Fort Report

I am finding a hard time finding topics for this blog’s theme.  Oh well, I guess I’ll write about a guilty pleasure of mine: the state of lower league soccer in the US.  This article will cover it’s current state, how the local teams are doing, and a possible future for local sides.

MLS debuted in 1996 as a result of the 1994 World Cup hosting stipulation that there would be a first division league establish in the United States.  In between the Baggio field goal and Wynalda’s score, there was a resurgence in American soccer riding the coattails of the summer of ‘94.  Many investors, wishing to cash in on “that soccer thing”, funded the creation and proliferation of many minor league teams (compared to the forthcoming MLS).

I personally found out about one of them when I was rudely awakened from my Sunday slumber at 5 pm during my college days at Hofstra University (no coincidence I joined the Navy a few months later).  From my dorm room I could hear a cornucopia of drums, chants, and noise makers so I decided to hop the fence and walk down to Mitchell Field and check out the hubbub.  As it turned out it, it was the Long Island Rough Riders in a playoff match.  I recognized the keeper who was none other than Tony Meola, star of the 1990 and 1994 US National Teams.  Little did I know, Chris Armas and Giovanni Savarese were also in the lineup that night.  The crowd was decent and the fans were really into the game.  Not having seen American organized support for a pro team in my life, I thought it was pretty cool.  Granted, it was a subculture I would have never found out about unless I went to that game.  Many other teams sprang up around that time with similar success.  However, with MLS about to take up most of the market share and the soccer novelty to start to ware off a few years later, most of those teams went bust.  Over time, minor league soccer lost a lot of it’s funding, but it would survive.

The United Soccer Leagues emerged as the American soccer lower league system out of the unstable ashes of the USISL and the A-League.  It’s a lot more complex than that, just check out the wiki page.  Basically, investors came into those leagues and, with few exceptions, bled money until they could sell it off or fold.  Their top league (now USL-1) is a national league, while USL-2 and the Professional Development League (PDL) are regional to limit travel costs in order to make ownership and operation more affordable.  They set their first division up against MLS as a competitor (with little success), but USL’s major contribution to soccer in this country is their infrastructure.  USL encourages a “total club” approach.  Most of their PDL and USL-2 clubs, as well as some in USL-1, have many youth teams to compliment their senior side.  They also try to establish themselves as part of the community they are in.  The goal is to have these clubs draw from the immediate vicinity of their home ground and represent them in the American soccer ladder mush like lower league teams around the world draw their meager (but sustaining) fanbases.

Has this worked?  You can’t say it’s taken the USL to astronomical heights.  The amount of A-League teams (USL-1’s name through 2004, taking it’s name from a league it absorbed) shrunk from 28 to 12 teams between 1998 and 2006.  However, the amount of participation in top level youth soccer under the various “Y-Leagues” has flourished and teams with a sound structure and a senior team feed off of one another, making them more stable.  By going this route, USL is trying to emulate the success of the J-League in that it encourages clubs to build up their club’s financial, grounds, and participation structure as a way to qualify for a higher tier.

“Lower division soccer” definitely has a different connotation than “minor league soccer”.  In most countries, there is upward mobility through promotion.  Fans of a second or third tier team can support them for the long haul in hopes they will be champions of their country someday.  Minor league sports in the US implies the players you are watching are basically trying out for a spot on a pro team elsewhere, the outcome treated as secondary by their parent franchise.  Now, there is no promotion in US soccer.  If it ever happens, that’s quite a ways off.  There is the US Open Cup, but even with the chance to play an MLS team for a shot at bragging rights and pride, that annual cup competition hasn’t been a boon to many USL teams.  Another problem with shaking off the minor league tag is that unless you plan on going right into USL-1 and playing teams from the west coast to Puerto Rico, your next best option is USL-2, a league concentrated in the Northeast, ruling out most areas of the country for a start up professional soccer club.  Below that is the PDL, which covers nearly all of the United States and branches off into Canada.  The issue with that league is even though it’s the best place for owners to get their feet wet in team management, it’s a minor league in the American sense.  Players are often on their college breaks and play alongside amateurs, so there are few teams with well-established players or roots in their respective communities.  The prospects for organic growth in the US soccer ladder from the bottom up seems like a scant probability.

That all could be changing.  This year, the PDL offered it’s teams a “PDL-Pro” status.  From what I’ve gathered from the small amount of information available, is that PDL teams could opt to pay some or all of their players.  The big issue is you can’t use NCAA players on a team with professional players.  It also made it tricky for a non-college PDL player to go from a pro team to another team (involves filing paperwork).  As many as fifteen teams applied for that classification in January, but some teams like the expansion New Orleans Jesters pulled their application after they tightened the restrictions.  However, a few PDL teams have gone pro and that’s what makes this situation exciting from an American soccer ladder perspective.  Namely the Victoria Highlander, Kitsap Pumas SC (yes, a team had the balls to attach “soccer club” to their name), and the Hollywood United Hitmen.  There are likely others, but through my research I could only come up with the Rio Grand Valley Bravos referring to themselves as a pro team and with no college players are on the roster, so it’s likely they are also PDL-Pro.  That being said, the first three teams are where it’s at in regards to upward mobility.  Hollywood United are a rather famous club given the actors on their over 30/40 teams and Anthony LaPaglia on the board.  The other two teams are poised to move upward given Kitsap purchased the Sounders USL franchise and Victoria is ready to get Vancouver’s when they move to MLS.  Both teams have had decent early successs by PDL standards.  Another Northwestern PDL team, Seattle Wolves, has stated it’s desire to join a ULS-2 Western Conference.  Throw in two or more teams that are willing to make the jump to pro status, and you would have a league on the West Coast able to take in any other cities in the region where investors want to get in on on the pro soccer ground floor.  That just didn’t exist before.

Moving further west, the PDL situation is less rosy.  On the positive side, the PDL Mid South Division is actually an all Texas league.  However, even though they have the aforementioned RGV Bravos, Laredo Heat, El Paso Patriots, as well as the mildly successful Austin Aztex U-23’s, they nearly all play in Texas high school football stadiums.  The good news is they have sufficiently-sized stands for further growth.  The bad news is there is a large movement to install Sprint Turf at Texas high schools to save money on maintenance, which is less soccer friendly than Field Turf and can yield some very funky fields (check out the pics on the RGV Bravos site).  Moving into the Midwest, there are mainstays in the PDL in Iowa and Michigan.  The Des Moines Menace actually had an unsuccessful stadium drive about five years back, but they still draw and play well.  The Michigan Bucks have expressed the desire to build a small stadium on land they own and field a USL-1 team.  USL-2 would seem more logical, but are they too far west?  There’s also the expansion FC London (the “FC” stands for “Forrest City”) in Ontario who are doing well at the gate and could also move up.  The major problem with the aforementioned teams would be the increase in travel costs a promotion would incur.

PDL is quite the mixed bag.  I’ve mentioned the spotlight teams, but there’s also the Cascade Surge south of Portland, OR and the Mississippi Brilli who are actually missionary teams.  Go figure.  The US youth team residency has a team in the Southeast Division, but the vast majority are teams designed off of the model to get college players on their summer break.  Which leads us to the situation in the Northeast:

The vast majority of lower division growth in the Northeast has been in the Mid Atlantic area.  Stable USL-2 clubs like Harrisburg City, Wilmington, and Richmond have been augmented by DC area teams Real Maryland and Crystal Palace Baltimore.  That’s where the new investment seems to be in our neck of the woods.  There were a scant three USL teams in New England this year: the USL-2 Western Mass Pioneers, Rhode Island Stingrays, and New Hampshire Phantoms.  New Hampshire used to be in USL-2, but they went through economic demotion (much like the Long Island Rough Riders I spoke of earlier) into the PDL.  Of the three teams, neither can speak of much success.  Western Mass is surviving as a pro/semi pro team, but I haven’t seen anyone posting/blogging/speaking of them as a fan online ever.  I wish that weren’t the case.  I know very little about the Phantoms.  Again, I wish I knew more.

The most successful PDL club in New England history were the Cape Cod Crusaders.  They folded this year.  However, they were the senior men’s team for Mass Premier Soccer, who claim they will field a PDL team next year, somewhere else in Massachusetts.  Speaking of MPS, they formed Maine Pro Soccer ahead of this season and have several youth teams up to the Super-20 league.  Their senior team will be called the Portland Phoenix and will join the Vermont Voltage, who are playing an unofficial schedule in 2009 due to stadium concerns, in the PDL next season.

By the way, Portland will be playing a series of exhibitions matches starting tomorrow night.  If you are in Maine, I highly recommend supporting this team when it debuts.

Then we go to the Rhode Island Stingrays.  They have been around since 1995 in one form or another, but have been in the PDL since 2002.  As a native Rhode Islander who grew up playing youth soccer (until the football bug bit me and I had to choose sports which wasn’t a choice given my burly, musky frame) knowing how serious the Portuguese community and parts of the Italian community are about the sport, it disappoints me to see the state they are in.  They are a typical PDL team in that they seem to rely exclusively on collegiate talent.  And not the best talent at that.  Sure, they groomed Geoff Cameron who has converted from a forward with the Stingrays (and URI) to midfield at Houston to finally breaking the starting XI as a defender.  They also once fielded Rhode Island native Nico Colaluca, but he didn’t play for them heading into what would be his last collegiate season at UVA in order to train with the Revs.  It really saddens me they only draw 200-300 a game.  I would imagine chairman/manager Mario Pereira expects more from an area with such a rich soccer history.  The Providence metro area was home of the famed Fall River Marksmen and the Pawtucket Rangers, both US Open Cup winners prior to World War Two.  The problem is the Stingrays are a generic minor league team that no longer has a website.  Heck, buy aspiring soccer journalist Brian O’Connell some free food at the games and some shout outs at the home games for his blog and he’d be following the team like he was in years past (sorry if I low-balled you, Brian).  What they really lack is investment.  Their business listing claims only two employees.  Would it be better if they partnered with a premier youth club like Black Watch Rhode Island?  Well, duh.  It seems pretty bare bones in Providence.  Also, if they could draw investment and find a way to play at Brown’s Stevenson Field (the investment would suredly need to be from a Brown Alum), that would also be a plus.  From there, I would claim PDL-Pro status and try to make the way to PDL-2.  You just can’t expect people to come out to see no-name college players if you want to grow.  Take players like Fabio Lima de Barros (Fabio Ivan), a few choice players from the RI and MA Portuguese leagues, some post collegiate players trying to keep their careers going, and some Portuguese Super League players too old for MLS and you could get enough buzz to draw a solid USL-2 crowd.  Similar players could be found to create interest, but Rhode Island does have a considerable post WWII Portuguese immigrant population and right across the border is Bristol County, which sports the only Portuguese plurality in the nation.  Just imagine coordinating home games at Stevenson Field with Water Fires in downtown Providence?  Yeah, I’d take the commuter rail back home for that.  One last thing:  Stingrays?  Sure, it has some brand establishment, but that probably needs to go.  The “Red” is the state bird and is the nickname of numerous soccer teams worldwide.  “Providence” seems more youth orientated to me given the oldness of the state’s population, but that’s nitpicking.  Seriously though, anything but Stingrays.

Then there’s the fact the two largest cities in New England do not have pro soccer teams.  The Revs surely represent the area, but there has to be space for more teams, especially in a population center two hours away and in Boston where many residents don’t own automobiles.  Hartford seems like a no-brainer for USL-1 or USL-2 as long as they had the financial backing for a team.  The American Outlaws may have a recognized chapter in Hartford in the near future and that could be the start for a similar movement like the successful Sons Of Ben effort in Philadelphia.  If you live in the area, you buy a decent shirt for normal price and gain a supporter network.  Seriously, what are you waiting for?

Boston may be a bit trickier.  It’s definitely Revs territory, but there are many more fans of the world game who don’t make it down to Gillette.  For those who know me, they will be shocked at what I’m about to recommend.  Celtic FC should set up a “Boston Celtic” team and start in the PDL and maybe go on to USL-2.  For a limited investment, they could work with collegiate talent and scout the region’s talent.  They would have an edge over most PDL teams in that they would get local Celtic FC supporters to show up for games, limiting the losses most owners see.  They could play at JFK UMASS or Harvard Stadium and do just fine.  There are teams named after them the world over, why not in the Irish immigrant capital of North America?  They do have an Irish league in the city afterall.

But the last two examples are based on positive speculation.  Minor league soccer appeared in New England in force back in the 90’s and did poorly.  There were teams in Boston, Framingham, Worcester, Cape cod, and Hartford.  All of which failed.  So what is different?

The encouraging thing I see is the vast increase in exposure to high level soccer.  The level of knowledge even among your typical MLS/USL fan is exponentially higher than it was just five years ago.  Along with that, supporter groups are widely known and emulated thanks to YouTube.  Combine the two and you have a knowledgeable fan who knows how to support his or her local side.  In places like Kitsap and Victoria, this has paid off.  In New England, not so much.  Hopefully, that will change and lower league teams begin garnering strong, loyal support.  The reasons why it wouldn’t happen: 1.) New England is a relatively old region set in it’s ways 2.) other minor league teams already get great market share (i.e. Pawsox) and 3.) a bad economy combined with a small minority of the investor class knowing their ass from their elbow about soccer.  Can’t do anything about the first two, but the last obstacle will fade over time.

So what say you, New England soccer fan?  Do you support lower league soccer?  Would you support a USL team if it was close by?  Would you start a supporters group for one of those teams?  The future may be bright for soccer expansion on the other side of the country.  Will it be the same in New England?

Note: I invite corrections and input to this post.  I’d love to write a follow-up piece.