The Rowdies have made it official. Only three days after essentially ending their 2016 North American Soccer League campaign, the club announced it's leaving the league and joining the United Soccer League, the (current) third division league in the sport. Sore losers? Not exactly.
“We are excited to join the United Soccer League in 2017,” said Rowdies Chairman and CEO Bill Edwards in a statement. “I have said from the day I acquired controlling interest in this club that I wanted to make it one of the most successful teams in North America. The USL is a vibrant league, and this move is a necessary and positive step toward reaching the long-term goals and objectives of the club.”
The leader of the Green and Gold is putting a positive spin on the big move but many wonder if this is the right move for the club. Let’s take a look at the positives and negatives, shall we?
Let’s start with the good: According to John Griffen, senior communications director of the USL, the league is on the up-and-up, probably even more so than the NASL. Now with 30 teams in the league, The USL dwarfs the NASL in size.
“The league has doubled in size in two years,” Griffen said. “And has a relationship with Major League Soccer, which has only helped the league.”
According to Griffen, the relationship with MLS has brought some pretty innovative measures to the current third-division league. The relationship with the top level of play as given USL the chance to be the first league to use a fourth official on the field, something FIFA now uses in leagues all over the world. It also is testing video replay, something the sport has never used before.
Griffen also assures that what the Rowdies will lose in TV exposure will be made up in 2017. Leaving the NASL also means leaving partnerships with CBS Sports and BeIn Sports behind. Griffen says that won’t be a problem, stating the USL will work with local affiliates to televise every team’s games in their local markets.
Pretty cool, right?
Many see the relationship with MLS as a destructive to the sport as a whole in the country. Former Ralph’s Mob president, Jason Bruzzichesi, stated that MLS will have too much power.
“With a weakened NASL, that means that MLS controls the entirety of the soccer pyramid from top to bottom. USL is dependent upon their money and influence. NWSL (National Women’s Soccer League) is primarily owned by MLS. PDL (Premier Development League) is owned by USL, and so on. So by controlling the pipeline from academy to professional, it makes the entire soccer pyramid single entity,” Bruzzichesi said. “So while it may be in the best interests of the club, it's bad for soccer overall. It's one of the few cases where you can say league is more important than the club. Edwards wants MLS — even if destroys NASL.”
Bruzzichesi has since stepped down as president of Ralph’s Mob as of Tuesday morning. He states his decision was partially made because of the Rowdies’ move.
Now on to the bad.
Of the 30 teams in the league, 11 are MLS reserve teams, further proving the point of Bruzzichesi, who states he doesn’t want his team to pay reserve sides. Griffen states these teams add to the legitimacy to the league, while many like Bruzzichesi thinks the opposite.
Like it or not, Tampa Bay will be going from a strong second division team to the third division, and to many, this feels like a relegation. But is it really?
“We have filed the paperwork,” Griffen said. This paperwork he speaks of is an official petition to the US Soccer Federation, petitioning to become the nation’s second division and relegating the NASL to third division. “We should hear back from them before the holidays.”
This means the Rowdies could be right back in in the second division. With the USL’s connection with MLS, maybe we could pull an Orlando City and work our way up I just a few years. That is Bill Edward’s plan, right?
Edwards was not available for comment at the time of publication to comment, but with bigger things in sight, Edwards is never far behind.
This article appears in Oct 20-27, 2016.