It's only looked at as the third division by people who can count. Feel free to consider it whatever you desire.



To Charleston's credit, they stayed above the fray by taking themselves completely out of the mix when all the nastiness and uncertainty was going on. Because, at the end of the day, they had a club to run and all the "we're going to get sanctioned/no we're going to get sanctioned" was creating uncertainty that (as we see now, to varying degrees) hampers business. So dropping to the third division when they did was a prescient decision because it allowed them to get their ducks in a row - it may have actually helped them financially, because they're drawing similar numbers and they're in first place in the league with (I'm guessing) a smaller budget for players and travel.

But Charleston is a proven second division - not third division - club. They've shown they can make a go of it at the second division level. They didn't self-relegate because they couldn't compete with the Traffics (tee hee) of the world. They did it because they saw it as the best way forward for their club, even if it meant a temporary step back. My guess is that if the 2nd division mess is sorted - one way or another - they'll move back up.



Did you not pay attention when the whole thing was going down? The entire USSFD2 thing is a stopgap measure because neither the USL-1 nor the NASL could get sanctioning to stand alone (now we see why, right?). It was always intended to be a one-year holding pattern league.



It's okay. You're still way ahead of Jeff. At least you admit what you don't know.



See above. My theory is that they're slumming it for a year and a year only.



Baltimore will be lucky to be in existence. Now I hear they're moving their next four games to some other outpost? They're definitely in the death throes.



I wonder if that impacts the folks who were trying to do a USL2 team in Indianapolis. Maybe not. I think they discovered the numbers just couldn't work and gave up entirely. But a team in Dayton would at least be a start.

The latest I heard was that they had new (potential) owners that were interested and things looked promising but things were definitely still in negotiations.

Bernie, let's just agree to disagree on USSFD2. I would like to see this league grow, you apparently do not(if you want to see Charleston go back up). Regardless of what level they play in, Charleston still has a soccer team, even if you don't like this league. Heck, even PDL is soccer!

Fred, that's the last I heard also. Hopefully that is still their goal.

From my talks with teh owners it is going to be a wait and see thing here in charleston. Bernie nailed it with the fact Charleston wanted to get on withe 2010 season as soon as possilbe and with so much unknown at the time they did the drop.

As to moving back up I think it will be one season after thing stablize.

As to the folks looking at indianapolis, I understand that is the same group involved in the Wilmington purchase. there might be another group interested in Indiapolis. If it is the one based in Chicago, they went with Wilmington over indianapolis.

It's not a question of "agree to disagree." I'm right and you're wrong. USSFD2 was always intended to be a one-year holding pattern.

Original release from January 7:

CHICAGO (Jan. 7, 2009) – The U.S. Soccer Federation, United Soccer Leagues (USL) and the North American Soccer League (NASL) have come to an agreement on the formation and operation of a Division 2 professional soccer league for the 2010 season. Under the agreement, U.S. Soccer will oversee the league for the 2010 season, working with both the USL and NASL on the day-to-day league activities.

The agreement pertains only to the 2010 season, and during the next year U.S. Soccer will continue to work with USL and NASL to build a long-term solution for the future.

That day, Sunil Gulati said on a conference call that day, "What we think we’ve achieved today is a short-term solution for the 2010 season, but we want to work with a number of people and all the teams to find a long-term solution so we don’t have teams changing back and forth between divisions. We’re extremely excited about this agreement and certainly about 2010 overall for the sport in the U.S.”



I didn't say I wanted to see them go back up and I didn't say I didn't want to see this league grow. But it's my educated guess that Charleston, being ( a ) a smart organization and ( b ) a better-than-third-division organization, would go back up. What I want has nothing to do with it. It's their business, they can run it however they like. If the third division makes more sense for Pittsburgh, Charlotte, Dayton, whomever, more power to them. I was merely speculating that Charleston's motives for self-relegation were largely to stay out of the whole mess, that one year in the third division wouldn't hurt them at all and might actually help them, and that they could go back up at any time if they wanted.

How are you not able to understand that?



Show me where I said I don't like this league. Because I said Charleston might go back up where they've been for most of the last 15 years? How the hell did you get "don't like this league" out of that?

ok.

And by the way, who's idea was it that Crystal Palace Baltimore will no longer be around after this season? The reason they began was as a sister franchise for their storied team in England.

The people who aren't going to their games. It was their idea.



They wish. They use the name. The official NASL flack would like you to believe there's more of a connection than that. But "sister franchise" is stretching it. More like "crack whore identity thief franchise."

I can't wait for the next installment of this ongoing soap opra. I need more drama in my life!

After their miserable FAILURES in USSF2 a few of them will be lucky to have the resources to field a PDL squad so any proposed realignment should include that scenario also.

even if there was an official "sisterhood", Crystal palace, the real one, is in administration also, the first thing theyd do is jettison a team thats lucky to get 500 fans. CPB has only ever had 2 players from Palace, that was their first season and neither lasted long. Since then, Palace haven't bothered with the Baltimore version, other then to play a friendly.