NASL Suspends Aaron Davidson and League Business w/Traffic

[CDNFootballer]

NASL Statement On U.S. Department Of Justice Investigation

 

http://www.nasl.com/news/2015/05/27/nasl-statement-on-us-department-of-justice-investigation

 

"In light of the ongoing investigation announced by the U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday, the North American Soccer League’s Board of Governors has suspended Chairperson Aaron Davidson, along with all business activities between the league and Traffic Sports, effective immediately. Commissioner Bill Peterson will serve as acting Chairperson."

 

 

 

 

[CDNFootballer]

Good on the NASL for acting quickly, don't think we will see Aaron Davidson back in the league whether he's proved innocent or not in court. Traffic has been in the process of selling their last club they own, Carolina Railhawks the last few months, maybe this will speed things up.

[Cheeta]

Move they had to make, and full marks for making it. 

 

Not defending anyone but I can't help but feel that (generaly speaking) some people are, at some point, going to be caught up in all this for doing nothing other than business as usual.  That is to say, you know, the practical sorts who go about the business of working and doing business in the "real world" in which they have to work and do business.

 

Sad statement but one I think everyone on some level can relate to.

[lazlo_80]

this has been a bad day for NASL. between the corruption scandal and the beating the league took in the US open cup I wonder if Hamilton re-considers taking the NASL route.

 

As much as I agree with the post above, the optics of this are really, really bad for the league.

[-Hammer-]

this has been a bad day for NASL. between the corruption scandal and the beating the league took in the US open cup I wonder if Hamilton re-considers taking the NASL route.

 

As much as I agree with the post above, the optics of this are really, really bad for the league.

 

I think Hamilton honestly has to go the NASL route or bust. I'm pretty sure TFC (through TFC 2) will try to claim territorial rights if Hamilton tries to join the USL, and with Ottawa and Edmonton still in the NASL, it makes sense to go there, even if temporarily until a Canadian league can start up. The bigger question is, after this storm will the USSF pull NASL's division 2 sanctioning? NASL still doesn't have a team on the West coast, and even though they are pulling vastly superior numbers (The bottom three teams of the league are averaging 3,000, the league itself 5500) to the USL (Has four teams averaging attendance, literally in the hundreds. Not thousands, hundreds and averaging 3,100 across the league) the USSF might feel NASL is guilty by association.

 

I just look at the USL and it screams to me "So, you want to make crappy version of the AHL for soccer?"

[lazlo_80]

Its a frustrating situation to be in, but if you were a business man about to dump millions into a new team and you saw the chairman of the league just get arrested for corruption charges, as a responsible business man it's really hard to ignore that. Trust me, I'd love to have a team in Hamilton, but that could be too much for Bob Young and co to ignore.  There's a trickle down effect here that could severely effect the league. The NASL is going to have to put in work distancing themselves from this guy as well as Traffic as a whole.

[Dub Narcotic]

Now would be a great time for the USSF and CSA to pull all the leagues together in a proper pyramid with pro/rel and get rid of all this nonsense, but pigs are going to fly I guess.

[lazlo_80]

I think MLS already has one in mind, if I had to guess:

 

MLS

USL

USL2

 

put the smaller teams in USL2, make USL hold the bigger teams, heck let a form of pro/rel exist between the 2nd and 3rd division.

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

It was an open secret that Traffic were believed to be involved with FIFA in this sort of way, so it stretches credulity that yesterday's events would have come as a shock to people in the NASL:

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/traffic-group-fifa-corruption-scandal-2015-5

 

It's just as well for the CSA that the only competitor for the Women's World Cup this year was Zimbabwe, so nobody is going to be asking questions on that one. Hope people can now see why a future CSA-NASL-Traffic axis on league sanctioning and future WC hosting and broadcast rights was never likely to be an advisable move. The USSF has its faults but SUM and MLS, USL and PDL were and are the better way to go.

[-Hammer-]

Now would be a great time for the USSF and CSA to pull all the leagues together in a proper pyramid with pro/rel and get rid of all this nonsense, but pigs are going to fly I guess.

 

The MLS teams are never going to tolerate promotion/relegation. They paid millions to get into the party, they aren't going to let the league screw them out of a huge revenue stream and advertising via broadcast. MLS wants to make the lower leagues into farm leagues at best and a illusion to pretend they are trying to develop local soccer at worst (which, IMO we are far closer to the worst end of things). They want the same model of the ECHL/AHL/NHL where they don't have to buy rights, they control development, they control the rights of the players they want even before they make the big team.

[lazlo_80]

I don't know, I think the MLS/USL partnership's intent is in the right place. MLS knows they need to develop better players to make the MLS a better league. I don't disagree with you about them controlling rights though.

 

Honestly I could see them creating a USL div2 and a USL div3 then allowing from pro/rel between those two lower leagues.

[Dub Narcotic]

Its a frustrating situation to be in, but if you were a business man about to dump millions into a new team and you saw the chairman of the league just get arrested for corruption charges, as a responsible business man it's really hard to ignore that. Trust me, I'd love to have a team in Hamilton, but that could be too much for Bob Young and co to ignore.  There's a trickle down effect here that could severely effect the league. The NASL is going to have to put in work distancing themselves from this guy as well as Traffic as a whole.

 

It would be prudent for Bob Young to wait a year at this point to see how everything resolves itself. He would literally have to buy into an organization that is majority owned and controlled by a company that is under U.S. federal indictment. He would be exposing himself to a lot of legal and financial risk by joining NASL at this point.

[Dub Narcotic]

The MLS teams are never going to tolerate promotion/relegation. They paid millions to get into the party, they aren't going to let the league screw them out of a huge revenue stream and advertising via broadcast. MLS wants to make the lower leagues into farm leagues at best and a illusion to pretend they are trying to develop local soccer at worst (which, IMO we are far closer to the worst end of things). They want the same model of the ECHL/AHL/NHL where they don't have to buy rights, they control development, they control the rights of the players they want even before they make the big team.

 

This same situation happened in South Korea, their FA worked out a deal with the clubs where promoted teams had to pay pro-rated expansion fees, it's very doable here as well if there is the will from the governing bodies. In South Korea, they were forced by ASEAN to move to this model, we can only hope something like that happens here.

 

About 'pretending to develop local soccer': give me a break. Between the USSDA, USL-PDL, USL, recent mandates for U-14 and lower age groups in the academies, lobbying for NCAA dual-season schedules and cost-free academies the MLS has been incredible for local soccer all across North America, even if you completely ignore the impact of having a viable and visible first division in North America for the first time in history.

[-Hammer-]

This same situation happened in South Korea, their FA worked out a deal with the clubs where promoted teams had to pay pro-rated expansion fees, it's very doable here as well if there is the will from the governing bodies. In South Korea, they were forced by ASEAN to move to this model, we can only hope something like that happens here.

 

About 'pretending to develop local soccer': give me a break. Between the USSDA, USL-PDL, USL, recent mandates for U-14 and lower age groups in the academies, lobbying for NCAA dual-season schedules and cost-free academies the MLS has been incredible for local soccer all across North America, even if you completely ignore the impact of having a viable and visible first division in North America for the first time in history.

 

To the first, I have my doubts. CONCAAF isn't going to tinker with MLS's economics any time in the near future, or even in the far future because the league for all it's high worth teams (mainly due to the contracts each team holds), is still struggling with profitability, nevermind the sway MLS and the USSF holds on the very small CONCAAF organization.

 

To the second, I'm seeing a very limited number of players coming up from the USL system, or the system producing a swath of great players and more importantly, how does this in any way benefit Canadian soccer? Having Canadian players hit USL and then fight over 9 MLS spots (most of which are bench spots) or go to Europe and never look back help things? Also, how does the US having a better team benefit our national team's chances of qualifying for the World Cup?

[Dub Narcotic]

To the first, I have my doubts. CONCAAF isn't going to tinker with MLS's economics any time in the near future, or even in the far future because the league for all it's high worth teams (mainly due to the contracts each team holds), is still struggling with profitability, nevermind the sway MLS and the USSF holds on the very small CONCAAF organization.

 

To the second, I'm seeing a very limited number of players coming up from the USL system, or the system producing a swath of great players and more importantly, how does this in any way benefit Canadian soccer? Having Canadian players hit USL and then fight over 9 MLS spots (most of which are bench spots) or go to Europe and never look back help things? Also, how does the US having a better team benefit our national team's chances of qualifying for the World Cup?

 

Something like 75% of all current MLS U.S. and Canadian players played PDL at some point so I'm not sure where your perception comes from. Essentially every national team player under the age of 25 that came from this country has gone through this MLS/PDL/USSDA/USL system now, I'm not sure what else you are expecting. 

[-Hammer-]

Something like 75% of all current MLS U.S. and Canadian players played PDL at some point so I'm not sure where your perception comes from. Essentially every national team player under the age of 25 that came from this country has gone through this MLS/PDL/USSDA/USL system now, I'm not sure what else you are expecting. 

 

I was to understand that the NCAA was a much stronger source then the PDL and the time in the PDL is limited. However regardless, I said great players. Saying we produce 75% of players most of whom are adequate and those few good ones are going across the pond only to come back if they bomb over there, are warming the highest level bench ever in our country's history, or perpetually in the shadow of players we imported is a problem. The former two far more then the later, where Canada coincidentally falls. 

 

Iron sharpens iron and inactivity creates rust. Players not reaching the high level, or reaching it and not playing does our national team no favors.

[Dub Narcotic]

I was to understand that the NCAA was a much stronger source then the PDL and the time in the PDL is limited. However regardless, I said great players. Saying we produce 75% of players most of whom are adequate and those few good ones are going across the pond only to come back if they bomb over there, are warming the highest level bench ever in our country's history, or perpetually in the shadow of players we imported is a problem. The former two far more then the later, where Canada coincidentally falls. 

 

Iron sharpens iron and inactivity creates rust. Players not reaching the high level, or reaching it and not playing does our national team no favors.

 

OK, well what's your suggestion to produce top-level stars and how does it differ from what MLS/USL/USSDA is doing right now? The top European clubs spend tens of millions of euros per year on their academies and get a first-team player every couple of years if they are lucky. MLS and the USSF (CSA to a lesser extent, but better recently) have been very methodical about identifying the gaps in player development (first U-18/U-16 academies with a league, then free academies, then the '18-22' gap, now the move down to U-14 and lower teams) and filling them as resources allow. Canada has benefited greatly from this as the background of our younger national team players attests to. 

 

Of course, we need to getting rid of those American team quotas from MLS/NASL but the bigger issue is and has always been that the quality of players developed in the country has to improve and the addition of the USL associated teams and the young age group academy programs will be the first time ever that Canadian teams have a full player development setup. This is a huge accomplishment and one which cost a lot of money from the current and former MLS owners and for which they deserve a lot of credit and kudos.

[lazlo_80]

I was to understand that the NCAA was a much stronger source then the PDL and the time in the PDL is limited. However regardless, I said great players. Saying we produce 75% of players most of whom are adequate and those few good ones are going across the pond only to come back if they bomb over there, are warming the highest level bench ever in our country's history, or perpetually in the shadow of players we imported is a problem. The former two far more then the later, where Canada coincidentally falls. 

 

Iron sharpens iron and inactivity creates rust. Players not reaching the high level, or reaching it and not playing does our national team no favors.

 

I don't think anyone is pretending that MLS is in the business of improving Canadian soccer. But to say that MLS isn't trying to develop (mostly american) prospects with their partnerships and system seems a tad disingenuous. Given this is the second season having full MLS B squads in the USL and last year it was only the Galaxy it's too early to point to it and say it isn't working. If this was a board about supporting American soccer I think people would generally pretty pumped on the direction of things. As Canadians however alot of us (myself included) were hoping for our own league and saw NASL as a potential cornerstone of that route. I don't know about others but I think that's the most frustrating thing about all of this, the only existing option we now have is a route that has essentially ignored Canadian needs.

 

 

Lets hope this hardens some of those CFL owners and the CSA's resolve to build their own league from scratch. we'll see.

[Dub Narcotic]

I have yet to see the case why a Canadian league would be better for Canadian player development than the current setup and not just CSL V. 2.

[lazlo_80]

For the same reason mls wasn't just NASL 2.0.

We could go back and forth for days about this but if that's how you truly feel I doubt how a stranger on a message board such as myself could convince you otherwise.

[-Hammer-]

I have yet to see the case why a Canadian league would be better for Canadian player development than the current setup and not just CSL V. 2.

 

What is the end game with player development with the current system? Be good enough to cross the pond and never come back, or fight over one of nine spots in MLS. Even if you improve the ratio, you still at best are only getting a handful of Canadians playing in MLS, when you need at least 50 to build a decent national team.

 

How the heck are we going to see more Canadian teams developing and playing vs higher levels of other Canadians when the current USL and their MLS affiliates have a vested interest in keeping MLS as the only high tier league around and keeping MLS owners making money? The same league that has zero reason to expand to other Canadian cities which is what is needed to grow the game and improve our national team. The same league that has a vested interest in building US soccer talent, not Canadian talent.

 

That's what this is about. It's about improving our national team and making the option of jumping from sport you play to career available in Canada for Canadians which MLS only offers and can only offer to a very limited number of Canadians. We are going to have to agree to disagree on this one Dub.

 

Back to the topic at hand. I think the fact the NASL was so quick to suspend these guys is a good sign, but they really need to get a West coast team up and running.