USL-1 no longer to be 2nd tier?

by Sounder At Heart on Oct 28, 2009 3:28 PM PDT in Other Professional Soccer Comment 8 comments

Just getting this out there, no time for extensive thoughts.

24thMinute and CBC on Vancouver and Montreal pulling out of USL.

Inside MN Soccer on the fuller situation.

The TOA is clearly now the 2nd tier of the sport. Not just due to market size, but also due to the quality of the organizations involved. Not all of them, but grabbing those two Canadians counts for a lot.

Obviously there are also issues with some non-USL cities and former USL cities that the TOA could entice them. At this point if it is only 8 teams it would almost certainly be a double round robin.

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If this new league is able to claim Tier 2 status, this would be the ideal time for MLS to cement a relationship with them. I’ve heard various comments in the past year from people around MLS that the lack of the reserve league had made things much more difficult in terms of roster management. A relationship between MLS and this new league could give MLS the benefits of a reserve league, but run mainly on someone else’s dime.

Also, help from MLS could allow this league to expand quickly, and increase professional soccer’s footprint in the US and Canada. I hope Garber et al. are following this story closely.

by CarlosT on Oct 28, 2009 5:26 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

USL-1 is better than the MLS reserve league ever was, reserve league is about usl-2 or pdl plus an extra injured first teamer getting playing time

by sounderific on Oct 28, 2009 7:15 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

while that is true historically, that does not mean that it will be true forever.

With the drama going on at the lower levels I suggested once that MLS should associate with the TOA and have their Reserves compete against non-affiliated sides as is done in Spain and Germany.

by Dave Clark on Oct 28, 2009 7:20 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

No arguments here. That’s why MLS getting in on the ground floor of this new league makes so much sense. They’d be getting their reserve players much higher quality play and wouldn’t have to fund the cost of running the league themselves. The new league would benefit by having a supply of players on somebody else’s payroll who would all be looking to show their worth, so they’d be going all out every game.

by CarlosT on Oct 28, 2009 7:23 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

i don’t know where else to post this, but dave – on the left menu bar, the “featured posts” section…. each of those links, when i click, i get a 404 error. obviously those articles are not gone, maybe want to fix/update the links?

by ABT on Oct 29, 2009 10:20 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs