That is a problem for both MLS Next Pro and USL. Where they say hey we hope to have X team(s) in X year. And yet don’t deliver. I wish they would wait till things are in place. It’s very easy to say X team is coming. But then it doesn’t
Agreed. I think Altchek was a little too ambitious with that statement, but hyping the league is part of his job technically so I get it. Both leagues do it to help attract future investors/teams, but it can be a bad look to "oversell, under deliver" at the same time.
But to be honest the only ones who really care is us sickos that follow it to close. So like you said from the leagues perspective, the positives from the announcement weigh more than the few of us that grumble when it keeps getting push down the timeline out of existence.
That said I would rather them push. Than rush a team.
That Benfica news is very interesting. We haven't really seen a satellite club of a European club in the US lower professional divisions since Rayo Vallecano's ill-fated Oklahoma City venture and the one season of Crystal Palace Baltimore in NASL. Benfica's a much larger club with well-established youth development bona fides, so it's probably easier to see that venture succeeding in a league focused on player development.
I kind of wonder how open MLS would be to supporting a foreign club that would compete for talent against Orlando in Central Florida with the purpose of having them play in Portugal, rather than in MLS. That might also open doors to other non-MLS residential academies already in MLS Next (Barcelona has theirs in Arizona, Ajax has theirs in California). I suppose that time will tell. Great work on this article!
That is a problem for both MLS Next Pro and USL. Where they say hey we hope to have X team(s) in X year. And yet don’t deliver. I wish they would wait till things are in place. It’s very easy to say X team is coming. But then it doesn’t
Agreed. I think Altchek was a little too ambitious with that statement, but hyping the league is part of his job technically so I get it. Both leagues do it to help attract future investors/teams, but it can be a bad look to "oversell, under deliver" at the same time.
But to be honest the only ones who really care is us sickos that follow it to close. So like you said from the leagues perspective, the positives from the announcement weigh more than the few of us that grumble when it keeps getting push down the timeline out of existence.
That said I would rather them push. Than rush a team.
That Benfica news is very interesting. We haven't really seen a satellite club of a European club in the US lower professional divisions since Rayo Vallecano's ill-fated Oklahoma City venture and the one season of Crystal Palace Baltimore in NASL. Benfica's a much larger club with well-established youth development bona fides, so it's probably easier to see that venture succeeding in a league focused on player development.
I kind of wonder how open MLS would be to supporting a foreign club that would compete for talent against Orlando in Central Florida with the purpose of having them play in Portugal, rather than in MLS. That might also open doors to other non-MLS residential academies already in MLS Next (Barcelona has theirs in Arizona, Ajax has theirs in California). I suppose that time will tell. Great work on this article!