Part 3 with NISA Commissioner John Prutch: Open systems, relationships with amateur leagues, supporting troubled clubs, local derbies and much more
Part 1: Atlanta and Savannah situations
Part 3: Today
Part 4: Open Cup, PRO/REL, PLS and Independent Cup (tomorrow)
In this portion of the interview with NISA Commissioner John Prutch we get into the NISA’s relationship with other leagues and lower divisions. Can NISA create an open system if they are not working with other entities? Why do NISA clubs have such struggles in terms of developing meaningful business relationships in local markets as well as in terms of local relevance? Will NISA be more proactive in the future with helping struggling clubs because we’ve seen too many clubs in the league fail or limp to a finish line in a given season.
I wouldn’t say any part of the interview was truly testy, but in this portion, I pushed back more than in the first two segments. And by pushing in certain directions the interview seems to have yielded some interesting answers from Commissioner Prutch in terms of the league offices role in helping clubs on the business side.
Based on this feedback, it’s a truly new day for NISA in terms of understanding the proper role of a league. “Independence” is all good and well as a tag line but that doesn’t mean the wild wild west is viable alternative to the centralized model of MLS or the franchise-based model of USL.
Additionally the role of local derbies was discussed.
This past weekend, LA Force opened their season against new local rivals Irvine Zeta FC. The match was played at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Long Beach, the new home of the LA Force. The Force is owned by Bob Friedland, whose influence over NISA as a league cannot be understated. It is Friedland who effectively controls much of the decision-making at the league level.
LA Force is linked to Friedland’s massive network of youth and development clubs in southern California, but the pro club he owns has never had a stable home base or identity. With the entry of Irvine Zeta FC into the league, effectively a replacement for the defunct Cal United Strikers, as well as Capo FC, who are also in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, local derbies are back in NISA for 2024.
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KK: You've got a new stadium situation, a better stadium situation now for LA Force after being vagabonds for years. Do you think this helps that club finally settle and link their pro club with their numerous development and amateur clubs Bob Friedland (LA Force owner) run? And the second part of that question would be, you've got now, again, several clubs in Southern California, and how can they feed off of the strength of the LA Force now that they've got an anchor stadium?Also given Irvine Zeta’s track record of amateur success do you expect them to be very competitive in year one in the league? I tend to think they’ll be very good from day one. (the day after this interview, Irvine Zeta FC beat Ventura County FC, which the LA Galaxy second team, of MLS Next Pro 3-0 away from home in the US Open Cup, a clear statement of intent to compete)
JP: I think it's been critical - I used to joke with Bob, that we're gonna call them the Rovers. Good soccer name. Yeah, but you know, when the pandemic hits, LA County just, you know, shut down. I mean, you know, it just got ridiculous. And so the fact that they're settled now is great. I think LA Force is always competitive on the pitch, and this will be the first time when they're going to have an opportunity to be competitive off the pitch. And so I'm very pleased for them. Regarding the other clubs in Southern California, I think, you know, I'm a big believer in the open system. and I love derbies, right, I think LA Force when Cal United was in the league, or it was a great derby. And I think that's going to happen again, with Zeta, I think you're right, Zeta's going to be good, they're going to surprise some people. And Capo, we'll see, right? I mean... Peter Carey at Capo, he's just a wonderful guy, he's created a hell of a community club. I think it's going to take him a year or two to figure it out on the pitch. They're gonna be dangerous. And so it's gonna be fun. I think it's gonna be a lot of fun to see that all work out.
The the move of clubs from NISA Nation, you've got Las Vegas next year you offered promotion to Nova FC. They turned it down, but you've got Capo and Zeta. Those two are actually pretty competitive as we saw in the first round of the Open Cup, Club De Lyon has moved from NISA Nation when you had a Florida division up into NISA.
KK: How much are you counting on NISA Nation and then also other amateur leagues, right? I mean Georgia Lions come from USL League 2, you have clubs that have come from NPSL, Maryland has come from the Eastern Premier League and via Independent Cup. How much does the health of these other amateur leagues help you? How important is that to you building NISA and then creating some sort of open system with synergies? I mean it’s one thing for closed leagues to sit in their own vacuums, but don’t you as an aspiring open system need other leagues to be successful in order to be successful?
JP: Well you know you look back and when I was probably 20 or maybe 21 and we were trying to figure out a way to work with an amateur system because I knew that we had to build a foundation if this thing was going to make it. Because when I looked at NASL and what happened there and there were you know there are a lot of contributing factors but one of which was not having that direct feeder system, right?
KK: Correct. As someone who worked in that league we tried to link up with NPSL several times. Starting in 2010 when we had NPSL attend a board meeting in Montreal. Some sort of tie-up happened eventually but not on the level I envisioned. I even wanted to have single point of administration for both leagues - truly link them. But you similarly were trying to link up with them at some point, correct? So how did you get to NISA Nation? Why didn’t you work with other national leagues?
JP: Yeah we had conversations early on with NPSL and we had them with UPSL. we just couldn't get there for whatever reason and so I started looking around and I started asking questions about the regional leagues right the EPSLs and etc and I and everybody said that'll never work there you know they're a bunch of independent premier leagues that they're never gonna be unified and so it took us a couple years but we did we got them unified and today they participate with NISA Nation in our NISA Nation national championship they represent about 200 clubs across the country and they're united in the cause right which is community clubs and independent clubs and all the tenants of the open system including solidarity payments and you know we're the the first league where we will pay solidarity payments, for development of an amateur player that gets his first pro contract and that I don't know, about 12, 15 of them or something like that over the last couple of years.
(KK Commentary- MLS claims they pay solidarity payments in the form of grants to clubs in MLS Next. And MLS most certainly does pay solidarity payments to Canadian youth clubs But in this case, I do side with NISA in saying they are the first actually paying them to US youth clubs in the spirit of FIFA’s rules)
So I think, and then that went hand in hand then with the independent cup, right, and so getting exposure, getting kids, young men, exposure to the pro side, the pro side exposure to the amateur talent as well as the amateur clubs, and that has really worked out well for us. And so when Nova plays Las Vegas legends in the NISA Nation National Championship, and I don't know, there were a number of teams, players off those two teams that got signed as a result of that.
And so I think it's, it's, you have to have that foundation. So if you look at Vegas, they decided yes we'll accept the promotion, we want to take a year and develop ourselves, and they're doing that. They're doing all the things that we're asking them to do to get ready. That doesn't guarantee success, but it does help us get clubs ready. And because it's one thing to be ready on the pitch, it's quite another to be ready off the pitch, right. And so we, the other thing that we've done this year is to help our clubs, both those clubs that are in the league and those clubs that think are good prospects. We tried this in the past and it hasn't worked out. where we will provide services, sales, marketing, community relations type services.
KK: Let me jump in here. Quite frankly last year I was very hard on Club de Lyon, but the transition from amateur to pro is extremely tough. So during the winter, I got around to thinking how can I blame that club if the league isn’t there to create a support system for them? How can I blame a club that’s employing local players? Have they been given the needed support? I mean this is something in my opinion that has to be done. You can’t expect Nova and Vegas to mortgage their future without a proper system of support and preparation?
JP: So, last summer, I started really thinking, I knew that Chattanooga was leaving and, and Detroit had already left and they had done a really good job off the pitch, right? Chattanooga never won a championship with NISA on the pitch, but they were champions off the pitch, right? Yeah. And so how do we recreate that? And, and, and so I had this idea. A business relationship, a historical business relationship with a guy that owns a few independent baseball teams, minor league. And I started having conversations with him about, you know, how did you take this club XYZ and take it from, you know, losing a half million, three quarters of a million dollars. a year to making a half a million, three quarters of a million dollars a year. It took three years and I thought to me a certain thing to myself, there it is. right? They play independent baseball in this country. If you look at those clubs around the country, you know, they tie themselves in with sponsors and the community and ticket sales, group sales, everything, everything you should be doing. So I introduced our newest staff member in December at our AGM, and he came from independent baseball. Now, because it's an independent club model, we can't force it on people, but I would say two -thirds of our teams are doing it, including a couple that are anticipated to be coming up in next year and it is it'll take time but I think we're gonna see the results that out of this group of clubs that we now have we'll see the next Detroit City or the next Chattanooga off the pitch where they start really tying themselves into the community so I'm cautiously optimistic that I've kind of thought I'm thinking outside the box but it might work but it seems to be taking root so I'm pleased with it so far,
KK: That is a great segue commissioner, because NISA clubs have had struggles in terms of attendance and brand building locally. So how do you build more local relevance for your clubs I mean obviously the clubs we've mentioned that have left- Chattanooga, Flower City, Detroit they've had more success with that but obviously local players you look at Club de Lyon this year they've signed some big guys but last year the entire roster was from Orlando or Daytona right from the places they're playing and you can see that kind of theme with the Maryland Bobcats who moved several players onward to higher -level league. So, is there something you think that you got your teams could be doing better to connect with local communities? Because clearly from my vantage point the attendance and local media coverage isn’t good enough. You can say clubs are independent but at some point there have to be baselines to meet, correct?
JP:. I think We do a really good job soccer wise. I think our clubs do a really good job on the pitch. I really do. I think that there's a lot of talent available in this country that wants to play professional soccer and I think we have the coaches and the sporting directors out there that can find it.
Where we fail is on off the pitch And not in all cases, but in some cases and it's really tying ourselves into the community into the charity charitable organizations inside that community and becoming an active member of the community and the more we do that and that's what Brian who I was referring to(new staff member) Is doing the more we do that? The more we tie ourselves into the community, the more success we'll have off the pitch. And, but it takes time, it just doesn't snap your fingers and it happens. You look at Chattanooga, they've been around, 12 years or more and, it took time for them to develop that. And it will take us time, but I think we're headed in the right direction.
Tomorrow we’re going to get into a heavier discussion of the nuts and bolts of an open system, MLS’ attitude toward US Open Cup, NISA’s own Independent Cup and what a built-out open divisional set up looks like.
Getting someone that has independent baseball experience is a smart move. I hope they can figure out how to truly help clubs get better community engagement (and revenue).
"Independent baseball" = stable, community-supported baseball stadium to play in. There have been no examples of "roving" baseball teams succeeding sustainably in modern times! So the NISA commish has not really addressed this massive elephant in the room. It would make as much or more sense to hire a "Head of Real Estate/Venue developer" for NISA, than just some random ex-baseball guy.....