Apart from the crisis in St Louis and problems in Baltimore, we haven’t heard too much about the state of the league and its future in recent months. Yet we are past the midpoint of US Soccer’s tenure of running the league already. The important point for the future of soccer in America in MLS is this: can this season become a turning point towards sustainability at that level, under the direction of US Soccer?

Because, if there’s one thing second division North American teams haven’t been in the past two decades, it’s viable as ongoing operations. Longevity is a luxury. This is, from all standpoints — whether as a fan, a sponsor, an investor, a player, a coach or a staffer — a serious problem. As Brian Quarstad at Inside Minnesota Soccer (IMS) points out, 52 different teams have come and gone from the Division Two level of American soccer since 1995; this, of course, is without promotion or relegation. It’s simply a 75% fail-rate as businesses.

That level of failure is never going to be the way to fashion anything out of that level of soccer, whether our focus is on youth development or growing fanbases. All it does is disrupt the lives of the many involved.

The question is whether US Soccer’s involvement can change that pattern. When Sunil Gulati, President of US Soccer, answered questions about the announcement that the governing body would be running the league for one season back in January, he also made it clear they saw this as a chance to implement a new set of requirements on financial sustainability at that level:

We’ve got some very specific targets in our regulations and we intend to put in more of those. Whether they apply to financial stability, what staffing levels look like, etc. To give you an example, our regulations have minimum standards on size of stadiums, a full-time operation for P.R. Director and CEO and so on and so forth. We think we need to put some more meat behind those in order to make sure that the teams that are part of a Division 2, or Division 1 for that matter, meet a certain standard and most importantly can meet that standard year in and year out and improve. We can’t have this constant issue that bedevils a number of sports, that the offseason is spent primarily to make sure that you can come back the following season. That you’re looking for expansion teams not because it makes long-term sense to build the game and the league, but because you need an expansion fee. We had that issue 25 years ago in our league, and we want to make sure that we’re able to avoid that so that expansion is done in a systematic way. U.S. Soccer is not going to be the one deciding that, but if people coming in the door want to be part of Division 2, they need to understand that this is a long-term play and that there are going to be some significant investments early on and aren’t counting on expansion proceeds in a year or two to reduce capital costs. The philosophy we’ve discussed with the leaders of these teams seems to be in line with that. People understand that for us the most important thing is stability, growth is right after that. But you can’t have growth without stability.

Some criticised Gulati and US Soccer for not finding this focus on stability earlier; why had it taken the public embarrassment of two rival entities fighting over second division status for the governing body to realise that clubs needed enforced help on operating a business to avoid the failures that have historically bedeviled American soccer, aside from (just about) MLS?

At this point, though, that doesn’t matter. What does matter is if and how US Soccer is following through on implementing more stringent requirements on clubs to encourage stability at the second division level. And on this, Brian at IMS has an excellent series this week, Rethinking Division-2 Pro Soccer in North America, that’s well worth reading.

In it (with two of the four parts published so far), he argues for a better vetting process for clubs by the authorities, for running teams like viable small businesses (instead of gambling on future earning potential) and for reducing travel costs in this mammoth continent-sized market by regionalising the league.

On the first point, Brian talks to another Brian, Brian Remedi of US Soccer, who explains US Soccer has not been sitting on its hands since Gulati made his statement in January on the need for tighter regulation of clubs’ financial viability:

“We are doing something that the Federation has never done in great detail before,” said Remedi in a May interview with IMS when he met with the NSC  Stars, Minnesota’s new D2 team. “We are getting out and looking at the teams in Division 2. In years past we left it up to the league administrators to ensure their clubs were meeting minimum standards and that games were run appropriately. Because we are running the league now we want to get out and make the house calls.

“We are also looking under the hood from a marketing perspective, from a financial perspective, even from a ticketing perspective. Our goal is to ensure these teams are viable for the long term.

“It’s in our interest to make sure that there are division 2 markets that are going to be sustainable over the long haul. Not a short term 1-year or 2-year thing. We want these markets to be sustainable for long periods of time. So we are collecting information on the team and from the team and we will give some thought to that data and will be writing reports and giving it to our professional league task force who ultimately will make a recommendation to our board of directors. We assume that there will be at least one, two, possibly more entities applying for sanctioning for next year and we believe that the teams that will be part of that league will come out of the 12 teams that are in the USSF D-2 Pro League this year.”

The USSF has called a meeting for the second week in August and have invited all teams currently involved with the USSF D2 Pro League. At that time, US Soccer will release their new standards that all current or future D2 teams will have to comply with. Expect the federation to require the future sanctioning league to require a more costly bond for each and every team involved with the league. It’s also said that they will have higher standards for stadiums and a more stringent litmus test for teams that want to join the USSF second division of soccer.

There will be some concern that when crunch-time comes, US Soccer might be tempted to water down their requirements if they find few clubs are likely to actually meet them.  On the other hand, the fact that Gulati came out and made a pretty clear public statement about the need for tough and real requirements to be met, and the evidence that US Soccer is following up on this with the release of new standards next month, suggests this is something that the governing body is serious about for the long-term good of the sport. Let’s hope they follow through, and keep an eye on IMS for the rest of his excellent series.

The current (2009-2010) Portland stadium

The future home of the Portland Timbers, which opened a final USL season Saturday in the midst of a remodel to ready it for MLS in 2011, has been hosting soccer games with various degrees of success for over 100 years.  But while we Portlanders can be proud of our soccer history, we also must be honest: the stadium itself has never really been a good place to watch a game.

Please don’t misunderstand.  There have been many glorious crowds, magnificent atmospheres, and bravura games in Portland.  On Saturday alone the place was packed with over 15,000 fans to watch a minor league match against the Rochester Rhinos in a stadium configured for baseball—a hearty Portland crowd significantly bigger than those that watched half of the MLS games that same night, and several thousand more than bothered to show up at New York’s sparkling new “soccer palace.”

Yet Portland’s building itself has always been more like Javier Zanetti than Lionel Messi, more Kasey Keller than Clint Dempsey – always there, always valuable, often intriguing, but never likely to steal the show.  I’ve heard several local fans of both soccer and baseball describe the stadium as feeling ‘soulless’ – which is reasonable as a description for the feeling of the structure itself.  The gently sloping seating areas, currently off-set in a way that makes a soccer crowd disturbingly asymmetrical, are cramped and crumbling.  The moldy grey cement walls that border much of the field look melancholy and cheap.  The surface has been slippery, ugly versions of artificial turf for over 40 years.  But saying that the structure feels ‘soulless’ is very different from saying it has no soul.

In fact, more than any other current MLS stadium (with the possible exception of RFK in Washington DC—which the league is desperate to vacate anyway) Portland’s future home will offer the league true American soccer history.  From a ‘Pacific Coast Championship’ contested by teams of immigrants at a 1905 World’s Fair, to the late 1970’s glory days of the NASL, to the rise of American support for US National Teams, to the vanguard of modern supporters’ culture, the Portland stadium has seen it all.  And now, if they can get the latest remodel right (a topic I may return to in future weeks), if they can actually make it a good place to watch the game, the Timbers MLS home has a chance to be a truly unique place for American soccer fans: a new stadium with meaningful history.

The Pre-Timbers Years

The Portland stadium set up for American football in 1959 (photo via Pete Wright at flickr)

The name of the stadium is as good a place to start as any: though currently known as PGE Park, Portland General Electric only bought ten years worth of naming rights in 2000.  Immediately prior to that it was known as “Civic Stadium,” though upon its founding in 1893 place was called “Multnomah Field” after the blue-blood Athletic Club (and, in turn, the county) that still borders the playing surface.  It also had a period after its first major upgrade in 1926 as “Multnomah Stadium” until being sold to the city in 1966 by the Multnomah Athletic Club (known colloquially as “The MAC”).  And now PGE’s naming rights are set to expire just in time for MLS to arrive—with little word as to what name might come next.

So for reasons of both historical flux and personal bitterness (due to having my jacked up PGE rates fund the types of exorbitant CEO buy-outs and Enron business practices that represent all that is wrong with the American economy), I’m going to just call it Portland’s stadium.  It has, after all, been the city’s primary site for sport and spectacle of all types for almost 120 years—and its coming incarnation will likely be a prominent face of the city for many years to come.

A flooded Multnomah Field in 1904 (photo via Pete Wright on flickr)

One of the main explanations for the stadium’s local prominence is its location in an old heart of town: just west of the downtown business district, just east of the moneyed West Hills, just south of a yuppified shopping/dining/drinking district, and just off a mass transit line, the original Multnomah Field was built on a site that the history of the Multnomah Athletic Club describes as having been a ‘natural amphitheater perfect for athletic use.’  That ‘natural amphitheater’ was created partially by Tanner Creek Gulch, a water source that also made possible a 1840’s tannery central to early Portland’s commerce, along with a series of ‘Chinese vegetable gardens and shanties.’  With the coming of the athletic field, however, Tanner Creek was gradually diverted underground—an old landscape feature that has created some modern challenges to construction work on the current re-model, along with local calls for the new stadium to tribute the ‘historic course of the creek.’ I’ve also heard some vague (and so far unsubstantiated) claims that the gulch is one reason the space would be hard to maintain as a grass playing surface—the natural drainage patterns are apparently more conducive to a bog garden than a football pitch.

Football was, nevertheless, among the original tenants of the field—though in the 1890’s the specific type of football to be played was still somewhat uncertain.  The “intercollegiate” rules for what would become ‘American football’ were still being negotiated on the East Coast, and amateur athletic clubs such as The MAC were prime sites for experimentation.  As such, according to The MAC’s history, when the first interested ‘football’ players gathered at Multnomah Field in the 1890’s the specific code they’d use was uncertain: one of their organizers had introduced ‘rugby and association football’ at a local academy, but others “insisted they play the new version.”  American football, including many college games played by the various state universities in Oregon, eventually did become a feature of the early decades of the Portland stadium—but it is interesting for a soccer fan to note that with a few twists of fate it could have been otherwise.

From The Oregonian, September 29th 1905

Soccer did not, however, disappear entirely.  In fact, thanks to a tip from eminent soccer historian Colin Jose, I learned that in 1905 Multnomah Field hosted what I’ll claim to be a precursor to the Cascadia Cup—a “Pacific Coast Championship” held in conjunction with the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition (Portland’s version of a World’s Fair).  Invitations went out to teams from California, Washington, and British Columbia, and the Portland team prepared by playing teams of sailors from British ships cruising the Pacific coast; one report from the August 27^th 1905 Oregonian has the locals “defeating a team of sailors from the British ships Tottenham and Comeric by 6 to1.”  If it is true that history repeats itself, I like the sound of Portland defeats Tottenham 6 to 1.

Unfortunately, like too many Cascadia Cups, the actual Exposition tournament didn’t go well for Portland.  Only one of the invited teams actually showed up, from Ladysmith BC, and they soundly beat Portland to take the 1905 title.  As the September 29^th Oregonian reported “The Portlands were outplayed and outweighed, man for man, although they played a plucky game.”  The paper went on to describe the great ancestors of the Timbers Army: “The attendance?  At the busiest part of the game a careful computation of the occupants of the grandstand revealed 18 young men and one ‘yaller’ dog.  Whether this combination formed a hoodoo against the Portlands is not known.”  Damn that yaller dog.

The Portland stadium would host more soccer in coming decades, but prior to the arrival of the NASL Timbers in 1975 it was more known for its eclecticism: it hosted undistinguished US Presidents such as William H. Taft and Warren Harding, an artificial ski jump competition that delighted “40,000 cheering spectators” in 1953, an Elvis Presley concert that prompted a 1957 Oregonian headline of “Stadium Site of Bedlam,” and 22 years of greyhound racing that made for the stadium’s primary income from 1933-1955.  Even now, the stadium is a stop on the “Fasten Your Seat Belts—It’s Been a Bumpy Ride” bus tour of “Portland’s discriminatory past:” according to the Willamette Week, “In the 1920s, Oregon had the largest Ku Klux Klan contingent west of the Rocky Mountains, with about 70,000 members and over 50 ‘klaverns’ (KKK chapters) statewide.  The KKK held rallies at Civic Stadium, now PGE Park, when voicing its opposition to ‘Koons, Kikes and Katholics.’” (According to some other sources, the focus for the Oregon KKK was mostly on being anti-Catholic—though I’m sure Oregon’s small African-American population wasn’t too popular either).

Plaques outside the current stadium's luxury boxes, with tributes to greyhound racing, Elvis, and the NASL

Greyhound racing was displaced as the stadium’s primary tenant in 1956 when Portland’s minor league baseball team moved from a demolished Vaughn Street Park, leading to a decision all soccer fans must rue: in 1969 the stadium achieved the dubious distinction of becoming “the first outdoor baseball facility to install artificial turf.”  And because I agree with most American soccer fans that artificial turf is a detriment to the game, I have a sad confession to make: in looking at many pictures of the stadium field through its early history I’ve yet to see one where the grass looked to have been playable.  In its grass days Multnomah Field was always a muddy, wood-chipped, patchy mess.  It was, and I fear always will be, a pitch conspired against by long rainy days, a busy schedule, a subterranean playing surface, and a previous identity as Tanner Creek Gulch.

The Post-Timbers Years

Despite its bastard turf, however, recent incarnations of Portland’s stadium have hosted some pretty good soccer.  In the NASL Timbers’ very first year, for example, they beat the Seattle Sounders in front of a 31,000 person home crowd—leading to a good old American style pitch invasion and a run to ‘Soccer Bowl 1975.’   With teams of primarily British imports including Clyde Best and Clive Charles, the first iteration of the Portland Timbers then averaged 20,000 in 1976 (its second year of existence), only falling below 10,000 during their final season in 1982 when the NASL was well into its fatal decline.  Their attendance figures were not the best in the league, but considering Portland’s relatively small population they are impressive enough to make a current MLS team like FC Dallas blush.

Portland was also chosen as the host for the 1977 Soccer Bowl – and though the Timbers failed to make the playoffs that season, the stadium turned out over 35,000 fans to watch the New York Cosmos defeat the Seattle Sounders 2-1 in what would be Pele’s last competitive game.  As Clive Gammon described it in Sports Illustrated: “It was a huge fiesta in the rain. The lucky ones sat in the stands and the rest on open benches, drying out a little when the sun fitfully appeared, and roaring their hearts out as if this were Munich on World Cup day, not a soaking Sabbath in Portland. All 35,548 of them were crammed into creaky old Civic Stadium that was built in the ’20s with greyhound racing in mind but which in the future may be recognized as the place where soccer in North America had its coming-of-age party.”

Sadly, however, claims of a ‘coming-of-age’ party for North American soccer were premature.  The NASL Timbers, along with much of the league, were gone by 1982—reincarnated briefly in 1989, and then in its current form in 2001.  So the stadium experienced another relative big-event soccer lull, albeit one interspersed with some significant appearances by US National Teams.

Of the US National Team appearances, perhaps the most significant men’s game came in 1997.  The US was in the midst of a sloppy qualifying campaign for the 1998 World Cup in France, and needed a pro-American venue for a crucial qualifier against Costa Rica.  With the help of Nike (headquartered in nearby Beaverton), the US Federation created an atmosphere that many have cited as an early crest of soccer enthusiasm for our own national team.  As Tim Crothers reported “The capacity crowd of 27,396 at Civic Stadium did muster plenty of enthusiasm, albeit somewhat orchestrated by a certain local sneaker company of national repute that, in its role as a sponsor of U.S. Soccer, passed out noisemakers and urged fans to wear white clothing as a sign of unity. This request was largely honored, resulting in a scene that could have passed for a convention of some bizarre tennis cult.”

Yet, however bizarre the scene, when Tab Ramos scored a late goal for a 1-0 victory that “virtually clinched” a World Cup spot Portland felt like the capital of the American game.  Even Big Soccer’s Dan Loney, with his entertaining tone of informed mockery, has cited the game in Portland as something close to a genuine highlight of American soccer fandom: “For a long time, Portland in September 1997 held that prize [of greatest moment in US fans’ soccer-watching lives].  There was a fan section!  We won!  It was a sellout!  Soccer was here to stay, and Portland was destined to get an MLS team!”

At the 2003 Women's World Cup (photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images, via sportsbusinessdaily.com)

While the MLS team obviously took a while longer to arrive, within a few years the Portland stadium did earn the inadvertent distinction of being one of the few places in the world to host games for consecutive FIFA World Cups—the 1999 and 2003 Women’s World Cup (with the US serving as an emergency fill-in for China in 2003 after a SARS outbreak).  In 1999 Portland only hosted group games, drawing decent crowds including over 20,000 for games such as the decidedly non-glamorous North Korea – Denmark clash (neither team advanced).  In 2003, with the stadium having been remodeled two years prior partially in a failed effort to make it more baseball friendly, Portland hosted a semifinal doubleheader with temporary stands and an imported grass surface.  In one of those games the US lost to Germany 3-0, a contest that symbolized both the waning on-field dominance of our women’s team and its nascent off-field potential: it drew huge local interest along with a sold out crowd—including a colleague of mine who gladly paid $500 dollars to a scalper for two tickets just to be able to say he was there.

The Present and the Future

A Willamette Week illustration of Timbers owner Merritt Paulson contemplating the stadium

In more recent years Portland has been enjoying its new version of the Timbers, and wrangling its way through a sometimes contentious debate about what having an MLS team will be worth.  Whether or not you like the team, the minor league version of the Timbers has offered an impressive example of how an American city can foster a large and passionate fan base for soccer—despite the team being in a minor league and playing in what is in current form is basically a bad baseball stadium.

And this, ultimately, is the rub.  All the meaningful soccer history embodied in the Portland stadium exists at odds with the fact that it has never really been a very good place to watch the game.  So yes soccer purists, the MLS version of the Timbers will have to share the stadium with some Portland State University football games, and yes it probably doesn’t make sense right now to put down a real grass playing surface.  But for the first time in its 100+ year history Portland is going to have a stadium designed primarily to cater to soccer.  And, hopefully, to make more history.

In that vein, it may be appropriate to return one last time to the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition, where Portland’s team captain explained his team’s failure to win the championship to an Oregonian journalist by noting: “I wish to say that I am not in the least discouraged at the showing made by our team.  On the contrary, I am proud of their work…I am confident that in a year or so, with the support of all admirers in Portland of association football, we shall be able to turn out a team that will be a credit to this city and carry off the laurels in this branch of sport.  We can do nothing without enthusiasm….”

And if by including the qualifier ‘a year or so’ the captain was allowing for the possibility it could take 106, then he might be right—with a new stadium and old history Portland may just yet “carry off the laurels in this branch of sport.”

The latest MLS stadium plans (from portlandonline.com)

Big Story

An offseason of controversy about the second division in American soccer brought lower league soccer here more attention than it had ever had before, until the governing US Soccer Federation (USSF) finally stepped-in and resolved the dispute between the NASL and the USL by agreeing to run the league for this year.

Things have been a lot quieter since, with the division returning to the shadows  ahead of kick-off this weekend. The NASL and the USL continue their respective pushes for attention, and it should not be forgotten that the USSF only found a temporary resolution for the 2010 season to allow play to go ahead this year. Behind the scenes, one hopes they are beavering away with both parties to figure out how the structure will work in 2011, but even distant rumblings of future plans aren’t yet surfacing. They do, at least, have a nice logo for the league.

But it seems the two parties, USL and NASL, are still not necessarily cooperating all that well. There appears to be no national television deal, with nothing worked out to continue the previous coverage of the USL on Fox Soccer Channel. Creatively, the USSF has secured a company called Ooyala (really?) to stream every game for free on each club’s website, so the governing body should be credited for that.

Overall, it’s a critical year in lower league soccer not just because of the controversy between the competing entities, but with two of the stronger Division II teams headed to MLS in 2011 (Portland and Vancouver), the role and purpose of a division two is still unclear. The NASL certainly has the most elite teams and the most ambition, but can it establish itself enough for USSF to jilt the USL and award it the rights to run the Division II league in 2011? What should the purpose of a second division actually be — developing players, or developing clubs with fanbases ready to move up to MLS?

Quick Hits

• It’s amazing how often articles about the crisis in Scottish football and proposals to restructure it appear, and here’s another good one from Ewan Murray.
• Turkey ramps up its bid for the 2016 Euros.
• Blog of the week: Must Read Soccer…is a must read. Seriously.

The Sweeper appears daily. For more rambling and links throughout the day every day, follow your editor Tom Dunmore @pitchinvasion on Twitter.

Big Story
The resolution to the deadlock over second division plans for 2010 in North America is of course analysed all over the place: over 100 journalists and bloggers joined the US Soccer teleconference yesterday afternoon. You can read the full transcript from US Soccer here. Now the dust has settled, and the USL and the NASL have been forced into a compromise for 2010 by US Soccer, the key question is what this means for the long-term, something Gulati mentioned several times. As he said:

Our goal is to have a stable, professional soccer environment in the U.S. I think we’ve been able to accomplish that with MLS over the last 14 years, and with the exception of one year, there has been a steady growth of the teams in terms of interest. We want to make sure that we can accomplish that through all of our other professional leagues, which are different from youth soccer or amateur soccer. In the next few months we’ll be laying out some regulations, rules and standards. We’ll put a little more substance into it about what a second division should look like. Everyone has agreed that that’s important and we’ll be working on that. For us, the most important thing here is long-term stability. What we think we’ve achieved today is a short-term solution for the 2010 season, but we want to work with a number of people and all the teams to find a long-term solution so we don’t have teams changing back and forth between divisions. We’re extremely excited about this agreement and certainly about 2010 overall for the sport in the U.S.

And again, towards the end of the call, answering a question “On how the USSF will measure benchmarks to determine a team’s success or viability and whether there will be quantitative measurements teams will have to demonstrate to continue to participate”:

Yes, we’ve got some very specific targets in our regulations and we intend to put in more of those. Whether they apply to financial stability, what staffing levels look like, etc. To give you an example, our regulations have minimum standards on size of stadiums, a full-time operation for P.R. Director and CEO and so on and so forth. We think we need to put some more meat behind those in order to make sure that the teams that are part of a Division 2, or Division 1 for that matter, meet a certain standard and most importantly can meet that standard year in and year out and improve. We can’t have this constant issue that bedevils a number of sports, that the offseason is spent primarily to make sure that you can come back the following season. That you’re looking for expansion teams not because it makes long-term sense to build the game and the league, but because you need an expansion fee. We had that issue 25 years ago in our league, and we want to make sure that we’re able to avoid that so that expansion is done in a systematic way. U.S. Soccer is not going to be the one deciding that, but if people coming in the door want to be part of Division 2, they need to understand that this is a long-term play and that there are going to be some significant investments early on and aren’t counting on expansion proceeds in a year or two to reduce capital costs. The philosophy we’ve discussed with the leaders of these teams seems to be in line with that. People understand that for us the most important thing is stability, growth is right after that. But you can’t have growth without stability.”

Many, including Rochester beat reporter Jeff DiVeronica, are taking this as a elbow in the ribs to the operation of USL over the past decade or so, which has seen teams coming and going at a rather rapid pace:

To me, those were all shots at how the USL has done business. To a degree, I agree with him, but as this season unfolds I’m sure Gulati will find out how difficult it can be to run a minor-league soccer operation. For as long as I’ve covered the A-League/USL, which goes back to 1996, America’s second division was the red-headed stepchild. At best, it was an afterthought. The USSF concentrated on MLS and building up the U.S. national team programs. It needed to. Now, it sounds as if Gulati realizes some attention to the second division must be paid to help with player development.

So while most of the focus has been on the short-term solution for 2010, it seems as if US Soccer hopes to leverage this crisis (and the useful fact there is competing demand to operate a Division II league) into a broader plan to give lower division soccer purpose beyond an expanded footprint for the sport. Gulati, asked of the purpose of a Division 2 league in the U.S., finally concluded that “In the absence of a promotion and relegation system, it’s hard to exactly pinpoint an answer to that question.”  Gulati mentioned there had been discussions with MLS already on how the pyramid knits together, especially in terms of player development, and in the year ahead we should really expect to see US Soccer, MLS, the USL and NASL pinpoint answers to that question so we are not in the same mess going forward, and the purpose and structure of lower league soccer is clear enough to all.

Worldwide News

• The credit crunch and tighter finances in Scotland are having one interesting effect: clubs are much less willing to go through the expensive business of hiring and firing managers willy-nilly, leading to much greater stability, according to Alex Smith, chairman of the Scottish League Managers’ Association: ‘”Stability has been forced on clubs. It hasn’t kept bad managers in jobs, but it has given good ones a bit of leeway – for example, younger guys who are trying to build something, maybe creating sensible youth structures and who shouldn’t lose their livelihood because the first team loses four or five games.”  Meanwhile, Away from the Numbers has an interesting update on the financial woes at East Fife.
• Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis has said he does not expect a takeover bid from either Stan Kroenke or Alisher Usmanov to come anytime soon.
• Minnesota’s new professional soccer team, to play in the USL conference of the new Division II league, is not formally connected to the now defunct Thunder, though clearly has some informal ties. Du nord has all the details in an excellent post.
• A proposed U.S.-Mexico friendly has fallen through over a row about television rights.

The Sweeper appears every weekday, and once at the weekend. For more rambling and links throughout the day every day, follow your editor Tom Dunmore @pitchinvasion on Twitter.

By Faerie Girl on Flickr

Big Story
As assiduously reported by Brian Quarstad, Duane Rollins and Kartik Krishnaiyer, the United States Soccer Federation and the two leagues seeking Division II status for 2010 in North America appear to have finally reached a compromise.

It appears that the USSF will oversee a league with two conferences featuring the teams committed to the USL and NASL respecitvely. There are many other details rumoured to be part of the deals, and what can become public presumably will in a conference call the USSF is hosting this afternoon with representatives of both leagues.

So, we will have second division soccer here in the United States in 2010 (let us hope we also have first division soccer!). It’s significant that despite the bitterness, the threats of lawsuits, and the tight timeline, that the two leagues have been able to hammer out an interim solution. As we recalled here last week, in the past, this was not always possible, leading to administrative strife tearing soccer apart.

Of course, it already being 2010, we should presume negotiations on hammering out a long-term solution for 2011 will begin shortly.  While we await the final details of the interim solution, perhaps one or two who argued the USSF (and MLS) were either dropping the ball or deliberately trying to destroy second division soccer will stay quiet for a little while, though it will take much work again to work things out beyond this year.

Worldwide News

• I love world football. One minute Hans Backe is following Sven-Göran Eriksson on his bizarre global career: assisting Sven at Manchester City, Mexico and then as manager at troubled Notts County, and now he’s the head coach of Red Bull New York. Well, he’s prepped for disaster and general weirdness, at least.
• We have been careful to avoid much commentary on MLS’ labour talks here because of our lack of knowledge and insight on the complex situation (Peter Wilt’s prediction of a lockout yesterday aside, but Peter knows far more about MLS than I do). I’d recommend MFUSA’s series as a primer for those wanting to keep up, while Fake Sigi has an interesting opinion piece today on the state of MLS and its business model, quite eloquently describing MLS as built to last in its present complicated, but carefully constructed condition: “It’s a brilliantly conceived business entity built with decades of pro sports litigation in the USA in mind. It’s something that the majority of people don’t understand, but under the hood it’s sexy as hell and built to last. It’s the corporate entity version of a rotary engine or a Macintosh computer. It took the old way of doing things, looked at the problems that had plagued other leagues, and came up with an innovative, new way of dealing with those issues while retaining a ton of eccentricities that few understand.”
• Of random interest: photos of the 15 lowest ranked UEFA nations’ national stadiums.

The Sweeper appears every weekday, and once at the weekend. For more rambling and links throughout the day every day, follow your editor Tom Dunmore @pitchinvasion on Twitter.

Peter Wilt Plays Nostradamus

OK, you’re probably now starting to think that I’m a pretty lazy writer….yes, I’m going with a list column for the third straight week.  I’m following up the ever popular “Holiday Gift“and “Best Memories of the Year” columns with the ever popular “Predictions for the New Year” column.

Sorry.  It’s the holidays.  I’ve been busy with my indoor team winning two incredible overtime matches, celebrating the holidays and catching some fine cinema.  What can I say, except I promise a more in depth and insightful column next week that will focus on my experiences with the MLS Combine and SuperDraft.

Well, here goes my XI soccer predictions for 2010…aka XI educated (?) guesses:

I.  Collective Bargaining Agreement: I PREDICT that Major League Soccer will join their big American sports league brethren this year in experiencing a  work stoppage at the end of this month.  As reported in the Seattle Times last month, a pay increase isn’t the issue. Seattle Sounders FC player rep James Riley said the union wants the teams, not the League, to negotiate player contracts.  The union also wants more guaranteed contracts and free agency after contracts expire.  I’ll bolden my prediction by guessing that a CBA is not achieved until at least April, meaning that for the first time, MLS games will be missed due to a work stoppage. The fact that the differences are philosophical and not financial means this could be a long one.  It’s one thing to compromise on dollars, it’s another to compromise on philosophy.  I predict an eventual management “victory”, though truth be told, everyone will come out losers if my ugly prediction comes true.  I’ll save any detail or analysis for a future column when the CBA negotiations become a hot issue.

II.  MISL: I PREDICT the Milwaukee Wave will win the MISL Championship over the Baltimore Blast 15-8 in the final and too few people outside of Maryland and Southeastern Wisconsin will notice despite some incredible goals.

III.  WPS:  I PREDICT Los Angeles Sol over somebody else.  The best team in the League last year (yeah, i know, Cinderella won the title) are set to add three high draft picks next week to an already loaded roster.  This time they won’t lose Camille Abily for the playoffs, so while I think my Chicago Red Stars will be much improved over 2009, I’m going to predict LA wins it all in 2010.

IV.  USMNT in World Cup: I PREDICT the US will advance to the semi-finals and fall to Spain in Durban, South Africa in a rematch of the FIFA Confederations Cup Semi-Final last summer won by the US in Bloemfontein, South Africa.

V.  World Cup Winner: I PREDICT Spain will win the 2010 FIFA World Cup. And the USMNT will win the third place match. Hey, who’s going to remember if I pick the US to lose to Germany in the first knockout round?

VI.  USL1/NASL Solution: I honestly have NO idea.  I’LL PREDICT(guess) that the NASL will agree to pay a mid-six figure annual operational fee to USL and USL will agree to provide a list of services (i.e. hosting NASL’s combine, sharing FSC broadcast slots) and both parties will agree not to file any law suits.

VII.  D2 Winner: I PREDICT…the fans…and Montreal.

Which MLS coach will be the first to step aside in 2010?

VIII.  1st MLS Coach Fired: Since we all left MLS a few years ago, my old Minnesota Thunder friends Manuel Lagos, Amos Magee and I have competed against each other each year by predicting outcomes of dozens of MLS categories including the somewhat morbid “1st Coach to be Fired in MLS”.  I don’t believe any of us has gotten one right yet.  To avoid upsetting someone I know, I PREDICT someone I don’t know…and neither does anyone else (right now anyways): Whoever coaches the New York Red Bulls.

IX.  MLS Supporters Shield: The combination of a potential work stoppage and a mid-season World Cup makes this prediction rather tricky.  Parity, for better and worse, continues in MLS, so I throw out the obvious bottom feeders and look for a non-World Cup difference maker.  For me, Guillermo Barros Schelotto continues to be the best player in the League regardless of 2010 South Africa travel plans.  I PREDICT he will be the difference maker this year giving Columbus the Supporters Shield again…if Schelotto does indeed sign with the Crew.  If not, I’ll predict Houston…or Seattle…or….

X.  MLS PFA Trophy: And I PREDICT the trophy for the best team in MLS from late October to late November will go to……drum roll please….the Seattle Sounders FC!!!! (2-0 over New England)

XI.  MLS Attendance Questions: Attendance questions on my mind and my guesses…I mean “predictions”:

Other sports have experienced a drop in attendance after work stoppages.  Uncertainty of playing games also makes it difficult to sell tickets to fans who are angry at players, management or both. Will the work stoppage affect interest in the League?  I PREDICT:  Yes.

Will the World Cup’s attention help or hurt MLS attendance?  I PREDICT:  Yes (hurt during WC and help afterward).

Will Seattle’s passion hold up like Toronto’s did as the novelty wears off?  I PREDICT:  Yes.

Will Chicago’s playoff sellouts translate into increased regular season attendance?  I PREDICT:  Not much.

Who will have a higher average home attendance this year in their new stadium Philadelphia Union or New York Red Bulls?  I PREDICT the Red Bulls will edge the Union, mainly due to Union Field’s limited capacity (18,500). I figure Red Bull Arena (capacity 25,000) will sell out half a dozen times or so for the home opener, the Red Bulls derbies with the Union and DC United (which I PREDICT will be among the very best American soccer stories in 2010) and the Galaxy game giving the Red Bulls an average attendance a little over 20,000.  The Union will use their early game(s) at Lincoln Financial Field to bump their average attendance over 18,500, but a work stoppage may take away that attendance benefit.

There they are.  Some bold, some conservative. What do you think?  Which of these predictions do you like?  Which ones do you think are absurd and why?  Let me know in the comments below.

Happy New Year to all!

Peter Wilt, the President and CEO of the Milwaukee Wave, writes for Pitch Invasion every Wednesday. Follow him every day @PeterWilt1 on Twitter.

U.S. Soccer has decided not to sanction either the USL or the NASL to operate a Division Two league in 2010:

The U.S. Soccer Board of Directors voted unanimously on Tuesday to not sanction either the USL or the NASL to operate a Division II professional league in 2010.

The decision was made on the recommendation of the Professional League Task Force, which determined that neither organization on its own was able to provide a viable and sustainable operation during the upcoming season. Both organizations were unable to meet U.S. Soccer’s requirement of a minimum of eight viable teams for 2010.

Despite the ruling, the U.S. Soccer Board of Directors has given both organizations seven days to try to work out an interim solution for the 2010 season.

“After carefully reviewing the findings from the Task Force it was clear there are still too many uncertainties for both organizations, which would be extremely difficult to resolve in a timely fashion that would allow them to prepare for the 2010 season,” said U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati. “In the best interest of soccer in the United States, we decided to not sanction either league at this point. However, we did encourage both leagues to come together in the next week and attempt to develop another plan which would allow a single league to be approved on a provisional basis. We are committed to finding ways to improve the long-term viability of all leagues and teams and continue the growth of soccer in the United States.”

I see on Twitter that US Soccer is already taking an awful lot of heat for this, being accused of indecisiveness, secrecy and harshness to fans by rejecting both leagues.

But it’s hard to blame US Soccer for the mess America’s lower league rulers have essentially made for themselves over the past six months. However we apportion the blame — and for me, it all stems back to Nike’s ill-considered decision to sell USL to nu-rock in the first place — US Soccer was left between a rock and a hard place here (and was also left dealing with some pretty big egos who wanted everything resolved their way).

Consider the options they had when they received two separate applications for Divsion II leagues:

(1) Approve one or both leagues (US Soccer’s rules apparently allow two D-II leagues to operate). But according to US Soccer, neither league met the “minimum of eight viable teams”. US Soccer surely considered making an exception for one or both leagues, but they obviously concluded neither would have been “a viable and sustainable operation”. And I have to say at this point, they may well have been right: what kind of a league would a four or five team USL be? Could the NASL really scramble together a sustainable business by April starting practically from scratch?  It’s clear that US Soccer was not convinced this was the case for either league.  Making an exception risked making a mockery of the business of operating professional outdoor leagues in the United States under USSF sanction. And if US Soccer had sanctioned one and not the other, we’d have had a year of lawsuits ahead of us (do you think US Soccer wants to be sued?).

(2) Reject both leagues. US Soccer could have simply rejected both applications and been done with it; they would have been within their rights, given neither league met their stated requirements. Maybe then the NASL decides to try and play unsanctioned.  Would this have met Gulati’s mentioned commitment “to improve the long-term viability of all leagues and teams and continue the growth of soccer in the United States.”?  No, it would have created a huge mess reminiscent of the dark days of American soccer in the twentieth century.

(3) Reject both leagues, and attempt to force them together. This is essentially what US Soccer has now done (and has probably been pushing hard for behind the scenes for some time), by giving the two leagues “seven days to try to work out an interim solution for the 2010 season”. If that can be done, and if USL and the NASL really want to play sanctioned soccer in 2010 it could and should be, that gives everyone time to work out everything for 2011. It means leaders of both leagues will need to check their egos, but they now have a clear, unavoidable reason to do so thanks to the ultimatum from US Soccer.

The hostile reaction to US Soccer’s decision seems to stem from a complete lack of trust in the organization, because I’m unsure how a sensible observer could not see the third option as the best choice, and it is a decisive choice. If there was another alternate, better option, I’ve yet to hear it (comment away!).

We don’t have all the information on the USL and NASL from which US Soccer determined neither was a viable operation for 2010, and we will never have it, as it’s confidential — and rightly so.  Do we have to trust US Soccer has made an informed, sensible decision here?  I think from what we know of their options, I would say so.

I love US Soccer Federations press releases. I have every sympathy for why America’s governing body cannot reveal much information on private and legally sensitive ongoing disputes, but there’s something about the dry and cryptic teasers of information that amuse me to no end.

Consider today’s official statement on the ongoing crisis in America’s lower leagues, as the USL and breakaway rival NASL strive for official recognition as Division II leagues in 2010:

CHICAGO (Dec. 7, 2009) – U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati, CEO/Secretary General Dan Flynn and Professional Council Chairman Don Garber met with representatives from both the United Soccer League (USL-1) and the North American Soccer League in New York on Sunday (Dec. 6) to discuss Division II league plans in 2010.

“We had a productive meeting and the discussions will continue,” said Gulati. “In the interim we have asked both groups to submit additional information.”

Both leagues have been requested to provide further details of their respective league plans by Dec. 9 to U.S. Soccer’s Professional League Task Force. Once the Task Force determines that the parties have provided the needed information, it will update the U.S. Soccer Board of Directors for further review.

U.S. Soccer’s Professional League Task Force is chaired by Flynn, and includes board members Carlos Cordeiro and Mike Edwards.

Ah, well, now we know what’s going on. But what’s this Professional League Task Force then? Who else is on it, aside from Carlos Cordeiro and Mike Edwards, and why are they specifically mentioned here (or did they not mean “includes” in the sense of there are others not being mentioned?)?  Unfortunately, there is no further information on what this task force is, who is on it and what they are charged and able to do as far as I can find on the US Soccer website.

It’s also interesting to consider that MLS Commissioner Don Garber is wearing in these discussions as a US Soccer board member and Professional Council Chairman. Meanwhile, we should recall that USL founder Francisco Marcos also remains on US Soccer’s Board of Directors, fittingly as an At Large Representative.

One nugget that has come to light is from Kenn Tomasch, who unearthed a possibly redundant piece of evidence from the 1990s that more than one Division II league can exist under US Soccer’s auspices.

Whether or not that is still the case, it’s unlikely both the USL and NASL could be approved as Division II, since such leagues require at least eight teams, and there aren’t sixteen teams of Division II calibre to fill both leagues (USL is down to four or five teams now due to the defections to the NASL).  Glancing through US Soccer’s policy manual, it’s clear even to an observer not privy to the discussions that took place at the weekend that neither the USL nor the NASL meet the required criteria to be recognised as a professional league by the governing body right now, and hence the need for these further discussions. Here are a few key requirements from Policy 202(1)(H)-1 on Professional Leagues:

(d) The competitive divisions referred to in subsections (a) – (c) of this section shall
consist of professional leagues.  Each professional league shall be:

(1) certified by the Board of Directors (BOD) based on standards established
under these policies;

(2) subject to the authority of the Federation;

(3) comprised of at least 8 professional teams certified by the Board of Directors;
and

(4) subject to all rules and regulations of the Federation, autonomous in its
operations.

The USL currently has four, maybe five teams confirmed for 2010; the NASL has the required number, but none of them are “comprised of at least 12 registered professional players” in a professional league “subject to the ultimate authority of the Federation”, as Policy 202(1)(H)-1 (c) — last I heard, the USL and NASL were still wrangling over whether the USL could cancel the defecting teams’ USSF player registrations or not.

Sorry, I guess that didn’t make things any clearer either, did it?  I guess that’s why these press releases are so perfunctory, huh?  This isn’t easy to figure out, with the egos and dollars at stake in a dispute that has been going on since the summer.

At least the official public silence from the US Soccer has been broken, and hopefully we’ll see more from the federation on the next steps after this task force has reviewed the USL and NASL’s proposals.

And then there were…very few. The announcement today by the Rochester Rhinos that they were joining America’s Great American Soccer Independence Movement of 2009 by quitting the USL for the newly revived NASL leaves the status of America’s lower league structure in quite the pickle.

On the one hand, we have the previous Division II league, USL-1, down to just four teams confirmed for 2010 (with Portland set to leave by 2011). It’s hard to see how USL-1 is not finished as a Division II league, with rumour already spreading that Puerto Rico will jump ship soon as well. It’s clear that the purchase of the league by nuRock has been a failure in terms of keeping the structure together and the USL-1 team owners who were agitating for change content (as Brian Quarstad said in a comment here, Nike should be ashamed for the role they played in this mess to begin with).

On the other hand, we have the new NASL up to ten members, but they have yet to be approved by the USSF for play as a Division II league for 2010. They have just a few short weeks to get that permission, or April 2010 will be an impossible start-date for the new league. They remain long on worthy ambition and short on the prospect for profitability, but presuming they do get the nod from the USSF, they will have a big opportunity to follow-through.

But while the dispute has become bitter and hardly reflects well on either side of the fence, there is a way for USL to survive and the NASL to exist simulatenously: the former should focus on its core, unusually profitable (in American soccer) business of being the essential development structure at the semi-pro level for men and women, with a still strong enough nucleus for a decent tip of the pyramid in USL-2.

The NASL, meanwhile, can with sensible investment and smart decisions be a successful replacement for USL-1 and perhaps take us to the promised land of something like an MLS-2 in, say, a decade. Or two (let’s not get greedy, folks). It’s a long way off, but there is plenty of room for the growth of a strong Division II if they can survive what are bound to be difficult teething pains (just as MLS went through).

Indeed, some might say two separate entities makes more sense than the previous structure anyway, given that the priorities of the USL’s ownership for their broader umbrella and the elite ambitions of a few USL-1 clubs had long become increasingly difficult to reconcile.

I’m not saying this is going to happen, and it’s far easier to say than do — there are many lawyers with a lot of money they could make out of this mess salivating right now, and egos at stake — but it should be the priority of US Soccer to do whatever they can to facilitate a resolution that protects the existing, essential part of the USL structure and gives us a nationwide second division for 2010 and beyond. And it now looks like the latter has to be the NASL.

Big Story
After months of speculation about a breakaway in North America’s second division, featuring farcical news management by USL and ambitious statements from the renegade Team Owners Association, it’s been confirmed today that a new second division professional league will launch in the United States in 2010, consisting of the Atlanta Silverbacks, Carolina Railhawks, Miami FC, Minnesota Thunder, Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps and St. Louis Soccer United, most of those leaving USL-1. The new league has submitted its application to US Soccer for approval, and likewise in Canada.

So now, after all the talk, it’s time for the hard work to start. One key decision will be finding a commissioner, who it sounds like will have wide-ranging power, and the league plans to commit considerable resources to nationwide marketing, a weakness of USL-1. One of the key driving forces behind the league is Jeff Cooper of St. Louis, who has for some time been attempting to win an MLS franchise (and also owns a WPS franchise), and whose ambition for the league is clear. “This will be a league that will offer the best of both worlds – outstanding experience and leadership at the ownership level combined with the promise and ability to chart our own course for success as a new league,” Cooper said.

If the league’s strong marketing plans are a success, this could be a big step towards putting professional soccer really on the map nationwide outside of MLS, and give the sport deeper roots and broader coverage. Just no more silly talk about a winter league, OK? And what’s the future for USL-1 now?

Worldwide News

• Rangers and Celtic fans are accused of “a stunning exhibition of ignorance and bitterness” by Graham Spiers in the Times, as he looks at a messy dispute over observance of Remembrance Sunday.
• Sunderland fans who believe they have been unfairly banned from the Stadium of Light have launched a petition appealing to chairman Niall Quinn.
• All that glitters isn’t gold, as Notts County face a winding up order. We hate to say I told you so, but the Supporters’ Trust who handed over power and wrote off an awful lot of money might be having second thoughts at this point.
• EPL Talk urges Fox Soccer Channel to switch to American commentators for its UEFA Champions League coverage, castigating the quality of commentary so far. I have to say, as much as I’m not keen to hear Max Bretos scream “yessssssssssssssss” any more than I have to, the announcing has been poor. It’s a shame, as the quality of the broadcasts — with so many games available in high definition — has been outstanding otherwise.
• David Ngog’s dive for Liverpool against Birmingham is the focus of most of the discussion in the English press today, with Henry Winter calling it “shameful”
• Wow, Carson Yeung. Wow.

The Sweeper appears daily. For more rambling and links throughout the day every day, follow your editor Tom Dunmore @pitchinvasion on Twitter.