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QUESTIONS
1. How is U.S. Open Cup game revenue -tickets, concessions, broadcast fees- split between the visiting and home sides? Is there an easy way to track the attendance at each of these games?
2. Does U.S. Soccer issue a bit of money for visiting sides for travel expenses?
3. Have you received off- or on-the-record feedback from USL or NISA officials about how they feel the first round went? I know Sen. Bernie Sanders has already positively weighed in on social media!
4. Any talk about a women's U.S. Open Cup in the future? Such as between the NWSL and USL SuperLeague?
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ANSWERS
1- It is kept by the home team who also pay a hosting fee to US Soccer. Tracking attendance is near impossible.
2- Yes US Soccer does but it’s been my experience teams have to lay out the money for travel and then are reimbursed which doesn’t work well for many amateur clubs particularly ones who play in summer leagues - thus they currently have no revenue.
3- Yes, the feeling is that the timing of the tournament start is poor for some clubs. The competition used to start either in late April or early May but now begins in March - because MLS pushed the tournament up due to Leagues Cup. However, it feels like the competition had more momentum than ever this year thanks to the early start and Senator Sanders Tweet certainly helped fuel that.
4- YES. In fact the Federation has made the launching of a women’s competition a priority. But NWSL is as entitled if not more so than MLS in the way they often behave so getting them to buy-in may not be easy.
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Q- There’s been talk for decades about the U.S. adopting a European calendar for its seasons but now that MLS (and USL) is committed to a February to late November/December schedule do you think the likes of USL-2 and UPSL will start earlier and finish later to help them in the Open Cup?
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A- UPSL already has gone year-round in some areas of the country. USL-2’s dependence on college players on summer break means they cannot. In terms of flipping the calendar USL was exploring doing it beginning in Summer 2026, going August-May with its pro leagues but those plans have now been abandoned.
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Q- Can you go through the thing you keep talking about on Twitter about amateur teams and their rosters? That’s really interesting stuff.
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A- I will have a piece next week on this. There were various approaches taken by different clubs to their roster build.
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Q- It's really a shame that the Georgia Lions have even been a conversation. If NISA had avoided them, then there might actually be some buzz about the quality of the league. They've made a good showing so far. If Arizona makes a decent showing against Lubbock, then i think there's a lot to look forward to for their season when it does start.
The Vermont Green game is the one I can say "I wish I had been there". With honorable mention for Foro's win, which was a fun game to watch.
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A- NISA’s quality of play was better last season than in the past. It’s a shame we keep having to cover the off-field stuff because it’s clear their teams have gotten better at scouting or elevating talent, whether it's from NISA Nation or other places. NISA is an underrated league on the pitch, but sometimes that doesn’t matter if the business fundamentals are so off.
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Q- Maybe you or Kartik can elaborate about the Georgia Lions or Arizona/Lubbock, as part of the Mailbag? I'm not familiar with either story!
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A–Georgia Lions might not be able to field a team and moved a 100 miles before the season even kicked off. Arizona is a new pro team though they might be tied to the old Valley United FC of NISA that went belly up in midseason 2022.
I am dubious about both these projects but Arizona did make a good showing on the field against a strong Lubbock side from NPSL - one of the standout NPSL clubs.
As for the other two new NISA clubs, Irvine Zeta FC are an established club that’s adding a pro team to a successful amateur one and Capo FC have many years in the lower division ranks. Both will be fine though finding a proper place to play seems to be an issue for Capo FC. But once that’s settled, I am confident they can hack it at the pro level.
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Q-
Chicago City was actually the Chicago Nation UPSL roster. Out of shape and unorganized.
Chicago House also looked pathetically out of shape.
NISA represented itself very well.
This tourney is too early for these lowest leagues... And they seem masochistic. Maybe work on getting butts isn seats rather than bragging about getting drilled every year... But "we qualified for the open cup,"
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A- Great points, again I will have a story on how many clubs that are out of season and hit by this early start to the cup built their rosters.
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QUESTIONS
I noticed there are both a Irvine Zeta I team AND a Irvine Zeta II team, playing in the opening round. Is there an interesting story here?? Which is the stronger team?? And they must have a robust budget and talent to draw from!
How did TWO Irvine Zeta clubs get into the U.S. Open Cup? Wouldn't it be better to have just one Super Team to insure a deep run into the Cup? Or are the loose rostering rules of the U.S. Open Cup such that as long as one of the two teams make it to the next round, the best players of the ousted other team can be recycled into the roster of the progressing Irvine Zeta team?
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ANSWER
Yes and Irvine Zeta II qualified through the qualifying process much like Club de Lyon II had last season, giving that club two shots at Open Cup also last year. Keep in mind the reserve team restriction in USOC applies strictly to professional clubs that manage other pro clubs rosters. Specifically MLS clubs managing MLS Next Pro rosters or in theory if a USL Championship club had a USL League One whose roster they managed.
So in the future, clubs like the Town FC, Huntsville City FC and Ventura County FC will not be allowed to play in USOC if their parent clubs are part of the competition. This provision applies to ROSTER MANAGEMENT specifically not simply ownership. Obviously Town FC and Ventura County FC are independent clubs from a business standpoint but have rosters managed by MLS clubs (San Jose and LA Galaxy respectively). So in theory they are not independent in the eyes of USOC rules even though they are in fact not owned by MLS clubs.
BTW, Irvine Zeta II players are now cup-tied so they CANNOT play for the Senior Team in Round 2 versus Ventura County FC.
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Q) Can USSF mandate that Open Cup matches be played on the weekend? We talk about attendance to me the biggest driver is that the games are midweek. Put them on a weekend and I think you see more fans travel away and more home fans arrive. I personally think how to make the Open Cup can be better but due to USSF, not willing to make it a priority in the schedule, it suffers.
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A) Midweek games are always tough to sell particularly on such a short turnaround. We even see this in Concacaf Champions League and the English League Cup. For me the weekend would be optimal but that would require the leagues being willing to give up a matchday of revenue on the weekends which isn’t happening. Unfortunately.
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Q Why isnt US Soccer putting the open cup matches on YouTube?
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A I think they might for the rest of the tournament, or next year- it was just the late start that did it this time.
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Q Why do you think amateur teams did so well in the First Round?
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A Unlike in England when any amateur (non-league) team beats a pro team (league) it’s considered a huge shock, here the gap between D3 pro and USASA is not quite as deep. In fact I CONSTANTLY see good players at the USASA level that are former pros or will eventually be in the pro game. I first saw Haji Wright play in NPSL for example. That’s just one instance of seeing a guy first there. Scouting in this country isn’t per se as sophisticated as it is elsewhere and in many cases agents are the ones driving the signings.
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Q Why does NPSL and USL League Two get so many entrants but other independent leagues do not?
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A Great question and one which I do need answer in more detail another time but the basics are that NPSL and USL L2 are recognized as national league systems - a decade ago or more NPSL clubs had to go through qualifying just like everyone else did, but now they get several automatic spots based on league position as does USL L2. USPL does not but just this year got its first automatic spot for its national champion. Basically if you are in a non NPSL/USL L2 on-professional league you must go through regional qualifying to be in the competition. Each USASA region gets a qualifier that way. This is a topic I need to write more about in the future because it comes up often and I think for NPSL specifically, the automatic Open Cup spots is a big carrot they’ve held over clubs to stop defections to regional leagues AND pick up new teams.
Thanks, Kartik! This is fantastic content! NOT available anywhere else!