Some potential owners step up for St Louis, willing to pay the full cost of a stadium themselves.
https://www.stltoday.com/business/lo...07ace964c.html
Some potential owners step up for St Louis, willing to pay the full cost of a stadium themselves.
https://www.stltoday.com/business/lo...07ace964c.html
Let's hope this is true, and not wishful thinking. St. Louis has long been a hotbed for soccer in the United States. Not having an MLS team there is simply unacceptable.Originally Posted by Oldtimer
TORONTO FC, 2017 MLS CHAMPIONS!!! (Still the greatest in league history!)
some speculation - Mexico, US, Canada could form combined league after 2026 World Cup
http://www.espn.com/soccer/united-st...2026-world-cup
Now that would be interesting - it could lead to a precursor of Pro-Rel in MLS. If for the first season, they add 6 MLS clubs, 6 Liga MX clubs, and 6 clubs from the rest of CONCACAF, they could have an 18-club, 34 game season. The bottom three teams could be relegated to their respective national leagues and the top team from Liga MX, MLS, and a CONCACAF Club Playoff. Eventually the quality would trickle down after about 5 years to ensure the strongest teams in the region are in the league. They could also set a Salary Cap at about $60 million USD for clubs in the top tier to ensure parity in the league.
If you think 10-15 clubs in the MLS will all be ok with, and agree with going to division 2, after spend hundreds of millions of dollars on stadiums and expansion fees, I personally think you’re dreaming.
The only way this would work, 18 teams from Mexico, 28 from MLS equals 46. Split into 4 conference of (2 of 11, 2 of 12) play home and away against your own conference, and 1 match against every team in another conference (switches every year). That should get you too around 32-33 game season. Take the best 4 from each division (could even have a play in game between 4 and 5) and play home and away series until the final.
My personal opinion is that this will be to complicated to figure out, and to many federations to deal with.
The North American Super League?
I have speculated about this before. There are about 8-10 clubs in MLS that have ambition, probably a similar number in Mexico (less sure on that one). I think the clubs in Mexico City, for instance, would probably be more interested in incremental games against teams from NY and LA that had $50M payrolls and international stars, than they would, say, Lobos or Queretaro.
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.”
Right now MLS is an NFL clone for governance. That's why the most influential owners are still Kraft and the people running the Dynamo.
Would take a change of that governance structure for a North American league to happen.
I think we are going to come into an era of total chaos with all these leagues/sports structures that were built in utterly different commercial worlds. So many of these league rules, from the draft to territorial rights, violate laws and basic rules of fairness.
I think baseball is probably the one most likely to blow first, it has the biggest dispersion of haves and have nots - half the teams aren’t even trying anymore.
I still wish Balsillie had gone after the NHL when he wanted to buy the Predators and move them to Hamilton- I believe he would have won.
I could write 8 paragraphs about this....
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.”
You are bang on Ensco. The structural monopoly of sport leagues is something that has to give. From FIFA down to the national and regional leagues.
Monopolies have to be broken up - there has to be competing leagues... harken back to the successful WHA. Imagine Messi getting signed by a non-FIFA football team? That's what happened to Gretzky.
Why should football players be exempt from immigration rules when the average punter in the stands isn't? Is there going to be free movement of fans between the countries to see the games? Tax payers building stadiums for billionaires?
Rumors that the Crew have been saved by this chap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Haslam
This is quite the development. I was feeling the die was cast already. As others have commented elsewhere, this outcome could have been achieved long ago if the league was an neutral arbiter instead of an active participant in the move. The judge in the Modell Law case probably gave enough signals that it was better to resolve this now than allow it to go to a verdict.
Wow, not just rumour any more: the owner of the Cleveland Browns has purchased the Columbus Crew. I haven't read all the details, and not everything is clear yet, but keeping them in Columbus is obviously the goal.
Don’t be so sure. He could easily move them to Cleveland after a year or two.
Ask Seattle SuperSonics fans how these franchise sales in the face of move rumours work out.
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.”
Now that acutal details have come out its a consortium of the Browns owners, The Edwards Family (local to Columbus and have the land for a new stadium apparently) and the Columbus Partnership.
And it isn't a done deal yet.
Its not done
BUT
MLS put out a four part press release including the locals, the Brown owners, the Columbus mayor and the people getting the Austin thing up & running.
Its going to be resolved for 2019.
Look for CBus Mark III to be a go by early December and for Austin to announce in January they are starting play in 2020 with the move to their new stadium in 2021.
One scenario I thought might play out was that a local group comes forward to buy the Crew and PSV/MLS refuses to sell, or forces them into the expansion queue. I think that may have been the plan but there was also that the league didn't want any hiatus for the team moving from Cbus to Austin. PSV may have just run out of time and were left with no place to go.
So, between the lawsuit, the difficulty in relocating the team in time to play in 2019, the emergence of a local ownership including an NFL owner, and the MLS FO getting killed in public relations for a year over this, everything aligned. It's not signed and sealed but clearly the broad strokes of the deal (and that includes an intention to replace Crew Stadium) are agreed among the parties.
What a fuckjob this is.
TORONTO FC, 2017 MLS CHAMPIONS!!! (Still the greatest in league history!)
May Anthony Precourt's name be forever cursed alongside Art Modell's.
Why are TFC's Canadian players so weak and invisible on the pitch?
A question and discussion, I want to hear honest opinions and reasons why TFC's Canadian players, other than Osorio, which took a few years of development, appear to be so weak and invisible on the pitch. Is it development, poor assessment of talent? I am all for TFC developing more Canadians, but man to me ours should be in USL if that. Please let's be civil and no personal digs.
Cheers
Hamilton - needs service, if he isn't getting proper service he is invisible as he can't fight off MLS defenders for positioning
Chapman - I think he's been alright, he's a backup midfielder in MLS nothing more nothing less I don't think he'll get much better
Fraser - still young, but definitely not up to MLS standard yet, there is potential there
Morgan - similar to Chapman, he's a good back up left back, not good enough to be a starter and doesn't make those nice runs down the left side anymore which makes him invisible
Telfer - was never good enough, had one good game and everyone went nuts. He isn't an MLS player
Ricketts - only good as a sub, but has also lost a step as he is pretty old
the only Canadians I want to see back next year are Osorio, Chapman, Morgan, Hamilton and Fraser
Greg Vanney made a comment earlier in the year about player development and the disappointment he has with youth coming into the club - at all ages - and not able to understand the basics of football.
- Knowing where to be on the pitch depending on the momentum of the moment
- Understanding the relationships between offensive players and defenders
- The ability to see 2 - 3+ steps ahead of where the play is at and how it will ultimately develop
There are only a handful of good coaches in this country.
The rest are shit. Plain and simple. They are good at footballl manager on their computers but not good at actually teaching kids how to play the game at a professional level.
Reading between the lines of that comment, he was discussing a recent Canadian draft choice defender out of a relatively big US college. Player development is mostly screwed because of "KICK IT!!!!" type parents & the drive to win at the age of 7.
Last edited by OgtheDim; 10-18-2018 at 09:35 AM.
Those parents are the ones who "Step up" and end up coaching our kids. I've been at Clubs where their U-XX coaches are people who have never played the game and whose only training comes from the Ontario Soccer Association clinics.
Coaching young kids isn't the issue. The issue there is that they shouldn't have coaches at all.
Coaching kids from age 13-14 up, that's the gap. That's where Costa Rica and Iceland put their resources and turned the corner.
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.”
As Arrigo Sacchi once said, “I didn’t remember that to be a jockey, you have to be a horse first”. Good coaches didn’t necessarily have to have played professionally once. The underlying philosophy, regardless is the mentality of development. You always develop technique at a young age. The ability to dribble, make passes out of the back and first touch are all important skills. As Arsene Wenger said “Technique is like building a foundation for a house. If a player doesn’t have technique by 14, forget it. They’ll never be able to play football professionally.”
I coached for many years but never played the game myself as a youth. I studied the game though big time to make myself a good coach and have always been a fan. Kids developed under me as a coach though. Lots of parents thanked me for the development they saw with their kids each year and the players still tell me I was part of their turning point to being as successful as they have been which I appreciate since I put alot into it. It is possible to be a good coach without ever playing if you take it seriously enough. I stepped back from coaching though a few years ago due to some personal stuff but my son still plays competitive so I am around the clubs and academies alot still. There are lots of crappy coaches out there for sure but there are also a number of really good coaches that are just not getting the proper support of their clubs in one way or another to produce good teams/players which is unfortunate. The attitude/expectations of many parents is a big part of the problem too because they expect overnight success or they will leave the current club looking for greener pastures. Lots of little clubs/academies popping up and diluting the talent which parents bring their kids to because they allow many kids to be "first team" players instead of earning it at a club with better teams/players. Diluting the talent decreases the skills because only playing top players against other top players will make them better. Definitely way more complicated situation in youth soccer than just shitty coaches. The political environment around youth soccer in this country needs to change. And all this without even mentioning the big issue that is we only get to see the best of who can afford it. I have seen many very talented players not continue in soccer development due to cost.
For the true diehards out there
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/zlebmada/status/1052950342177042432
(USMNT twitter is kinda weird)
Right - Jose Mourihno never played the game, but he didn't just go to seasonal soccer clinics run by a hack organization.
The things that kids are lacking are beyond passing, shooting and other foundation skills. I'm talking about teaching and building on football IQ and actually helping kids understand the intricacies of the game and all the relationships on the field - relationships between the ball, it's location on the field, your teammates and the opposition.
Again - I've met nice people who are good teachers and have helped kids play recreational soccer - but we are talking about the professional game of Soccer - or football - whatever you want to call it. You don't become a proper professional only learning from people with good intentions. At a certain point, players have to actually learn the game and it's details.
I think you need to take a step back and look at the broader picture vs, some of the in-the-weeds issues here.
You know why we have an ungodly number of registered players in this country and historically so little to show for it? Half of ‘em pick their nose and stare at clouds for an hour a week while some giddy parent laps it up. All to later quit and retain no connection to the game by their teen years. If you did that elsewhere (minor hockey, other places in the world where soccer is played) people would say quit being an asshole or go play in the park. But we insist on watering down the great for the benefit of the average. I fought these battles consistently trying to provide technical (but still fun) training for young players.
The CSA either needs to very clearly (and intentionally) mandate clubs to separate the babysitting from the real sport or do away with the latter in entirety. Once that’s done, you can implement the stuff you’re talking about to a receptive audience (minimum coaching standards, focusing on tactics or continuous training, etc.)
In the meantime, the “hack organizations” are really just catering to an audience that wants what they offer. Mindless play under the guise of being sport. It’s a shame we ruin many potential players this way, but for those who are competitive, being in-the-know has always been important. Knowing where to find the best resources is as important as your dedication to sport.
Last edited by ag futbol; 10-18-2018 at 12:45 PM.
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