Kicking It Around » Daniel

MLS Season starts tomorrow night with Se…

Daniel — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 15:58:39 +0000

MLS Season starts tomorrow night with Seattle Sounders FC hosting the Philadelphia Union. I can’t wait!

Fan Ownership

Daniel — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 13:31:06 +0000

Excellent series of articles over at Pitch Invasion about fan ownership of clubs. That is something that is very interesting to me. Worth reading:

Putting the Trust into Football: An Examination of Supporter Ownership
Fan Ownership: The Successes of the Trust Movement
Fan Ownership: The Fallen of the Trust Movement
Fan Ownership: The Bundesliga Model
Fan Ownership: Brentford’s Brian Burgess On the Reality of a Fan-Run Club
Fan Ownership: How the Concept Has Taken Hold in England
Fan Ownership: A Practical Future?

Ralston signs on with AC St Louis!

Daniel — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:05:14 +0000

MLS vet and recent New England Revolution mainstay Steve Ralston has decided to join new hometown team AC St Louis as a player/assistant coach. It caught me off guard but it’s nice to see a NASL team step up to the plate right away! Details at Inside Minnesota Soccer.

Johnson and Adu going Greek?

Daniel — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 23:21:29 +0000

Looks like US player Eddie Johnson and possibly also Freddy Adu are heading to Greek team Aris FC. If they get playing time I think this could be great for both of them! I’d love to see them both get into form before the World Cup and at least push for spots on the team! Get more info over at the Soccer By Ives post.

USSF tells USL and NASL to figure it out

Daniel — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:40:22 +0000

USSF put out a press release to that says they are choosing not to sanction USL1 or NASL as a 2nd division league at this time. The leagues have 7 days to work out a compromise to get them to reconsider.

My thoughts on possible outcomes are as follows:

1. There is no compromise and NASL plays unsanctioned this year. USL1 probably folds into USL2.

2. NASL teams work out an arrangement to play in USL1 this year. There are hurdles here, things like Atlanta and St Louis not owning USL franchise rights in their areas. Would require compromises from those franchise rights owners.

3. NASL owners buy USL1 from NuRock and combine things into one NASL league and get sanctioned. Will cost them millions likely and who knows if they have it or are willing to spend it.

4. Neither USL1 nor NASL play this year, possibly forcing a number of teams to fold. The east cost USL1 teams play in USL2, the western USL1 teams take a year off before going to MLS.

5, 6, 7? Other options?

Good commentary on these matters is happening over at Inside Minnesota Soccer and The Kartik Report.