MUScoop
MUScoop => The Superbar => Topic started by: PointWarrior on October 20, 2022, 11:08:19 PM
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Oops - had not read the Futbol thread
Seems like big news - did I miss the thread on this?
https://onmilwaukee.com/articles/milwaukee-pro-soccer-team-usl (https://onmilwaukee.com/articles/milwaukee-pro-soccer-team-usl)
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Worth noting it's USL, not MLS. It's the second tier of American soccer. Still happy to have it coming in, but man I wish they had gone through with Peter Wilt's plan to bid on an MLS team 15-20 years ago.
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Worth noting it's USL, not MLS. It's the second tier of American soccer. Still happy to have it coming in, but man I wish they had gone through with Peter Wilt's plan to bid on an MLS team 15-20 years ago.
Pete Wilt was a buddy of mine back at MU. He was a bit of a quirky guy as a college kid -- he drove an Edsel, but he had to put a brick under a back tire when he parked it or else it would have rolled away.
He did a nice job running the Chicago Fire, who I thought screwed him over.
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I believe Wilt is a USL exec now. Undoubtedly involved in making this happen.
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Pete Wilt was a buddy of mine back at MU. He was a bit of a quirky guy as a college kid -- he drove an Edsel, but he had to put a brick under a back tire when he parked it or else it would have rolled away.
He did a nice job running the Chicago Fire, who I thought screwed him over.
Still a quirky guy. I run into him every now and then at Highbury, a soccer pub in Milwaukee. He's been running the Madison USL team for a couple years now.
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Does USL Championship, League One, and League Two have relegation, or are they entirely different leagues?
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Worth noting it's USL, not MLS. It's the second tier of American soccer. Still happy to have it coming in, but man I wish they had gone through with Peter Wilt's plan to bid on an MLS team 15-20 years ago.
I know little about soccer but have learned about the relegation system, due to college football talk radio, and wonder if a USL team could move into MLS?
(I hope this isn't a stupid question)
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There is no promotion or relegation in American soccer. There is no longer even in Mexico.
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This is why I was personally hoping that it was NWSL rather than USL. I think the USL will do well here, but minor league sports have a pretty well established ceiling. While a NWSL team would never touch the Bucks or Brewers, and never even dream about the Packers, with the recent growth, and likely boom post 2023 WWC, there's no reason why it couldn't slide in right below them.
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Still a quirky guy. I run into him every now and then at Highbury, a soccer pub in Milwaukee. He's been running the Madison USL team for a couple years now.
Wilt has been out at FMFC for a few years now. Was basically there just to get them going.
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This is why I was personally hoping that it was NWSL rather than USL. I think the USL will do well here, but minor league sports have a pretty well established ceiling. While a NWSL team would never touch the Bucks or Brewers, and never even dream about the Packers, with the recent growth, and likely boom post 2023 WWC, there's no reason why it couldn't slide in right below them.
Does this preclude an NWSL team from coming?
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There is no promotion or relegation in American soccer. There is no longer even in Mexico.
Thanks for the answer Sultan.
I'm happy MU got the promotion to the Big East and Dayton got relegated to the A10. 8-)
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There is expected to be 2 new NWSL teams in 2024 to make it 14 teams.
There is a lot.of interest. 8 MLS franchises have expressed interest in a NWSL team, and 3 additional markets with ownership unrelated to MLS. And these are the serious inquiries of several dozen.
There will be a 2nd division Women's League next year, USL Super League. About a dozen teams.
Many MLS teams have a 2nd division team playing in MLS Next Pro League which recently completed its first season with 21 teams. 27 total next year. The only non MLS affiated team in the league is Rochester. Every other team is MLS affiated.
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Wait, wait. There's more than one soccer league in the US?
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Not really promotion but when MLS expands haven't they generally been moving up USL teams.
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Not really promotion but when MLS expands haven't they generally been moving up USL teams.
The problem is that the MLS is likely to either stop or go on a lengthy pause in terms of expansion once they hit 30 teams. That means there's only one spot up for grabs. Plus they would never let a team play in an 8,000 seat stadium, that would be last in attendance by a significant margin, so another new stadium would have to be built. There was a time when it was a possibility, but in all likelihood that time has since passed.
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Not really promotion but when MLS expands haven't they generally been moving up USL teams.
Yes and no.
Some markets have wanted an MLS team over the years. Often times those markets are either not a priority market, or they don’t have big money billionaire owners. So some of those markets have been encouraged to have a USL team.
If desired markets have preferred ownership, they will get teams over USL markets. So having a USL team doesn’t often matter.
So, some markets didn’t have USL teams. Some markets that did have USL teams, have different ownership for their MLS bid.
Recent examples, Charlotte has Tepper as an owner. St. Louis has the Taylor family and Jim Kavanaugh. Nashville has John Ingram. etc….and either all of it is privately financed, or they have public/private partnership in place.
Markets have been turned down before because the league wasn’t comfortable with ownership financials, and/or market viability.
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Yeah, Milwaukee isn't going to be getting a MLS team for a long time. As shoot suggests, it's neither going to be a priority market nor do they have an obvious deep pocketed owner.
The best they hope for is to put together a really good, well supported USL team and go from there.
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Yeah, Milwaukee isn't going to be getting a MLS team for a long time. As shoot suggests, it's neither going to be a priority market nor do they have an obvious deep pocketed owner.
The best they hope for is to put together a really good, well supported USL team and go from there.
Are you sure about the ownership point? I’ve been assured by Brewers fans there are plenty of billionaires who would buy the Brewers and spend wildly on free agents. I’m sure one of those billionaires would put an MLS franchise in Milwaukee
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Are you sure about the ownership point? I’ve been assured by Brewers fans there are plenty of billionaires who would buy the Brewers and spend wildly on free agents. I’m sure one of those billionaires would put an MLS franchise in Milwaukee
Marky Mark can move Norwich to Milwaukee.
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There was a window from about 2005-2011 when it was possible to get MLS to Milwaukee. The future of the Park East Corridor was undetermined and had room for a stadium, Peter Wilt was available to lead the effort, and the league nearly doubled in teams from 10 to 18.
Feels like that ship has sailed.