NYCFCFan10 Posted February 28, 2016 Report Share Posted February 28, 2016 (edited) Something truly fascinating has been quietly transpiring beneath the surface of soccer in America. Something that is unlike anything else in the sport. A war is being waged between the top three soccer leagues and their respective fans. The sides in the war: At the top, the ruling king, Major League Soccer or MLS. Born 20 years ago out of the ashes of the defunct NASL (more on them in a minute) and the wild success of the '94 World Cup in America, MLS was built on the mentality of survival via slow, steady and safe growth. These policies are so ingrained into the league it's still an ever-present mindset even though the league's survival is no longer a question on anyone's mind anymore. This has rubbed many American soccer fans the wrong way as they want to see the league ascend to great things at a faster pace with more spending. Many of these fans now follow clubs in NASL. The former king of American soccer, the NASL, was reborn in 2011 and is now America's second division, technically. Just don't tell them that, though, they are the challenger to the crown. They are very loud and clear where they believe they ought to be: the very top. They are America's renegade league desperate to defy the order of things. Rewind a few decades and the NASL was the king with success and international recognition that, arguably, was greater than what MLS has managed as the top division so far. However, the league wasn't cognizant of it's expansion and expanded too quickly without properly vetting the ownership they were allowing into their league along with the New York Cosmos' domination of the league along with other factors eventually led to it's collapse In 1984. Flash-forward to the late 2000's, and several clubs in the, then, American second division, United Soccer League (USL) decided their clubs' visions were irreconcilable with their current league. It was a bitter divorce but in 2011, 8 of the bigger clubs from the USL broke away and resurrected the NASL. This split was very bitter between the organizations and it's fans since it left what remained of the USL on very shaky ground. Ironically, even in the face of their own history, the NASL allows clubs to spend whatever they like. Also of note, many current MLS clubs were previously NASL clubs before the NASL went under in 1984 including the Seattle Sounders, the Portland Timbers, the Vancouver Whitecaps, and the San Jose Earthquakes. There's actually a fourth player in this war, the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) headed by a very smart man named Sunil Gulati. Gulati clearly wants one elite league before he considers the possibility of having two elite leagues in America. Therefore, he works very closely with MLS to help them achieve greater things, often at the expense of the NASL. For instance, Sunil tied the US National Teams TV deals with MLS to help MLs get a better TV deal than they could by themselves. Sunil also had the MLS commissioner, Don Garber, with him at the Extraordinary FIFA Congress last Friday. Something that infuriated NASL fans as it's yet another signal of favoritism to MLS. USSF also has a habit of changing the definition of what is a Division 1 league whenever the NASL gets too close to meeting that definition preventing the NASL from receiving more investment and challenging MLS on a more even playing field. I'm not sure if it was always the NASL's mission statement to knock-off MLS from its perch but it definitely became much louder after MLS tried to get the New York Cosmos to join MLS and failed around 2010-11. See, MLS requires that you hand over your club's properties to MLS when you join. Being in MLS is a "for life" thing. This rubbed the new owners of the Cosmos the wrong way and thus made the decision for them to join the NASL clear. Of course, they knew the Cosmos brand could never carry the same weight it did back in the 70s in a second division league and so we began to hear more about how the NASL isn't a second division league but is instead a first division league in it's early years. This is around the time that this struggle began to get very, very bitter between the two top leagues. MLS takes NASL's threat very seriously and has moved to snuff them out. MLS has poached Montreal and Minnesota from NASL over to MLS. It's believed Portland would have joined NASL, too, but MLS took them as well. They have put their own club in Atlanta where there was a NASL club already and caused the NASL club to collapse. MLS has also shown strong interest in the San Antonio NASL club which forced them to fold their NASL club and rejoin the now MLS-affiliated USL. (The now folded NASL club "Atlanta Silverbacks" and the new MLS club "Atlanta United FC" set to begin play in 2017) MLS took in the USL and has essentially turned them into their development/minor league. If you remember, the USL was on the verge of collapse because of the NASL clubs breaking away so naturally they turned to the bigger MLS for stability and they now have that and the means to exact revenge on the rebel league. MLS is now using the USL in its war against the NASL by having the USL file to be recognized as a division 2 league on par with the NASL. This would obviously make it harder for the NASL to receive investment or to attract quality players to its league if there's a bigger, more stable league in the same division. There's been other acts of aggression, too. The Cosmos looked poised to build a big and beautiful new stadium on the edge of New York City in Elmont but its been strongly suggested by NASL (and confirmed?) that MLS intervened with the politicians to get the stadium deal canceled. You might look at all of that and think, "well, the NASL has to be at death's door now." but no, shockingly, NASL has done a pretty good job of bringing in new clubs to replace the clubs that MLS raids or kills. The league is currently at 12 clubs up from the 8 it had in 2011. There are several signs that the NASL is ready to take the fight back to MLS by launching clubs in MLS markets, too, which is something they've never done outside of NY. They've launched a Miami club with big names attached to it ahead of David Beckham's Miami MLS club. Their biggest bet is a rumored Chicago club that would go head-to-head with one of MLS's most poorly run clubs, Chicago Fire. The team is rumored to play at Soldier Field, too. If the NASL can turn this into a big success, it would be an absolutely massive blow to MLS and a huge lift for NASL. Thankfully, there's a competition where all this true animosity and bad blood between the leagues can come to a head: The US Open Cup. Even as an MLS supporter, I pray that the NASL survives and thrives because the US Open Cup, a pretty anonymous event in the American sporting landscape right now, has the potential to become something absolutely incredible and completely unique in a few years. A battleground for past crimes. A battleground for supremacy. A battleground that could catapult the sport to heights never before dreamt here because of the authenticity of the feelings between these clubs and these leagues. Edited February 28, 2016 by NYCFCFan10 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jovan Posted February 28, 2016 Report Share Posted February 28, 2016 Wow. Thanks for that. Let me know who wins. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thisphantomfortress Posted February 28, 2016 Report Share Posted February 28, 2016 Do you guys have casuals? I don't care who wins on the field more about who gets the result off it 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYCFCFan10 Posted February 28, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2016 (edited) 14 minutes ago, thisphantomfortress said: Do you guys have casuals? I don't care who wins on the field more about who gets the result off it Of course there are casuals. I'm not following what you'really getting at though. Edited February 28, 2016 by NYCFCFan10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nate Posted February 29, 2016 Report Share Posted February 29, 2016 That was actually a really fascinating read. But surely there's too much money, interest and star power involved in the MLS for the NASL to compete with and in turn, be taken seriously as a top flight league. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYCFCFan10 Posted February 29, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 29, 2016 1 hour ago, Nate said: That was actually a really fascinating read. But surely there's too much money, interest and star power involved in the MLS for the NASL to compete with and in turn, be taken seriously as a top flight league. Not really. I mean, the reason I'm an MLS fan but pulling for the NASL to survive and thrive is because I believe MLS is too big to fail but they are by no means too big to be uncontested. The MLS TV deal is peanuts by American standards. Absolutely peanuts. The stars are usually pretty old, they can't even beat the Mexican league in Champions League. So it's not like MLS is this runaway juggernaut. We've had several leagues challenge the NFL. That's a much, much harder task than challenging MLS right now. In soccer, unlike American football, you can go play clubs from Mexico, South America, Asia, Australia, Europe....you can make TV deals with them all, too. So there's a lot more opportunities for a leage to generate money and to interest fans. We have 5 major college conferences (and dozens of smaller ones) the SEC, the highest paid conference, just for American football which only plays a 12 game season were taking in $35 million for each of it's 14 schools. That's over $400 million for 1 league. This year it's expected to climb to over $600 million. The second biggest league is pulling in over $400 million a year for its 14 schools, too. The NFL is pulling in $3.1 BILLION every single season. So MLS's <$100 million to be split amongst its 22+ clubs is nothing really. Switching gears, I find it ironic that it is obvious USSF doesn't want NASL to succeed in becoming a 1st division league. It's very obvious and yet, it's their tournament, the US Open Cup, that is the NASL's best life-line. Nothing excites the NASL fanbase like getting a crack at the MLS clubs. Even though the Cosmos only get one crack at NYC or RB a year, that game becomes so massive to them and it's no secret they build their team to beat MLS clubs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strider Posted February 29, 2016 Report Share Posted February 29, 2016 NASL ftw Hellas in 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYCFCFan10 Posted February 29, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 29, 2016 (edited) Orlando City's first tifo when they made their MLS debut last season was a shot at their NASL rivals in Florida: Jacksonville, Tampa and Fort Lauderdale. Orlando City was a USL club before becoming an MLS club. Edited February 29, 2016 by NYCFCFan10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KSK_47 Posted March 1, 2016 Report Share Posted March 1, 2016 So just to clarify, there are 4 leagues that run independently of each other? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYCFCFan10 Posted March 1, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2016 (edited) 3 hours ago, KSK_47 said: So just to clarify, there are 4 leagues that run independently of each other? There's several leagues but only 3 professional leagues. There's a 4th league, the NPSL, which is the NASL's partner league (but is semi-pro) like MLS-USL but yeah, they all run independently of each other for the most part. USSF is our country's federation. Edited March 1, 2016 by NYCFCFan10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KSK_47 Posted March 3, 2016 Report Share Posted March 3, 2016 On 3/1/2016 at 1:45 AM, NYCFCFan10 said: There's several leagues but only 3 professional leagues...but yeah, they all run independently of each other for the most part. And they are each officially recognized and potentially competing with each other? That sounds like it could get very messy. I am surprised its has been allowed to happen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYCFCFan10 Posted March 3, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2016 5 hours ago, KSK_47 said: And they are each officially recognized and potentially competing with each other? That sounds like it could get very messy. I am surprised its has been allowed to happen Yep. USSF puts out definitions of what is required to be a 1st division league, 2nd division, ect. and the leagues determine their own fates. The definitions include things like # of teams, attendance #'s, and location of the teams. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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