I want to give support to my Beyond the 90 colleague, Brett Mullenix who supports USL Championship side Indy Eleven. This entire situation hasn't been easy for him and all those Soccer fans who have pledged their support to this club since their early days at the defunct second coming of the North American Soccer League, then moved to USL, Since the announcement of Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett informing the city's soccer community of an unknown ownership group trying to get an MLS side to interfere with their current side has been bonkers.
The USL will be granted Division 1 status through two possible avenues: (1) US Soccer loses the NASL lawsuit. (2) just a matter of time given the massive growth of soccer in the U.S. US Soccer Div. 1 rules are for 15,000 seat stadiums; over half of the USL Championship teams already play in or are building stadiums of 10,000 that can easily be expanded to 15K (e.g. Rhode Island FC). The other remaining rules (primary owner w/ > $40 million; metro population > 1 million) are easily fulfilled.
Soccer has the youngest demographic of ANY of the top five pro sports in the U.S. ; soccer owns the future over all other sports. The number of fans who choose soccer as their top sport to watch has already surpassed hockey. It is projected to surpass baseball before 2030. As Peter Wilt described in this week's Protagonist Podcast, soccer has already reached an inflection point, a brightest future, when an Appalachian town like Boone, NC with a population of just 15K can consistently draw 2K fans to summer amateur league soccer games. And as reported here in BT90, the Annapolis Blues can draw over 11K fans to an NPSL game!
Well said 👏👏
That guy is becoming too common in media today: be a troll to get attention.
The USL will be granted Division 1 status through two possible avenues: (1) US Soccer loses the NASL lawsuit. (2) just a matter of time given the massive growth of soccer in the U.S. US Soccer Div. 1 rules are for 15,000 seat stadiums; over half of the USL Championship teams already play in or are building stadiums of 10,000 that can easily be expanded to 15K (e.g. Rhode Island FC). The other remaining rules (primary owner w/ > $40 million; metro population > 1 million) are easily fulfilled.
Soccer has the youngest demographic of ANY of the top five pro sports in the U.S. ; soccer owns the future over all other sports. The number of fans who choose soccer as their top sport to watch has already surpassed hockey. It is projected to surpass baseball before 2030. As Peter Wilt described in this week's Protagonist Podcast, soccer has already reached an inflection point, a brightest future, when an Appalachian town like Boone, NC with a population of just 15K can consistently draw 2K fans to summer amateur league soccer games. And as reported here in BT90, the Annapolis Blues can draw over 11K fans to an NPSL game!