Kartik’s Notebook: MLS Next Pro back in the game, USL’s USOC failures, club spending and D1 updates

Another edition of the notebook

Last week, MLS Next Pro expanded to San Francisco via Golden City Football Club (GCFC). While the last effort to place a pro club in the city was that of NASL’s comical San Francisco Deltas (yes they won the league title but were also perhaps the most arrogantly over-hyped yet naively pathetic operation business-wise I have ever seen in the sport at the pro level) a side that was great on the pitch but whose embarrassing way of doing business portended the collapse of the entire league.

The addition of GGFC followed closely on the heels of an impressive announcement including a huge capital investment in Western Michigan. Involved in that group in Grand Rapids is Dan Devos, the type of impressive ownership name that seems to be attracted to MLS and not USL. So perhaps when it is all said and done, MLS Next Pro is back in the game.