Old Enough to Drink and Superdraft - MLS 2017

[Hot Pepsi]

Yeah, with the purely on-the-field stuff - overtime, the clock, substitutions, etc. - there’s no need to reinvent the game.

But with stuff like the salary cap, domestic player quotas, no pro/rel, there are very good reasons why it has to be the way it is and why we can’t just recreate a system based on 100+ 19th century clubs with loads of tradition and fanbases.

[Renart]

The goal should be eventually to move away from those things, though. After the whole Crew-moving-to-Austin hubbub, I very much want to see MLS's franchise system destroyed.

[ursus arctos]

The Timbers plan to replace the turf as part of their stadium expansion, likely between the 18 and 19 seasons, though it isn't clear what the replacement will be.

Providence Park is also the home field for Portland State's gridiron team.

[Renart]

Portland State should find other digs and make way for REAL football.

The only time I ever visited it was to watch a baseball game. (The Portland Beavers.) It was called Civic Stadium then.

[Hot Pepsi]

The goal should be eventually to move away from those things, though. After the whole Crew-moving-to-Austin hubbub, I very much want to see MLS's franchise system destroyed.

It's not to the owners' advantage to do that. It won't happen. It's more likely Europe will look more like the US in this regard.

[Renart]

Maybe I'll be proven wrong, but I don't agree. I think the international nature of the football economy (especially in buying and selling players), the growing popularity of the sport domestically, and MLS's desire for expansion will eventually break open its closed system. The only reason the NFL, NBA, MLB, etc. can sustain their franchise models is that there aren't really any other leagues worldwide that compete with them. There are at least ten or twelve, probably more, leagues in the world that are better and richer than MLS. If MLS ever really got to the point where they were competing with the top four or so in that group, the money would be good enough that people would start forming clubs outside of MLS, maybe even creating alternate leagues since MLS has no monopoly on the sport, and the financial incentives for the richer MLS clubs would be to break away and not revenue share, except maybe for TV rights.

Anyway, was kind of hoping Atlanta would advance in the playoffs, just as the new guys. Harsh to go out on penalties.

[Flynnie]

Last call at RFK at 4PM tomorrow.

David Bingham's leaving San Jose.

The NASL says they have letters of intent from 7 teams in the NPSL to join the league in 2018, which with their current expansion and the almost guaranteed loss of San Francisco (who moved stadia for a game this week, didn't tell anyone, and had less than 100 people show up and are just giving away their merchandise) and quite possibly North Carolina (to USL) and Edmonton (to the CPL) would have them at 17 teams for next year. This would be accomplished by having 3 current owners each help fund 2 of the ascending teams next year.

What the hell went wrong with the Deltas?

San Francisco is becoming an impressive graveyard for minor league sports. That's three (SF Bulls hockey, SF PRO rugby) in the space of about 18 months.

[Renart]

Nobody does anything in the city anymore but work 80 hours a week at Internet startups?

[jefe]

What the hell went wrong with the Deltas?

San Francisco is becoming an impressive graveyard for minor league sports. That's three (SF Bulls hockey, SF PRO rugby) in the space of about 18 months.

They spent a ton of money, including buying an apartment building on Nob Hill to house their players, and hired a marketing person who wrote a post on medium about how they really had no idea what they were doing, among other things. Travel costs as well probably killed them. They never really got more than about $2k paid attendance per game.

Cyle Larin says he's out, to somewhere in Europe.

Colorado wants to hire the current NZ manager to be their next one.

San Diego NASL is going to play at Torero Stadium next season.

Columbus' owner was whining about not having enough sponsorships and suchlike, costing him money. Except, before this season, they doubled their prices of such, and shockingly, lost a lot of them.

Roland Alberg is gone, to CSKA Sofia in January.

Indoor starts tonight, Milwaukee Wave at Tacoma Stars.

[San Bernardhinault]

San Diego NASL is going to play at Torero Stadium next season.

They also announced that they're going to build their permanent home further north in the county, in Oceanside. Annoying for me, but probably sensible given that Oceanside has a big catchment and that downtown San Diego has the proposal out for "Soccer City" and the MLS stadium.

But it all seems a little optimistic, given that nobody seems to know if the NASL is even going to be a thing after getting "relegated"

[Flynnie]

They spent a ton of money, including buying an apartment building on Nob Hill to house their players, and hired a marketing person who wrote a post on medium about how they really had no idea what they were doing, among other things. Travel costs as well probably killed them. They never really got more than about $2k paid attendance per game.

Cyle Larin says he's out, to somewhere in Europe.

Colorado wants to hire the current NZ manager to be their next one.

San Diego NASL is going to play at Torero Stadium next season.

Columbus' owner was whining about not having enough sponsorships and suchlike, costing him money. Except, before this season, they doubled their prices of such, and shockingly, lost a lot of them.

Roland Alberg is gone, to CSKA Sofia in January.

Indoor starts tonight, Milwaukee Wave at Tacoma Stars.

But if they spent a ton of money, why not keep going?

I think the two things that probably hurt them from the start were some ludicrously high ticket prices (I think this has been a kicker for all three SF mL teams - charging $30 when you could go see the Giants for that money is really dumb) and the identity, which couldn't feel more techie if you tried. San Francisco City FC is also run by tech millionaires, just poorer ones, but has their fanbase as a hyperlocal supporter-owned club.

[Hot Pepsi]

Maybe I'll be proven wrong, but I don't agree. I think the international nature of the football economy (especially in buying and selling players), the growing popularity of the sport domestically, and MLS's desire for expansion will eventually break open its closed system. The only reason the NFL, NBA, MLB, etc. can sustain their franchise models is that there aren't really any other leagues worldwide that compete with them. There are at least ten or twelve, probably more, leagues in the world that are better and richer than MLS. If MLS ever really got to the point where they were competing with the top four or so in that group, the money would be good enough that people would start forming clubs outside of MLS, maybe even creating alternate leagues since MLS has no monopoly on the sport, and the financial incentives for the richer MLS clubs would be to break away and not revenue share, except maybe for TV rights.

Anyway, was kind of hoping Atlanta would advance in the playoffs, just as the new guys. Harsh to go out on penalties.

The USSF has managed to help them contain their monopoly on D1 soccer so far.

I don’t want pro/rel. I think it leads to boring league competition, at the top level, at least.

I would, however, like to see all of the clubs be owned by their respective cities and/or supporters.

[Anton Gramscescu]

Somehow, I have contrived to be on airplanes for both legs of the TFC-Energy Drink semi-final, which has me very very annoyed.

It never even occurred to me that Columbus might beat Atlanta in Atlanta. This is great for us (assuming we get by NYRB) but bad for the league.

I can't see too many benefits from pro/rel to be honest. The single entity league has proven to be great for the game in North America and I would argue has meant we have avoided the kind of persistent inequality of resources across clubs that blights the game in Europe and makes most leagues pretty stale. Kept out dodgy owners too, mostly. Why fuck with that?

[Hot Pepsi]

Twellman et al argue that our system doesn't put enough pressure on teams to succeed because there's not much of a cost for finishing last. In fact failure is rewarded with draft picks.

But he's conflating clubs with individuals. Players and coaches who don't succeed lose their jobs in MLS like they do everywhere. And the draft isn't how MLS teams improve, really. This isn't the NBA.

I suppose the DPs may be a bit complacent. They're not really fighting for their jobs. But there are complacent stars in all leagues and that kind of thing will diminish in MLS if they can get more money and invest more in the non-DPs.

I suppose that this system doesn't pressure ×owners× to invest and care about winning as much as a threat of relegation, but the only really complacent owner I can think of is Bob Kraft. Even MLSE finally figured it out. Overall, MLS has done a decent job attracting good owners compared to the other North American sports.

And the system doesn't incentivize owners to dangerously leverage the club and do a Rangers. European football is full of shady owners, so pro/rel doesn't really seem to be a recipe for ensuring smart management.

[Amor de Cosmos]

I can't see too many benefits from pro/rel to be honest. The single entity league has proven to be great for the game in North America and I would argue has meant we have avoided the kind of persistent inequality of resources across clubs that blights the game in Europe and makes most leagues pretty stale. Kept out dodgy owners too, mostly. Why fuck with that?

I think promotion/relegation is too alien to North American sport to become established. OTOH the play-off system — as practised by MLS — is just plain stupid. A six game knock-out doesn't establish the best team in a twenty-two team league by any standard. The league has to go to a balanced schedule before the rest of the footballing universe takes it seriously.

Most leagues in Europe aren't stale. Once you get below the perennial 2–6 top teams in the highest division they're mostly very competitive. I think a European Super-League by invitation is pretty much inevitable in the not too distant future. Depending on how it's set-up it could be the best thing for everyone.

[Anton Gramscescu]

I have a bad feeling about tonight

(later: OK, I feel better now. Also: HAGGLUND.)

[jefe]

Courtesy of the ongoing NASL lawsuit today is that it's official. North Carolina FC to USL next year, and the Deltas folding.

They play each other Sunday, at Kezar, in the NASL semifinals. The other is Cosmos at Miami FC.

If San Francisco and the Cosmos win, San Francisco hosts the Cosmos in the Championship game. Which is such a bizarre set of circumstances I'm sorely tempted to fly out on short notice to see it.

[Anton Gramscescu]

The highlight reel of Columbus 4 - 1 NYCFC is hilariously bad. Every single goal NYCFC gave up was comical, with the exception of the third which was merely indifferent goal-keeping combined with an unfortunate bounce. I know Columbus has looked OK the last few weeks, but that team still fundamentally sucks. Provided we don't collapse at home on Sunday, I'm feeling pretty good about our chances of hosting the final in december.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Caps dealing with the Sounders t'other night. More to come...

[jefe]

Audi Field opens June 30, 2018.

Anibal Godoy re-signs with SJ.

Sounders 2 are moving to Tacoma next year.

Jim Curtain will stay as Philly coach next year.

[Hot Pepsi]

Caps dealing with the Sounders t'other night. More to come...

It's like a painting by that one guy who painted pictures like that.

[Anton Gramscescu]

.

[Amor de Cosmos]

As expected the Whitecaps depart.

A grumpy toothless performance, they only managed a single shot on goal, and that a lame header into Frei's gloves. The faithful are up in arms, local fire departments are still hosing down the smouldering embers of Karl Robinson effigies. All of which ignores the fact that, though KR is a wannabe Billy Big Bollox, the team has improved year over year under his regime, albeit fairly slowly. Probably one key player away from being genuinely competitive, but he's the elusive #10 playmaker.

[Hot Pepsi]

Sorry about that. Sucks to have your team's season end.

These charts mlssoccer.com has are handy.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/...f-championship

[Amor de Cosmos]

Sorry about that. Sucks to have your team's season end.

I'm very used to it and my support, or lack of it, isn't contingent on a brief post season kick-about. On aggregated standings the Caps finished seventh in the league, which is about where I'd expect given their budget. They've the makings of a good team. But they're a key player short, (see above) and the new midfield needs about another half season to bed in.