With the NISA offseason beginning to wind down, we’ve been hearing from a lot of league sources and rather than keep that all to myself, I thought I’d share what I’ve heard and am confident is legit. Enjoy.

Fleshing out the Stumptown Situation

In late December, we wrote an article detailing some info we received from an insider. Recently we were contacted by another source in the know who offered their insight, which fleshed out the story a bit.

The Treatment of Stumptown Players - When the players first arrived, they were in an extended stay hotel. The first night there, “the police came three times, not for the players, but for other folks.” After things leveled out, the players were then housed in a dorm-style house. Was the house dirty? Yes, but “they lived in it the way young men in their twenties live without someone to pick up after them.” As far as player pay, “all of them were paid on time,” though sometimes on the 5th instead of the 1st. The only check that was “late” was the last one, which was issued on the 7th.

The Sale of the Club - While the team did have an original investor willing to purchase the team, the debt issue “is not really accurate” (we had reported the league had tried to tack on club debt to the sale). The issue was more that the investor “wanted like three years of them [the league] backing the club and they were like, ‘no, we want to be out of this in ninety days or less.’ If that investor and the league had come to terms, our source speculated that “the front office stays intact, I think Rod is here. I think there's continuity with fans. You build from what was happening.”

Stumptown’s Budget - While we’ve claimed that the team was run on a shoestring budget, a source has informed that is inaccurate. In fact, the team’s player budget was in the top half of the league.

Who’s playing in 2022 - What we know.

Stumptown is out. That information has come from FC Carolina’s head coach who has told multiple former Stumptown players that they are taking the year off. While the original sale agreement had stipulated the club would play in 2022, that came off the table during negotiations.

New Amsterdam FC was out, but may be back on. We’ve heard conflicting reports from people in the know on both sides. We do know for a fact that about two weeks ago, they were out. We’ve heard from a source earlier this week that the situation may have changed.

Chicago House AC is a hard read, but here’s the facts: owned by the Girard family (Laurence’s wife, Lindsey Sacks), cut almost the entire front office in December, has seen a key addition to the club head to Chattanooga. What we’ve been told by one source not directly associated with the club, “honestly both NAFC and CHAC are question marks. If I had to bet, it’s either one of them or neither of them.”

The Rest: CFC, MDB, Stars, Cal United, LA Force, Albion (formerly ‘04) - all seem to be ready to go (not that you would know from social media).

The Expansion Clubs: there was an assumption that this year would see multiple expansion sides enter the league, but at least one club front office person has said there’s questions now - “4 teams announce they are kicking off in 2022 and maybe only 1 does.”

So how many teams will be playing in 2022? Some are speculating as low as 8 clubs, some are saying 10. That might explain the delay in scheduling information.

The Detroit City Deal

According to a source, the much speculated about penalty for breaking the contract was a figure between 1m and 2.5m. While some members of the board wanted to go after the full amount, due to the way Detroit City exited, the settlement was most likely a six figure amount and not well-received by several board members. But as one source described it, ”You have to come to some agreement because your alternative is, you just tell them, they can't leave. Then US Soccer forces them to stay in NISA. And then, you know, you get to go to prom with someone who's dating a new guy. There's no winner in that scenario. Or or even worse, they play in USL Championship and they put an under-23 side or a reserve team in NISA. And potentially still get those results and wipe the floor with everyone and it looks even worse.”

A New Fighter Entering the Ring?

Some of ya’ll spotted a new twitter account, Rome City FC. Follows a 6 accounts, 4 of which are NISA-related. Dan Creel did some quick digging and found this filing below and commented “Zapata is in Roswell, GA, which is next to Alpharetta where the old Atlanta SC would play. Rome, GA is about an hour west.” Could we be seeing the long-awaited “Atlanta NISA” coming together?

Know something I don’t? Shoot me a DM on twitter or an email at danvaughn@protagonistsoccer.com

- Dan Vaughn