Alright, it's over. The U.S. Soccer AGM has come and gone.

Saturday started early with a light breakfast in the atrium outside the main ballroom at the Atlanta Marriott, and you could visibly see the hitch in most folks' giddy-up - the result of a long but fun Friday night.

After some orange juice - The Outsider needs no caffeine! - we settled into our pre-arranged seats for the actual AGM.

There was a well-produced video celebrating U.S. Soccer's 2024 calendar year and all its champions - even surprisingly including NISA's Los Angeles Force - and a long-winded yet completely scripted message from FIFA President Gianni Infantino. Predictably, he made everyone wince and cringe with the football/soccer joke 3-4 times while talking about this year's Club World Cup and the extended 48-team FIFA World Cup in '26.

That hollow moment was followed by U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone and CEO J.T. Batson's respective reports, and the votes on bylaw amendments. Two proposed amendments were dropped on the floor, but the most contentious involved term limits for board members increasing from 2 years to 4 years. Valid arguments were made for and against and in the end the motion prevailed, meaning a big change in governance for U.S. Soccer's board.

Maine Soccer, U.S. Dwarf Futbol & Utah Soccer were among those admitted as new association members, and two persons, one from Connecticut and another from Washington, received lifelong membership status.

It also was announced that this September's USASA meetings have been moved from St. Paul, Minn. to Chicago, and that the '26 U.S. Soccer AGM will be back in Atlanta, albeit at a different hotel.

For those here this weekend, the entrance to the Atlanta Marriott was under construction every day, leaving a big eyesore in the foyer that left organizers disappointed and embarrassed, and Cone said that the venue would change for next year's meeting.

We all then received a tour of the new Arthur M. Blank U.S. Soccer National Training Center in Fayetteville, Ga., but the site is mostly foundation, girders and earth movers at the moment, and therefore quite uneventful. It should be completed by this time next year, when a proper tour will be warranted.

I took a nice nap when we returned to the hotel, then got all spiffy for the Awards Reception and Dinner.

More free drinks, more conversations and more drinks. Plaques were handed out and photos taken, then everyone filed out of the ballroom to find that the hotel had closed its central bar early because it wasn't busy. And let me tell you - Marriott lost out on a ton of money on this night because everyone left for one of the nearby drinking holes instead.

Finished my night gabbing with a pair of like-minded gents about the need for an opposition party in U.S. Soccer, someone who understands the forces at play and is committed to questioning the status quo, yet resolute in the face of insurmountable odds.

Is there anyone out there like that? Hard to see at this point, and not just because of all the free drinks this weekend.

But we are all in this together - Insiders & Outsiders - and we have to be in it for the long haul.

Yours from Atlanta,

The Outsider