Hello everyone. We are launching a new feature on USLsoccer.com called Inside Access, giving fans unprecedented access to professional soccer administrators at the league level.

Inside Access at USLsoccer.com

Inside Access is where you can go for the behind-the-scenes kind of information. Things like where our staff are traveling to or who is visiting the USL office can be seen in the Here & There section of Inside Access. Question of the Week is a feature in which I will take a question each week from these boards and answer it online. Inside Access will also be the home of any USL Q & A's, including one with USL Executive VP and COO Tim Holt to lead things off.

Go ahead and post your opening questions for myself and Tim below and we'll add further threads for additional Q & A's as they come up.

We hope you enjoy this new feature!

Gerald Barnhart
Director of Public Relations
United Soccer Leagues

Sounds cool!
I look forward to checking it out.

very cool

My question to Mr. Holt

Is USL or any potential owners, actively pursuing a expansion francise in the near future, particularly in Division 1?

I'm not sure how you can open a thread like this and not expect 753,247 expansion questions, every week. You should really restrict the question topics to a specific subject, each time.

I guess if he has that many question, he will be glad he can knock them all out with one answer.

Hello.

I have a question that I'm sure will involve a complicated answer, but it is one that many people have asked, especially whenever matters of expansion, promotion, relegation or franchise failure come to the fore.

From a financial, facilities and market size standpoint, what is required, from the League Office's standpoint, for owners, potential or current,to obtain or retain a USL franchise in each of the various leagues under the USL umbrella? Please try to utilize figures, specific or general, instead of descriptive phrases like "financially stable" or "adequate venue".

Complementing you on this important step in bringing the fans closer to the sport they love in a fairly unique manner, I remain

That little old jersey collector

Me

2 questions for Mr.Holt

1: When will we see Iggy Moleka in the hall of fame?
2: What is the relationship between the Silverbacks owners and other USL Franchises? (Some was said about Boris having a investment in a team in Cary)

Here is my question for Mr. Holt.

First, thanks for including the stats from the 2003-2007 teams on your web site, but when could we expect to see a player register from say 1996 until now. I would be satisfied with just the pro teams (the pdl could be done later).

Thanks for responding.

Scott Leach
Springfield, MO

Being that Nike bought out league sponsor Umbro back in October, should we expect to see any kind of Nike influence in the near future?

How has the USL's ownership screening criteria changed since the California Victory and Virginia Beach Mariners debacles of last year?

Nate Bolton, Victoria BC

My question:

Why is my credit card still being charged $9.99 per month for the online matches?

My partner with the US Open Cup site is currently working on some sort of comprehensive historical website that would include such a thing. If the league plans on making a player register/detailed online history available, then that would be nice for him to know that way he doesn't waste his time, because as we all know, researching the early days of the USL isn't all that easy.

Great addition to the USLDiscussions board.

Some info is here: http://www.uslsoccer.com/docs/aboutusl/franchise/Min%20Standards.pdf

To navigate here: http://www.uslsoccer.com/ ; Select "Franchise Info" at the bottom of the page ; Select "Common Questions" from the right-side menu ; Select "View Partial List of USL Minimum Standards (.pdf)" at the bottom.

(However, that is the "offical" word, and as usual, can get bent or stretched as needed. Not being sarcastic, just realistic.)

Your question of market size is an intersting one, though, especially for the pro sides. One example, when the old International Hockey League was looking at the Grand Rapids, MI market, they were concerned that the market size of 700K-800K was short of the required 1M. However, they went with it, and ended up being a good market.

An easy question, though I doubt an easy answer.

Is it possible for the US to run a version of the FA Cup, and have all teams included in it as opposed to the current Open Cup ?

It seems unfair that teams are restricted to results in their first month or so to qualify for the tournament, and I am sure many would welcome an all inclusive Cup.

Doc, that's a great suggestion...MLS would probably have to extend their season to allow for it, though, and I think they should consider it. Many MLS clubs consider Open Cup inconvenient, but if certain weekends were allocated for Open Cup, as in the FA Cup, it would be much better-well, probably better for all clubs electing to compete...

Here's a Question For You!

Why is it that EVERY league in the world follows a Promotion/Relagation format, and YOU DONT! It would seem that since their is MORE transplanted aliens here in the USA that WILL Follow that kind of system,

And question 2

WHY dont you SELL the Advertising rights to your various cup competitions and use that money to help some of the low drawing clubs be finacianly viable. (They do it in England and it WORKS!) and they have a Hell of a lot more clubs than we do!

First part of your question has been discussed many many many times. Also consider in European countries traveling costs arn't anywhere near the same.

Lands end (Most southern point in England) to John O'groats (Most northern point in Scotland) is only around 800+ miles tops.

Most USL teams outside of the USL 2 or PDL status simply can't afford to become USL 1 teams. Promotion isn't supported by a larger finical package like it is in other leagues, basically there costs become more and the promotion could actually make a team go bust.

So that alone is two major difference in the promotion relegation factor. Also the fact the USL 1 is considered USA 2nd Division and USL 2 is considered USA 3rd Division, do you really think it's going to enthrall a larger number of fans because its would then be based upon a European system? (I doubt it)

Your second question, you can SELL what you want... but you need someone to BUY IT before it matters.

What various cups are you talking about? the U.S Open Cup isn't owned by the USL, so they can't sell the rights to that anyway and there isn't a specific USL cup either.

Good gracious...the logistics of promotion relegation WOULD NEVER WORK in North America. Imagine if you had a second division that featured 9 teams all based in the East, and ONE in the West. It could happen, but only through promotion relegation. Think about the travel strain that would put on the one Western team.

If anything, I'd like to know if the league will ever award the championship to the first place team after a balanced schedule, and scrap the North American style playoffs at the end of the year.

Some of the best money-making events have been friendlies between USL clubs and foreign teams.

Has anyone in USL considered a mid-season break during which the USL hosts a summer-tournament, inviting select USL clubs and foreign teams; playing the games in the better USL venues? If friendlies make good money, wouldn't a 'real' competition, with a Cup and a prize, draw even better? Wouldn't such a tournament draw attention to the USL from fans who follow MLS or foreign teams, but not the USL? Wouldn't Nike be interested in such a tournament?

My guess is that the tournament would be great showcase for the league, generate some TV revenue, and probably sell out the games. The foreign teams would get a good tune-up and be able to advertise their teams (wearing their sponsor's logos on their kits) in the US, on US televison.

Personally, I'd be willing to give up the playoffs to accomodate such a tournament. But, what do you think Mr. Holt?

Drummer,
If done the right way, I think this idea has some serious merit! However, in order to be successful I think that it has to have some real specific particluars in place.

1. TV CONTRACT, TV CONTRACT, TV CONTRACT (FSC)
(with USL and ALL 1st Division teams getting a percentage of the net profit).

2. Short Tournament = 3 dates tops all within a week. (Time of year TBD)

3. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION...Montreal and their new stadium comes to mind because;
a. New facility in a hot market
b. Foreign teams may prefer getting paid in Canadian $ than the weak US Dollar (can't believe I just said that)
c. Less money paid to the CFA than the USSF? (needs to be researched)
d. Other USL club (Rochester) is close enough to keep travel costs down.

...otherwise, I'd look at Rochester, Charleston or Carolina to host

4. I would NOT give up the playoffs because they give more teams a chance towards a title = more chances for teams to sell tickets to games later in the season!

Yes, it would take alot of work, but I could see this as a real viable project for the USL!

Well, if we let less teams into the playoffs, that would save at least a week, allowing the same number of games to be played during the regular season, while adding a mid-season break when the tournament could be held.

And don't forget NIKE. It could be the "NIKE" Tournament, sponsored by NIKE. Let NIKE be deeply involved in recruit/selecting the foreign teams and in promotion.

It seems to me that we want NIKE to invest heavily in the USL and greatly improve the quality of the league. Perhaps this tournament would give Nike the incentive to give it a try?

I'm not sure the point of this thread is to solicit answers from other forum members! There's a whole rest of the site for that.

I was thinking the same thing...but then again, the point of this thread probably isn't to agree with the people who point out that fact....like I just did.

Thanks for the questions so far. Tim is planning to answer them next week after he returns from a trip regarding a special USL announcement... so you have just a few more days to get your questions in.

Over the next few days, however, I will tackle a few of them for the first edition of Question of the Week.

Thank you for this opportunity.
I think it has been funny to see how helpful people have tried to be in answering questions for the USL.

I hope people will patiently wait and see how the league will answer these questions and not how they would answer them.

1. How much money did Umbro receive for selling the league to Nike?
2. What is the money cap per year that Nike is going to put into the league?
3. How much money per team is Nike going to delve out to the first division teams?
4. Will it be in cash or in kits, merchandise and other miscellaneous equipment?
Or will it be all 4?
5. What percentage of the League does Nike own?

Also In the next few years, what cities, might we see new expansion teams in the USL Divisions 1 and 2?

In case your missed this from a few months ago; Nike purchased Umbro. It's not like Umbro sold their share in the USL.


http://www.forbes.com/markets/2007/10/23...l?partner=links


Here's my questions for Tim.

It seems like the USL 1 is at a cross roads, where some of the bigger clubs are looking to possibly move to MLS. It sounds like the USL is developing more of a long term growth and operations strategy for this level. Can he share some of that with us. What would make up an ideal market and ownership group for the USL 1.

At the NSCAA convention FSC had a interview with Mr. Marcos. In that he briefly talked about two things that seemed some what new.

1. The ability to sell younger talented players on to international clubs.

2. Direct foreign investment in clubs in the USL.

Could you provide additional comments on these?

thanks

On the USL website RSL Arizona and RSL Utah do not show as Super Y league teams. Have these two Real Salt Lake affiliates chosen to not compete in the Super Y league or have they quite competing altogether? Will there be a Rocky Mountain Division of the Super Y league at the Boys U-16 and U-17 levels?

My question concerns the status of the California Victory. There is discussion on the teams possible return in 2009. Since Austin has now joined, and there is some talk about future expansion on the west coast, is there any progress being made with current negotiations with the franchise and is there any possibility that other investors could come forward from the outside that want to see a team kept here in SF. I would think that the USL's efforts to kept the west coast a viable option would include San Francisco. Thank you.

USL should, if they haven't done so already, contact the new American owners of Derby County, who've mentioned they're interested in starting a Rams US club. I saw MLS mentioned as a possibility, but USL would be a much less onerous investment, with growth opportunities if they do well.

My Question for Tim Holt;

The home fields of Crystal Palace Baltimore and Real Maryland FC will be just 40 miles apart this season. How is the league approaching this? I am under the impression that new teams are required to be 50 miles apart. If both Real Maryland and CPB become successful this season, could future distance requirement become altered to accommodate the possibility of local rivalries?

Having personally witnessed some absolutely amateur performances by the USL appointed officials, what resources have been put in place to improve the standard of officiating?

Why has the league not issued any statements regarding the situation in Rochester?

Hey HHf06.. Tim and the boys are doing nothing to raise the level of officiating because they have not raised the payments to officials in 9 years. That being said no top officials will ref these games for $150 ctr and $85 line (USL D1) and $125 ctr and $70 line (USL D2). So a better question to ask is What is Tim doing to raise the payments to officials?

If a team folds, what happens to the rights of those players that were under contract? Could the league hold a dispersal draft of players?