Murdering An Idea

There’s a great exchange between the comedian and noted atheist Ricky Gervais and Stephen Colbert on Colbert’s The Late Show. Gervais was asked about his lack of belief in a god by Colbert, a Catholic. In response, Gervais first asked Colbert if he believed in a god, which Colbert admitted. Then Gervais responded, “Okay. But there are about 3,000 to choose from… Basically, you deny one less God than I do. You don’t believe in 2,999 gods. And I don’t believe in just one more.” Rejecting an idea entirely is only a single step further than rejecting all the other forms of an idea.

In 1894, the American Association of Professional Football was formed. It died the same year. In 1921, the American Soccer League, home of Bethlehem Steel and Fall River Marksmen was born. In 1933, facing the financial stress of the Great Depression, it collapsed. In 1960, the International Soccer League was born and in 1965 it withered away. The North American Soccer League, the league that brought Pele to the United States, lived from 1968 to 1984. In 2019, the NPSL Founders Cup, due to the exit of multiple clubs, was renamed and reformulated, effectively killing the competition in its crib. There is a long list (a much, much longer than this very brief list) of men’s and women’s soccer leagues in this country which have died. And there are a hundred different varieties of causes of those deaths, and even that list doesn’t include all of the women’s leagues that have come and gone. So maybe, instead of focusing on the league that died this week (and the new one that took its place), it’s time we found a new perspective of the American idea of soccer leagues.

The collapse of NPSL Founders Cup (and the NPSL may deny it collapsed, but that’s what happened) was brought about by a better resourced, flashier league, and, most importantly, one that has officially earned D3 sanctioning from U.S. Soccer. That league is the National Independent Soccer Association (NISA) and when it was originally formed there was a massive buzz within the lower league soccer press. At its formation, clubs had not been named formally, but NISA announced it would begin play in the Fall of 2018 with 8 teams in multiple markets across the country.

Then the league effectively went silent. So much so that it became a running joke on social media. However, in May of this year there was a shakeup in leadership which led to the exit of Bob Watkins and John Prutch taking over the commissioner’s chair. Since Prutch took over, the league has become much more active online and has quickly gathered new clubs into the league, mostly at the expense of the NPSL and Founders Cup. First, Miami FC and California United Strikers were approved to join the league in the beginning of June. Then, just a couple of weeks later, Oakland Roots, one of the gems of the upcoming Founders Cup, announced they too would be joining NISA in the Spring of 2020.

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After the exit of three of their original “founders,” NPSL was forced to reformulate the pro league from the ground up. Founders Cup had been formed as separate from the NPSL, an entirely independent entity. So much so that the league forwarded information requests about Founders Cup to four FC club owners instead of responding from the league. This week, NPSL announced a rebranding of the pro league - “NPSL Members Cup.” The Members Cup will host 6 teams, with a season to run from August 10th to October 26th. Honestly, no matter how the league spins it, it’s a black eye for the NPSL and hampers their plan to grow a new pro league.

For fans of the NPSL, there is an uncomfortable, almost visceral, response to all of this news. Are the clubs that exited Founders Cup traitors? Should they be seen as opportunists who exploited a situation? Is what they did right or fair? But the tenuous relationship with NISA and its newly-joined clubs is only an extension of the weirdness surrounding professional clubs in the lower leagues in general. While the vast majority of the lower leagues are amateur, many clubs are rumored to pay their players, regardless of league rules. Those rumors swirl every time those clubs succeed on the field, though mostly in anonymous twitter posts and DMs. “You know they pay their players, right? That’s how they win.” Regardless, the idea of clubs paying players is a pressure point for many fans.

So with the emergence of these new “lower league, professional leagues,” fans are often forced to decide the style and designation they prefer to support. Some draw the line at amateurism. Some stick with their clubs as they transitioned. Some are optimistic that this development would lead to promotion/relegation. Some just mock the lower leagues for being confusing and made memes to troll everyone involved. The reality is that the loyalty of the lower league fanbase is being actively fractured and how this all ends is still in the air. But all this fracturing of loyalties is unnecessary and pointless if lower league soccer fans, actually all soccer fans, begin to put club over league.

“Would you stick with the Cleveland Browns if they got relegated to NCAA DII? In the case of Bolton’s fans, the answer is yes.”

It is only in the United States that fans are pushed to be fans of a league. The concept of a league is dominate in American sports. Consider the National Football League and its monopoly over the sport of american football. There are competing football leagues, of course, but most of those are seen as a joke and not taken seriously by fans of the sport. The NFL is seen as the only important pro league in the sport and the league has groomed this image to maintain its control over fans and their dollars. The other big sports league in this country have all taken similar approaches. Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the National Hockey League (NHL) have all groomed the idea that their leagues are the best in their respective sports. It’s good business sense. If people believe you to be the best, they’ll be fans of your member clubs, driving up the worth of your league. American sports leagues have done such a great job at propagating this idea that the major American sports leagues are now worth hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars. But you don’t have to buy that idea.

While the English Premier League (EPL) is also worth billions of dollars (maybe trillions, honestly), that league doesn’t hold value the way the American systems do. In English soccer, the EPL is nothing more than a container for the clubs that play within it in a given season. Underperform and you’re out. Manchester City, who won the league last season, was relegated as recently as 2001. Manchester City fans weren’t told to root for Manchester United when their club was relegated. They simply cheered for their club to win the Championship (the name of the second tier English League) and regain promotion to the top tier. That would be even more complicated for fans of a club like Bolton Wanderers, who have dipped in and out of the top tier and who were just relegated to the third tier after a season of massive financial hardship. Would you stick with the Cleveland Browns if they got relegated to NCAA DII? In the case of Bolton’s fans, the answer is yes.

Image from Wikipedia and is the work of Wikipedia contributor EclecticArkie

Image from Wikipedia and is the work of Wikipedia contributor EclecticArkie

That’s because the idea of a league, regardless of how famous it is, means nothing more than the quality of the clubs that populate the table. If your club can’t measure up, it will end up in the level that it can compete at. Loyalty to the club is encouraged, because the league is always secondary from the fan’s perspective.

It’s easy to get hung up on leagues, particularly in the United States. The US Soccer Federation and this country’s soccer media is so guilty of this. Major League Soccer (took a long time to get to MLS, but here it is) began play in 1996, formed to meet the FIFA qualifications for hosting the 1994 World Cup. While the league has struggled, it has managed to grow to the point of sport dominance in the United States. The level of play within the league is good enough to be the best in the country, but it has woefully underperformed against clubs from other leagues, particularly against Liga MX clubs. In fact, in CONCACAF Champions League (previously known as Champions League Cup), the only formal head-to-head competition between members of the two leagues, it has been 19 years since the last MLS club won the title. In that time, a Mexican side has won 17 titles (Costa Rican teams won in 2004 and 2005). So the league is clearly inferior to continental competition, let alone the massive European leagues that dominate the sport.

Christos celebrates against DC United. Image courtesy of Baltimore Sun.

Christos celebrates against DC United. Image courtesy of Baltimore Sun.

Regardless of this inferiority in quality, MLS continues to be the only league focused on by the national media, NWSL included. The Federation seems intent on focusing entirely on setting the league up for success, even at the detriment of the leagues that fill the pyramid below the top tier. Consider the U.S. Open Cup. The scheduling has been criticized by lower league clubs for years as being difficult at best (in some cases impossible) for clubs not in MLS. The competition forces grassroot clubs to play 3 or 4 rounds of qualifying matches before even entering the competition, while MLS clubs do not enter the competition until the 4th round and often host matches, forcing the less-funded club to shoulder travel expenses. If a lower league club makes it to the 4th round, which rarely happens (Christos in 2017), they typically must play 7 or 8 matches to get to there.

Some might argue that the white-gloved treatment of MLS is due to the track record of league failure in the United States. Those people are thinking about the situation from a league centric perspective. If MLS was simply the name of the top tier and not a single-entity monster clinging to the top of the pyramid, the league would simply expand and contract as clubs exited downward and entered upward. The focus would be on the success and failure of the clubs and the sport itself, the league would be secondary. And yes, that is an argument for promotion/relegation, but fans of MLS clubs would be less wary of the idea if the focus was less on MLS and more on the clubs that filled the league currently.

Don Garber, Commissioner of MLS, has sold an idea to the American soccer fan. That idea has been regurgitated by the soccer media figures in this country. That same idea has been saluted and heralded by the Federation. That idea is that the league is more important than the clubs that exist within it. That idea has worked for every other league in the United States, so far. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

So instead of bemoaning the loss of Founders Cup and trying to decide what to make of NISA, maybe it’s time for American soccer fans to consider looking at leagues differently. Only one fan base has been aggressive and public about their feelings on the matter. And while Northern Guard supporters can be rough around the edges and irritate with their over-the-top support for their club, they are absolutely correct about this - club over league. If there is anything that the history of American soccer has proven, it is that leagues will come and go. But, more importantly, when the fans back their club, they will last forever.

- Dan Vaughn

From Fan to Media Member: Jay Riddle

Jay Riddle is synonymous with the exponential growth of Atlanta United supporter culture. From his numerous ATLUTD hype videos to the popular podcast he cohosts, Unrelegated, Riddle is riding the wave of Atlanta’s success. We sat down to discuss his many projects, the dominance of his favorite MLS side, and the rise of new journalism.

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Hey Jay! Tell us about yourself.

I'm a bit of a nomad who's lived all over the midwest and northeast before finding myself in Atlanta, Georgia some 15 odd years ago. Now, even though I'm a transplant, I consider myself an ATLien at heart and have really immersed myself in MLS and Atlanta United culture since the team's inception a few years ago and part of the way I stay plugged into everything Atlanta United is through co-hosting the Unrelegated podcast with Kelly Frances and Jessica Charman. I have a number of team-centric tattoos that have become a part of my story and I've recently developed a passion for creating Atlanta United hype videos that I publish to the Unrelegated YouTube channel which I use to tell stories about the team, supporter culture, and players through music and editing that I believe go beyond your everyday "goals/skills" highlight videos -- or at least I hope people that watch them can see (and feel) that. It's been a wild couple of years, to say the least.

Your podcast, Unrelegated, is really catching on, can you give non-listeners a nutshell version?

What started as a guy and girl recording their instant reactions after watching the LA Galaxy versus Atlanta United match last spring live in a bar has turned into quite the adventure. Last year, in addition to recording after home matches, Kelly and I visited 13 different watch party locations all over Georgia where we pulled in and interviewed supporters, soccer journalists, recognizable media personalities like Kevin Egan, Dan Gargan, and Jillian Sakovits, and more -- all in person. We also did some experimental "travelogue" episodes when I traveled to an away match at NYCFC and Kelly went to an LA Galaxy match and got a tour of the trophies, kit room, and so on. I also did an episode on the road where I flew to Nebraska to meet with NPSL side "The Bugeaters" owner, the Cooligans, Daryl and Taylor of the Total Soccer Show, and the leaders  of American Outlaws all in one episode! That was crazy. You won't find us doing a lot of phone interviews. We really try to say community focused and explore Atlanta United culture, with some crossover into grassroots soccer locally, charitable podcast-a-thons for local grassroots soccer organizations like Soccer in the Streets, and tailgate culture. Lastly, we have a new member of the team, Jessica Charman, who works for Soccer in the Streets and provides some great perspective coming from England, and playing goal keeper through college. Her and Kelly are joining forces to record a bi-weekly podcast called "Queens of the South" which publishes to the Unrelegated podcast feed. If you're looking for in depth analysis of matches and statistical breakdowns we probably aren't what you're looking for.

Podcasting is the new media outlet, it seems, why do you think that is happening?

I don't know if it's all that new, but it does seem to be growing and evolving. I think it’s one of the quickest ways to get information or find people that share your interests or talk on topics you enjoy. And now I think podcasting is often extended into the digital realm thanks to technology so you see a lot more podcasters simultaneously recording their podcasts on Facebook Live, or YouTube or even broadcasting live and posting the podcast so people can interact with the show much in the same way you can with Twitch streamers. It's a brave new world, and we've got some of own adventures into the digital media realm in store. We'll be gradually revealing more of our plans up until the Atlanta United regular season home opener. Stay tuned!

What makes a good podcast?

I think there are a lot of different and unique things that can make a good podcast. I'll come at it from the angle of "what really grinds my gears", though. I tend to focus in on audio quality, authenticity, and engagement. There's nothing worse than listening to a podcast that has garbled audio, or poor mixing where you can barely hear one person, and the other person blows out your eardrums. I also think most people have an ear for what may be well organized content, but organic vs clearly scripted content. If you want to record scripted content, go sign up for a slot on your local public broadcasting station and read from a teleprompter. Ain't nobody got time for that. Lastly, if the podcast doesn't engage with the listener in some fashion these days, I think you're missing the plot. Your listeners are your lifeblood. Why wouldn't you address them, loop them in, and make them feel apart of your family. Whether that's reading reviews, emails/tweets, or doing what we do where we share events we'll be at and encourage our listeners to join us, and sometimes even record with us. But some minimal amount of listener engagement is important in my books.

What podcasts do you listen to?

I have a rotation because I've gotten to the point where I'm spending so much of my free time CREATING content now, that I don't have as much time to listen to podcasts as I did a year ago. Here's my current "Top 5":

  • The Cooligans

  • Soccer Down Here

  • Home Before Dark - Atlanta United FC Weekly

  • ExtraTime Radio

  • Solids & Stripes (new!)

Your podcast is focused on ATL UTD. Feelings on the Cup win?

What an emotional roller coaster. I don't think it ever felt real until we beat New York Red Bulls after getting our asses handed to us by them all season. I teared up, Kelly cried, and what's a rare occasion -- I was speechless for almost ten minutes after the final whistle. I'm not going to use this to recap all the things the team did or didn't do to get there, about the player chemistry, Tata Martino, the parade, so on and so forth. What I will say is that the entire run to the MLS Cup help inspire me to create some videos to the theme "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us" by Starship which was a springboard to the passion for videography I have now. So, without MLS Cup, I may not have started learning how to edit video. In the end, I think it was validation for Atlanta United fans that the team, how they do business, all of it -- much to the chagrin of a lot of other MLS fans. But more importantly, it meant our supporters went on a journey through the playoffs and MLS Cup together that only solidified the words uttered by Josef Martinez in a Player Tribute article earlier last season: "Atlanta es familia." 

Will ATL UTD take CCL seriously?

Deadly serious. I think you see it in the lineups our new coach, Frank de Boar, is putting out in these preseason "friendlies". While other teams are just getting ramped up, getting looks at reserve team members, cycling reps to avoid too much physicality too soon; you see Atlanta United clearly preparing to start a major tournament in just a few weeks. I believe the team has been very open about CCL being their number one priority, even above MLS Cup.

Shake up in head coach got you worried at all?

I think there are always concerns when a team rotates players, but especially coaches. Tata Martino and Frank de Boer are extremely different culturally, and from what little we saw on a streamed preseason match with Tijuana's reserves, he's trying different formations and tactics from what the players were used to last year. Not drastically different, but partly (I think) as a result of Miguel Almiron no longer being there and Frank's philosophies -- especially defensively and how the team must maintain more possession. It means they can't rely as much on the Josef/Miggy counter-attack and have to integrate Pity Martinez and Ezequiel Barco into the squad which changes the dynamic in the midfield.  The shape we saw was exciting to see. The soccer was very fluid, and the attack looked insanely aggressive. There are also other differences between coaches. I've been informed of from sources that point out that Tata Martino had a larger staff than Frank de Boer has, and Tata let his assistants run large parts of training. Frank seems to be in control of everything and has the final say. And although his assistant coach, Orlando Trustfull, is engaged somewhat in training, it's clear that Frank is running the show and he likes to get stuck in himself. You can tell he really enjoys playing, and uses that as a primary way of connecting with his players. In contrast, Tata connected with players off the pitch at an emotional level -- almost like a father figure, and it didn't hurt that he's revered as a legend by the South American players. It feels like Frank is the spearhead in Darren Eales' and Carlos Bocanegra's plans to model themselves more like a big European club. You can tell by just how they run the club from the facilities, the types of player moves taking place this season -- all which is to be expected if they're trying to elevate themselves into the global market so they can become an attractive selling club to teams in Europe, and ironically, even back to South America. However, nothing I've seen so far raises any major concerns. We really won't know how well the transition is going until the team faces some real adversity so we can see how they handle it.

You're an MLS guy, thoughts on Pro/Rel?

I'll just say this. I support our local grassroots clubs. I sometimes drive an hour and a half south of where I am in Atlanta to watch NPSL side Georgia Revolution play matches at a high school football stadium. I've visited with Jonathan Collura, owner of the Bugeaters, and spent hours and hours driving around Nebraska with him, going to their training, and learning about the joy some owners get by running these clubs and helping young guys have a place to play in the summer, and often elevate their prospects for moves to the USL, or even lower league teams in England (thanks fo Jonathan's connections and previous experience owning clubs in the 5th division in England). It has been eye opening. I'm really keen on seeing how NPSL Pro works. I'm excited about the increasing number of teams in the Southeast across the UPSL, NPSL, and USL. I've learned a lot about the struggle teams faces when they are relegated and quite often, promoted where they have to suddenly compete at another level financially. We've seen teams go bankrupt in England trying to avoid relegation. It's a messy business. I think if it's going to work, NPSL Pro is the best potential use case as to whether Pro/Rel can work. I don't think it's a good fit for MLS and I don't forsee any model in the next decade where Pro/Rel would become viable to MLS. MLS will, however, need to start decentralizing their control over certain aspects and allow more MLS teams to fail as the league grows stronger. Until the league reaches a level where teams can afford to fail without shutting down, parity will remain the path set by MLS for the foreseeable future.

Do you follow any lower tier clubs?

Yes! I'm a member of the Uprising Revs supporter group which supports NPSL side Georgia Revolution, an NPSL. I'm waiting to see what happens with Atlanta SC (previously Silverbacks). It's unclear what their path forward will look like.

One criticism of Atlanta soccer fans is the lack of interest in the Silverbacks. Why the indifference? Is the criticism fair?

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You may get different reasons from every person you talk to, and that's because I believe there are a myriad of reasons, but a bad stadium leasing deal, the fact they don't even own the rights to their own name, and a history of poor treatment of the team by ownership and a lack of investment. The venue is falling apart, to be honest. It's really disappointing. It began to kill any sense of enjoyment from attending matches. East Atlanta is also not an ideal geographic location to attract fans during rush hour on a weeknight. The team's schedule would constantly change because they had to play around other activities hosted at the venue which made it difficult to predict and follow. I know some of the staff at the Silverbacks. There are people there trying to work hard to turn things around. Unfortunately, for a lot of fans it's too little too late. And now, after being held hostage for years by their current venue's ownership, they have decided to find somewhere else to live. Unfortunately, the owner of "Silverbacks Park" owns the rights to the name. So they are now moving forward as "Atlanta SC". I hope to get in touch with someone from the communications team there to get on the podcast and talk about their roadmap.

Chips Ahoy - Original or Chewy?

Chewy. All Day. Don't @ Me. Original are for savages.

For more information about Unrelegated, hit up their website.