NASL CEO Aaron Davidson Expressed Continued Optimism in Receiving Division 2 Sanctioning
Aaron Davidson was making the rounds on Monday night granting interview requests on a number of radio talk shows. He took time between those interviews to talk to IMS and explain what the NASL has done in response to US Soccer’s rejection of his league’s bid for sanctioning of D2 soccer last Thursday.
“We’ve supplemented our application,” declared Davidson. “We’ve provided the federation with what we believe was the missing information. We feel we live up to the standards of second division as they were set forth in October. Without a question we were surprised by the decision to withdraw the provisional sanctioning. But we also take it seriously and understand that the federation is exercising its role as the governing body of the sport in North America. They are demanding that we live up to those standards. Part of the reason they’re being so strict is because of the instability of where we come from. 106 teams have played in division two or three since 1996 and of those 84 folded. Fans don’t want to follow a team who’s in a league with those sort of stats and that much turnover.”
Davidson said that the bond of $750 thousand required by each team in the league is now joint and several, meaning that if a team was to go belly up, the federation could not only draw all the money out of that team’s account to pay their expenses but would then go pro rata across all teams until all outstanding debts are satisfied. The amount of that letter of credit for each team was in the standards posted in August but the ‘joint and several’ was not specified until recently. But Davidson says “it’s all for one and one for all” explaining he’s all right with that; it’s exactly what he’s been preaching since the days of the Team Owners Association’s breakaway group.
Davidson points out that with the joint and several rule there would be enough to cover the entire budgets of thee teams for an entire season. He stated that even San Antonio’s proposed NASL team for 2012 was required by US Soccer to put up the $750 thousand even though they wont play a game until next year.
“The Federation now have over $6 million in letters of credit that are joint and several for a league who runs budgets around $2 million a team,” said an optimistic Davidson. “Traffic is involved with three of the teams, the league is involved with Minnesota and Montreal stands on its own. That means there are three teams left this season that don’t have Traffic or Montreal behind them. If all three teams were to default immediately, you would still have enough money amongst the collective group to run all three of those teams for an entire season.”
The NASL CEO says there were some time requirements that were extended from the original standards: “Our last understanding based on our meetings with US Soccer in Baltimore [at the NSCAA Convention] was that we had until today to post our letters of credit. That was an additional extension. The standards were officially handed out in October. We were provisionally sanctioned in November. The federation then hired an auditing firm to do their audits of all the teams in the league. Things always take a little longer than what everyone expects them to. We’ve always said that we’ve been maintaining dialogue with the federation and there was some discussion. We’ve asked questions about some of the requirements they’ve made of us. Part of the debate was with this joint and several but we’ve readily accepted it.”
Davidson was asked if he was confident that the NASL has now submitted everything necessary to US Soccer and if they actually had time to evaluate their information again before the federation’s AGM in mid February.
“We’re all reasonable business people,” said Davidson. “The federation realizes that our teams are holding tryouts, were signing players, signing sponsorships; the league is selling teams on second division status. There’s a lot to be lost if we are not sanctioned. I don’t want to diminish the importance of what the federation did on Thursday. They made a decision to rescind our provisional sanctioning. However, I also want to be realistic. It’s the end of January and all of our teams are in the midst of preparation for the 2011 season based on expectations of being the second division. We’ve been doing everything we’ve had to do as teams and a league, maybe not on the timely basis the federation had expected and yes there’s been some changes like the Carolina situation since November. But if we all believe 2nd division soccer is important for the development of the game in North America and if we all recognize that the teams that are left are capable of living up to the standards of 2nd division, including posting 750 thousand dollar letters of credit for each team, then the thing to do is go forward with NASL as the 2nd division in 2011.”
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Great work as always BQ! Here is what I find most interesting about the situation as it stands now. We still don’t know exactly what the problems were with NASL’s application that caused the USSF to remove the provisional sanctioning last week? If this mutal bond issue thing was the main factor, was the move by USSF last week simply a way to force NASL to hurry up and get it done by today. If they had already granted NASL additional time to get it done, and it wasn’t last week, maybe this was a move to “kick them in the arse.”
Davidson seems confident this additional submission will get USSF to give them the sanctioning. Of course you’d expect nothing less then confidence from him at this point, and I think it is the only way for him to go about his business as well. If you should be able to dig up any additional details about the USSF’s concerns, please let us know BQ! Otherwise, I’ll be checking back regular as always to await further news on USSF reaction. Thanks BQ!!!
Far too many people in this tangled web enjoy far too much vagueness. USSF, NASL, and everyone involved could cure so much of this paranoia and backbiting by just coming out and giving details. Thankfully, Davidson is at least moderately forthcoming about what is going on and what he is doing to fix it. Better than we’ve gotten so far, anyway.
Rumors and innuendo about why USSF pulled the provisional sanctioning serves nothing but to drive web traffic. If USSF had just put out the reasons why they didn’t like the application, and NASL had responded with “Okay, here’s what we’re doing to fix that,” we could have all saved ourselves a heap of angst in the last four months as this sanctioning drama has dragged on and on.
Hopefully this is enough and we can all move on with our seasons and we can leave the backbiting behind us.
Let’s get logical. This is all coming from Davidson’s shop, and it is telling that he brings up the classic, “we are all reasonable business folks” line, which generally means we don’t have an agreement of any form yet, and we are in the weaker position, but hey, you have to cut us some slack.
If all USSF wanted was to have all 8 of the $750,000 LOCs to be bound as joint and several, then why not just tell NASL that and give them a deadline to do that or drop the vote from the agenda? There would be no reason to vote.
USSF voted to deny, not to deny until a financial detail was resolved, that makes no sense. USSF has to be well aware of what the denial does to the marketplace, the season ticket sales, etc.
USSF sent a message for a reason.
Before people go off and running with the 79% folding rate Davidson speaks of between D2 and D3:
a – D3 isn’t really applicable here
b – My count has 32 of 53 Division II teams since 1996 having folded (with four gone to MLS, one moved, two “on hiatus,” seven self-relegated, five to the NASL and one to USL-PRO), or 60%.
c – There have been a boatload more than 53 D3 teams over the years, so I don’t quite know where he’s getting his 84/106 figure. There have been a bunch of name changes and the count may not be 100% accurate, but I show at least 86 Division III teams having played since 1996. How many have folded would take some work, as some have descendants playing in other leagues now. But it seems to me there have been 149 Division II and Division III teams since 1996. 118 of them would have had to have folded to hit the same percentage as Davidson has come up with, or 63 of the 86 D3s. That’s possible.
Honestly, if the USSF wanted to give Davidson and NASL a kick in the butt, they would have done that behind closed doors. Taking away the sanctioning badly hurt NASL. No matter what happens, NASL was damaged by that. It puts the teams in chaos. So I believe the USSF were trying to convey in the strongest possible terms that NASL should wake up and go the D3 route until they can find more owners/investors for the teams. Rearranging the deck chairs isn’t going to save the Titanic. And that’s what Davidson looks to be doing. I would love to hear something from the USSF because Davidson’s spin doesn’t do much.
This will not end well since Traffic/NASL only wants D2. A shame.
@Bart – Your anti-NASL position leads you to assumptions and conclusions based on them yet again. The FACT is we have no idea what the USSF’s list of concerns is. We do NOW know that one of them was this joint bonding issue. But Davidson even said in the interview that that item was not in the original standards, was only added more recently.
The situation COULD be as simple as Davidson SEEMS to make it out to be. He admits USSF granted them additional time to get this joint bond thing settled. He admits it was taking longer then they expected it to. USSF is obviously showing that they are in control, and that their standards are going to be taken seriously. This COULD simply have been a “kick in the butt” to get NASL to get the joint bond thing wrapped up finally.
USSF did rescind the provisional sanctioning for a reason(s). Proclaiming you know what they are when in reality no one but USSF and NASL officials do, simply shows even more clearly your petty hatred for the league. It’s just silly dude. I’m all for a good debate with people on the other side of an issue. It’s part of the fun of this great site BQ has provided. But come on. At least TRY not to present your OPINIONS as FACTS, ok my friend?
A lot of you want to tie Traffic to a tree and burn them at the stake. What you fail to realize is that people like Ultra and I have far more invested in Traffic, and will be far more disappointed and angry at them then any of you if we don’t have a league this year. I think a number of things that have gone wrong have been out of their control. But given their efforts to step up and make every effort to ensure NASL at least has a chance is great. I just don’t want them to trash it all by pulling the plug on everything if USSF decides not to grant D2 sanctioning for 2011. As a season ticket holder, my expectation based on everything that has been said is that they go ahead as a D3 for 2011, and continue to work on the D2 sanctioning so it can be in place for 2012. While I do feel it is ultimately important to establish D2 in its own right, I think it is far more important for the league and Traffic as its primary backers, to live up to what they’ve started by making sure we all have a sanctioned league, teams, and games to bring our family and friends to in 2011.
@Bart
Let’s be reasonable.
Everything you just wrote in your post was negative opinion you made to look like facts. You were a defense lawyer before you retired. Did you cover Global Crossing in your days in court? I am just being realistic, because I can too make up facts based on what I think a person’s character is.
I believe Bart is correct in his deduction on the USSF position, however, I greatly appreciate Steve’s point about the secrecy that seems to be pervasive in the upper leadership of soccer in this country. As Steve pointed out, Davidson is indeed the most accessible and open. Thinking back to the youtube interviews that Davidson granted BQ, at times it appeared to me that he was circumspect by agreement with other parties. Everyone understands that in business one must be careful about releasing the correct amount of information at the correct time, but there are other matters that seem simply ridiculous. One clear example is that the leadership of the USSF is elected in a manner that’s very unclear to the general soccer supporters in this country. There are organizations that have overlapping jurisdictions (particularly in youth soccer). Lastly, (and this is one that really disturbs me) perceived level of soccer is not determined by soccer on the pitch. I think I’ll stop here, because I’m getting overly passionate. Good points everyone. Thanks BQ!
@Strikers Return
I am certainly not espousing my conclusions as facts, and I apologize if the writings potentially read this way. Probably a function ofndrafting briefs in a previous life.
I have no clue as to all the reasons for the denial of sanctioning, but for what has been published through USSF, which is admittedly little.
Any of the other publishings are merely “spinning” and posturing, so we cannot assume these are fact based.
I will certainly note that my conclusions could very well be faulty and subject to be wrong.
Kenn, my figures when I did the four part article on D2 last summer was a 75% fail rate. That is counting teams that were D2 that may have dropped to D3 or PDL as a failure. Only teams that stayed in the league or moved up to MLS were counted as successful.
The schedule: around 1pm Eastern time or….?
1 CT I was just told.
I know, Brian, there are different ways to do it and unless we agree on terms, it’s hard to have the conversation.
I have just run another list and I THINK there have been either 118 or 119 franchises that have played at the D2 or D3 level since 1996 (Davidson’s timeframe). Depends on how you deal with the Hampton Roads/Va. Beach franchise, which DID go away only to be replaced when the owners purchased Tennessee’s A-League rights. You could count them as one franchise or two or count Nashville/Tennessee/Virginia Beach as one, whatever you want. I guess it’s up to whoever’s doing the list.
We could also disagree on the term “failure.” You can have a successful club and organization without staying or moving up. I wouldn’t count the Charlotte Eagles as a failure, would you? By your reckoning, then. Charleston is a failure as they moved down, but that’s not what we’re trying to demonstrate by the list. So it’s slightly misleading.
Out and out folding is probably the “highest” level of failure. Some teams have gone up and down. You could categorize a franchise any way you wish, I guess, but it involves some exceptions and judgment calls.
But my list of 118 is: AC St. Louis, Albany/NY Capital District Alleycats, Arizona Sahuaros, Atlanta Ruckus, Atlanta Silverbacks, Austin Aztex, Austin Lone Stars, Baltimore Bays, Bermuda Hogges, Calgary Mustangs, Calgary Storm , California Gold, California Jaguars, California Victory, Cape Cod Crusaders, Carolina Dynamo, Carolina RailHawks, Cascade Surge, Central Jersey Riptide, Central Valley Hydra, Charleston Battery, Charlotte Eagles, Chattanooga Express, Chicago Stingers, Chico Rooks, Cincinnati Kings, Cincinnati Riverhawks , Cleveland Caps, Cleveland City Stars, Colorado Foxes , Connecticut Wolves, Crystal Palace Baltimore, Dallas/DFW/Texas/Ft. Worth Toros/Rattlers, Daytona Tigers, Delaware Wizards, Eastern Shore Sharks, Edmonton FC , El Paso Patriots, Everett Bigfoot, FC Tampa Bay Rowdies, Florida Strikers, Greenville Lions, Hampton Roads/Virginia Beach Mariners (1), Harrisburg City Islanders, Hawaii Tsumani, Hershey Wildcats , Houston Hurricanes, Indiana Blast, Lehigh Valley Steam, Long Island Rough Riders, Los Angeles/Tucson Fireballs, Maryland Mania , Miami Breakers, Miami FC Blues, Milwaukee Rampage, Milwaukee Wave United, Minnesota Thunder, Mobile Revelers, Montreal Impact, Myrtle Beach Seadawgs, Nashville Metros/Tennessee Rhythm/Virginia Beach Mariners, New Hampshire Phantoms, New Mexico Chiles/Albuquerque/Sacramento Geckos, New Orleans Riverboat Gamblers/Storm, New York Fever, New York Freedom/Freedoms, New York/New Jersey Stallions, North Jersey Imperials, Northern Nevada Aces, Northern Virginia Royals, NSC Minnesota Stars, Ohio Xoggz, Orange County Zodiac/Waves, Orlando Nighthawks, Orlando Sundogs , Pensacola Barracudas, Philadelphia Freedom, Pittsburgh Riverhounds, Portland Timbers, Puerto Rico Islanders, Raleigh Flyers/Capital Xpress, Reading Rage, Real Maryland Monarchs, Reno Rattlers, Rhode Island Stingrays, Richmond Kickers, Riverside County Elite, Roanoke Wrath, Rochester (Raging) Rhinos, Rockford Raptors, Sacramento Scorpions, San Antonio Pumas, San Diego Flash, San Diego Gauchos, San Fernando Valley Golden Eagles, San Francisco Bay/Bay Area Seals, Seattle Sounders, Shreveport/Bossier Lions, South Carolina Shamrocks, South Jersey Barons, Southwest Florida Manatees, Stanislaus County/United Cruisers, Staten Island Vipers, Syracuse Salty Dogs, Tallahassee Tempest, Tampa Bay/Jacksonville Cyclones, Toronto Lynx , Tulsa Roughnecks, US Pro-40 Select, Utah Blitzz, Vancouver 86ers/Whitecaps, Vermont Voltage/Wanderers, Washington Mustangs, Westchester Flames, Western Mass Pioneers, Wilmington Hammerheads, Worcester Wildfire/Boston Bulldogs and Yakima Reds.
Some are squishy: Technically the Atlanta Ruckus and Atlanta Silverbacks are two different franchises, but technically Yan Skwara’s San Diego Flash and the one the San Diego Nomads ran for a year are also two. So it can go either way.
In any case, look at that list and just make mental notes of how many of those names are no longer around at any level. Whether Davidson’s math is 100% correct or not, D2 and D3 have ALWAYS been a crapshoot. I have yet to see concrete plans for how you can try to stem the tide without fairly draconian standards set by USSF.
Lastly, it’s good to see some folks admit that their entire points of view on this whole kerfuffle have been shaped solely by emotion – their emotional investment in a team translating to the league they’re in, or their emotional response to people who hold a different opinion than they do. Far too few of you are looking dispassionately at the facts of the case, which appear to be that the NASL hasn’t hit on a magic formula that’s going to revolutionize lower-level soccer. And they’ve had since August to hire…oh, I don’t know…their second employee, which they knew they’d have to do going in. Meanwhile, USL (to their credit) has listened to the concerns of those who broke away, made changes, beefed up their staff, their pro league is run by a board of governors and not by fiat, yet those who let their emotions rule the day won’t admit that anything at all has changed.
USL’s far from perfect, but it’s also far from the organization it was even three years ago. I still think the Caribbean thing is a mistake and they (as the NASL has) have let in far too many owners over the years who were undercapitalized and unprepared to actually have long-term success with a pro team. They spent too much time plugging holes in the dike when they used shoddy workmanship to build the dike in the first place.
But if you’ve got this great wellspring of confidence in what NASL can actually do versus what they have always SAID they were going to do, I honestly don’t know where that’s coming from. What have they actually done?
Hmmm…….2:30 Eastern and still no schedule on the NASL site……..
Puerto Rico put theirs up already: http://bit.ly/gJQrpx
Leagues should never announce when they’re going to announce their schedules, because micromanagers lose their minds when it’s not available the instant it was promised.
I’m sure it’ll be out soon.
Glad to finally see the schedule being released. Can’t wait to plan the road trips to Tampa Bay and maybe even Atlanta. Hope the USSF gets whatever they need to feel comfortable with the NASL so everyone, the teams, the fans, players, even the other leagues in USL and MLS can move forward knowing where soccer stands at all levels in this country.
@Ultra
+1 I can not wait for Edmonton’s season. I have had season tickets for a while.
release in porto rico
http://www.prislandersfc.com/index/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=250:arrancan-los-islanders-el-9-de-abril&catid=41:comunicados&Itemid=80
Kenn, didn’t have time this morning to state that but was thinking it really all depends on criteria when I wrote that statement about 75% fail rate. So ya, you won’t get an argument from me at all on that point.
However, I think we both agree that failure rate in American soccer has not been good with any league including USL. What will make this different if the NASL takes over? That’s the million dollar question isn’t it. And the question for anyone who thinks things will be different this time.
We certainly don’t know if NASL will be better at keeping D2 teams from failing. But we do know that they are talking about a league model that is different then the USL’s. Different might not be better, but as Kenn’s list shows, it certainly can’t be any worse. I do continue to take umbridge with Kenn’s request to view this sport dispassionately. We are fans, passion is what we run on. Without the passion of the niche group in this country that is the pro soccer fanbase, there would be no MLS, no NASL, no USL, no NPSL, etc. You can’t just remove it from the equation.
I am passionate about the return of the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers. It motivated me to buy season tickets for pro soccer for the first time. Isn’t that the kind of thing we’re looking for? Isn’t attendance and season ticket sales the kinds if disapassionate statistics you’re looking for Kenn? But for fans they’re tied together. When I go buy my Strikers jersey, it won’t be out of some sort of dispassionate analysis of the situation. It will be because I once loved the Strikers dearly, and I want to do so again, and have my son do the same.
That passion and emotion has never blinded me to the truth of the situation. Odds are good in looking at the pro soccer history in this country, that NASL will ultimately fail. But I’ll enjoy it while I can, and I’ll hope it will last.
in Kenn’s defense, he was not critical of ‘passion’ or ‘emotion’. In fact, he was only critical of ‘emotionalism’ which is the engaging of ‘emotion’ without the moderation of ‘reason’. I believe that as long as we look at soccer as a for-profit business venture, we as fans must become comfortable to pay up (tickets, apparel, memorabilia, online and pay-per-view games, etc) or else the investors we pray for will never be born.
I understand passion and emotion.
They just really get in the way if you’re going to have discussions about important issues. Because, sure as shootin’, the instant someone runs out of actual information or gets painted into a corner, they get louder and the insults and invective start to get thrown.
Passion and emotion have their place. They’re best in the stands on gameday. They really tend to get in the way when you’re trying to have an intelligent discussion. Which is really what we’re trying to have here (and other places). If you can’t look at things realistically, we can’t have rational discourse. The signal to noise ratio gets all fouled up.
When it’s not gameday, when I’m not emotionally invested in the outcome of an actual game, and we’re trying to have a rational discussion, the accusations of “you’re just a hater” and chants of “USL sucks! Marcos wants to make money!” get out of control.
I just want to have a rational discussion. That’s getting harder and harder. Because many of you can’t check the fanboy card at the door. And I can’t respect that.
The schedule is out for the NASL, and I’m not sure they could have possibly put it in a worse format.
Tell me again why this is the superior league?
@fotbalist
So put your money where your mouth is? That can be done. We are all retired lawyers here. All jokes aside, I agree with you %100 percent.
In fact I sent an email a while back to the NASL about having licensed merchandise that was of good quality. I never received a response, but I hope someone read it.
@KT: Bro, you gotta be a bit exhausted after doing that minor league soccer roll call. You got way more ambition and enerygy than I do, Playah.
Props!
Odds are that the LOCs are not actually in hand. USSF had to remove provisional sanctioning to give themselves bargaining power to actually get the LOCs in hand. My contacts at the Stars (who will not go on record) are saying there will be not team this summer.
USSF will be put in a precarious situation. The most likely outcome is that they will sanction a 2nd 3rd division league (NASL) and push it all to next year again OR they will give a single year sanction.
http://abcnewspapers.com/2011/01/25/nsc-minnesota-stars-release-2011-schedule/
According to this, Minnesota has a precarious stretch late in the season.
Saturday, August 6: at Montreal Impact
Wednesday, August 10: MiamiFC/Strikers 2011
Saturday, August 13: at FC Tampa Bay
Wednesday, August 17: at Carolina
Saturday, August 20: at Montreal Impact
Five games in two weeks is going to be rough, especially with all the travel, and especially on the tail end of the season.
Good luck to the Stars.
Odds are, not sure where you are getting your info but I get a lot of intel and non of your stories are adding up. I’m not saying your are right or wrong on there being a team this year. But I’ve been dealing with a number of people just today who are working in some manner with the Stars and everything is full speed ahead at this point and time. In fact there was a league meeting conference call this morning which all owners/managers came out of with renewed optimism.
As I pointed out in a previous article, NASL would need to request D3 sanctioning and USSF as much as said they will get it. And as a 2nd D3 league. But NASL is saying D2 or bust and that Traffic is not interested in D3 and all their marketing so far has been about D2.
What the final outcome of this will be is anyones guess, but it sure doesn’t look good for either NASL or USSF at this point.
KT, I agree. I really don’t like the calendar format. It seems amateurish compared to how most leagues post their schedules which is as an HTML table.
@ BQ
“However, I think we both agree that failure rate in American soccer has not been good with any league including USL. What will make this different if the NASL takes over? That’s the million dollar question isn’t it. And the question for anyone who thinks things will be different this time.”
Brian, first off great work with the site. I think you hit the nail on the head with the above statement. I think to further this line of questioning we are all making assumptions, but the fact that people care enough to make assumptions is a positive in my opinion.
A couple of points that are open for interpretation or correction:
- USSF is also tired of the “failure rate” and therefore have designed the D2 and D3 standards to help avoid this high rate in the future,
- 50% of NASL teams are essentially owned by Traffic (3 outright, 1 by the “league” run by Traffic)
- Traffic Sports’ main company philosophy (in South America) is about owning players, of which selling them is a large portion of their revenue.
What happens when Traffic realizes that this player model will not work in the USA (at least not in the near future)? Do they even have a department working on the corporate revenue aspects? Do you think the USSF is concerned that a foreign investment group controls half a league and could decide that after 2011 when they have lost between 5 and 10 million dollars between the 4 teams and the league, that their business model is frankly not what they thought it would be and bolt?
The constant evolution of the game in our land, it is a great thing, there will be growing pains, we will have high expectations, but eventually we will get it right..
Thanks,
OTO
Where is Francisco when he’s needed most?