What a Year it’s Been in Lower Division Pro Soccer in North America

I thought I might put together a piece for the end of the year that would bring you the top stories of 2010 for lower division soccer in North America. As most of you well know, IMS has become a leader in bringing you news of lower division soccer leagues in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean. When I started sorting through all the posts I had made over the last year I realized what I really had was a timeline of events. It’s really the history of the politics of lower level pro soccer in 2010. So instead of linking to a few individual stories I thought I’d link to most of the more important stories concerning Division II and Division III soccer. I’ll let you decide what’s the most important story of 2010.

I report on these leagues all the time and yet it was a bit astounding to me everything that has transpired this past year concerning these teams and the leagues. Although this has all made for interesting reading I think I’m not alone in hoping that 2011 brings a more stable year to both the NASL and the USL. But this is minor league sports and as a friend of mine recently said to me, whenever your dealing with minor league sports,  no matter what the sport, your always going to have interesting off-the-wall stories.

So here’s to you 2010. It’s been one hell of a ride.

This is also a good opportunity to thank everyone out there who has made IMS a regular stopping off point during your week and for many of you a daily read. Thank you so much.  Also, thanks to everyone who voted for IMS as one of their top ten soccer blogs in the U.S. in 2010. That was quite an honor. Cheers everyone!

A 2010 Time Line of Division II and Division III pro soccer leagues in the U.S.

1/7 – US Soccer announces they will not sanction either the USL or the NASL for Division II soccer and instead will run the league themselves in 2010. The league name will be called the USSF D2 Pro League. President Gulati says new standards will be set for lower division soccer ownership and sanctioning leagues.

1/7 – The National Sports Center in Blaine, Minnesota formally announce they will field a team in D II for the 2010 season.

1/11 – NASL reveals temporary old school logo.

1/29 – Tampa Bay Rowdies change their name to FC Tampa Bay for legal reasons.

2/1 – AC St. Louis signs MLS star Steve Ralston as first signing. IMS had broke the story days earlier but Ralston ends up only playing two games for the team before moving back to MLS.

2/5 – NSC announce name of team and logo; team name is NSC Minnesota Stars.

2/8 – USSF D2 Pro League announces 2010 30-game schedule with two divisions, USL and NASL.

2/11 – FC Edmonton added to teams signing on with the NASL. Dwight Lodeweges is named Head Coach and Hans Schrijver associate coach. But the coaches never make it through exhibition year and a new coach is named late in 2010.

2/22 – USSF asks both the USL and NASL to tone down the promoting of their own organizations.

3/9 – USL Pres. Tim Holt tells IMS that the USL is fully committed to applying for sanctioning of D II for 2011. He also states that USL will be expanding USL-2 to form a Western Conference for 2011. USL does not end up attempting to sanction DII nor does it get enough teams for a west coast conference.

3/11 – USSF announce all games will be live streamed by the host teams. (This turned out to be very hit and miss. Some teams did a great job and others couldn’t get the streaming working. Yet others like St. Louis provided no play-by-play with the stream.)

4/10 – USSF D2 Pro League first games played between Miami FC v Rochester and Carolina and St. Louis. St. Louis plays most of the first half with 10 men as Manuel Kante left his players pass at the hotel which needed to be retrieved before he could play. A bad omen for a team the has lots of problems in its future.

4/15 – Pete Medd steps down as coach of Crystal Palace Baltimore to focus on business side as rumors emerge that CP is already in financial trouble as the season is just kicking off.

4/20 – The National Sports Center gets a new “Old School” scoreboard built with the Bundesliga’s St. Pauli scoreboard clock in mind.

5/3 – USSF starts inspecting teams to set new D II standards or US Soccer.

5/21 – Crystal Palace Baltimore freed up money to keep them afloat and Jeff Cooper reaches out to USSF when it becomes apparent he will not make payroll for AC St. Louis or WPS team Athletica.

5/27 – Jeff Cooper tells WPS Athletica players‚ the team has folded; players are free agents. US Soccer uses AC St. Louis bonding money to make payroll. A riff develops between Cooper and NASL as details become known that he had brought the Vaid brothers in from Europe as partners without notifying WPS or the NASL. Cooper had been the interim commissioner for the league but had been very quiet since January.

6/8 –  After only 4 months and 2 games played, Steve Ralston departs AC St. Louis and returns to MLS’ New England Revolution. The move is a cost-saving one for AC St. Louis who are desperate to free up capital.

6/24 – Claude Anelka is fired as coach of AC St. Louis. The move is thought to be a cost-saving one for the club but oddly Anelka had told IMS just days before and after a USOC victory of the NSC Stars that Jeff Cooper had promised a bonus to the players if they defeated Minnesota.

7/13 – IMS posts first of a in-depth four-part series looking at the future of second division soccer in North America with article entitled Rethinking Division-2 Soccer in North America; A Four Part Series

7/29 – Kenn Tomasch interviews Stuart Starkey of the Phoenix Monsoons who makes many claims including one that says his team will be playing in 2011 either as a D-2 team or with a loosely organized alliance of teams called the “Western Soccer Conference.” None of those things have happened and people familiar with that area are now saying such an alliance has seemed to have lost its momentum.

8/9 – U.S. Soccer convenes their long-awaited Division 2 meeting in New York to lay out their new tougher standards for both owners and leagues involved with D 2.

8/12 – U.S. Soccer releases those new D 2 soccer standards to IMS.

8/17 – With the new tough USSF D2 standards and a team that costs them far more than they had expected it to, the National Sports Center announce they are looking for investors or a buyer for the NSC Minnesota Stars.

8/18 – Rumors spring up that  the Rochester Rhinos and the Austin Aztex had made decisions to move to D3 for the 2011 season. IMS gets comments from both teams saying such a decision had not been made. But the rumors were true and eventually both teams moved to the new USL PRO league with Austin creating even bigger news by moving to Orlando after only two season in Austin as a D2 team.

9/2 – US Soccer lays out playoff procedure for USSF D2 Pro League

9/2 – In an interview with the Cary News, Selby Wellman says the Puerto Rico Islanders are switching leagues and will join the NASL. Islanders deny it but it turns out to be true as the club is aware behind the scenes that USL will not attempt to challenge for D2 status and will only sanction the D3 USL PRO yet to be announced officially. PR wants to play D2 but USL is betting on NASL not getting sanctioning from USSF.

9/4 – Rumors circulate that Jeff Cooper has found a new owner for AC St. Louis. Aaron Davidson and Selby Wellman fly to St. Louis to interview the prospective new NASL team owner.

9/8 – USL officially announces a new league called USL PRO which will feature regional divisions. A move USL says is a “model to build natural rivalries and reduce travel-related costs.” They claim the league will consist of four geographic regions in 2011. CEO Alec Papadakis said, “The USL PRO business plan is the first below the MLS level to give team owners a realistic roadmap to profitability.” The press release states the league will be the “highest level of competition in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean outside of Major League Soccer (MLS).” The USL does not state in the release that the league is D3 and the statement seems to confuse many soccer writers in the US who are not familiar with the lower leagues and post articles saying the league will be D2.

9/9 – The Puerto Rico Islanders make it official and announce they have jumped the USL ship and moved to the NASL.

9/11 – After a great deal of digging, IMS breaks the story that St. Louis resident and real estate developer Ryan Woods is the man behind the possible purchase of AC St. Louis. IMS stays in contact with Woods for months but the deal never materializes as the real estate project Woods was working on to build a new stadium for the team falls through.

9/12 – Jeff Cooper speaks publicly to IMS for the first time in months refuting claims IMS has made in a previous article.

9/29 – NASL submits initial bid to the USSF for sanctioning of D2 for 2011. It’s believed the bid process is a bit more fluid than initially thought and later the NASL submits their final bid. With the initial bid only 6 teams are listed. They are: Carolina RailHawks, FC Edmonton, Miami FC, Montreal Impact, FC Tampa Bay and the Puerto Rico Islanders.

9/30 – The Rochester Rhinos, who broke away from the USL in December of 2009 to sign a multi-year agreement with the NASL, has their team show up on the USL website. An obvious sign that owner Rob Clark has switched allegiances again and has gone back to USL to join the newly organized D3 league USL PRO.

10/4 – USSF D2 Pro League playoffs are set with 8 seeded teams.

10/4 – NASL announces that Gordon Hartman has purchased an NASL franchise in San Antonio that will enter the league in 2012 replacing the Montreal Impact when they move to MLS that same year.

10/15 – Tampa Bay Rowdies lose lawsuit and drop Rowdies from any part of their team name.

10/18 – USSF D2 final is set and #2 seed Carolina will face #8 seed Puerto Rico Islanders.

10/20 – USSF hand out their first (and last) USSF D2 Pro League awards.

10/22 – IMS breaks story that Austin Aztex owner Phil Rawlins will move his team to Orlando.
The Aztex release a statement later saying “there is nothing concrete to report on.”
But the following week they do indeed announce the move and later Rawlins says the move had been in the works for several months. However, Rawlins never let any of his Aztex staff in on the move and they were all caught off guard by the announcement including CEO Djorn Buchholz and head coach Adrian Heath.

10/25 – Rochester Rhinos announce they have moved to USL PRO.

10/25 – USL announce name of new team in Orlando (formerly Austin Aztex) will be called Orlando City Soccer Club.

10/31 – Puerto Rico Islanders win the USSF D2 Pro League Championship.

11/8 – IMS reports that Montreal Impact players and technical director Santos are hit with suspensions and fines from USSF for aggressive behavior towards officiating crew after Impact playoff game in Cary, N.C.

11/8 – Wilmington Hammerheads join USL PRO.

11/11 – NASL bid for sanctioning now includes both Atlanta Silverbacks and Minnesota Stars to bring bid to the 8 teams required. Obviously missing from the list of teams are St. Louis and Baltimore. Later we find that the Silverbacks will be backed by Traffic Sports USA and the Stars will be a league-owned team.

11/16 – Canadian Soccer News reveals that the CSA has implemented new rules which puts a moratorium on the sanctioning of all new D2 and PDL teams effective immediately. The moratorium will expire Sept 30, 2011 and was unanimously approved by the CSA’s board of directors. The news has definite implications for both the NASL and USL.

11/17 – F.C. New York announce they have joined USL PRO.

11/22 – The USSF provisionally approves the NASL’s bid for sanctioning of D2 soccer for 2011.

11/25 – Atlanta Silverbacks confirm deal with Traffic Sports to resurrect team for 2011.

11/25 – Rumors surface that say Pali Blues in L.A. will join USL PRO for 2011. Its nearest USL PRO team will be 2,500 miles from the Blues.

11/28 – NASL CEO Aaron Davidson is interviewed by Ben Rycroft of CSN and he confirms that MN will be a league-owned team. He also states that Montreal and Vancouver will remain a member of the NASL even after each team moves to MLS.

12/12 – Atlanta Silverbacks hold press conference concerning teams and reveal a few more details about the NASL and the Silverbacks.

12/07 – FC Edmonton loses their head and assistant coach before ever playing a game in the NASL. Team names new coach. CP Baltimore make it official that they will not be playing in 2011.

12/08 – LA Blues officially announced as 14th team in USL PRO. Blues GM tells IMS that they will play in an “International conference” with Antigua and Puerto Rican teams. He tells IMS that Puerto Rican soccer federation will provide per diems for players and will cover some travel expense. But USL President Holt contacts IMS and states that is misinformation and that the PR federation will not be doing any such thing. USL is now at 13 teams with USL PRO: Barracuda FC (Antigua), Charleston Battery, Charlotte Eagles, Dayton Dutch Lions, FC New York, Harrisburg City Islanders, Orlando City FC, Pittsburgh Riverhounds, Richmond Kickers, River Plate Puerto Rico, Rochester Rhinos, Sevilla FC Puerto Rico, and Wilmington Hammerheads.

12/9 – Puerto Rico United announced as 14th USL PRO team.

12/11 – USL President Tim Holt address questions regarding travel distance with USL PRO team LA Blues.

12/18 – USL PRO teams Orlando and LA Blues unveil logos.

12/19 – IMS breaks story that Carolina RailHawks were in danger of not playing in 2011 season and are in negotiations with Traffic Sports to keep team afloat for 2011 season.
Brian Wellman of the RailHawks confirms IMS report several days later.

12/31 – Minnesota Stars announce they will hold press conference on January 5th. It’s revealed that Manny Lagos has been secured by the league as the team head coach and will be in charge of soccer operations. The league has also secured Djorn Buchholz former MN Thunder GM and Austin Aztex CEO as CEO of the Stars. Details and story to come.