USL Thread, One of the toughest leagues in the FC

This reminds me of the post NASL, pre MLS days when there were always competing leagues rising up and almost as quickly failing. While I wish the new league well, it still has to be approved by the USSF and to do that they will need to be well connected.

Here is an article from the St Louis Business Journal on the St Louis club in the proposed league:

http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/sto...09/daily21.html

The club will be run by Jeffrey Cooper who was the guy behind St Louis' failed bid for a MLS expansion club.

Vancouver also plan to be in this new league but in 2011 they will be leaving to become a MLS expansion team.

This looks like a major mess with two competing leagues striving to be classified as the 2nd division!

It is a mess. Key now will be whether the USSF board of directors, which has to sanction, let's this split become reality.

I can tell you from personal experience -- I was on the USSF board for 14 years -- that Marcos has a lot of pull. Of course, his role with the USL has been somewhat marginalized by the new owners. They'd be foolish not to let Marcos lead their fight.

It is good to get the inside perspective from shelsoccer. If Marcos still has some interest in the remnants of the USL, you would think he will be using his influence within USSF against this new group.

I see Atlanta is part of this breakaway group but I thought the company which purchased USL, Nu Rock, was the holding company for Atlanta's USL franchise? Maybe they had to give that up in order to purchase the league?

The NASL is back, yes the new name of this breakaway league will be "The North American Soccer League"

NASL Is Back

The new NASL has nine teams: Carolina RailHawks, Atlanta Silverbacks, Crystal Palace Baltimore, Miami FC, Minnesota Thunder, Montreal Impact, St. Louis Soccer United, Tampa Bay Rowdies and Vancouver Whitecaps FC.

The league has applied to the U.S. Soccer Federation for sanctioning and is looking for a commissioner.

So will they have a Cosmos team in the mix??? That would be kewl

So will they have a Comos team in the mix??? That would be kewl

Depends if Pepe Pinton, a former Cosmos official who owns the rights to that name is willing to give them up for a reasonable price. I recall he was asking MLS an exhorbitant amount to use the name New York Cosmos when they were coming up with the MetroStars, now Red Bulls, original name.

Hey this new league already has the Tamp Bay Rowdies and Vancouver Whitecaps! When do the Tulsa Roughnecks and Memphis Rogues join?