Have the Rochester Rhinos Gone to USL Pro?
Not according to Rob Clark, owner of the Rhinos. He stated this morning that nothing has changed and he is still waiting until the end of the season to make a decision if his team will stay with the North American Soccer League or move to the new USL Pro League.
However, a half hour later IMS was alerted that USL was featuring the Rhinos on their website with a story about their playoffs along with a team page and link in the “USL First Division” page. The only other teams with links are the two USL affiliated teams: Austin Aztex and the Portland Timbers.
When Clark was contacted again he told IMS that he had given his permission to the United Soccer Leagues but did not elaborate.
The USL was also asked to respond to the Rhinos’ coverage on their website. Spokesperson Jay Preble stated: “We have covered the USSF DII League on our website all season long, and the Rhinos have recently authorized us to cover their individual team.”
Preble acknowledged that their website has not printed any other stories of non-USL affiliated D2 teams this season unless they were game reports.
Comments are closed.
What Preble said makes sense. Rochester is in the USL conference, so this sounds much ado about nothing.
I think Rochester, in spite of the unknowns, will do what is best for their team.
so i am to believe that Austin and Rochester are going to slum it in the 3rd division with the lofty likes of Antigua Barracudas and Dayton Dutch Lions?
wasn’t the Rochester guy one of the instigators in the NASL breakaway anyway?
NASL has 6, plus Austin and Rochester = 8 … viola.
just get it done people. leave the USL-Pro to the likes of Antigua Barracudas and Pittsburgh Riverhounds and the (in)famous FC NY.
This verbal legerdemain by Preble is so disingenuous it is insulting.
Is this indicative of the new USL that is honest and forthright in its dealings with owners and prospective investors?
@Bart & Giggsy – i’m with you on this. Rochester & Austin would make a mistake to go down a notch. I don’t care how USL paints the picture, the teams they’ve announced are just not D2 level.
But, on the flip side of that coin, perhaps the management of these two teams are also just waiting a year to see if NASL will actually survive even after Montreal (Saputo especially) moves up to the MLS.
I think it would be great if the NASL were to do very well with only about 10 – 12 teams for a while, just to prove themselves to the MLS and USSF. Then, who knows, there might be a chance for MLS 1 & MLS 2. Germany has the Bundesliga 1 and Bundesliga 2. Even though there is a pecking order they are both considered what we call here major league.
USSF needs to make a decision on NASL. If the Fed wants to have a D2 in this country, they need to sanction NASL. Then Austin and Rochester will jump on board for real and things will begin to settle down and some stability will hopefully take hold. Not sanctioning NASL means D2 dies, and that won’t look good to FIFA come World Cup decision time.
@ Miami Ultra – I hope you are right on both accounts. First that USSF will sanction the NASL even though they are short 2 teams. Second, that Austin and Rochester will join the NASL upon the USSF’s decision to sanction NASL.
“wasn’t the Rochester guy one of the instigators in the NASL breakaway anyway?”
Actually, no, Rob Clark was talking with the TOA all along but had some disagreements with them and with Joey Saputo. He seemed to be pretty much bound to USL and supposedly still had a contract with USL last year that went beyond 2009. Clark claimed that was a verbal agreement and not a contract. He went to the USL AGM and something happened there where he became upset with USL and switched his allegiance to the NASL.
Tampa had done the same thing and also had previously had a contractual agreement with the USL. Both were sued by USL and as part of the meetings last year between USSF, NASL and USL the later agreed to drop the law suit. It was not good PR for the USL but they had every right to do what they did contractually.
So bottom line is Clark was with USL, switched to NASL and is now trying to figure out exactly what he wants to do next year. If I was a betting man I’d say he’ll play USL Pro next season for a number of reasons.
I think Rob will have some interesting things to say when all this is said and done.
jmb321: Come on, Bro… I feel you when it comes to calling out the silliness but it’s not like the NASL is being anymore forthcoming.
The propagandist over on the NASL starting writing about the Puerto Rico Islanders CONCACAF play before Mr. Selby let the cat out of the bag (which was hilarious after the way that he trashed them in his personal blog over how they failed to manage their Chamipons’ League and League responsibilities).
The NASL still has Atlanta SilverBacks listed on a banner for 2011 expansio when Boris is more interestes in hosting Kickball at his place and they is no chance in hell that Atlanta pro mens soccer will be taking place, let alone in the NASL (which is why they weren’t included in the NASL bid, of course).
My point is that that there are a lot of shennanigans being played by both side. So, I the same questions about transparency and honesty could be lobbed at the NASL.
Listen.
NASL is now the de-facto D2 league, regardless if they meet the new federation standards or not. There is no other league vying for D2 status and USL have gone on record of saying they will focus on D3. USSF will do a lot of disservice to the game if they remain too strict on their words and do not sanction NASL.
From a USL perspective, this outcome will only benefit them because if NASL seize operation next year, USLPro by default will be the second league in line behind MLS despite being D3. This would significantly influence public perception of what a viable league should be and possibly attract more sponsorships, putting USLPro at a most advantageous position to be granted D2 sanction the following year or so.
The propagandist Yankiboy refers to once wrote a column on how American Soccer fans like myself were tools of MLS because we supported Toronto FC over Puerto Rico in the Champions League and basically said anyone who didn’t support the Islanders against Toronto was anti American Soccer and pro Canadian Soccer. I remember that well, and being offended.
Upon reflection, his points were actually pretty solid, though I still don’t regret supporting an MLS team which is after all our top division. He claimed A USL team (at the time) with many American players upsetting a Canadian/European oriented MLS side made American soccer look stronger and deeper.
NASL covered the Islanders and Austin all year and never covers Portland. That to me is painfully obvious, so yes, shenanigans.
But USL is worse. I have no love for NASL and still think it is an experiment that very well may fail. But USL has failed. 75% of teams go out of business and despite all the window dressing from Holt, Papadakis, etc about an owner run league, I doubt teams in Dayton, and the two new PR teams really have the capability of competing with the likes of Charleston and Richmond. As usual many teams will die in USL. Maybe USL Pro will have a 50% fail rate instead of 75%, but still WAY too high.
@US Soccer Fan: One thing about the propogandist, he is very good at ruffling feathers. Not so good at taking criticism or when you call him out on it but that is another issue.
I realize that he has changed hats so to speak and that his job is to promote the NASL. I think that he’s doing a pretty good job selling that flavor of the snake oil.
You are probably right but i don’t recall any of the USL D2 clubs getting any write ups on the NASL website unless they were facing a NASL affiliated club. USL did the same thing. I get it. They are just looking out for their own, ok.
But when he bothered to write about the Islanders Champions’ League play before it was leaked before the annoucement that they were planning to jump ship–that should have been a HUGE red flag.
Because it was so typical of the shennanigans…
I get it. league interests, league spin. People are doing their jobs.
If my local Baltimore club goes under and St. Louis doesn’t survive and Minnesota can’t find the investor then it needs that means that 3 of the 9 NASL clubs active this season will have failed. Rochester looks poised to (re)defect.
My math is not so hot but that it 67% (after you round the number up). How do we figue in the dead on arrival Atlanta Silverbacks. Do we do like the NFL does and factor in some sort of half a loss win their is a tie? Coz that only pushes the NASL failure rate number up. That’s not so great.
Dayton, I don’t know enough to comment on. When you move up in competition there is always a learning curve.
RIver Plate Puerto Rico has a lot of potential if they can find the balance between amition and self-delusion.
Sevilla Juncos–I wish them the best but from the outside, i just don’t see how that s going to work out. Juncos is a small little town. I am not sure how they are going to be able to handle the economi challenge of having to fly to face their non Puerto Rico based Caribbean neighbors.
If play is regionally focussed then the Caribbean clubs won’t really face the US clubs unless it is Orlando (but I’m not pinning too many hopes on the empire that would Rochester South and Steve Donner & company). On the field, Charleston and Richmond are formidable foes. But the newer clubs will need some time to try to get to where those two clubs are as organizations. They were not built over night. It took an awful long time, trial and error for Charleston and Richmond to become the amazing stories that they are.
The inclusion of Barracuda FC in Antigua is like a joke. They already stiffed Montreal and Charleston. What they did to the Impact was straight up scandalous. For once, I agree with Joey Saputo. It was utterly unprofessional.
I’m not ready to call the USL “worse”. I’m just ready tosay that since they have been in the game they have been failing a lot longer than the NASL. But the failure rates are not that much different so far or at least have the potential to be very comparable in the very near future…
Disparaging remarks directed toward one group does not imply (nor should one infer) an endorsement of the other.
For the sake of lower division soccer, it would be nice to have a modicum of transparency and a tincture of veracity in the leagues’ public statements.
A plague on both their houses and a hope that a white knight will come to rescue to have a fresh approach.
Leagues I can tolerate. They are like any other private business that will usually tailor their public statements to enhance the appeal of their product, especially when they are competing amongst one another.
I would rather see a top-down approach to implementing transparency, starting with USSF. Any bad or misguided decisions they make can crush the hopes and dreams of millions of fans who willingly go out to support American soccer, who are entitled to hold the culprits accountable.
@drebin: You are coming with some strong posts, today, Bro.
Yeah. You are 100% right about the fact that a lot of the shenannigans start at the top of the USSF & work their way down.
Very good point.
it makes zero sense for Rochester and Austin, the two best teams in Division 2 this year, to self-relegate. i guess this says something about NASL needing to get their shit together, but i still have to believe they’ll get it done somehow and we’ll have a 10-team Division 2 next year…
As a long time Rochester fan I hope they stay division 2 whatever that ends up being – a sanctioned NASL or USL Pro (a de facto d-2) if the NASL bid fails. After last year, I don’t care who runs the league.
IMHO playing in D3 is not a good move for the Rhinos.
As one who was worried what would happen when the Battery moved down to D3 last season, I can say it hasnt been that much different. Attendence hasnt changed for the Battery (in fact our average was higher this year than last) Level of playisnt as different as I thought it would be. Charleston still beat Carolina and Chicago in the USOC. For Rochester it makes perfect sense financually, travel cost will dramatically reduce. player wages will go down (season not as long and roster doesnt need to be as deep)
I understand Austin’s situation and travel isnt going to change much for them, so that it sticky situation there for sure.
Overall we renewed rivialries with Richmond and Charlotte, (and Pittsburgh) I felt the Battery were alot more offensive this year and played a much more attractive soccer than in years past
BQ,
You have hit it on the head, as I see it.