North American Pro Soccer 2017

[Breakwood]

3 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

Mexico and other Latin American nations have playoffs. Most involve split seasons with playoffs after each season. The playoff for the last EPL place is a 4 team playoff with 2 legged semis and a final at Wembley. This is at the Championship level and below so I don't see that changing any time soon. 

 

Also note that relegation in those countries is often determined by PPG average over the past 3 seasons. If relegation is a foreign concept in the USA, the average points table is from Pluto.

[Red Wolf]

At the top level there's no reason you couldn't still have the MLS Cup playoffs for instance. It's only at the lower levels where a playoff to determine the champion (and who moves up) gets weird. Conceivably you want the best teams moving up, so you could have the Supporters' Shield winner-equivalent move up, but then they have no reason to keep trying in the playoffs. So that'd probably be handled similarly to the English style where the top two (or however many) teams automatically move up and then you have a playoff to determine the third. But again, there's no reason it should affect the top-level playoffs if that's how things went. 

[MJWalker45]

3 hours ago, Breakwood said:

 

Also note that relegation in those countries is often determined by PPG average over the past 3 seasons. If relegation is a foreign concept in the USA, the average points table is from Pluto.

Blame River Plate (ARG) for that. Argentina refused to let their biggest team get relegated and came up with the PPG rule. Didn't help them avoid it a few years ago though. 

[RevNet]

Meanwhile in the NASL, first-year team San Francisco Deltas defeated the New York Cosmos 2-0 to win the NASL Championship. Here is the video of the second goal and the post-game field rush:

[Kevin W.]

I'm a simple man. I see the Cosmos lose and I'm happy.

 

They're the single biggest reason why the farce that is the NASL keeps limping along and I am tired of that league desperately screaming for relevancy. You didn't follow the rules, so just go away and let USL be the D2 league.

[Pharos04]

I feel like there's some level of irony that a team that may not exist next year won the championship of a League that is struggling to maintain itself as well. The Cosmos being involved is just some poetic justice thrown in for fun

[MJWalker45]

According to Grant Wahl Cincinnati, Nashville and Sacremento are the final three for this round of expansion. 

[Sport]

2 minutes ago, MJWalker45 said:

According to Grant Wahl Cincinnati, Nashville and Sacremento are the final three for this round of expansion. 

 

So probably Nashville and Sacramento since they have stadium stuff together and we don't know if the Cincinnati team will have that ready in a month's time. It's all pretty cool, though, that in two years Cincinnati went from having no evidence that pro soccer could work and not even being a blip on the expansion radar to "okay so they have a cute USL story, but they're not getting in over *lists a dozen other cities*" to "oh the crowds aren't getting smaller" to "oh they're selling 35,000 tickets to watch MLS teams" to being what sounds like an expansion lock should they find a way to get a stadium built. It's already a success story.

 

and if they for some reason they never get in MLS they'll have a good USL rivalry with whatever Columbus team takes the Crew's place and we don't have to build another stadium. Win-win. 

 

 

[Gothamite]

I don't think Wahl is exactly going out on a limb with that prediction; they're certainly the three clear front-runners.

 

Cincy better settle on a location, the best one they can.  If there's anything holding them back, it's the "we have a stadium site, just not a good one" approach.

 

And then we'll see what happens next year.  San Diego will be in the mix, and if they can grab the Murphy land they'll be hard to top.  Saint Louis's billionaire may have had a change of heart by then as well.  

[DG_ThenNowForever]

If I had to choose two it would be Cincinnati and Nashville. I think succeeding in the center of the country shows depth and breadth to MLS support that takes it away from being just a hipster, coastal fad.

 

And I think two LA teams and San Jose is probably enough California for a while.

[Red Wolf]

I really want Tampa Bay in at some point just because Rowdies is the best name in soccer. Literally no other reason. 

[DarkJourney]

4 hours ago, DG_Now said:

If I had to choose two it would be Cincinnati and Nashville. I think succeeding in the center of the country shows depth and breadth to MLS support that takes it away from being just a hipster, coastal fad.

 

And I think two LA teams and San Jose is probably enough California for a while.

Still have that NorCal hate I see. Whatever. 

[FiddySicks]

On 11/13/2017 at 2:38 PM, DG_Now said:

If I had to choose two it would be Cincinnati and Nashville. I think succeeding in the center of the country shows depth and breadth to MLS support that takes it away from being just a hipster, coastal fad.

 

And I think two LA teams and San Jose is probably enough California for a while.

 

Oh, go take a long walk off of a short pier.  

 

 

You're REALLY missing some of the dynamics of the situation in California. Northern California is a lot more under served than you realize, and trying to deny Sacramento a bid because of the stale "The state has enough teams already" argument is, at the very best, tone deaf, and at worst, just plain stupid. Southern California might as well be another state in terms of distance. San Jose to Carson, CA (where the Galaxy play) is a further distance than it is from Columbus to Chicago. :censored: for that matter, Columbus and Cincinnati are closer to each other than San Jose is to Sacramento by nearly 20 miles. So by that logic, Cincinnati already has WAY more access to pro soccer teams than we do in Sacramento. Sacramento also has like double the amount of people, and the Sacramento metro area is also (slightly) bigger than Cincinnati's. 

 

Sacramento has done a TON of work with this bid, and it seems like Nashville and Cincinnati are really new with all of this. Peg Sacramento and Nashville this round and let Cincy (and by extension, Columbus) get their stuff more ready. Hell, Cincinnati could just root for the new Nashville team! Those two cities are more than 100 miles closer to one another than Sacramento is to Carson.

 

You're thinking too much like an east coaster still, Dave  

[Sport]

17 hours ago, Gothamite said:

I don't think Wahl is exactly going out on a limb with that prediction; they're certainly the three clear front-runners.

 

Cincy better settle on a location, the best one they can.  If there's anything holding them back, it's the "we have a stadium site, just not a good one" approach.

 

I think all 3 sites are good, but the site that has the most realistic chance of happening is definitely the least good. Also it's where I live so I'm kind of NIMBY on the whole thing, but if they put it here I'd probably enjoy having a pro sports team that close to me. Rumblings on the ground are they'll have an announcement soon. I expect them to have something ready to present the league before this round of expansion is discussed. What remains to be fully locked down is how they're going to find that last 100 million.

 

Over The Rhine would be a grand slam and a crown jewel in Major League Soccer. You guys would love it. You know how ballparks in the planning phase are always like "they're going to build a ballpark village of shops and restaurants around the stadium"? And then when they build it it's like a Bar Louie in what looks like some Disneyfied version of a city street in faux-old architecture.  If they put it in Over The Rhine all that's already there, but with the added touch that it's a real historic, organic, and a revived, gentrified neighborhood with architectural charm and tons of great nightlife and actual residents. It's my favorite part of the city right now, but there's so much property to buy to make space, there's a high school to think about, and all those moving parts may be tough to get everything together. Would probably cost the most too. Newport would be good too with a great view of the bridges and downtown, but the dumb hangup about it being in Kentucky would be something for people to overcome. The river is a very real psychological border for some people. Advantage there is Newport might pay for the rest of the stadium and that doesn't affect me tax wise. 

 

Here's a map of all the sites I made a while back. White circle is Nippert Stadium, red are the 3 proposed sites, blue is where I'd put it if I was King of Cincinnati with unlimited money and the ability to make the Casino go away (which I would do tomorrow even if we didn't have a stadium to replace it).  

 

 

[Gothamite]

That's a great summary - thanks!

[Gothamite]

That's a great summary - thanks!

[TBGKon]

18 hours ago, Red Wolf said:

I really want Tampa Bay in at some point just because Rowdies is the best name in soccer. Literally no other reason. 

I want Tampa Bay in there as well, but I have this pit in my stomach thinking that if Miami gets it's stuff together then Tampa Bay is done.

[Gothamite]

2 hours ago, AstroBull21 said:

I want Tampa Bay in there as well, but I have this pit in my stomach thinking that if Miami gets it's stuff together then Tampa Bay is done.

 

Miami is happening.  Beckham has cleared every hurdle in front of him so far, and he's almost set.  I don't think that automatically rules out Tampa Bay, though.

[MJWalker45]

12 minutes ago, Gothamite said:

 

Miami is happening.  Beckham has cleared every hurdle in front of him so far, and he's almost set.  I don't think that automatically rules out Tampa Bay, though.

You almost think it helps Tampa give the MLS a three team rivalty going with Orlando as well. But that means it won't happen.

[Sport]

 

They had a press conference at 3:30. Just need city help with infrastructure improvements. My OTR stadium probably isn't gonna happen, but privately financing the construction of the stadium is a big win.  Those infrastructure costs sound like they're going to be not insignificant, however. 

 

Things are getting serious, folks.