By JOHN BOSCHINI
Three Puerto Rican soccer teams have been dropped from USL-Pro with immediate effect, the league announced Tuesday morning. The move has reduced the number of active teams to 12.
Puerto Rico United, River Plate Puerto Rico and Sevilla FC Puerto Rico had been playing in the USL Pro's International Division, but it has now emerged that all three have encountered severe financial difficulties and no longer meet the league's standards and obligations.
The games already played against the Puerto Rican teams will still be counted as legitimate results. The remaining 12 teams will play make-up games amongst themselves to ensure that each team plays a 24-game regular season. The league has not announced a new schedule or released plans for realignment.
On Monday, River Plate Puerto Rico announced that it had terminated all of its foreign-based players' contracts after promised sponsorship money failed to materialize. The club's current owners are still determining whether or not to dissolve the club completely.
This comes on the heels of Spain's Sevilla FC cutting ties with Sevilla FC Puerto Rico earlier this month. The three teams are still members of the Puerto Rico Soccer League and will continue in that competition.
Capable ownership along with solid management and access to capital are key.
You mentioned the Islanders before.
It is also important to remember that this is the second caration of the Islanders. The first attempt to participate in the US lower divisions back in ’95 failed after only playing 7 games.
The same architect came back with a new plan and access to more capital and endorsements. he got the right group of investors and directors together.
The situation is impossible to repeat but the challenge is that you need all of theparts to come together.
That didn’t happen in Bermuda. We’ll see what happens in Antigua.
By the way, when it comes to “joke regions…” a lot of people think that way about the US. Just something to ponder.
It’s all relative depending on the starting point and attitude.
The US is considered a huge joke by many. I would disagree. I think that there are some real potential soccer resources in the Caribbean and Central America but for a myriad of reasons, they unfortunately go underdeveloped.
The economics of MLS are not feasible for Puerto Rico or the Islanders.
Even though it is fun to daydream about.
The Islanders managed to do it beacuse they had access to a lot of capital and government cooperation, as well as sponsors.
Are you becing sarcastic or are you really being serious. I can’t tell if you are setting us up.
Do you really beleive your proposal could work? Especially given that guys have paid over 40 superlarge just to buy the rights to run an MLS team?
I just don’t see those guys wanting to take the place of Puerto Rico or Carolina down in the second division, not even on a temporary basis.
we certainly know the failures that have resulted from american leagues including foreign teams- vancouver whitecaps, toronto fc, and puerto rico islanders being chief among them. look, the aim is partially to help develop other areas. it helps the whole region. however, we shouldnt be in impoverished areas (antigua) or over extending ourselves as with 3 franchises in PR. we also shouldnt be overextending ourselves with rapid expansion. the areas that are good for soccer have already revealed themselves- ft. lauderdale, orlando, rochester, and other cities able to get 4k-10k on a consistent basis. Just getting 5k for an opener, then averaging 1 or 2k aint gonna work. its a losing enterprise
Uh, “underperforming” Carolina won the league last year and is currently tied for first this year. As far as attendance, well, it’s kinda hard to get how fans to come out to a soccer game in the middle of a tornado outbreak that killed dozens in the local area.
That said, I do agree with your main point. For the foreseeable future, NASL/USL is just simply in NO position to make pro/rel in the USA viable. The best reason I’ve heard was: “How do you talk high-level players into signing even a 2-year deal when you might not even be in the MLS the following year? Same goes for the NASL/USL teams that can’t guarantee a promotion.”
I would support pro/rel in a format that protects established MLS squads. Add four teams to MLS from the second tier and relegate two of those four each season. This can expose new markets to MLS without gambling on which markets can support an MLS franchise. Hopefully this would aid in growing the second tier.
They’ve clarified them. I know I’ve read them before. It has to do with money, stadium size, city population, etc.
double negative in the first sentence. sorry
and i seriously doubt now, with this puerto rico thing, that Orlando will not be looking to renew with USL. Ditto with Rhinos & Charleston. If they have two wits about them, they’ll be trying to get into NASL. Hopefully, NASL will unload underperforming teams like Carolina/Minn or whichever team I saw pulling in only about 1k fans per game. NASL should probably not expand, and focus on getting sponsors and fans for each team. If MLS averages 16k per game, NASL should be looking for at least 8k per game. Of all the lower divisions, only Montreal and Orlando meet that criteria.
You have to understand that the divisional system isn’t entirely accurate. Orlando City, for instance, has drawn in higher crowds than most if not all NASL teams, has a nice title sponsorship deal, and while they play in a stadium far too big for their needs, plays on a nice field with friendlies coming up against teams like Newcastle and Bolton
And a bunch of people were trying to say that USL was more stable than NASL.
Just what, exactly, are those “league standards and obligations?” When will USSF clarify what the standards are D3?
+1
ALL lower leagues should be regional. MLS: National. D2: East and West Coast. D3: Split into four regions, NE, SE, NW, SW perhaps.
Regional champs play each other. I could see several cool playoff options. Perhaps D3 overall champ can play top three D2 teams in a playoff.
Umm, the NASL is a two year old organization, that wasn’t even sanctioned as D2 until this year. Not to mention it is full of teams with shaky financial histories. Heck, from year to year, it is a crap shoot on which teams are even considered D2 as financial struggles have forced teams out of business or to move down a level.
Not trying to knock you, I just don’t see it in the near or remote future even between MLS and D2. Like the poster said above, when there are 60 stable teams, lets talk. I don’t even mean 60 profitable, I just mean, stable for a decade and not going anywhere.
the islanders are on a different level than these other teams. i think PR would have a better chance if they avoided having those own league and maybe had the islanders and 1 other team compete in the NASL. islanders to MLS would be cool too. i think they could handle it.
i only want pro relegation between MLS and NASL, which is now 2nd div. USL is under that and should not reasonably be considered for pro/rel at this point.
Haha, nice one!
makes you wonder how PR Islanders were able to make themselves into a formidable team in that area (attendance- 6k-13k). Wasnt there a team in Bermuda last year? The CFU championship gets like 500 fans per game. This is also further support to the claim that Jack Warner is one corrupt you know what. How else to explain how an island half the size of PR has been to sustain an 11 team league. You ever see pics of their games on the T&T league website? In most of those, you cant see a single fan in the stands. T&T is good for maybe 2 teams like Islanders, meaning the whole caribbean is good for 3 strong teams tops (financially & on-field). The CCL reached its highest potential this year folks…no more room for growth with joke regions like caribbean and central america.
Let’s keep resources north of Texas – it’s far too expensive to travel that distance when the audience isn’t there to justify the spending.
I agree with regional lower tier leagues.
The NASL has it’s own issues to deal with. They already have a lot on their plate.
Still, I would imagine that they are happy to no longer be in the USL mix.
If the NASL fails, some of those clubs will have to consider going back to the USL or folding up shop.
You can’t find half of those numbers when in comes to profitable clubs -even in most established soccer nations.
The pro/rel talk in places like the US, Canada and Australia is currently like chatting about unicorns. It may be entertaining for some but for me, it just seems like discussing unicorns–it’s harmless, but is is also a waste of my time.
hahahaha
To the best of my knowledge, nothing new has surfaced about Barracuda FC. Last year they did fail to keep a friendly committment with Montreal Impact after the Impact travelled to Antigua to play them. So they still leavinng me feeling shaky.
Now that they will have to make some extra road trips, we will see how things play out.
LA will need to draw more than 500 people a game .
It’s a shame but hardly unexpected. I was suprised to see so many teams from PR when USL Pro was annouced. At least LA Blues will have to travel a little less. Any word on the Antigua team? Similar problems or no?
Yep, let’s get at least 60+ teams in the US and Canada that make money and then we can talk about pro/rel.
And yet people still argue loudly for pro/rel with stability like this in the lower levels. Lol.
Personally, I have no prob with pro/rel, but I think we are a long ways away from having enough viable teams and owners to even consider doing it.
“Due to severe economic difficulties and serious unforeseen medical situations involving owners from two of the three PRSL teams, the teams are unable to continue to meet league standards and obligations.”
NASL is part of the problem.
Wow, when I said yesterday these leagues needed to be regionalized, I didn’t mean today.
Oh no! Those three teams are going to be left on an island!
wow, and I thought MLS was bush league 😉
Who legitimately thought this was a good idea? No wonder the NASL broke away from these clowns