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North American Pro Soccer 2016


Gothamite

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3 hours ago, Gothamite said:

 

We don't have a cup with Philly. 

 

Speaking on that wasn't there an effort to have a massive rivalry cup between NE, RBNY, NYCFC, Philly, and DC? 

 

How's that going?

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On 8/31/2016 at 7:50 AM, MJWalker45 said:

Which cup am I thinking of then? Red Bulls? I know it's named after 2 fans rather than a corporate sponsor.

I think it's the Red Bulls. I'm a Union fan and they are always trying to shove the New York vs Philly rivalry down our throats. This was well before NYCFC was a club.

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Quote

We don't have a cup with Philly.

 

 

Quote

Which cup am I thinking of then? Red Bulls? I know it's named after 2 fans rather than a corporate sponsor.

 

MLS was pushing the idea of creating a rivalry cup between Philadelphia and DC in conjunction with this year's edition of Heineken Rivalry Week. They went so far as to ask fans to cast votes - via Twitter - for either Capital Cup, Colonial Cup, Freedom Cup, or I-95 Cup as the name of said rivalry match-up. 

Philadelphia and DC supporters responded by launching a grassroots campaign to instead dub the rivalry series the Shertz-Gemmell Cup. The name is meant to honor Union fan Eric Shertz and the family of United enthusiast Kenneth Gemmell.

Shertz passed away in April of 2014. Gemmell's wife and two children were killed when a plane crashed into their Maryland home in December of the same year. In the wake of the two tragedies, the respective clubs' supporters had reached out to comfort one another. Via the cup name, the two clubs' respective supporters hope to pay homage to both their fallen friends and the spirit of camaraderie that has grown between their groups.    

 

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An amazing night at Yankee Stadium last night.  Before the match, NYCFC and the city honored Frank Lampard for his 300th goal, and he scored two more, including the game winner in stoppage time.  I'm still hoarse. 

 

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All of the bad feelings have been put to bed by his play, and articles like "The Worst Signing in MLS History" seem ludicrous now. 

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A prospective ownership group, Foundry St. Louis, has started a bid process with MLS to bring a club to St. Louis. As part of the proposal, they came up with a preliminary shield along with stadium plans. Hopefully this is the start of a St. Louis MLS team that the city could seriously use, though I have my doubts.

https://nextstl.com/2016/09/prospective-major-league-soccer-ownership-group-calls-competitive-process/

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1 hour ago, missouri tigers said:

A prospective ownership group, Foundry St. Louis, has started a bid process with MLS to bring a club to St. Louis. As part of the proposal, they came up with a preliminary shield along with stadium plans. Hopefully this is the start of a St. Louis MLS team that the city could seriously use, though I have my doubts.

https://nextstl.com/2016/09/prospective-major-league-soccer-ownership-group-calls-competitive-process/

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St. Louis Steamers, anyone? I can imagine the MLS effort will be widely supported, St. Louis took a major hit as a sports city with the loss of the Rams. While MLS isn't the national pastime like football, anything can help. Wonder if the NBA would ever consider a return to St. Louis, the Hawks did win an NBA title back in the day.

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I think that argument can only be made if there's a very clear downside to that expansion.  Have they chosen to expand into bad markets?  Is there a focus on national footprints rather than evaluating markets on their own strengths?  Is the number of teams outpacing the supply of players?

 

If the answer to those questions is anything other than a resounding "yes", then I don't think MLS is expanding too quickly right now.

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28 minutes ago, dont care said:

Am I the only one that thinks the MLS is expanding too quickly right now?

 

MLS is turning away ownership groups, and holding firm on certain standards with others.  New York would have entered the league a year before NYCFC did if the league had acceded to the desires of the Cosmos' owners.  And most people thought that Miami would be by now, with Beckham as part of the ownership group.  But that group still hasn't been able to secure a stadium.  

In addition to the St. Louis group mentioned in this thread, there are groups in Cincinnati, Detroit, and Sacramento which are eager to join the league.  But, with Minnesota and Atlanta coming in next year, there is no set timetable for further expansion.

So MLS clearly has the leverage right now.  And it seems to me that the league is resisting the temptation to accept everybody's money in expansion fees (NYCFC's was $100 million), and is expanding slowly enough to keep the demand alive.

As to whether the player pool is being depleted: most accounts rate the level of play in the league as fairly high and improving.  Estimates that I have seen place MLS even with the Championship, the second division in England.  It's still attracting world-class players, who are coming at increasingly younger ages.

The problem with MLS is that it is achieving this on the backs of American players, who are paid terribly.  This is the result of the league having won court protection for its "single entity" racket, by which American players cannot establish a market value by pitting one club against another.

But, as far as demand amongst ownership groups and the level of competition are concerned, MLS is managing its expansion plans just fine.

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4 hours ago, Gold Pinstripes said:

St. Louis Steamers, anyone? I can imagine the MLS effort will be widely supported, St. Louis took a major hit as a sports city with the loss of the Rams. While MLS isn't the national pastime like football, anything can help. Wonder if the NBA would ever consider a return to St. Louis, the Hawks did win an NBA title back in the day.

 

I doubt the NBA would ever come back to St. Louis because the demand isn't there. While STL has a reputation as a baseball town, the Blues fan base is well established and very loyal. 

 

Actually losing the Rams helped strengthen STL's case for MLS. The Rams left because of the NFL's desire to capitalize on the LA market. The city made a very honest attempt to keep them but were up against a crooked owner and commissioner. MLS saw a city willing to accommodate a professional sports team. 

 

I like the Foundry Saint Louis crest, but hopefully if/when MLS comes to STL, Saint Louis FC gets promoted up. Their crest is really nice, and they are finally getting their branding right by embracing the green in an already red and blue town. 

 

 

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9 minutes ago, fumbler said:

Foundry Croatia anyone?

 

I thought the same thing . . . more or less.

 

It's a modern day Toronto Metros-Croatia.

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When China signed a bunch of players away last year, it felt like they might be eating the MLS' lunch. But I think the US is still the preferred market for people looking to expand their brand. I.e., who knows if it'll happen, but Cristiano Ronaldo has been linked to LAFC since the initial announcement. But it does feel like the MLS' darkest days are behind it. 

 

The next phase, however, will be to get people to care about the product in and of itself. The conversation in these threads is almost exclusively about future expansion and league operations; seldom the week-to-week scores and storylines. I think that's a problem; eventually Soccer Tycoon USA stops being fun and then what do you have?

1 hour ago, ShutUpLutz! said:

and the drunken doodoobags jumping off the tops of SUV's/vans/RV's onto tables because, oh yeah, they are drunken drug abusing doodoobags

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