Photo: Paul Rudderow
Philadelphia Union
Questions mount as the Union’s road woes grow.
10 observations on another road loss at Philly Voice.
Major League Soccer
Important read for Union fans: How Chicago used allocation, assets, and discipline to rebuild their squad.
The MLS homegrowns – including Philadelphia’s own Auston Trusty and Derrick Jones – take on Chivas U-20’s tonight.
Erik Palmer-Brown’s addition to the squad headlines a few roster changes ahead of the game. Coaches Mike Magee and Brian McBride have a lot of talent to work with.
Ahead of Wednesday’s match versus Real Madrid, is it time for MLS to move to an East v. West all-star game?
David Beckham’s Miami MLS bid is at the finish line or maybe not?
D.C. United owners aren’t selling, buuuuut they are looking for more investors.
Toronto sent a clear message with their emphatic 4-0 drubbing of NYC FC.
ESPN FC’s weekly league power rankings, as well as Soccer America’s.
USL
11 things from the week that was in USL play.
As league meetings commence, MLS2 clubs are at the center of discussions.
Why are foreign soccer stars buying lower-tier American clubs?
The Guardian piece on why soccer stars like Eden Hazard are buying NASL teams is pretty interesting. Speaks in a way to my own questions about the prospects of someone actually buying the Union. The question is fraught with all sorts of ownership and rights issues, whereas in NASL, you start a team, you own it. I’m not saying I think it’s the greatest investment given the rickety nature of the league, but there’s clearly something there that investors are willing to take a chance on.
The reason is they don’t actually have enough money to buy MLS teams. Also, calling them investors is technically correct, but they really are soccer players. So while they do have advisors telling them what to do with their money, I find it hard to put too much stock in this. NASL has always been good at promising the world and never delivering.
Add in the James Poling piece on USL trying to dump the player development sides to your reading.
.
2016 USL champion is a player development side.
.
2017 runaway Western conference leader is one also.
.
Player development sides put their league on the map, doubled their size. Make them credible to advertisers looking beyond strictly local markets.
.
Worth noting that the Steel are mentioned as the only player development side not trying to sell tickets in the same metro market as the parent club.
.
USL has been trumpeting its size. Now they want to jettison whatgrew them.
.
American capitalism cannot see beyond the profit margin of the next Quarterly report.
I agree with everything you said, but there is clearly an issue with some MLS2 sides and specifically the attendance problems.
.
I personally think the best resolution is to have a business side of operations that is separate from the player side. MLS clubs manage player operations and a distinct ownership group manages the business side. I think that’s how the relationship continues to be successful long term.
Regarding Chicago, it’s hard to imagine the Union with a player like Accam or even McCarty – let alone Schweinsteiger.
As much as a dumpster fire, the Fire were, Rodriguez has done a marvelous job. It’s amazing how different things look from two years ago. Stewart seemed to be taking the Union in the right direction while Chicago wasn’t going anywhere fast. Bring us today, and the Union seem light years from where the Fire are, and are heading. Here’s hoping Stewart learned some lessons and this off-season becomes one like Chicago just had. Not holding my breath though.
All-star game: I like it, but don’t need it. I’d prefer a weekend instead of mid-week, but the real format I wanna see is North America vs. The World, or even all Americas vs the World. East-West doesn’t get me excited and I’m over the international friendly format too. So lemme see a team of Canadians, Mexicans and Americans team take on a team from the rest of the world. Or the hockey and NFL format from a few years back of teams chosen by a captain. That might work.
Dump the all star game. The top players are already playing in things like the Gold Cup, the World Cup, Copa America while the rest of the league gets a break. Why give those top players extra travel for a meaningless game that’s rarely very entertaining?
I mostly agree with you Andy, but this is America and all the major sports have their all star games. It’s almost a necessity. Even if the other sports’ all star games are bad as well.
I don’t disagree – as I said I like it, but I could live without. Take it or leave it. That being said, I do feel it is an inevitability, so I figure make it as painless as possible – make it a real break. A Friday or Saturday game giving non-players 2 full weeks off in the heat of summer and there can be more focus on the game. I love the doubleheader idea, and a league-only format would likely mean the players would not play as heard – but that potentially leads to a lesser product, so it’s a tricky situation in any case.
Also, missing here was news about the new town hall meeting scheduled for Aug. 9. (Or maybe it was in an earlier post and I missed it). Of note is that Curtin is not listed as someone who will attend. I can only imagine the flack currently being taken by the ticket reps for this team.
I’ll throw this out there again. If you really want your voice to be heard, don’t show up. Show them you stopped caring. Otherwise nothing will change. #Curtinout #Sugarmanout
Curtin is not the same organizational level as Sporting director, business director and academy director.
I didn’t go to the previous town hall (was on vacation that week) but I seem to recall he was on the speaker list there.