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The Bohemians played in Bel Air this year (which is really far from Baltimore), and the PDL is not a pro league. We also have the Blast (a pro(?!) indoor team), and some kind of semi-pro futsal team that plays in the county. It sucks that Wilmington is losing their team, but Baltimore badly needs a pro outdoor soccer team. I don't really care whether it's USL or NASL, or if it's some greedy owner moving their team here from another city. I'm mad that Under Armour owns like half the city and is the kit sponsor of a bunch of big teams (and the ball sponsor of the NASL!), but somehow we don't have a team of our own. Somebody needs to make it happen!!!
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Sep 26, 2016 03:08
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camoseven posted:The Bohemians played in Bel Air this year (which is really far from Baltimore), and the PDL is not a pro league. We also have the Blast (a pro(?!) indoor team), and some kind of semi-pro futsal team that plays in the county. Wilmington is moving to Baltimore to play in the PDL, though. So Baltimore isn't getting a pro outdoor team from this.
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Sep 26, 2016 04:42
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Do over Ham posted:Wilmington is moving to Baltimore to play in the PDL, though. So Baltimore isn't getting a pro outdoor team from this. No one knows what division they're going to play in yet, and Goff has been hearing rumors that they'll stay in the USL. e: and I can't find the article now, but I read somewhere that there is going to be a PDL club with the Hammerheads name staying in Wilmington. That was way back when these rumors first started, though, so maybe plans have changed or I'm misremembering. e2: oh and Goff mentions it in his article, too. camoseven fucked around with this message at 14:25 on Sep 26, 2016 |
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Sep 26, 2016 14:22
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camoseven posted:No one knows what division they're going to play in yet, and Goff has been hearing rumors that they'll stay in the USL. Well hopefully they don't pull an Austin Aztex and go into an annual "one year hiatus" with no end in sight. quote:Exclusive: California NASL Expansion Bids Take Form quote:Philadelphia Fury Build Upon NASL Ambitions While Growing The ASL
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Sep 28, 2016 05:02
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quote:http://www.wwaytv3.com/2016/09/29/its-official-hammerheads-will-compete-in-pdl-in-2017-not-usl/ quote:http://www.fourfourtwo.com/us/features/nasl-power-rankings-which-teams-surrive-2017
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Sep 30, 2016 08:23
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Saint Louis FC names Preki as their coach This could actually work out well: he has a good track record, plus he can be a big bridge to the large ex-Yugoslavian community in St Louis.
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Oct 13, 2016 07:47
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USL semis are on, Swope Park (I don't know where that is) Rangers won against Vancouver and Louisville FC is in New Jersey next against the Red Bull(s). Everyone put on your Utilikilt and crack a nice fruity IPA.
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Oct 16, 2016 23:39
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Paddyb posted:USL semis are on, Swope Park (I don't know where that is) Rangers won against Vancouver and Louisville FC is in New Jersey next against the Red Bull(s). Swope Park Rangers are the Sporks USL affiliate. Swope Park is in the Kansas City MO area.
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Oct 17, 2016 08:58
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In unsurprising news, Rowdies have moved to USL: http://www.rowdiessoccer.com/news/2016/10/25/tampa-bay-rowdies-announce-move-to-united-soccer-league
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Oct 25, 2016 18:48
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More or less equally unsurprising, Ottawa is coming too: http://www.ottawafuryfc.com/news/2016/10/25/ottawa-fury-fc-to-join-the-usl-for-2017-season
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Oct 25, 2016 20:58
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King of False Promises posted:In unsurprising news, Rowdies have moved to USL: http://www.rowdiessoccer.com/news/2016/10/25/tampa-bay-rowdies-announce-move-to-united-soccer-league
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Oct 26, 2016 00:26
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The NFL's Tod Leiweke and MLS's Don Garber gave lectures last night at the University of South Florida in Tampa. A Ralph's Mobster summarized Garber's comments in relation to Tampa Bay pro soccer thusly (some editing done by me for spelling, clarity and style); my comments in bold: 1. Garber said that MLS recognizes that the Tampa Bay region is the largest market without a team in MLS, in the country. (This is true as of January 1st this year: Tampa Bay area is the 11th TV market; Phoenix 12th; Detroit 13th.) 2. Markets with two teams are incredibly successful. Garber pointed to LA and NYC; he was implying that Tampa and Orlando are so close that it would encourage an intense rivalry. (Which it does do, probably too well, with assault, theft, destruction of property, trying to burn down Al Lang, punching a kid, etc.) 3. Garber was skeptical of Miami making it happen (Garber DID NOT mention Beckham). (I continue to send my powerful mind control rays, directed at David Beckham, telling him to team up with Bill Edwards and take the Tampa Bay Rowdies to MLS.) 4. MLS will probably not grow beyond 28 teams in the foreseeable future. (Which I suspect means "until we think we can get considerably bigger MLS expansion fees than are currently considered possible.") 5. Garber implied that Orlando City ownership group would not stop MLS from expanding to Tampa Bay. (Which only makes sense given that MLS is Single Entity, and Orlando's territorial rights exist at the whim of MLS; besides, a close local rival would be good for Orlando City, regardless of what they may say publicly about their MLS territorial rights.) Edit to add: some other comments from other sources who attended (above via Facebook; below via reddit): 1. Don Garber was extremely complimentary regarding the Tampa Bay market and Al Lang stadium. Garber did go out of his way to mention the beauty of Al Lang's waterfront view. 2. Garber mentioned MLS looking to expand to 28 teams. Sacramento, Las Vegas, San Antonio, and many others were mentioned. Miami didn't sound definite. 3. Audience question was asked about Orlando having a hold of this market. Garber said Tampa Bay is doing great things and is a prime market. 4. Don Garber also mentioned that it's pivotal that the St. Pete Mayor (Kriseman) and the other governmental bodies get behind bringing MLS to St Pete. 5. Garber mentioned Bill Edwards by name a couple times during the discussion. As soon as the discussion finished and everyone began to mingle, Edwards was the first person Garber spoke to. Garber acknowledged the large media market we have here in Tampa Bay. He also mentioned that if Tampa had an MLS team that Orlando City's TV rights could be changed. Do over Ham fucked around with this message at 07:40 on Oct 31, 2016 |
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Oct 27, 2016 07:32
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King of False Promises posted:In unsurprising news, Rowdies have moved to USL: http://www.rowdiessoccer.com/news/2016/10/25/tampa-bay-rowdies-announce-move-to-united-soccer-league Called it back on Aug 27, 2016 07:09 (well, not me, some dude on Facebook): Do over Ham posted:This is pure internet rumor so don't take this a gospel, but a little bird has told me that Bill Edwards is planning to move the Tampa Bay Rowdies to USL next year, with the ultimate goal of moving to MLS. Allegedly the source is from people who actually know Bill Edwards. My source was some guy on one of the Rowdies/Mobsters/Tampa Bay soccer groups on Facebook. He knew someone who knows Bill Edwards. Given last night's Tod Leiweke/Don Garber lecture at USF in Tampa, which included (I am told) the presence of a lot of top USL people, and Tampa Bay Rowdies people (including Bill Edwards), it is fairly obvious now that this move to USL is just a preliminary step by Bill Edwards to ultimately move the Tampa Bay Rowdies to MLS. The general thrust of Garber's comments about MLS in Tampa Bay would also tend to confirm this. The Unused Substitutes podcast last month mentioned rumors of talks between Garber and Edwards; since Garber is actually in Tampa this week, and was literally in the same room as Edwards last night, it is pretty likely that they are engaging in some more talks this week. Bill Edwards has been playing it low key, even officially denying MLS ambitions earlier this year. But we've been hearing that Bill Edwards wants to take the Rowdies to MLS, from second hand sources close to Edwards, ever since he bought the Rowdies. As Bill Edwards put it in the official USL announcement: “I have said from the day I acquired controlling interest in this club that I wanted to make it one of the most successful teams in North America. The USL is a vibrant league, and this move is a necessary and positive step toward reaching the long-term goals and objectives of the club.” Translation: Rowdies to MLS; USL as a means to that end. Staying in NASL was never going to make the Rowdies one of the most successful teams in North America. Do over Ham fucked around with this message at 10:43 on Oct 27, 2016 |
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Oct 27, 2016 10:16
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Wow.. That is alot of people watching a soccer game on Facebook. "Earlier this season, the USL [hosted] one of the first professional games on Facebook, FC Cincinnati hosting Crystal Palace, which 1.3 million watched." http://www.uslsoccer.com/news_article/show/713764?referrer_id=2424346 Also Don Garber has announced he will be coming to Cincinnati on November 29th to figure out why we are getting record attendance... Hopefully this means we still think we can make MLS by 2020 http://www.fccincinnati.com/news_article/show/710556
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Oct 27, 2016 14:18
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Eberly's Army is getting restless here in Austin. We haven't gotten any news recently from the ownership group in a long time.
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Oct 27, 2016 22:08
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I honestly hope Garber makes it clear that he wants x number of teams in MLS several years before the expansion is announced. Having a finite and known number of available expansion places would be good for competition and improvement in the lower leagues, I think. Makes it obvious who wants it most and who's capable of creating and sustaining enthusiasm.
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Oct 27, 2016 22:48
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So it turns out Ottawa Fury didn't clear its move to the USL with the Canadian FA first and the CSA may refuse to sanction their league switch unless some conditions are met.
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Oct 28, 2016 21:07
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Crazy Ted posted:So it turns out Ottawa Fury didn't clear its move to the USL with the Canadian FA first and the CSA may refuse to sanction their league switch unless some conditions are met. 
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Oct 31, 2016 07:44
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Bill Edwards is apparently talking about legal action against NASL. https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2016/nov/11/the-deep-turmoil-of-nasl-dark-times-for-us-soccers-wild-child
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Nov 14, 2016 03:01
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so, like, will NASL be happy when they are are relegated to the dustbin of history?
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Nov 14, 2016 03:09
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I am at the NASL final right now, and this is the biggest joke of a stadium I've ever been to. 2,300 max capacity, no beer, they had to bring in concession stands cause they don't have any normally. Portapotties everywhere. Also I am going to die if Indy don't win. This is extremely stressful.
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Nov 14, 2016 03:11
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omg, they're playing it at st johns' hilarious stadium?
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Nov 14, 2016 03:13
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Do over Ham posted:Bill Edwards is apparently talking about legal action against NASL. If the structure of the league bugged him so much he could have just sold the team or folded it instead. He's moving the team to the USL because his goal is MLS, and that's fine. He doesn't really need to make poo poo up in order to try to save a little bit of money. This man has been court multiple times for fraud himself. wicka posted:omg, they're playing it at st johns' hilarious stadium? I would have just let Indy host it, but the league said the Cosmos had to host the final as the top seed, so they had to find a place to play. Crazy Ted fucked around with this message at 06:36 on Nov 14, 2016 |
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Nov 14, 2016 04:13
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gently caress the Cosmos
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Nov 14, 2016 04:18
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camoseven posted:I am at the NASL final right now, and this is the biggest joke of a stadium I've ever been to. 2,300 max capacity, no beer, they had to bring in concession stands cause they don't have any normally. Portapotties everywhere. wicka posted:omg, they're playing it at st johns' hilarious stadium? Yes, I skipped the final even though I had tickets available to me because I cannot stand the stadium or the commute to it. Crazy Ted posted:For reasons that are absolutely bizarre, Hofstra University told the Cosmos that they would not be allowed to use Shuart Stadium on a weekend if they made the NASL final and told them they'd maybe have to settle for a midweek game. And they have to play any MLS visiting games at some other stadium as well. The lack of a stadium has hurt them more than anything else. Even this year they basically closed down one half of the stadium (where I used to have great season seats) just so that they can show more people crammed into the only section open on TV.
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Nov 14, 2016 19:57
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Last Thursday morning we were treated to a couple of mysterious posts on Facebook from the Ralph's Mob president and vice-president. Then a Facebook post that Thursday afternoon about a meeting that they had with Bill Edwards. Then on Friday, hush hush, a statement coming soon, but then nothing. Now on Monday morning, a statement on Ralph's Mob Facebook page about "exciting news" coming soon but it will be dealt out piecemeal over the next few days, so as not to overstimulate us; for the time being an announcement about the Ralph's Mob holiday party. This is quite the tease. This drat well better be big news and not something stupid like a new supporters group code of conduct or something else I don't care about.  I'm pretty sure Bill Edwards is making his public case for Rowdies joining MLS, soon, whereas to date he has kept his MLS ambitions quiet and low key. If so this will be an important change. Apparently he is even expanding Al Lang to close to 10,000 seats for the upcoming Florida Cup tournament. So presumably he will be marketing and promoting the Rowdies more in 2017 as well, to fill those extra seats and get the average attendance up. I won't speculate any further as no one has really supplied any actual hints or info yet about what is going on. In entirely unrelated news, last Thursday was also when a mysterious group of new potential investors in the Miami Beckham United project had a meeting with the Mayor of Miami-Dade County. Apparently the previous potential investor, Wesley Edens, last mentioned back in June, is no longer interested in investing in MBU. So these new potential investors are the third group we actually know about (the other being PSG who turned MBU down early this year); no idea how long Wesley Edens has been out of the picture, as MBU has been on radio silence since June. And speaking of PSG one of their subsidiaries in the south Florida area had mentioned interest in buying the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers a while back, but nothing has been heard on that front for a while either. What a time to be alive.
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Nov 21, 2016 17:49
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Do over Ham posted:Last Thursday morning we were treated to a couple of mysterious posts on Facebook from the Ralph's Mob president and vice-president. In related "lower leagues to MLS" news: St Louis unveiled plans for a 20,000 (expandable to 28k) seat stadium near Union Station on the edge of downtown. Already there's been controversy, since it's not all private funds and STL city leaders are in little to no mood to spend money on a stadium after the Rams debacle unless they aren't the only ones spending public funds on the project--and there's been no requests for funding from STL County or other neighboring counties.
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Nov 21, 2016 20:33
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Troy Queef posted:In related "lower leagues to MLS" news: St Louis unveiled plans for a 20,000 (expandable to 28k) seat stadium near Union Station on the edge of downtown. Already there's been controversy, since it's not all private funds and STL city leaders are in little to no mood to spend money on a stadium after the Rams debacle unless they aren't the only ones spending public funds on the project--and there's been no requests for funding from STL County or other neighboring counties. Sacramento city council has also approved stadium plans, for an eventual move of Sacramento Republic to MLS. Things are really heating up.
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Nov 22, 2016 01:11
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"Historic Announcement":quote:https://www.facebook.com/TampaBayRowdies/photos/a.442996013834.230638.109366663834/10155448070433835/?type=3&theater Edit to add: also I think the MLS Board of Governors meeting is the Saturday before this? Some time in early December anyway. Do over Ham fucked around with this message at 09:07 on Nov 22, 2016 |
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Nov 22, 2016 03:21
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NASL HQ finally convinced Traffic Brazil so sell its organizational shares in the league. It hasn't been reported on whom they were sold to.
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Nov 23, 2016 22:22
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Do over Ham posted:"Historic Announcement": quote:http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/city-beat/article110079987.html The timing of this is suggestive.
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Nov 25, 2016 19:29
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This just keeps getting weirder.quote:http://saintpetersblog.com/bill-edwards-seeks-control-fort-lauderdale-strikers-team-defaults-loan/ Edit to add: confusingly, the Miami FC mentioned in the article is not the team currently playing in NASL named Miami FC, but the formerly Traffic owned Miami FC team that moved to Ft. Lauderdale and became the current incarnation of the Strikers. Apparently the legal name was never changed? Also they don't own the Strikers trademarks, I have read, someone else does? Confusing. Do over Ham fucked around with this message at 07:31 on Nov 26, 2016 |
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Nov 26, 2016 07:21
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Who owns the Miami Fusion name?
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Nov 26, 2016 17:28
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all-Rush mixtape posted:Who owns the Miami Fusion name? These guys, I guess? They play in NPSL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_Fusion_FC_(2015%E2%80%93) More on the lawsuit... quote:http://www.empireofsoccer.com/nasl-a-defendant-in-bill-edwards-lawsuit-against-fort-lauderdale-strikers-55894/ This bit is particularly interesting: quote:Edwards is seeking damages and foreclosure on Fort Lauderdale’s assets in the lawsuit. A promissory note signed by Strikers Managing Director Luis Cuccattii, and that lists team owner Paulo Cesso as the Individual Guarantor, details the considerable collateral the team put up to secure the loans. Included in the list along with tangible assets are the team’s patents, copyrights, trademarks, rights to use of the name “FT Lauderdale Strikers” and any and all variations thereof. Do over Ham fucked around with this message at 04:55 on Nov 27, 2016 |
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Nov 27, 2016 04:48
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Oh my. quote:http://www.empireofsoccer.com/cosmos-in-crisis-late-pay-furloughs-cast-teams-future-in-doubt-55932/ quote:http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/teams/cosmos2.php?article_id=46562 https://twitter.com/ByNeilMorris/status/803272451828420608 https://twitter.com/MnNiceFC/status/803358853001805824 https://twitter.com/NipunChopra7/status/803333164668174337 Do over Ham fucked around with this message at 05:19 on Nov 29, 2016 |
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Nov 28, 2016 17:11
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After watching the Cosmos die the first time around, this second slow death just has me disinterested.
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Nov 29, 2016 16:28
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According to https://twitter.com/pedroheizer - the Cosmos paid all players and staff, released/fired everybody, and told the NASL that they are ceasing operations.
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Nov 29, 2016 17:30
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Yeah this sucks. I am old enough to remember the original NASL implosion; at least this time it won't take down US pro soccer with it, but I hate seeing old brands like the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers and New York Cosmos, and their fans, go out like this again. There are rumors of Gulati and USL execs being at the NASL board meeting: http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/teams/cosmos2.php?article_id=46566#.WD8l1f-EYNQ.facebook They really need to put egos to one side and work something out. Maybe someone will step in and buy the Cosmos and Strikers. USL is getting its D2 status regardless; NASL brand could continue as a D2 league within USL and the MLS reserve sides and smaller clubs could form a D3 league within USL, maybe. I doubt NASL will survive as an independent league much longer, especially when they lose their D2 sanctioning which seems very likely now.
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Nov 30, 2016 21:09
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Do over Ham posted:USL is getting its D2 status regardless; NASL brand could continue as a D2 league within USL and the MLS reserve sides and smaller clubs could form a D3 league within USL, maybe. This is absolutely the best case scenario. But USSF will gently caress it up somehow! https://twitter.com/AndreT_NY/status/804074463218298880
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Dec 1, 2016 00:28
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awyeahz posted:This is absolutely the best case scenario. But USSF will gently caress it up somehow! And he's wearing a loving beret in his profile pic too good lord
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Dec 1, 2016 00:41
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