canadianfoot Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 NASL commissioner David Downs announced he will step down by End of 2012. Will that affect Edmonton in their quest for a new stadium? Who will replace him and lead the NASL to more expansions. http://the11.ca/2012/10/04/nasl-commissioner-david-downs-announces-he-is-stepping-down/#more-9782 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red and White Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 I'll miss him. I respected everything he did for the league. He had patience and an open attitude towards expansion in Canada. Besides allowing FC Edmonton to get going, he's been patient with Ottawa and whatever is potentially happening in Hamilton. The league itself has made major strides in its short period. It's at an impressive stage after two years. Whoever comes in next will be steering NASL into a growth and possibly maturity phase. They'll have to make good choices with issues like expansion and their relative placement with MLS in North American soccer (will they start trying to directly compete with MLS now?). Hopefully whoever comes in is also as open to Canada as Downs was. I had confidence in Downs with pretty much everything going forward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opie Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 It was a huge coup for the NASL to even get Downs. And a huge blow to lose him. It is a troubling to lose someone like this so early. Now what are the potential expansion teams thinking about this since Downs was the one they were dealing with? Will Traffic place one of their guys as commissioner? What does this mean for the schedule's future? So many questions. Downs brought stability to something that is never stable(minor league soccer). Can the next person do the same? I also predict Downs will join MLS given he will now be based in NYC again. Or be part of the Cosmos MLS bid. They'll have to make good choices with issues like expansion and their relative placement with MLS in North American soccer (will they start trying to directly compete with MLS now?) Um, no. The NASL is not directly competing with MLS and never will. That would be suicide. The NASL is still barely alive as it is since everything is still tied to Traffic Sports and their money. We already know the NASL's relative placement in North American soccer. It is D2. There is no issue there. Americans would call D2 a minor league and that brings about a bunch of problems. And they had to get a waiver to even get sanctioned as D2 with the USSF. The standards they asked for D2 might come back to haunt them. You cannot compete with MLS. Unless you got a group of billionaires together, who don't care about losing a fortune, and moved teams into major North American and current MLS markets to challenge them. And even then it is likely to fail. Remember the original NASL? MLS's single entity plan has worked. It survived and is growing. The current NASL is a minor league and simply does not have the financial backing or media exposure. In business it all comes down to money and the NASL does not have it. While MLS has a 17 year head start and is filled with some of the richest people on earth. Another huge boon for MLS will be television. They should start seeing better television contracts int he future. Something the NASL and USL will be left out of as minor and inferior leagues. While the last 10 years of MLS was about stadiums, the next 10 years will be about media and putting a higher level of product on the pitch. Television money will grow MLS. In the NASL, all of your markets have MLS plans. Even the likely to be folded Minnesota Stars talked up MLS expansion as a reason someone should buy them. Tampa, San Antonio(that is the goal of the new stadium's final phase), Atlanta, Cosmos, Strikers, Railhawks(MLS has met with them), and even FCE have talked about MLS. How can you compete when your teams would run out the door if MLS opened it? And since MLS is not done expanding, more markets will bolt from the NASL in the next 10 years. It is like building on a house of cards. D2 lost Seattle, Vancouver, Portland, and Montreal. They will lose more. Then almost every market that can support top flight soccer in North America will be in MLS. End game. Eventually I see MLS starting a MLS2 and sticking a fork in the NASL or whatever is D2. But that will not be for at least a decade. Then you can start your pro/rel fantasies. MLS will never pro/rel with another entity they do not control. But could they pro/rel with a league they own and control? Very possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red and White Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 Of course it would be suicide for NASL to compete with MLS. But that doesn't mean whoever comes in next won't be a nutcase who will try. That's why they have a huge choice to make in the search for a new commissioner. Lets put it this way: If Gary Bettman truly believed hockey would be successful in deserts, someone out there believes its a good idea for NASL to compete with MLS. For what its worth, David Downs made it clear that NASL was happy being div 2. For whoever comes in, it would serve them well if they echoed that sentiment. In the NASL, all of your markets have MLS plans. Even the likely to be folded Minnesota Stars talked up MLS expansion as a reason someone should buy them. Tampa, San Antonio(that is the goal of the new stadium's final phase), Atlanta, Cosmos, Strikers, Railhawks(MLS has met with them), and even FCE have talked about MLS. How can you compete when your teams would run out the door if MLS opened it? And since MLS is not done expanding, more markets will bolt from the NASL in the next 10 years. It is like building on a house of cards. D2 lost Seattle, Vancouver, Portland, and Montreal. They will lose more. Then almost every market that can support top flight soccer in North America will be in MLS. End game. That depends on how much NASL comes along in my opinion. Yes, they may stand to lose a few more markets to MLS, but MLS shouldn't be looking at taking too many more at this stage. It would be a mistake for them to go over 24 teams (at most) and risk having markets that shouldn't be in div 1. At some point, there has to be a cap on their expansion. NASL would do best if they take markets who aren't suited to more than div 2 and nurturing them into a stable league. As for MLS2, they would have lots of issues with getting that underway, least of which is displacing NASL. Half their franchises would fight till the death against it. Imagine having to convince MLSE to go along with pro/rel. There would be plenty more issues. NASL has lots of time to gain the confidence of their franchises in the meantime, meaning they won't be rushing off to an unstable MLS2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.