What could a regional D4/5 set up look like in VA, WV, NC and SC?

With recent reports that the USL owned PDL has been offering NPSL clubs 10k cash incentives to move in addition to waiving of the 75k entry fee and no yearly fee... the UPSL announcing rapid expansion in to Colorado, Idaho and other west coast states while putting in place a #ProRelForUSA system between 2 divisions of play... I just can't get past the thought that a USSF take over of the unofficial D4/D5 level of semi-pro/amateur club system and the introduction of a complete nationally structured regionally aligned system would be very beneficial to all parties involved.

To think about what the current system of competing national and regional D4 and D5 for profit leagues has led us to we can think about what it does to the member clubs. In many cases we have these small, limited budget clubs driving hours past clubs from other leagues who are much closer to get to distant league rivals. We have, comparative to club revenue, exorbitant entry and membership fees being charged by PDL. Franchise proximity clauses in place in many leagues keeping local rivalries from developing. The national focus of  NPSL and PDL do not allow for local league leadership to pursue sponsorship opportunities for league and cup competitions.

At the fully professional D1/2/3 levels the states of Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina feature the Carolina Railhawks in the 2nd Division NASL along with the Richmond Kickers, Charlotte Independence and Charleston Battery in the 3rd Division USL and the Wilmington Hammerheads dropping from USL to PDL this year.

Right now there are 17 more clubs competing in the PDL and NPSL with several other rumored new clubs out there.

We can see that this is a really strong existing base for a regional D4 and D5 set up in a relatively small geographic footprint.

From my work trying to develop a much smaller regional league in this area I can confidently say that there are at least 5 investor groups and youth clubs who would immediately join a competitively priced regional league like this that I personally have talked to in WV and southwest Virginia alone. From looking at the list of cities of 25,000 and larger we see that this area has 76 separate cities with populations that large with only 21 clubs existing in them.

I think it is safe to say that the potential for rapid growth is there. This potential could easily lead to a system in place with a top level D4 with a north and south D5 that features promotion and relegation between the leagues. This does not even touch on the existing USASA and US Club sanctioned local leagues that already exist all up and down the region that if properly included could be the start of a de facto state level D6 club level and below.

In Virginia alone there are these USASA leagues...

• Braddock Road Adult Soccer League (BRASL)
• Burke Athletic Club (BAC)
• Central Virginia Soccer Association (CVSA)
• Churchland Soccer League (CSL)
• Culpeper Soccer Association (CSA)
• Fauquier County Adult Soccer League (FCASL)
• New River United Soccer Association (NRUSA)
• Northern Virginia Adult Soccer Association (NVASA)
• Northern Virginia Soccer Club (NVSC)
• Northern Virginia Soccer League (NVSL)
• Northern Virginia Women's Soccer League (NVWSL)
• Portsmouth Soccer Club (PSC)
• Roanoke Adult Soccer League (RASL)
• Shipp's Corner Soccer Club (SCSC)
• Soccer Organization of Charlottesville / Albemarle (SOCA)
• Southeastern Virginia Women's Soccer Association (SEVWSA)
• Virginia Rush-Hampton League (VA RUSH-Peninsula)
• Warren County Adult Soccer League (WCASL)  

Pairing this dedicated regional D4/5/6 system with a USSF mandated regional cup competition that features the 4 D2/3 pro teams could make for a very exciting regional league and cup set up.


13 team D4 playing a double round robin 24 game schedule
2 North/South 13 team D5 leagues playing 24 game double round robin schedules
6 state sanctioned D6 competitions (WV, Va North, Va South, NC East, NC West, SC)

D4 Relegates bottom 3
D5 Promote each North/South league winner with playoff for 2nd and 3rd place from each of North and South to qualify a 3rd team for promotion
D5 relegates 3 teams each from North/South
D6 promotes 1 team each from 6 state leagues.

With this set up not facing the profit generating pressure that the current league set up faces with USSF hosting the leagues the price point for entry and membership fees could be kept very low. A great comparison would be the Gulf Coast Premier League in the deep south and the Evergreen Premier League in Washington State that both have yearly expansion and membership fees of $1500 or less.

This lowering of fees, proximity of league members lowering travel costs, (hopefully) development of local rivals and away fan travel could all lead to improved health and profitability of this level of soccer in the region and massive growth.

Now think of this set up in your part of the country... how do you think this could change the way local soccer works? I think it would be a GREAT change that would do nothing but strengthen the base of the pyramid all across the country.

Three great reads and one great listen

First... 

Make sure you take a few minutes and read this GREAT piece by @terryblaw on the pending Crossfire v USSF Training Compensation and Solidarity Payment case with FIFA.

Despite developing numerous players who would entitle them to training compensation, solidarity or both, no United States youth club has ever received these payments.  Domestically, U.S. Soccer has refused to enforce either rule and, allegedly, has pressured youth clubs to decline any payments from foreign clubs.  But recently, youth clubs have begun to push back.

READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE



Second...

With Copa America going on right now and the regularly scheduled pre-USMNT game #FireKlinsmann banter from our more MLS centric sports writers and fans we come across this very solid read "Targeted Allocation: Jurgen Klinsmann is not the problem" on FourFourTwo from Graham Parker. 

As many of us know... the entire US soccer system is the problem and this lays it out really well.



Third...


This is a wonderful read on the huge hurdles on the development of young players in the United States by Les Carpenter in the Guardian. 

The talents of some of America’s best young players are being suffocated by a process that never lets them be seen. He sighs.

“People don’t want to talk about it,” he says.

Andreassen used to dance gingerly around the topic, using the same careful code words as the other coaches and heads of leagues, trying not to push or offend only to find that little changed. He has stopped being political. He is frustrated. He is passionate. He is blunt.
“The system is not working for the underserved community,” he says. “It’s working for the white kids.”

READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE
 

Finally a very good interview of Jerome deBontin by Paul Scanling on the Gorilla Talk podcast... as you can guess from the image above Mr. deBontin comes out and says exactly what he thinks.

The $100m American owner relegation myth

If you've been a part of a discussion about having an Open Pyramid that features Promotion and Relegation in the United States and Canada you've without a doubt heard this statement made in one form or another...

This basic answer has been spread by MLS and its supporters ever since the discussion of Promotion and Relegation in the United States has started to heat up.

In very simple terms this statement is a 100% fabrication (and everybody in MLS knows it) because in an Open Pyramid you will no longer be able to buy in to MLS in the fashion you can now.

Simply put... every new soccer club in the United States and Canada will have to start at the bottom of the pyramid. There will be no more buying directly in to the First Division with a new investment. It will NOT BE POSSIBLE to buy a new MLS franchise. Now yes... you will be able to buy an existing club and continue to operate that but you will make that investment with the knowledge that you will be able to be relegated.

Just like current DC United ownership just did with their purchase of 60% of Swansea City for you guessed it.... $100 million dollars.

READ ABOUT IT HERE

Why was Sunil Gulati working to force out Domenico Scala?

Earlier today some very interesting things about Sunil Gulati hit the internet.

For unknown reasons FIFA President Gianni Infantino and Sunil Gulati worked behind the scenes to get FIFA’s Audit and Compliance chief Domenico Scala to resign.

In this article from FAZ that transcribes a recorded FIFA meeting in Mexico City the President of US Soccer is quoted as saying that

Gulati: “We met a number of times in the last 24 hours. We thought we had a resolution, a friendly resolution that would work. We did not get that realized, we do not have that right now.”

 After Gulati was unable to get him to resign as Inside World Football reports here

Ultimately this led to a statutes change that removed the independence of the ethics committee and other governance officials by giving FIFA the power to hire and fire them at its own discretion. This inevitably forced Scala’s resignation – he would presumably have been fired by FIFA in any case once the motion was passed by Congress.

But for some reason Sunil Gulati was worried about having a legitimate reason to fire him... one, it would seem that was not necessary to have to work behind the scenes to get him to step down. The FAZ transcript quotes him as saying

Gulati: "We need facts." (...) "We can not operate that way. We can not dismiss people without a piece of paper and facts. "

Why would the head of US Soccer feel that he did not need "facts" to try to proactively work in secret to have Scala resign but would need "facts" to vote in public to have him fired? Was he worried about potential media investigation in to the "why" he was voting to have him step down?

Could Sunil Gulati have been working diligently to have Scala, a known reformist within the confines of FIFA, who was quoted as saying

says he is "consternated" by a decision that makes it possible for the council to "impede" investigations by either dismissing committee members or "through the threat of a dismissal".

This, he added, "undermines a central pillar of the good governance of Fifa and destroys a substantial achievement of the reforms".

"[This is] a wake-up call to those persons who genuinely advocated for implementing reforms," 

removed for this reason that Steve Graff covered in his great article on VAVEL earlier this year.

It is not the fact Infantino was elected, or any of the other names in the FIFA presidential race were elected. It might not have even been the run offs. It was that corrupters, specifically MLS commissioner Don Garber and Gulati played a central role. 

The corruption started and ended with their bargaining of FIFA presidential candidates. The bargaining process is how deal makers can significantly wield their influence to get what they wanted. Allegedly, one of the promises to not enforce one of futbol's most empowering principles and one that provides actual meritocracy to sustain the institution of futbol. 

That principle, the principle of promotion and relegation, preferably implemented based on results on the current season alone, is so important to sustaining the game that FIFA has coded the principle as an ethics principle in its bylaws.

Scala would be in charge of making investigating all member organizations that are not following FIFA by-laws such as this one concerning meritocracy and promotion and relegation that the USSF does not follow, solidarity payments and training compensation for youth players that Liviu Bird covered wonderfully for SI in several articles that USSF does not follow, or looking in to how Sunil Gulati, Don Garber, Chuck Blazer and Sepp Blatter are all tied together when dealing with US soccer.

It would seem that Sunil Gulati, Don Garber and MLS, and USSF as a whole have multiple reasons to make sure that FIFA does not actually reform... but just talks a good game.

Two must listen to podcasts deconstructing American soccer

Two wonderful podcasts from These Football Times. Every fan of American soccer should listen to them both ASAP.

Part 1. Jon Townsend, Jim Hart and Nate Abaurrea break down the US game in The Lob: Deconstructing American Soccer.


Part 2.  Award-winning economist from the University of Michigan and author of Soccernomics and Money and Soccer, Stefan Szymanski. joins Jim Hart and Jon Townsend.

#ProRelForUSA = HOPE

This tweet and passage says it all...

When anyone asks why #prorelforUSA is a good idea use the example of #LCFC -3rd tier seven years ago,champions today pic.twitter.com/EDancuPG3V

— Stefan Szymanski (@sszy) May 3, 2016