I've been reading about Atlanta's MLS expansions with some interest and I realized something. Regardless of arena issues, this is a big shot across the bow of NASL. I don't see the Silverbacks surviving once the MLS moves in.
This got me to thinking about the expansion moves MLS has made over the past few years:
1. Pulling Montreal away from NASL.
2. Their partnership and cooperation with USL Pro (NASL's closest competition), giving them legitimacy as the way for players to step up to MLS.
3. Giving a franchise to NYCFC, effectively shutting out the Cosmos as the 2nd New York MLS team.
4. Giving Beckham the keys to Miami, 20km from the Fort Lauderdale Strikers.
5. Leaking news of a press conference in Atlanta that would take place the day before the Silverbacks' first home game of the season.
6. Holding talks with San Antonio, Indianapolis, Minnesota about possibly jumping to MLS.
7. Garber not stating that expansion will stop after 24 teams, which is raising alarm bells in NASL circles (as noted in the following article:
http://www.soccerwire.com/news/leagu...bill-peterson/ )
I'm beginning to suspect that MLS' strategy is to deliberately target the existing (and profitable) NASL cities to squeeze the League into insolvency (and by extension their backer, Traffic Sports Marketing, whose VP Davidson is owner of the Railhawks). I wonder if MLS wants to set up a second division that they control as MLS2 and remove any chance of competing leagues in one fell swoop. I think the reasons for this were sown back in 2012 when Davidson stated he didn't want NASL to be seen as a reserve league (article:
http://www.indyweek.com/triangleoffe...triangle-media ). I think this may have effectively killed any possibility of the two organizations working together. I bet there's going to be a lot more articles coming out this week as soccer bloggers and reporters start digging around.
Can you imagine what a single-entity Div1 and Div2 MLS would look like? Maybe they'll introduce some form of promotion/relegation where almost
all the non-playoff MLS teams will have to have a home-at-home playoff with a MLS2 counterpart to avoid relegation. Maybe they'll almost have the same salary cap so it's easier to get back into the first division again.
Is it just my paranoid delusions kicking in or does it sound like NA soccer league war is brewing? (Full Disclosure, I'm also an Ottawa Fury fan, so dissolution of the league would be disasterous for us.)