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RUMOUR: Ottawa Fury to leave NASL?


shermanator

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Even lower travel costs in USL and more league stability and more variety in opponents and more regional rivals and far more games overall and derbies with the MLS junior teams and an already existing cost-sharing infrastructure with MLS for things like game streaming (except for that magical TSN deal the CPL is going to sign), media and the like.

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1 hour ago, GuillermoDelQuarto said:

Ignorant question:

what are the pros/cons of USL vs NASL

I'm fairly new to all this be nice

A con for USL would be that it's a lower division and the play is generally at a lower standard.

A con for NASL is its instability. Seems like only a couple of days go by before there is another story that undermines the credibility of the league.

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Ottawa Sun reporter Tim Baines is now reporting that Ottawa is "50/50 whether NASL or USL" so it seems the rumour of them definately leaving was off, they're only looking at options and are still not certain of leaving.

 

Wonder if they are positioning for a possible vote on the league running OKC NASL next year as that would require about 250K for each club. BOG meets after the season during Soccer Bowl so vote could come as early as then if Rayo opts out after the fall season.

 

I think in the end Ottawa stays in NASL for next season but will be interesting to see how this plays out.

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On ‎9‎/‎4‎/‎2016 at 5:43 PM, rob.notenboom said:

A con for USL would be that it's a lower division and the play is generally at a lower standard.

A con for NASL is its instability. Seems like only a couple of days go by before there is another story that undermines the credibility of the league.

Another piece of this that has been overlooked in my opinion is that most US/Canadian leagues have been quite unstable in around this point in their existence. Heck, there was apparently a few weeks where the MLS was within inches of folding. USL was reducing clubs like crazy not even 5 years ago.

With some of the rumours out there, I would hate to see everyone throw their hat into the USL ring. I can see the appeal with the MLS clubs being able to side an academy team, but the quality of the play would go down so much IMO. And its yet again, one more time when Canadian development is relying on the American system.

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USL isnt without its issues either, Arizona United is struggling and has a revolving door of owners, drew 753 last game. Wilmington is rumoured to be gone for next season and Austin likely not coming back at all after taking this season off. Charlotte and OC Blues not doing well either and trending downward in attendance lately with OC averaging their usual sub 1000 crowds.

 

The USL also can't get their act together to even report all their attendances from their matches so while their average attendance appears to be around 3600 per game thats using incomplete numbers and not the real number which is lower as quite a few of the missing attendance figures are from lower drawing teams. Half the USL teams draw less than FC Edmonton on average.

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7 minutes ago, CDNFootballer said:

USL isnt without its issues either, Arizona United is struggling and has a revolving door of owners, drew 753 last game. Wilmington is rumoured to be gone for next season and Austin likely not coming back at all after taking this season off. Charlotte and OC Blues not doing well either and trending downward in attendance lately with OC averaging their usual sub 1000 crowds.

 

The USL also can't get their act together to even report all their attendances from their matches so while their average attendance appears to be around 3600 per game thats using incomplete numbers and not the real number which is lower as quite a few of the missing attendance figures are from lower drawing teams. Half the USL teams draw less than FC Edmonton on average.

This times 10. Happens in NASL and prob mls too. Heck even fans in Ottawa are aware that there's a large percentage of the gate and announced attendance that are free or heavily discounted tickets. Edmonton catches a lot of grief for its low attendance but the club still sees money on every person through the gate. And with what they charge they prob see a higher return on tickets than other NASL clubs. 

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On September 2, 2016 at 3:59 AM, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

The Ottawa Citizen article adds nothing new beyond the losing $2 million a year angle, which should be no major surprise given the youth soccer giveaways used to generate crowds. Suspect the NASL to USL move would be about keeping expenditures down given the present day NASL appear to be making the same mistake the original one did by having costs spiral out of control due to excessive expenditures by a couple of franchises. Salary caps and some level of central league control to avoid wage spirals developing is the better business model, so the dreams of D1 that started after the Cosmos re-emerged always looked a bit far-fetched.

Edit: A Cosmos fan is also claiming to have heard the Fury to USL rumour a month ago:

 

Well, I'm sure the hope is that when the Cosmos get that stadium built, and stabilize the club, it's going to be the blueprint for future soccer owners in both countries and show them that you don't need to pay a 100 million franchise fee to start a soccer team that draws 20000 plus people. They probably don't care if current owners leave because they know other will line up once they see the potential this league has minus all the bull shit restrictive MLS rules.

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  • 2 weeks later...
28 minutes ago, mianjo said:

Sources have told SI.com that the NASL’s Ottawa Fury will depart for the United Soccer League and that the Tampa Bay Rowdies likely will follow.

http://www.si.com/planet-futbol/2016/09/21/nasl-shakeup-ottawa-fury-tampa-bay-rowdies-usl-bill-peterson

I find it interesting that the only mention of Edmonton in the article is a blurb saying that it faces low crowds and high travel costs. Yet, it will have been one of 3 clubs that will have stayed throughout the lifespan of NASL should it go into 2017.

Really doing that club a disservice, IMO. Ya they don't draw big crowds and have never really been great in the table until this year, but Fath is arguably the best owner in the NASL group right now IMO (along with Edwards). He's just sitting quietly on the sidelines incurring massive losses while the rest of the league is a dumpster fire.

I'm not sure how anyone can think that Canadian clubs wanting to stay in NASL right now is a good idea.

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1. It'll be awesome to see the Fury play FCM, TFC2 and etc...  So much easier for supporter road trips and regional rivalries.

2. The market has spoken (and has been for a while), it's time to end this NASL nonsense. No television deal, no fans, no hope. NASL talked a big game but in the end it was mostly a front for corrupt Traffic executives and FIFA/CONCACAF types.

3. The USL's big tent, cost sharing, MLS partnership and regional groupings are actually solving the real problems of lower-division soccer in North America: expense control, the biggest of which is travel. No guarantees but we might be seeing 'a million flowers bloom' in terms of soccer clubs in a lot of localities. USL might be at 36 teams next year. If we get the basics right, then we can start thinking about the bigger things like pro/rel.

4. Why is Ottawa going to pay the $1-$2M expansion fee if the CPL is starting in 2018?

5. I imagine MLS will take an equity stake in USL and re-brand it as MLS2 sooner rather than later.

 

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5 minutes ago, Dub Narcotic said:

4. Why is Ottawa going to pay the $1-$2M expansion fee if the CPL is starting in 2018?

This question has been bugging me for the past little while since the rumours started. IIRC the expansion fee for Reno was reported at $5 million and likewise for Nashville. The recent reports of the league propping up FTL may give OFFC reason to consider the USL yet something still doesn't smell right to me there. On Reddit, Kartik cryptically alluded to the CSA's moratorium on new teams as a stumbling block for this move as well...

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6 hours ago, Dub Narcotic said:

4. Why is Ottawa going to pay the $1-$2M expansion fee if the CPL is starting in 2018?

http://www.si.com/planet-futbol/2016/09/21/nasl-shakeup-ottawa-fury-tampa-bay-rowdies-usl-bill-peterson

There have been no claims, accusations or indications that the USL is pursuing or poaching NASL clubs, but the third-tier circuit obviously is aware that its growth and relative stability could be attractive to NASL teams anxious about the future. The USL's “third division” designation doesn’t seem to be a hindrance at the moment. Rather, it would be a safe place to land. Ottawa eventually may target a proposed Canadian league, but it prefers USL for the time being.

Despite all the excitement on this forum, I suspect the CPL is still in believe it when we see it territory.

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20 hours ago, Dub Narcotic said:

1. It'll be awesome to see the Fury play FCM, TFC2 and etc...  So much easier for supporter road trips and regional rivalries.

2. The market has spoken (and has been for a while), it's time to end this NASL nonsense. No television deal, no fans, no hope. NASL talked a big game but in the end it was mostly a front for corrupt Traffic executives and FIFA/CONCACAF types.

3. The USL's big tent, cost sharing, MLS partnership and regional groupings are actually solving the real problems of lower-division soccer in North America: expense control, the biggest of which is travel. No guarantees but we might be seeing 'a million flowers bloom' in terms of soccer clubs in a lot of localities. USL might be at 36 teams next year. If we get the basics right, then we can start thinking about the bigger things like pro/rel.

4. Why is Ottawa going to pay the $1-$2M expansion fee if the CPL is starting in 2018?

5. I imagine MLS will take an equity stake in USL and re-brand it as MLS2 sooner rather than later.

 

1) Awesome to see some farm teams in a lesser league play the Fury? Wow, the Usl fanboy is strong in this one.

 

2) What market has spoken? NASL has 3 National TV deals and all NASL clubs have local TV deals unlike the farm team affiliate league Usl that has no National TV deals, a small minority of its clubs that have local TV deals.

No Fans? You don't seem to even know the facts, NASL averages about 4800 per game at the moment. Usl averages about 3500 but even that figure is lower as the Usl hasn't released all its attendance numbers this year, many of the missing ones the lower numbers (easy to see why).

 

Traffics issues weren't related in any way to NASL.

 

3 ) The Usl's big tent, bla bla bla.

 

Number of teams does not make a league. You seem a big fan of the USA's AAA style of league's.

 

Please, learn the facts, your fanboy excitement at doomsday rumors about the NASL has you spouting ridiculous and factually untrue statements.

 

 

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Ok well just back from the coach's meetup event at Jack Astors.  About 100 season ticket holders were invited Tuesday night to come tonight to meet with the coach, and 5 players fielding questions.  Then they mingled with the crowd.

I feel a lot better about the future now. Multiple club reps said they are playing next year and there's no doubt about that. They brought up the USL question right away to get the elephant out of the room and were non-committal but talked good about the USL.

Subtle hints were dropped about future during the mingling,,.  re: cpl.

Great event over all, a free beer and a ton of free food (I can only handle so much calamari guys) and obv by timing why it happened so quick.

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On ‎22‎/‎09‎/‎2016 at 9:53 PM, Kibby said:

Ok well just back from the coach's meetup event at Jack Astors.  About 100 season ticket holders were invited Tuesday night to come tonight to meet with the coach, and 5 players fielding questions.  Then they mingled with the crowd.

I feel a lot better about the future now. Multiple club reps said they are playing next year and there's no doubt about that. They brought up the USL question right away to get the elephant out of the room and were non-committal but talked good about the USL.

Subtle hints were dropped about future during the mingling,,.  re: cpl.

Great event over all, a free beer and a ton of free food (I can only handle so much calamari guys) and obv by timing why it happened so quick.

Is there still a chance that the Fury will stay in the NASL for the upcoming 2017 season?

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