Nothing to do with the Galaxy

By: Laurie | September 29th, 2007

This has nothing to do with the Galaxy. I’m just rhapsodizing/venting.

First, the rhapsody. My Seattle Sounders won an AMAZING USL final tonight over Atlanta, 4-0. My team, the USL Champions! Truly, this team boggles the mind. They could fit into MLS and qualify for the playoffs with no effort.

Which brings me to my vent. If rumors are to be believed, the team will be disbanded this year in order to clear the path for an MLS team named “The Sounders” in 2009.

How stupid would this be? VERY stupid. I can understand disbanding a bad team. Or even a mediocre team. But a team which, in the US Open Cup, beat Chivas USA 3-1? And the Colorado Rapids 5-0? And which held FC Dallas scoreless for over ninety minutes? And which just won the USL Championships 4-0?

Stupid. When there’s actual momentum, and actual skill, why are we flushing it down the toilet?

It would make tonight’s amazing victory extremely bittersweet.

How hard would it be to get an unofficial promotion? Just once?

Go, Sounders!

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Longshoe

Damn Seattle, always ruining the hopes and dreams of Atlanta's soccer teams.

Also, congrats to the Sounders. They were easily the best team in the USL this year and are very deserving champions.

Hopefully, they'll play USL-D1 in 2008 and move up to the MLS (with a similar roster, likely not the whole one) in 2009. That makes the most sense.

Which means, that they'll probably sit next year out...
Diane

Hmmm. I was looking at what JustJack said and thinking, as I do, that most stupidity of this magnitude has $$$ signs behind it. So it struck me that if MLS expanded by promotion it couldn't sell new franchises for zillions of $$$. If the current USL Sounders became the MLS Sounders the USL franchise owner would get the money instead of MLS, so no profit no promotion system...

Oh well, maybe once they've milked everything they can out of new franchises and figure out a way to make money off of the relegation system, we'll be able to experience those finer benefits of fighting for engorgement :) .
JustJack

MLS marketing is apparently run by biz-skool interns who aren't getting paid and whose knowledge extends only to the corners of their 1980's era textbooks.

This situation only strengthens the argument that we need a national promotion relegation system a la Britain's FA. This is so doable (and might serve to ultimately prevent buffoonery like Lalas' "management" style) but for the legal constructs upon which MLS and USL are based. But hey, for less than $10K that could be fixed by a rogue attorney and whammo, we could have pro clubs at "MLS" (Premiership) level fighting to stay there and keep their fan and funding base, USL (Championship) level clubs fighting to get the bigger bucks and engorge their fan base. I'm all about engorgement, futbol-wise...

Instead, because of a piece of paper, we have unpaid interns promoting stoopid, and the Sounders being disbanded and a negative fan base upon which to artificially construct an "MLS" side of the same name in the nebulous future. god bless 'Merkaan SAH-kur.
Diane

The strangest thing is when they said the Sounders would be disbanded so the market would be fresh for a new team the following year...do they mean the pissed off fans who lost a team and a summer of football fun? Who does do come up with MLS marketing plans btw, if anyone?
Glen

It really is sad that the team won't have the same players on it as they do right now. They could step right into the MLS and be playing well from the start. Promotion of the team should be the only option.
mel

I'm with you on "promoting" the Sounders. Dunno what that will do for Pacific Northwest rivalries but I can see Seattle vs San Ho down the pipeline so I guess LA is off the hook in the short-ish term (hey, I grew up in San Jose so I can say San Ho dammnit).
Ian

I couldn't agree more. The biggest problem the MLS has is not quality of play, it's crowd support and public interest. Disbanding a team that works and has at least a decent local support system, giving them a year off, and then starting from scratch is a strategy only the MLS could come up with. No other league in world football would do anything this bone-headed, and there are some really bone-headed leagues in world football. How the MLS expands is key to building its support in more than just the expansion cities, and their decision making just doesn't seem well planned out at all.