USL Pro Announces 2011 Schedule With 15 Teams and Some Imbalance
The USL announced their 2011 USL PRO schedule on Friday. The league’s conference alignments are also set as each team will play a 24 game schedule.
The regular season opens on Saturday, April 2, when expansion team Orlando City will play the Richmond Kickers at City Stadium. Two more expansion teams, Sevilla FC Puerto Rico and River Plate Puerto Rico, will also play that evening, facing off at Sevilla FC Stadium.
USL PRO will feature three conferences of five teams. The conferences will be called the National, American and International.
National Division American Division International
Dayton Dutch Lions Charleston Battery Barracuda FC
Harrisburg City Islanders Charlotte Eagles Los Angeles Blues
FC New York Orlando City Puerto Rico United
Pittsburgh Riverhounds Richmond Kickers River Plate Puerto Rico
Rochester Rhinos Wilmington Hammerheads Sevilla FC Puerto Rico
Conference and Interconference Play
USL’s press release states that each team in their own division will play each other at least once at home and once on the road. While this is true, a quick glance at the schedule shows some major imbalance in regard to interconference and travel for some teams as well as the amount of times teams play each other. Looking at each team’s schedule individually it’s apparent in most cases the league attempted to consolidate road games for minimal travel, but that’s not always the case.
Barracuda FC of Antigua is a case in point with a stretch of play in May that’s brutal. The International conference teams do the bulk of the traveling, playing 16 conference games. But in May, Barracuda FC plays at home on May 12, then travel to Rochester on May 14. They turn right around and play River Plate in Puerto Rico on May 18 and fly back to the States to play Charlotte on May 20. Back to Puerto Rico they go on May 22 to play Sevilla and finally return home where they play the Los Angeles Blues on May 29.
As to interconference play, Orlando City’s schedule has them playing 8 conference games and 16 interconference games, 11 games against National Division teams and 5 International conference teams. Orlando City plays Rochester from the National Division 3 times, two of those away and play FC New York 2 times.
Charleston, like Orlando, are in the American Division and play 9 conference games and 15 interconference games: 12 games against the National Division teams and only 3 International conference games. They seem to have a much easier travel schedule than many teams and play an extra game in their own division which means the Charlotte Eagles play them 3 times but two of those are at home for Charleston.
The Rochester Rhinos from the National Division play 9 conference games, 11 games against American Division opponents and 4 International conference games. They play Barracuda FC 3 times with two of those consecutive away games in early June.
Los Angeles plays 16 games in their own International conference as do all 5 teams in the International division. They play 5 games against National Division teams and only 3 against American Division teams. Several times in the season teams will play LA twice consecutively but at different stadiums. Case in point, Charlotte travel to play LA on May 12 at Centennial High School stadium in Corona, CA. LA play Charlotte again two days later but this time at Cal State Fullerton. This happens four more times during the season with Harrisburg, River Plate, PR United and Sevilla. In fact the Blues host only 6 teams in their 12 game home schedule.
Fifteen Teams not Sixteen
The USL had been announcing that USL PRO would consist of 16 teams this season. That is, up until Thursday evening when USL President Tim Holt stated in a Fox Soccer Channel interview at the NSCAA convention that the league would have 15 teams. So what happened to that 16th team and who were they?
Sources have told IMS that Fort Lauderdale was that team and would have been in direct competition with the NASL’s franchise that has been in the South Florida market since 2006. IMS was also told that there was a lack of organization within the Fort Lauderdale group. The group also had additional problems with a new investor to the organization that didn’t happen or didn’t get done in time. USL finally made the decision to move forward without that team last week.
USL President Holt was questioned about the 16th team and he told IMS that as of November 1, 2010, 18 teams comprised their preliminary (working) alignment for USL PRO.
“Just prior to our AGM, it was determined that the participation of two of these teams would be pushed back to the 2012 season,” said Holt. “Thus, we entered the beginning of our scheduling process with 16 teams.”
“Over the past several weeks, we have determined that in the case of another team it is also in the best interests of that team and our league for the team to commence USL PRO participation in 2012.”
“We continue to have regular interaction with the ownership of all three teams, however we have not publicly announced any of the teams and there is no immediate timetable to do so.”
Playoffs
USL stated that the format for the 2011 USL PRO postseason will be announced in the coming weeks.
Comments are closed.
This might be the worst scheduling attempt ever.
Your use of the word imbalance should have been a warning, but I don’t know that it is strong enough. There will be teams in their Playoffs soley because of their schedule, not their quality.
Its definitely not balanced, but I don’t think this was ever expected of them. You can’t determine how much the imbalance is meaningful until you know the playoff format. It appears that all of the U.S. teams in the east play each other at least twice and then have one trip to the International Conference teams with International Conference teams coming to them too. Travel is significantly greater for the International Conference teams than the others. If I am reading between the lines, it seems that they decided to move forward without several teams that may have been a risky proposition, which you can’t blame them for since the opposite is what we have criticized them for in the past.
Vegas Vic,
Teams in the same Conference should have similar schedules. Not one with 8 games in Conference, another with an extra home game in Conference, and another with an extra away game in Conference.
I can understand the 3 Conference schedules being different, but teams within a Conference?
Holy crap on a cracker. Were they high when they made this schedule? Among other things, it’s incredibly hard to decipher just what the bleep is going on. From the conferences to the in-conference schedule to the out-of-conference schedule…I couldn’t even get through the first month without wanting to punch somebody. It’s ridiculous.
Also: surprise! The USL has once again promised us one thing (16 teams) and delivered something else. If you’re not sure, don’t keep stating it like it’s a fact, because then you look like an idiot.
Also. Fort Lauderdale? And they’re trying to get into San Antonio? Talk about trying to usurp the NASL. It’s one thing to be actively competing to take a market, but it’s another thing entirely to try and upstage them in the market. And let’s think about this…if Miami NASL can’t draw much better than 1000 people, what’s the USL going to draw? Congratulations to the team and all if it’s fan for a great season.
I still live in hope of the day when all divisions of U.S. Soccer can live and coexist in peace and harmony with one another without coming off like pompous asshats.
This is a truly hectic schedule, and some teams might even feel that they are set up to fail due to the travel/lodging costs. But more importantly the players are in for quite an exhausting season. I understand that this is considered as Year 1 for the USL Pro, but in truthfully the USL has been around for a very long time now. I expect more. I think they would’ve been smarter to stick with even fewer teams for this first season.
I’m sure the USL did not charge ‘franchise fees’ for many of the teams that have been with them last season, or ‘reduced franchise fees’ for teams that moved up (or down in some cases) a level. Having said that, the USL system also creates wealth through the annual administrative fees that teams pay, thus also rewarding numbers. Again, they would’ve built a stronger D3 league if they had started with fewer teams, perhaps even staying only as an Eastern USA league for one year.
A side note, it seems that people use the terminology of division/conference interchangeably which will make it more difficult for new readers to follow. Consistency is useful. Just a suggestion.
The problem with that is two of the division/conferences are called “Division” and the 3rd is not called anything but “International.” So what is it then, a division or a conference? Division can also refer to the level of play. Division I, II or III. Is it interdivision play then and not interconference play?
I think the whole idea was the Caribbean teams as well as the LA team were told what they were up against. If everyone would have traveled equally teams like Charleston and Rochester who got into DIII because they were trying to reduce costs on travel are suddenly no better off than before.
And by the way, as has been printed here before, there were supposedly no special fees waived for any team playing in USL PRO.
From what I understand, this schedule was approved by the USL Pro team owners, so everyone knows what they are getting into.
I would think the team owners are best suited to know what they did or did not want for the 2011 season schedule.
If Antigua agreed to that stretch, their front office deserves to fold within the year. They can’t work out something better than a stretch that WILL kill them physically and seriously threaten their chances of sucess? That and some seemingly preferential treatment for established teams puts me in doubt of their confidence in their own league.
This is what happens when we use ridiculous conferences rather than a single table. Soccer is meant to be a single table. They still have the travel difficulties, no matter what. I hope division 2 and 3, soccer in this country succeeds and progresses to a higher level. Awful schedule.
It’s a wonky schedule for sure, but I’m guessing that they’re counting on a big southwest expansion next season that’ll balance things out nicely. Otherwise, what was LA thinking by joining an east coast and Caribbean league?
What worries me isn’t the unabalanced…err ness of the schedules, but the time between matches. I just hopped on LA’s website and they’re going to play 4 matches in the first 9 days of the season. And it’s not just them, all the clubs seem to have incredibly congested schedules. I’m not an expert, but this schedule seems way too tough on the players.
One more gripe before I get off my soap box. What is it with soccer leagues announcing a season schedule and then NOT announcing the playoff system!? You can’t just talk about one and then not the other! This is really just pouring salt on an old MLS wound, but it really grinds my gears nonetheless.
I’ve said all along this was going to be a big mess…..and then look what we got. Honestly, I see no rhyme or reason at all behind the creation of these schedules. It almost seems as if they marked everyone down for home and away within their conference, division, whatever they’re calling it, and then just did a random draw to finish out the rest of the schedule. Well, it doesn’t seem to have been quite so random for the Charleston and Rochester perspectives though…..coincidence? Both those teams self-relegated in the past to avoid huge travel costs, so they must have been incensed when they found out the teams that were being let into the league. I can imagine quite easily Clark as well as the Battery ownership telling Holt and Co. that they better not get stuck with outrageous travel expenses in this new “regional” league, or else……
Consecutive away games, very short turn arounds all over the place, too many games against the same teams……I just can’t help wondering if a kindergarten class couldn’t have come up with something more balanced. I was pretty certain before that all of these teams would not last more than one season in this league, and now I’m even more sure.
As for Ft. Lauderdale, what a complete joke. I’ve already made my points on this in the comments of some of BQ’s other stories, but to me, in conjunction with this completely disfunctional schedule, it bears repeating. USL Pro needs to, real quick, start focusing 100% of their attention on THEIR teams, and stop worrying about trying to throw monkey wrenches into the plans of existing NASL franchises. I’ll tell you what killed the USL Ft. Lauderdale team – someone with a brain must have had the ultimate decision and said, we could just as easily take the cash it would require to purchase an expansion slot and operate it for a year, and toss it in a big pile and throw a match on it. The Strikers will dominate whatever pro soccer attendance this area can support. You can debate all you want on how much it will be, but NO ONE is going to watch some D3 USL outfit over the Strikers, no one.
Speaking of schedule, when is the NASL one coming out?
I suspect this week or next since they met last week at the NSCAA convention for organizational meetings.
@BQ – I was thinking, and hoping for the same. They have a few details to roll out with the Strikers first though I’d think – at the very least the official team name. Can’t be releasing a league schedule when Traffic’s actual team doesn’t have it’s naming official yet. My bet is we see this first, and then the league schedule shortly thereafter. Then it is time for the most important work to begin in earnest – PMI getting down to business with each team in their home markets to get the word out and make strong ticket sales drives. I think the Strikers are missing a HUGE opportunity down here right now. They’ve twice now run promotions for $99 season tickets and I’ve not seen a lick of advertising on it in the community. I just hope they plan to have another one of these AFTER they announce the team and make the local community aware of it, and that it happens REAL fast now.
I just can’t keep saying this enough. Traffic has a prime opportunity in this area right now to make significant strides in boosting attendance this year like never before. A lot of factors are aligning for this to be a perfect time for the rebirth of the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers in the NASL. Let’s hope Traffic does things the right way, and that it starts happening this week!
To be clear, Traffic has 4 teams, not just the Miami one. Djorn may be running Minnesota in Minnesota, but he is signing a Traffic employment contract.
Traffic has to have a rebirth at every level for each of the 4 teams, not just that of a team on some peninsula called the Strikers.
USL brass felt compelled to provide more detail…
http://www.uslsoccer.com/home/493446.html
Ya, saw that as well.
@Bart – Don’t want to spend too much more time on the NASL on this USL story thread. But I still don’t see the proof that Traffic is controlling these other three teams. Are their rosters filling up with Traffic only players? Are Traffic employees being brought in to run each of the teams? Where is your proof that Djorn is a Traffic paid employee? We need to stop making silly assumptions. These things aren’t what is important, what each club is doing to market their team and sell tickets in their area is THE priority right now.
As for USL, not surprising they needed to do a little damage control on that crazy schedule. Not sure how much that extra release helped though. I guess we need to see how things play out over the course of the season. I suspect there will be some casualties. But then, given the long term history of the USL, that’s not exactly a going-out-on-a-limb prediction.
Interesting side note on the playoff structure as they do make a point of mentioning 8 teams. Guess we’ll see one of two scenarios. 1) Top 3 from the American and National Conferences and top 2 from the International, or 2) top two from each conference, and then the two teams with the most points of the remainder as wild cards.
@Strikers Return
You brought up the NASL comments with the Strikers thread on this USL thread, which prompted the response.
I am not sure what you mean by your definition of “control”. USSF standards require that one person with a 35% ownership of the team, and has a minimum net worth of $20,000,000, must be the binding decision maker for that team.
While day to day operations may be conducted locally, Traffic is the only entity that fits the required definition to pass the D2 standards.
As it relates to Djorn, ask him where his salary is coming from.
I would not call these silly assumptions, but calculated conclusions.
@bart – I was only trying to get the discussion back on topic. The Ft. Lauderdale comments were relatable to the potential 16th USL franchise that was abandoned at the last moment.
You’re getting into the logistical details of something we the public most likely do not have all the details about. Traffic is spending a lot of money to help NASL get off the ground. I’m sure they are not doing anything that would endanger the USSF’s D2 sanctioning. Even if you want to say they are completely self-serving in their plans, you would have to agree that at this point making sure they adhere to any and all USSF requirements IS in their best interests.
Perhaps BQ could ask Djorn who signs his check. Or maybe that would be inappropriate, I don’t know. But my guess is, it is the NASL, since the league has come out and officially stated that the Stars are league owned. And spare me the “NASL is Traffic” rhetoric at this point. Bottom line is this. The clubs Traffic and the league have put money into to keep them operational this year, are most likely operating on a budget system. They have $X amount to operate, and they must stay within those limits. But in addition, and an important factor I can’t keep stressing enough, Traffic has contracted with a marketing firm that has been made available as a league asset for all teams to work with in the marketing and ticket sales arena. I think this is huge, and is the kind of thing that should be the focus right now.
You seem to be intimating that Davidson is going to call up Djorn, Jerkunica, and whoever runs the Railhawks and say, “Ok, I want to transfer all your best players to the Strikers, and we’ll give you our bench players.” This is not going to happen.
@ Strikers Return
And this continuation of a response places this thread back on the USL discussion?
While I will spare you the “Traffic is NASL” rhetoric, and I agree with you that we the public is not going to have the more intimate information needed to property ascertain what is going on, I would comment on the following:
Traffic is spending a lot of money to help NASL get off the ground. By public press releases, Traffic will be responsible for 50% of the individual team and league expenses. Ergo, Traffic is NASL.
I’m sure they are not doing anything that would endanger the USSF’s D2 sanctioning. As part of the public, how do you know this for sure?
Even if you want to say they are completely self-serving in their plans, you would have to agree that at this point making sure they adhere to any and all USSF requirements IS in their best interests. So how is the 35% owner with a minimum $20,000,000 net worth that can bind the team be addressed? Minnesota does not have this, and neither does Carolina, as they are being bought by Traffic USA. Traffic owns Miami, a given, and now we approach Atlanta, of which Jerkunica does pass the test but is part of the folding Carolina team as well. Does NASL simply request a waiver for this, in addition to the waiver needed for 75% of the teams to be US based? How is this adhering to “any and all USSF requirements”, as you put it?
The clubs Traffic and the league have put money into to keep them operational this year, are most likely operating on a budget system. They have $X amount to operate, and they must stay within those limits. What business does not operate in a budget? Traffic is not a stupid business by any means, it would definitely require budgets to be adhered to, which means Traffic controls the spending and business decisions through the Traffic purse string.
But in addition, and an important factor I can’t keep stressing enough, Traffic has contracted with a marketing firm that has been made available as a league asset for all teams to work with in the marketing and ticket sales arena. I agree, this is a great start, but this is just a marketing firm at this point, and the teams have to get with the program to use it and that program has to be locally designed for each team so that seats can be sold. It is in no way the nirvana to success. Each team’s success depends on its ability to connect with the market and maintain a presence. Traffic has for years not done that with Miami, so just having a marketing agency on board does not mean that success will come to the South Florida market immediately.
You seem to be intimating that Davidson is going to call up Djorn, Jerkunica, and whoever runs the Railhawks and say, “Ok, I want to transfer all your best players to the Strikers, and we’ll give you our bench players.” This is not going to happen. As part of the public, we will never know. But since Jerkunica has no skin in the game (letting Traffic fund the team) how about Davidson calling him up and saying, give me your three best players, I am paying for them anyway, and I need them closer to me so I can sell them? As Djorn’s boss, either as a Traffic or NASL employee, Davidson can order Djorn to do whatever Davidson wants him to do, it is Traffic’s team to do with what they wish.
Getting back to USL, I still think it is crazy that they have one California team stuck in an “International” division this year. I simply don’t see how USL can think that the CA team will create any fan following with that much distance between the other teams. I understand that this may be a prelude to 2012, but you would have to think that prudence and caution would have been better served to have the CA team start in 2012, when other western teams were joining the league.
Again, these are the ramblings of one retired, fat bald man with too much time on his hands while his wife beats him for fun now and then again…….
@Bart – Umm, wow, ok. I’ll take the high road and be the one to drop the NASL discussion on this thread once and for all. We can certainly continue the dicussion on the next NASL story BQ publishes though.
USL going forward with one team in California and this international division just smacks of more of the SOS. Teams like Charleston and Richmond, the pride of USL’s D3, could not have been happy, or in agreement with allowing this entire division of teams into the league. The Battery and Kickers have been successful by building a strong fanbase while staying away from any kind of significant travel expenses. Then you’ve got Rochester and Orlando that intentionally self-relegated to avoid those same costs.
To me, what is happening in D3 in 2011 is a clear indication that as usual, Holt and Co. are accepting expansion fees, pitching some sort of model, and then just going ahead and cobbling together whatever in the end and telling teams, ok, you’re on your own. Looking at the schedule it is obvious they at least made a bit of an attempt to placate the established east coast teams by somewhat muting the travel effects on them. If I was Clark or the Battery owner (sorry don’t know who that is), when I saw what teams Holt and Papdakis were letting into my league, I’d have threatened them with bailing to D2 if forced to play a schedule that had them flying all over the place multiple times.
Bottom line is, LA should not be in USL Pro in 2011. USL failed to get anyone else in the west to take the chance and jump up, so the smart business thing to do would have been to put LA in PDL for 2011. Let them try to get off the ground, build up a fanbase, without the incredible expense it is going to cost them to play in D3 this year. That money would have been much better spent on their marketing budget for this year to get the word out about their team.
While the Antigua team has a particularly brutal schedule, the rest has a certain logic to it. Los Angeles takes three trips — two long ones that swing through the Caribbean and one shorter one for a couple of Eastern games.
Bottom line is that they currently have three good clusters of teams — the Richmond-through-Charleston cluster, the PA/NY cluster and the Caribbean cluster. Dayton isn’t an awful fit in the PA/NY group. Orlando might be better off in the Caribbean cluster than the mid-Atlantic cluster, but I haven’t spent hours on travel sites trying to check out costs.
If the USL — like WPS or the NASL — could get some more California teams on board, it might be onto something.
@Beau – When you consider that what USL was peddling was a “New Regional” league model, and convinced Austin and Rochester to drop down from D2 to compete in it, the number of flights across country and into the Caribbean doesn’t seem “logical” to me at all.
Honestly, what would have been refreshing to see from USL would have been taking the 10 teams they have in the National and American divisions, and using them as the foundation of their “New Regional” league model in 2011. The Caribbean teams could have played in their domestic leagues for another year, and LA could have started out in PDL. Then they would have had another entire year to work out additional divisions with additional teams in a “regional” model that actually DID have some logic and sense to it. This plan would have made the 2011 season much more affordable for all 15 of these teams, and it would have shown some prudence and care that heretofore has been unseen from the likes of Holt, Papadakis, and Marcos. It would have given them at least a chance of some new credibility with a lot of people.
But what we’re seeing is looking more like a cobbled together, last-minute, on the fly situation, and I think most would agree that it will cause some casualties. Now you could say chances were good there would be casualties anyway, there always is in lower level soccer. But at least it could at least be reasonably viewed as a more intelligent departure from their failed league models and operations of the past. My guess is Antigua and LA for sure don’t survive more then one season at D3, and odds wouldn’t be horrible that they wind up having company. And given that scenario playing out, what would cause any other current PDL teams out west to move up in 2012?
Strikers Return acts as if Los Angeles didn’t know what they were getting into, or if they weren’t determined to be professional regardless of what you or anybody else thought about it. If it wasn’t USL PRO in 2011, they could very well have gone to the NASL.
Regardless of how you think it looks (and it certainly looks challenging, but what doesn’t anymore?), there’s more to it than you think. I’d certainly expect all the Caribbean clubs to struggle infrastructurally and be challenged to see 2012, but it’s not like teams like the California Victory and Syracuse Salty Dogs were built to last, either.
@KT: LA has already clearly indicated that they didn’t know what they were getting into.
Exhibit A,B & C, Bro:
“The FPF and/or Puerto Rican clubs will help us with some of our travel expenses” comments (that I predicted were going to be rertracted, ASAP–and they were) pretty much tell me all of what I needed to know about their preparation.
I wish LA the best. From a very far distance, I was a big fan of the Pali Blues W-League project the last few years.
But there is no way that you or anyone else can convince me that they didn’t know what they were doing. The bought the Holt/Econo/Big Papa/MARCOS blue plate, “myster meat” special and I really don’t think that it is going to taste too good.
I really hope that I am wrong.
Some sort of subsidy for the PR swings- That is a major operating expense and logistical issue.
I think your point about the Caribbean clubs struggling is right on point.
Had LA gone to the NASL they would have been even more up the creek without a paddle. At least they can get several matches knocked off while down in PR and Antigua. With the placement of NASL markets, I don’t see how that would be feasible. This way, they will be able to get more “bang for their buck$ (minus the subsidies that they were apparently banking on).
“I’d certainly expect all the Caribbean clubs to struggle infrastructurally and be challenged to see 2012, but it’s not like teams like the California Victory and Syracuse Salty Dogs were built to last, either.”
You just found a different way to repeat my points right there Kenn. Antigua, based on what we’ve seen already (follow through on friendlies anyone?) and their schedule now (brutal), look like the most likely candidate to spiral right down the toilet first. The Puerto Rican teams, if things get too bad, can probably just go back to their domestic league I would think. But if LA finds things to be much tougher then they thought or hoped (see Yankiboy’s points for the obviously poor start to their preparations), what are they going to do? Pray like hell that four PDL teams put blinders on to what looks certain to happen to some of the teams in D3 this year, and just jump up in 2012 anyway? Then there’s the matter of multiple home stadiums on top of it too. How well did multiple home venues work out for CP Baltimore?
I never said anything about LA having been better off if they joined NASL. Don’t know where you got that from. Travel expenses are certainly going to be more for NASL teams. But teams know that going in. The USSF standards are in place, and are there for a reason. They should hopefully be able to tell you if you can operate over time at the D2 level. The whole show now is all about whether or not anyone can pull it off. We all know your opinion on it. Now it’s time for the real world to show the reality of things.
Holt and Co. went around peddling a “New Regional” league. Teams like Charleston and Rochester who self-relegated to avoid significant travel costs has to be p!ssed when they saw who USL was letting into their league. If they had a schedule where they only played the east coast teams, they’d have been fine I think. Hell, Holt and Papadakis probably had to try and appease them by telling them, don’t worry, it’s just for this year. Next year will be different. How many times do you think those two and Marcos have spun that line on owners?
Why the hell is the schedule not mixed with NASL teams…you arrogant fools!!!! Looks like both leagues could destroy each other. As a Tampa fan, sad to see we won’t be playing a team from Orlando……NASL is the better league????Is USL Pro sanctioned by USSF?
Mick,
One is D2 and the other D3. There is basically a 3 year history that has got them to this point.
Of course USL PRO is sanctioned but as a D3 league. NASL is trying to get sanctioning as a D2 league. It’s a long soap opera of a story that this site has covered extensively.
CCH should check the schedule as yes we on the road for 13 days and have 5 games but after that it’s all short trips, our front office is ok as they planned for the Gold Cup which was missed out on by 1 point and that is why July is only 3 games the whole month……watch this space.
Yankie boy – As I mentioned before you know nothing of Antigua football or the club structure of Barracuda so why say they go broke, in this day and age ANYONE can go broke so please stop the stupid statements about my team and watch your own as I say ALL the caribbean teams will make you eat your words……….from April 17th watch this space.