to stage protests. I will become eurosnub if this happens f- us soccer if they don’t recognize NASL!!!!!!!! email ussf tell them the same
Enjoy the NASL while it lasts because it will not last long and that is a given. I give them 3 years at best looking at some of the potential participants and knowing the markets. Not much change from the USL1 so I cannot see the league being any better.
Strange to see many of these negative comments towards the USL. Why do some people think that the new NASL will be that much different from what the USL1 was? To all the haters & phoneys, because you deserved to be grouped together, just because you follow soccer on the web, doesn’t mean that you know sh*t about the lower level leagues in this country.
The USL, while it has it’s faults & egos, has done a great job growing the professional side of the game in this country & Canada for many years. And for the sake of the game, hopefully this gets put to bed soon, regardless if NASL or USL are the governing division 2 league body.
Another disgruntled USL employee above. The NuRocks communications guys have been spamming all the blogs with similar comments. They claim NASL fans don’t know about soccer and show nothing to back that statement up.
The NASL will last as long as soccer lasts in this country…forever! NuRock USL lasted less than 3 months. So, to the guy above, tell us, what in the last three months have the NuRock owners done for American soccer? You can go down on your knees for them but why would the USSF want to sanction NuRock when they’ve already failed before even starting.
The fans don’t want NuRock. The NASL supporters outnumber USL employees (pretend fans) 100,000 to 18. Being the senior director of a failed ownership group doesn’t make you an expert Chris Economides. NuRock’s problem is they have no clue what the fans want…but its pretty obvious that we don’t want NuRock.
NASL 2010!
I am sure you are a REAL fan of the new NASL which couldn’t they have come up with a more original name for a new league? That is just one more sign that the league has grandiose plans, but no real potential for execution. The NuRock group is relatively new and perhaps they have made a mistake or two although I think most of the TOA had already made up its mind to jump ship. Teams like Miami and Atlanta are struggling in the USL because they don’t know their own target markets. It appears that Minnesota is not any different and in dire straights ownership wise which is sad to see for such a storied USL franchise. Hopefully for the fans and players soccer will survive on the minor league level although history dictates otherwise for leagues with such small membership like the new NASL.
Not sure how other folks feel, but with the NASL what have you got to lose? It’s obvious that USL-1 does not and has not worked, so why not give another entity a shot? At least they seem to have their heart into and will devote much more time and energy into it than just scheduling games and collecting annual and franchise fees.
Why do other franchise industries work like food (Subway, Blimpies, Jimmy John’s, etc…) or auto (Midas, Meinike, CarX, etc…) it’s because competition spurs improvement and pushes the evolution of those industries. USL is nothing more than a franchising operation (just calling it as I see it) with no competition so therefore they’ve been able to dictate the terms. If there was competition do you think the Div 1 franchise fee would be $750K? No, multiple groups would vie for that potential club owner.
BTW, I heard the exact same comments that are tagged by Chris above on the podcast over the weekend. If you look around at a lot of the blogs you’ll see the exact same viewpoints from many of the same people. Kind of a vocal minority here and there.
So what you’re saying in your first statement is that your parents were unoriginal in naming you Chris. My question is…Are you saying that, as a result, your parents were less qualified to raise you to become a competent person?
The TOA is a big part of the USL’s success before NuRock bought it from NIKE in August. Since NuRock took over the USL has become synonymous with FAILURE.
The NASL didn’t stick a gun to the owners of all the other teams. The other team owners RAN from NuRock, and so did the fans.
Previously I was skeptical about this breakaway league. Then I was disappointed how bad the situation has gotten. Finally when USL filed those lawsuits, that was the last straw for me! Their actions for litigation have alienated and pissed off many US Soccer fans like myself. This can only slow the growth of the sport I love so dearly and potentially jeopardize our bids to host the World Cup. Now I am all over NASL and hope they get sanctioned. Screw the USL and NuRock!
Chris-
Do you not read anything you see on this fine website?
There will be a professional soccer team in Minnesota next year. It just won’t be called the Thunder. Can you at least acknowledge that? What is with people that forget this MAJOR FACT in all of the reporting that BQ has done on this site.
Thanks.
OK, I don’t like the tenor of the dialog here at all. One of the things I was just commenting on the other day was the intelligent conversations that were taking place on this site. Since last week and the lawsuit, it seems its brought the ugliness out in both sides and the thoughtfulness of the comments has sadly done a 180.
Here’s the deal, stick to issues with true facts and do not post as several different people with the same IP address or I will cut you off for good and you can go somewhere else to leave stupid comments. The other thing we could do is just shut down the comments for a while.
This site will not go the way of name calling and personal attacks. For ANYONE who says the USL has not contributed to America soccer, you are uninformed and I would suggest doing some homework before you bother coming back to this site again and commenting. The USL and Francisco Marcos has been extremly important in the history of soccer in the US. He started a league when there was nothing but desolation on the soccer landscape in the US.
I for one will be following whatever league ends up with the second division soccer league in the US.
BQ – keep up the good work and I, like the vast majority of those who frequent your blog, respectfully request that you adhere to your IP comments in the second paragraph of your last post from 12/14.
I warned you.
To the person that left the nasty comment this morning pretending you were a high school student, it was not hard to find that you were the same person that has left 8 different email address all with ridiculous pro NASL comments. You are now permanently banned from leaving comments on this site and the discussion will be better because of it.
“A strong edge in public sentiment seems to be going towards the new proposed NASL league.”
“it was not hard to find that you were the same person that has left 8 different email address all with ridiculous pro NASL comments.”
So how do we divide “strong edge” by “8″?
Whether you care to believe it or not Stephen, I keep a pretty close eye on comments and while this debate has been going on I’ve also been monitoring where those comments are coming from as well as making sure the scenario I listed hasn’t happened; and it hasn’t up until the last several days.
Most of the dialog here has been positive in nature and well thought out. I appreciate that. As well, it’s not just my site but many of the sites as well as discussion boards that has led me to that conclusion along with talking to folks all across the US. I don’t think I’m wrong on this opinion. Again, that is not to say I am personally all in favor of the NASL. I think the NASL has many great ideas that USL need to incorporate to stay viable as a league. I don’t disagree with those that say NASL seems to have a better business model nor do I disagree with those that say the people leading NASL are unproven and may be spending too much money.
As stated previously, I also didn’t like NuRocks approach to this issue and feel they could very well have avoided this mess with a different and more conciliatory approach. I don’t believe in things being black and white. It’s a far to simplistic approach to complicated issues.
Though this several month journey I’ve talked to USL employees that were not entirely happy with their own organizations dealings with this issue and have also talked to folks on the TOA that felt the same way about their organization.
My best guess is that this issue will be resolved through resolution, and I’m guessing there will be parties on both sides that will not be happy with that. Oh well, lets get on with planning for the 2010 season and making it all it can be. The league will get plenty of attention/scrutiny after this past years issues and with the World Cup this summer. Lets come together and make the most of this.
Just so everyone knows, I am NOT the “Chris” in this thread. A while back I started posting as “Chris A”. Superrookie, though not directed at me, I did laugh about your analogy that Chris is an unoriginal name. (Disclaimer – it is my real name.)
I agree with BQ that personal attacks contribute nothing to otherwise intelligent discussions. Arguing that USL/NASL are either the antichrist or your own personal savior is not a winnable argument. Thanks BQ for keeping an eye on the posts.
I do not really care what league a Minnesota professional team plays in. Give me a team that is entertaining, tries hard, pushes the ball up, scores some spectacular goals, makes some great tackles, connects with the fans, has fans waving a “Hot Nuts” flag, and runs a promotion some nights with 1$ beers for 15 minutes after a goal. Throw in good weather and I am a happy camper.
Superrookie, I think, is on the same page as me. What happens in the stadium is more important than what goes on outside of it.
“What happens in the stadium is more important than what goes on outside of it.”
Is that sort of like saying, “What happens in the stadium, stays in the stadium”?
Oh, and if you notice, this Chris is still posting, so he must be the real Chris.
To Superrookie – I mistakenly attributed my name analogy comment to you. Sorry. Whoever “To Chris” is, the comment was still funny.
I wish the NASL all the luck with the new league. USSF better support their league.
I wish USL the best of luck but the best thing you can do is get rid of King Marcos and run the leagues in the clubs’ best interests. Not Marcos’ interest, not Sporting Lisbons, Portugals, 6 people in Tampa Bay, etc.
NASL will be fair and fun. I hope it becomes the dominant minor league and even starts biting at the ankles of MLS, forcing them to improve and not to become complacent with their monopoly. GOOD LUCK NASL!
Thanks BQ for maintaining integrity and respect as a mandatory requirement of participation in this dialogue. I read many sites, because I enjoy being informed, but I very seldom participate in discussions precisely because of the absence of respect. Keep IMS respectful.
For the sake of further learning: Does anyone have any info on how other countries (national federations) deal with competing D2 leagues? I’d be curious to know more about that aspect. Perhaps there’s a scenario somewhere in the world that can teach us some things, which we can further develop/adjust/grow into our own system. Look forward to more info on this.
the biggest problem with keeping US soccer from growing is SUM. I am not sure how most federations and clubs interact on economic level but im sure they are not like US. Now is the time for a league like NASL. Thier initial perspective, and its early and it might be all hype, is they are jumping in deep into the game. We need a league that is going to push MLS and USL.
Promotion and relegation is the key issue to succes for soccer in this country; as long as some powerfull interests keep being suscessful delaying this to happen, soccer would not be what it should in america.
I wish the new NASL luck, they are the best shot for the real soccer fans.If the new NASL adopt promotion and relegation, and opens the door for new clubs (no franchises please) with reasonabe fees, we should support it.
Roger
Come on, guys. Come on, Mr. Gulati,. Come on USL. Let’s be real. It’s over for you (USL) and time for some fresh ideas. The season is just 4 months away. The longer this mess between USL and TOA/NSAL gets tied up in politics and courts, the worse this becomes for US soccer development, promotion of the game and overall fan interest. USSF has to come out soon if this NASL is to kick off this season. Let’s hope so. The integrity of soccer and its leagues depends on it. Perhaps this new NASL can be what the old one should have been if those owners were smarter, wiser and less greedy and foolish. Name recognition instantly puts them on the map. Go NASL! Remember, Chignaglia, remember, Pele and Cruyf and Franz Beckenbauer, remember Rodney Marsh and Alan Willey, remember Shep Messing and Ace Nitsolungue and Branko Segota. Remember those guys, yes remember. The old is becoming the “new.”