Showing posts tagged “USL”
David Fellerath ·
8 Jan 2010, 9:36 AM ·
12 Comments
Selby Wellman (photo courtesy of Carolina RailHawks)
We spoke with Selby Wellman, majority owner of the Carolina RailHawks, after yesterday’s press conference in which Sunil Gulati, president of the United States Soccer Federation, announced a provisional agreement to keep Division 2 soccer going in 2010. Wellman spoke to us from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where the North American Soccer League is holding its annual general meeting.
Among the highlights:
- Wellman said at least 11 teams will play in NASL in 2011, including a franchise to be announced within a couple of weeks.
- He said there are representatives of four prospective franchises also present in Fort Lauderdale.
- He acknowledged being the last holdout from the provisional agreement that was announced yesterday.
- NASL is filling league office positions, interviewing candidates in Fort Lauderdale this week.
- He acknowledged the possibility of playing on the fall-to-spring FIFA schedule, but said it is a low priority for now.
- Suggested some form of promotion/ relegation could occur within four to five years.
Triangle Offense: How do you feel about the news today?
Selby Wellman: Tremendous.
Seems like Gulati made clear this was a short-term arrangement.
Absolutely. This is nothing more than a 2010 transition. After two and a half years of work, we are going to launch North American Soccer League for 2011. And during this transition year we will launch our league. It’s a lot of work to launch a league and that’ll be our focus at the league level, to launch a league this year. The transition is nothing more than a way to compete on the field. There are nine NASL teams and three USL teams. Three of the NASL teams will play in the USL Conference, but they are members of the NASL body and they will be playing in the NASL in 2011.
Are the three NASL teams playing in the USL Conference going to have to, on any practical level, going to have to answer to the USL, or is the division just cosmetic?
No. It’s totally cosmetic. All of us report to the USSF, in terms of administrations, scheduling, disciplinary actions, things like that. That’s on the field. Off the field, the USL will run their business—and they have three teams in that business—and we will run our business-and we have nine teams in that business.
You’re having a general meeting [in Fort Lauderdale] right now. Do you have nine teams meeting there?
We have nine teams and we have four visiting teams that are prospects that would like to consider joining our league.
They are there to consider you or you to consider them?
Both. Meet everybody, chat with them, start talking about 2011 and joining the NASL.
Is Atlanta one of them?
No, Atlanta is already a member of NASL. They’re not part of the nine, though. We have nine team that will play in 2010. Atlanta will rejoin the league in 2011. They’re number 10. We’ll have an announcement of another franchise within the next two weeks that will start in 2011. That will be 11. Then we have four others here who are talking with us and will be meeting with us about 2011.
Can you tell us which markets they represent?
No, I really wouldn’t. But I can tell you they’re major markets. It wouldn’t be right to share that at this time. Continue reading »
Carolina RailHawks, Soccer Atlanta, Baltimore Crystal Palace, FIFA calendar, Harminder Paul Singh, NASL, promotion/ relegation, Rochester, Selby Wellman, Sunil Gulati, Tampa Bay, US Soccer, USL, USSF
David Fellerath ·
7 Jan 2010, 5:20 PM ·
Comment
There will be soccer in Cary this season after all.
After months of uncertainty surrounding the status of second-division soccer in the United States, officials with the United States Soccer Federation and representatives of two contending organizations announced today that the United Soccer Leagues and the nascent North American Soccer League would soldier through a provisional season under an unusual compromise arrangement. As part of this temporary resolution, all pending claims between the leagues and its parties will be dropped.
The two leagues will play a season divided into two conferences, the USL Conference and the NASL Conference. Each conference will have six teams, with the Carolina RailHawks falling into the NASL Conference.
| USL CONFERENCE |
NASL CONFERENCE |
| Rochester |
Montreal |
| Portland |
Vancouver |
| Puerto Rico |
Crystal Palace (Baltimore) |
| Minnesota |
St. Louis |
| Austin |
Carolina |
| Tampa Bay |
Miami |
A few things to notice about this provisional arrangement: Continue reading »
Carolina RailHawks, Soccer Alek Papadakis, Carolina RailHawks, D2, Division 2, MLS, NASL, New England Revolution, Sunil Gulati, TOA, US Soccer, USL
David Fellerath ·
9 Dec 2009, 9:48 AM ·
3 Comments
We have to pay tribute to the work of Miami-based Kartik Krishnaiyer and Minnesota’s Brian Quarstad, who’ve done a phenomenal job staying on top of the complex developments concerning the future of lower-division soccer in America. For a fascinating, wide-ranging discussion of how we got here and where we might end up, listen to this podcast in which Quarstad and Krishnaiyer are joined by host Richard Farley and fellow guest Kristian Vazquez, a blogger who follows the Puerto Rico Islanders.
After three months of turmoil, the dispute between the United Soccer Leagues and the upstart North American Soccer League, of which the Carolina RailHawks are a part, is coming to a head. Today is the deadline set by the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) for the two rivals to submit unspecified additional information so that the federation can make a ruling on NASL’s application for official sanction.
Yesterday, the USL filed a lawsuit in Hillsborough County, Florida, against three of its former teams who are now aligned with NASL: Baltimore Crystal Palace, Tampa and Rochester. (Kartik got this one and promises additional reporting today.)
Also yesterday, Jeff Cooper and the St. Louis ownership group announced the name of their proposed new NASL team: AC St. Louis. They also got attention with their two coaching announcements. The manager will be Claude Anelka, brother of Chelsea striker Nicolas, while the director of player development will be Francisco Filho, a 69-year-old Brazilian trainer who is said to have nurtured such superstars as Eric Cantona and Thierry Henry.
It was the former choice, however, that raised eyebrows: As was quickly discovered, Anelka’s limited coaching experience includes an eight-game stint at second-division Scottish side Raith Rovers that led to The Guardian including him on its list of 10 worst soccer managers of all time. One would hope that Anelka nonetheless impressed Cooper with his coaching acumen and that this isn’t merely an attention-getting novelty signing.
However, the more immediate question is if, when and how Anelka and the rest of the NASL will get to take the field and prove themselves. We’ll see what reporting we’re able to do; in the meantime, keep an eye on The Kartik Report and Inside Minnesota Soccer.
Carolina RailHawks, Soccer AC St. Louis, Claude Anelka, court filings, Francisco Filho, Jeff Cooper, NASL, podcast, USL, USSF
David Fellerath ·
3 Dec 2009, 11:13 AM ·
6 Comments
While flipping through my soccer channels in search of a game, I spotted USL Breakaways on Fox Soccer Channel and taped it. Given the news of the past few weeks, and the generally clumsy PR operation of the United Soccer Leagues, I wanted to see how the USL is presenting itself.
I watched the hour-long program, which was hosted by Andrew Bell, former marketing director and current president of the Charleston Battery, who is young, British (Scottish?) and has a bit of Warren Barton about him (he’s also an FSC announcer). There wasn’t much news in this infomercial, produced for USL by Cultural Videos and Sports Communications, Inc., but I noticed a couple of points of emphasis.
First, the opening 30 minutes were devoted to the Super-Y league and its annual tournament in Tampa. We saw kids playing, and interviews with U15 players and coaches. No doubt intentionally, this segment spotlighted one of the main strengths of the United Soccer Leagues: fostering youth development.
After a segment featuring banquet highlights from the annual general meeting, and the Hall of Fame inductees (including Scott Schweitzer, star defender for Rochester who coached the Carolina RailHawks for its first two seasons), the theme of “development” was picked up midway through the program with an interview with USL President Tim Holt.
Holt didn’t engage directly with the fact that the first division that seems to have all but collapsed, but instead sounded the theme of “player development.”
Here are his remarks in full, with emphasis added:
Tim Holt: Yeah, it’s exciting, there’s a new direction, a new culture about USL. Probably most people know at this point, USL was acquired by NuRock Soccer Holdings from Nike, which was the previous owner. Nike Inc and the Umbro brands and Nike Soccer Brands will stay on as long-term partners in a 10-year partnership, so we get the best of both worlds. We have committed ownership from NuRock, Rob Hoskins, Alek Papadakis, their CEO. They’re soccer guys but they’re accomplished business executives, and they’re really bringing professional—more sophisticated approach to everything we do from our front-office standpoint, allowing us to serve our teams better. And it’s just a real exciting time, obviously, to be able to continue the relationship with Nike and Umbro, especially Umbro, the long time partners with USL, it’s very exciting. So we’re a few months into that transition, it’s been almost seamless, and we look forward to furthering that into 2010. Continue reading »
Carolina RailHawks, NASL, Soccer Alek Papadakis, Andrew Bell, Anton Peterlin, Brian Quarstad, Chris Economides, NASL, Scott Schweitzer, Tim Holt, USL
Joe Schwartz ·
24 Nov 2009, 11:12 AM ·
1 Comment
Pelé, seen in the film Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos (Miramax Films)
Carolina RailHawks majority owner Selby Wellman expects at least 10 teams to be in the newly named North American Soccer League, though he declined to name the possible additions to the nine confirmed ownership groups.
Wellman and fellow owners announced Monday that they will bring back the NASL name, conjuring up memories of the first American professional soccer league, which included the likes of Pelé, Franz Beckenbauer and Johan Cruyff before it folded in 1984.
“We talked about it a long time. There’s pros and cons because the league didn’t make it, that would be the con. The pro is it really did launch professional soccer in
America and had a good brand,” he said. “There’s a lot of us around here with some gray hair that’ll say, ‘I remember that brand.’”
The league now has a name, but the owners have a lot of questions to answer before the first ball is kicked in April. Along with the RailHawks, former USL teams Atlanta Silverbacks, Miami FC, Minnesota Thunder, Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps FC are part of NASL. St. Louis Soccer United, Tampa Bay Rowdies and Crystal Palace Baltimore also are slated for inclusion in the breakaway league.
Others have speculated that Rochester Rhinos may be included, but Wellman, also the spokesman for the new league, isn’t saying as of yet.
“I can’t name them,” he said. “We already have plans underway, and we’re getting all kinds of requests coming in from different groups.” Continue reading »
Carolina RailHawks, Soccer Atlanta Silverbacks, Carolina RailHawks, Crystal Palace Baltimore, Don Garber, Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff, Miami FC, Minnesota Thunder, MLS, Montreal Impact, NASL, Pele, Rochester Rhinos, Selby Wellman, St. Louis Soccer United, Tampa Bay Rowdies, TOA, USL, Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Neil Morris ·
20 Nov 2009, 11:16 PM ·
Comment
Today was a flurry of activity in the ongoing dispute between USL Soccer and the breakaway Team Owners Association (TOA), which includes the Carolina Railhawks. First came a potentially game-changing press release from the TOA announcing the addition of two franchises to their nascent, still-unsanctioned league. USL-1 newcomer Tampa Bay Rowdies, a charter TOA member who remained slated to make their USL-1 debut next season, and USL-2’s Baltimore side Crystal Palace FC both declared their membership in the still unnamed league. This increases declared TOA membership to nine teams. It was less than a month ago that USL trumpeted the attendance of both clubs’ ownership groups at a USL organizational soiree in Beaverton, Oregon as part of the future of USL. “There is a change in the air,” USL CEO Alec Papadakis declared at the time. Indeed.
Later, the website USL News (not affiliated with the USL soccer league) broke the news that last Monday, Miami FC, a TOA breakaway team, filed claims with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on behalf of North American Soccer League, LLC. Of course, NASL is an iconic name in the annals of American soccer as the professional league that operated from 1968-1984 and featured such aging superstars as Pele and Franz Beckenbauer. This could very well forecast the name of the breakaway league, which the TOA says they will formally announce next week.
Then, late today, USL released their own foreboding statement regarding the Tampa and Baltimore defections. USL asserted the two teams’ contractual obligation to participate in the 2010 USL-1 season, and it not only promised to pursue breach of contract claims against the two squads, but, more ominously, accused the TOA of participating in “tortuous interference” with USL’s contractual relationship with its member teams. It bears mentioning that Papadakis is a franchise attorney, and with USL-1 rapidly losing the public relations and recruiting battle with a still-nonexistent league, legal haranguing remains one of the few (and perhaps effective) arrows they have left in their quiver.
With that in mind, soccer journalist Kartik Krishnaiyer posits that Tampa - who has already paid a $750,000 franchise fee to play in USL-1 next season - may be pledging support for the TOA in order to raise their member squads above an 8-team minimum required for approval by the United States Soccer Federation (USSF), who is said to be meeting this weekend to consider the TOA’s application for sanction as Division II Men’s Outdoor Professional League. As with everything in this ongoing saga, stay tuned.
Below is today’s TOA press release:
TAMPA, BALTIMORE TO JOIN NEW PROFESSIONAL SOCCER LEAGUE
Expansion brings new league to nine teams
Nov. 20, 2009 - The Tampa Bay Rowdies<http://www.tbrowdies.com/> and Crystal Palace Baltimore<http://www.crystalpalaceusa.com/> have joined the new professional soccer league announced last week, beginning play in the United States and Canada in April 2010.
The addition of Tampa Bay and Baltimore brings the new league to nine teams, as they join the owners of the Atlanta Silverbacks, Carolina RailHawks, Miami FC, Minnesota Thunder, Montreal Impact, St. Louis Soccer United and Vancouver Whitecaps.
A name for the new league will be announced next week. The new league is also active in its search for a full-time commissioner and will introduce an extensive marketing campaign in the coming months.
“Tampa and Baltimore joining our efforts is a testament to our game plan, our current ownership strength and our promise for the future. The ownership groups of both teams share our vision for soccer in North America and we are thrilled to welcome them to our new league,” said Joey Saputo, Chairman of the Board of Governors and President of the Montreal Impact.
“As we start a new team and build a strong franchise in Tampa, it’s important that our group of team owners learn from past mistakes in North American soccer and focus on building a strong league, as well,” said Andrew Nestor, owner and president of the Tampa Bay Rowdies. “With this new team-owned and controlled league which consists of some of the most established teams in North American soccer, we are excited about our team and collective future.”
“Crystal Palace Baltimore is pleased and honored to join and be a part of what we see as the future of North American soccer. We are particularly excited about the structure of a team-controlled and owned league, especially when you look at the quality of owners that we have in this league and the impressive history of the clubs,” said Pete Medd, co-owner of Crystal Palace Baltimore. “We are proud to be one of the founding members and believe it’s the right league at the right time for us and for soccer in North America.”
Carolina RailHawks, Soccer NASL, TOA, USL
David Fellerath ·
29 Oct 2009, 7:22 PM ·
4 Comments
Can Gregory Richardson, shown here scooting past USL-1 player of the year Cristian Arrieta of the Puerto Rico Islanders, lead the RailHawks into a successful new league? (Photo by Jeremy M. Lange)
In an interview Thursday afternoon, Carolina RailHawks president Brian Wellman confirmed that the dissident group of USL-1 club owners known as the Team Owners Association (TOA) would be submitting an application to the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) to form a new league.
“We’ll be submitting an application to USSF for a new league as soon as tomorrow,” Wellman said in a phone interview from Charleston, S.C., where he was meeting with Andrew Bell, president of the USL-1 Charleston Battery, to coordinate the scheduling of friendlies next season.
“Nothing’s changed as far as the teams go,” Wellman said of the composition of the proposed new league. The TOA consists of five former USL-1 clubs (Minnesota , Miami FC, Montreal, Vancouver and Carolina) and three ownership groups (in Atlanta, Tampa Bay and St. Louis).
Wellman suggested that the TOA has heard from other member prospects, as well.* “We have at least one conversation a day with people representing new markets. Even without media coverage [of the dispute], there’s a lot of interest in the league.”
Furthermore, Wellman left open the possibility that the new league might follow the FIFA calendar, playing during the winter months.
If the TOA settles on a winter schedule, Wellman said, “It wouldn’t be this winter. It would start sometime in the summer, and prorate as our fiscal year went along.” Continue reading »
Carolina RailHawks, Soccer Alec Papadakis, Atlanta, Christian Arrieta, CONCACAF, Daniel Paladini, EPL, FIFA, Gregory Richardson, Mexican first division, Miami FC, Minnesota Thunder, Montreal Impact, New England Revolution, NuRock, St. Louis, Tampa Bay, TOA, USL, USSF, Vancouver Whitecaps, Wilmington Hammerheads, Winter schedule
David Fellerath ·
7 Oct 2009, 9:08 AM ·
Comment
Quick update on the meeting at the New York office of the United States Soccer Federation that was called by its president, Sunil Gulati:
The meeting ended yesterday, inconclusively, and will continue today, RailHawks president Brian Wellman said in a brief phone interview last night. Wellman, who was calling from Raleigh, had no details to divulge, but he said that approximately half of the TOA membership was represented in person, and that others may have teleconferenced it in.
He confirmed that Gulati is personally engaged in the discussions. “He wants to get everyone on the same page,” Wellman said.
Gulati won’t be there for much longer, however. He’s due to appear at a “Leaders in Football” conference in London, along with MLS head Don Garber.
Carolina RailHawks, Soccer Brian Wellman, Don Garber, Sunil Gulati, TOA, USL, USSF
David Fellerath ·
3 Oct 2009, 12:57 PM ·
5 Comments
The confrontation between the new ownership of the United Soccer Leagues and a dissident group of first division owners led by the Carolina RailHawks has escalated a notch.
Three dissident clubs, including the RailHawks, haven’t paid their fees to participate next season. On the USL’s Web site, work has begun to remove links to the RailHawks, as well as to the Miami FC and Minnesota Thunder clubs. On one page, the soccer-ball icons for those three cities has been removed. On others, the club crest and mascot names have been removed.
In a just-published post on Inside Minnesota Soccer, blogger Brian Quarstad writes that Minnesota Thunder management confirmed that USL President Tim Holt has sent out an email informing players for Carolina, Miami and MInnesota that they are released from their contracts.
However, it’s not clear that the USL has the authority to do so (unlike the MLS, which owns all player contracts under its single-entity structure). According to Quarstad, Minnesota is taking the position that the league does not have that authority. Quarstad promises to post a copy of Holt’s email later today.
We haven’t been able to get a comment from RailHawks management yet. We’ll keep working on it.
The other bit of news—which Quarstad doesn’t support with a source—is that the other two main dissident owners groups in the Team Owners Association (TOA)—Montreal and Vancouver—have both signed on with the USL-1 for the 2010 season. Vancouver, of course, is headed to the MLS in 2011.
The TOA consists of Carolina, Minnesota, Miami, Vancouver Whitecaps, Montreal Impact, the 2010 expansion club Tampa Bay Rowdies and ownership groups without active teams in Atlanta and St. Louis.
There are now eight current USL-1 clubs that have active links on the USL site. The two expansion clubs, the Tampa Bay Rowdies and FC New York (which is not a TOA member), also have active links.
One club, the Cleveland City Stars, is for sale—sketchy Internet reports of a buyer that will keep them in Cleveland have not been confirmed—but appears to be a USL-1 member in good standing.
The current brinksmanship was not unexpected: After the late August sale of the league to NuRock Soccer Holdings, the TOA, which had seen nearly two years of negotiations to buy the league themselves come to naught, announced a “chill” in relations with the league. In a subsequent interview with Triangle Offense, RailHawks majority owner Selby Wellman laid out the likely scenario in the near future.
But I would expect somewhere in the next 30 days or so they’ll start coming out to us, wanting us to recommit to play in 2010 in USL. If they don’t come to the table with us having the ability to control our league, we won’t play with them.
Finally, Miami-based blogger Kartik Krishnaiyer adds this intriguing tidbit of analysis to the Quarstad post:
The breakaway league that now is likely to be pursued by Minnesota, Miami and Carolina would need to be approved by the USSF and FIFA. These approval processes could take anywhere from a month to several months, leaving the three clubs affected and its potential allies in other markets in the limbo for the start of the 2010 American calender season.
However, if the new league seeks to adhere to the international calender, and begin play after the 2010 World Cup, the three affected clubs, in fact have plenty of time to try and put this new organization together and receive the requisite approvals.
Carolina RailHawks, Soccer FC New York, Miami FC, Minnesota Thunder, Montreal Impact, Tampa Bay Rowdies, TOA, USL, Vancouver Whitecaps
David Fellerath ·
2 Sep 2009, 9:56 AM ·
7 Comments
Carolina RailHawks majority owner Selby Wellman (Photo courtesy of RailHawks)
On Monday, we spoke with Selby Wellman, majority owner of the Carolina RailHawks. Wellman is also the spokesman for the Team Owners Association, which has announced a “chill” in its relations with the USL and declared that it will pursue aggressively all options—including the formation of a new league—as a solution to establishing the owner-controlled league it says is vital to the success of their clubs.
Wellman gave us more details about the buildup to the sale of the league to NuRock Soccer Holdings (a group unknown to him and his fellow owners), and about why he and his fellow club owners think an owner-controlled league is vital. He suggested that the declining attendance experienced by the RailHawks and other clubs is an issue of poor-to-nonexistent league marketing and reiterated that the owners have decided it’s time to “take control of our own destiny.”
He noted that the USL-1 clubs make single-year commitments to participate in the league, and that in a month or so, the league will approach the owners about committing for next season. But, “If they don’t come to the table with us having the ability to control our league, we won’t play with them,” Wellman says.
For background on the sale, see posts here and here. Also, Kartik Krishnaiyer of majorleaguesoccertalk.com and others are working on a multipart, in-depth series on the USL sale. Here’s today’s Part III.
Triangle Offense: Last Wednesday, after the Miami game, I spoke with Brian [Wellman, the team president] and he said there was nothing but silence coming from the USL about where they were on the sale. Did it all come down Thursday? Did it catch everybody by surprise?
Selby Wellman: Nike called the group in St. Louis that we were teamed up with to buy the league and told them that ‘we had changed our mind and we were selling it to another group’ after a month of negotiations. And the issue is they sold it to a group, basically it’s a non-team, non-USL-1 team entity, it’s a large real estate developer in Atlanta along with his partner who owns a PDL team. So we were upset with that, and we didn’t think it was right, because we’ve been working for almost two years [inaudible] and Nike to restructure this league to where it would have the ownership control like all other sports leagues around the world. The USL did not promote itself, did not do anything at all that a league should do. So we wanted to buy it and take it over. Continue reading »
Carolina RailHawks, Soccer Brian Wellman, Don Garber, Mark Abbott, Miami FC, Minnesota Thunder, Montreal Impact, NuRock Soccer Holdings, Selby Wellman, USL, Vancouver Whitecaps
