A Florida Soccer Proposal

When you’re the editor of a website run entirely by volunteers, focused on a subject near and dear to readers all over the country, sometimes something fun just falls into your lap. We were approached on twitter by Carlos Budyszewick (on twitter) about his idea for a state-wide Florida pyramid. How could we resist? So the following is a thought experiment by Carlos on what the “Florida Premier League” would look like. We enjoyed it very much, we hope you do too.

- Dan

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Division 1 FPL – Florida Premier League

Within the USSF 1st Division it would have to start with 12 teams and grow to at least 14 by year 3 to meet PLS which also has other requirements such as Ownership net worth, larger stadia, broadcasting and would have to play in Eastern, Central & Pacific time zones.

Not being in a USSF sanctioned leagued means that the league wouldn’t be associated with FIFA or eligible for any of its tournaments, but how much does this actually matter? The league could declare itself as a top division league that only operates out of the state of Florida.

• If Florida was a country - 16th largest economy in the world at nearly $1 trillion USD & 58th most populous at around 21.3 million.

• It is the 3rd largest state by population behind California and Texas

• Home to 52 billionaires

• There is no state level income tax.

• The state is almost entirely in 1 time zone Eastern standard, the western most part of the panhandle is Central.

• The travel for the league would be far less expensive than nationwide or coastal conferences.

• Expect mergers, corporate sponsorships and new owners.

• Florida is warm/hot year round, winters are great and the state is a desirable destination for players. Although, it does have a rainy/hurricane season, because of this a league would play from late October at the earliest to early June at the latest.

• A regional TV deal to start, you don’t have to start with trying to acquire a nationwide broadcasting deal.

• League should sell league naming rights

• The league could grow by not relegating teams out of the first division immediately.

• The league system should definitely have administrative relegation

• If the league chooses to grow rather than relegate when it hits 12 teams it should only play home and away once. 16 teams max and that’s stretching it.

  Requirements/Consideration for first season of first division

• Current fan base and a venue that can hold 1000 people to start in this division

• Have a youth academy.

• While this list does include some of the best teams in the state it also keeps in mind financial backing, fan base, and the attempts to spread the league across the state.

• It does not include MLS sides in Orlando and Miami because as interesting as that would be It’s not probable. (I mean this whole thing isn’t but you know what I mean)

• 4 of these team would also have to start paying players by the 2nd season (any amount), teams should pay their players what they can afford without pressure from the league. Players will move if they wish to potentially weakening teams paying less.

• Player contracts are necessary once in the league.

Branding

• Teams must have a unique identity - avoid copying or ownership with branding of teams abroad. They don’t have to be good as that is subjective; however, they should be original.

• These are first teams, meaning they should not have the words such as Academy or School in their name and all team including second teams should not have t “U, U-” in their name to denote age of players

2nd Division

All the USL League 2 teams are here because of their ability & experience traveling & financial backing. Their biggest challenge will be playing in a different season without the benefit of college players.

You might have noticed that Orlando went unrepresented in the 1st division; so why are Panthers in the 2nd division? Well they are able to travel statewide we know this from their time in NPSL, however they aren’t one of the stronger sides and Orlando is basically owned by the MLS side. A merger between them and Sea Wolves seems best and interesting.

An argument could be made that a few teams in this division should play in the first division however they might not have the travel experience, front office structure, or might be overshadowed by another team in their market.

Soldiers is an example of a strong enough side for 1st division overshadowed by other teams in their market and their front offices. However, they should see promotion quick. Soldiers and Miami Sun are two top teams in the UPSL who have a rivalry that can be fueled by being in the same division.

The travel required here is a huge jump for any promoted side. Soldiers and Miami Sun will be tested here.

• 500 capacity stadium to play in this division

• Ability to travel Statewide

3rd Division

Rivalries are embraced here every game is a battle between familiar faces.

2 Gulf Coast NPSL teams are here to ease travel keeping them in North and Central Florida rather than statewide, they also help prep teams for travel should they move up. They can maintain a rivalry while in the same division. Pensacola would have to adjust to losing an hour whenever they are away. Away teams luckily gain an hour and they will need it considering how far Pensacola is.

Arguments can be made that there are a few sides good enough to be in the second division; however, most of these teams are not accustomed to traveling especially out of the south group and most of them don’t try to appeal to fans meaning a lack of commercial & gameday income.

Travel in the 3rd Division should be manageable for teams moving up from the 4th division it will be more difficult for the northern teams.

When teams get relegated here the next season they will be place in either group A or B whichever makes most sense, for all intents and purposes I labeled them as North and South, but the groups aren’t necessarily constricted by North and South and teams can find themselves playing in group A one season and B another depending on the newly promoted and relegated teams.

4th Division - FML Florida Metro Leagues – The Metro Division

This is the highest division any 2nd teams can start at – which helps to add professionalism and organization to the division while also preventing teams from immediately controlling a regions player pool.

A clubs cannot operate two clubs in the same division.

Group A - is comprised of UPSL Orlando teams primarily however a fifth division could be run by CFSL who could inject teams into lower localized divisions. There could also be additions of UPSL II sides.

Atletico Orlando previously branded as Sea wolves 2 – I don’t really know what is going on here, I’d like to have put them with Tropics or in the 2nd division, but they haven’t done well outdoors. They need a rebrand. A merger with Central Florida would be interesting.

Group B - Essentially it’s the Tampa Bay area, could be run by FSSL as many teams are currently apart of this USASA league or have played there before. FSSL has lower divisions and Pro/Rel which could establish lower localized divisions.

Group C - Central Broward & Palm Beach with one 2nd team in St. Martin, primarily filled with FGCL teams it has the benefit being run by FGCL organizers Lauderdale SC. Palm Beach Breakers as a FGCL team would best fit here pre NISA, for that reason I put Gold coast here. Gold Coast being here fuels two rivalries they currently have against Himmarshee & FSI Vultures. Himmarshee & PB Breakers/Gold coast are also very active within FGCL and social media, they would do a great job at helping set an example for the division & getting exposure. The addition of Brothers strengthens the division. CASA & BASL could potential get involved in the division and creating a fifth divisions with more teams.

Group D - South Broward and Miami Dade, part UPSL II part FGCL. Miami Soccer Academy who fielded for storm fc this past season run Romero cup in Miami and does a good job filming games, they could be hugely helpful to teams in this division. Having Soldiers 2 (u23), Miami United U23 & Red Force 2 keeps things plenty competitive and strengthens the division.

Plenty of Miami leagues could get involved in a 5th division of groups that would be played at parks and act as a player pool.

A Pyramid Primer

A big part of soccer fandom is discussing the current state of your (or another) country’s soccer hierarchy. That hierarchy, commonly called the “pyramid”, is the overall structure of where leagues and clubs sit within the greater soccer landscape. Even without knowledge of local eccentricities, the pyramids of more mature soccer nations tend to be easily understood. But, in the US, the opaque, often disorganized, governing structure has led to a pyramid generally difficult to understand even by those of us who dwell in the lower league hinterlands.

As a public service, we present the Protagonist US Soccer Pyramid Primer. Cut out, fold, and stick in your back pocket so it’s handy for those times when you want to school an MLS zombie on the finer points of league sanctioning.

The Governing Bodies

To begin, FIFA, the world’s soccer football governing body, sanctions six continental governing bodies of which CONCACAF is one. CONCACAF is the sport’s governing body for North America, Central America and the Caribbean. The US Soccer Federation is the governing body for soccer football in the United States, and USSF is both a national association member of FIFA and a member of CONCACAF.

The Professional Leagues

USSF directly sanctions three tiered Divisions each of men’s outdoor, women’s outdoor, and indoor professional soccer leagues. The Federation’s Professional League Standards governs the necessary requirements for these pro leagues, with the top Divisions having the highest standards and the third Divisions having the lowest. The PLS sets forth basic league requirements such as minimum number of teams and required participation in US soccer competitions. It also sets forth more detailed club requirements such as size of stadia, coaching, media, front office, youth academy, and player development requirements. But, the highest priority for the Federation is the financial viability requirements that ensure clubs have principal owners with a high individual net worth. While the USSF aren’t as stringent about many of the organizationals requirements they are strict about clubs proving the financial viability requirements.

A professional league logo that didn’t need an explainer.

Professional leagues are the only leagues that USSF directly sanctions and the Federation has no policies that give any of its Organization Members the power to sanction professional leagues. Given those points, the USSF has the exclusive control of professional soccer in the US and chooses to only directly control professional soccer.

Everything Else

USSF cedes direct control of all amateur soccer, adult, youth, or otherwise, to external organizations that are members of USSF. And, that is where things get complicated.

All these different member organizations have different priorities and different geographical reaches. So, inevitably, there is overlap which leads to confusion about what these organizations do and what it means to be under the umbrellas of these organizations.

At the largest scope are the National Associations. These NAs are amateur soccer organizations which compete in at least 26 states, have at least 1000 players registered in each of 26 states, and have over 200,000 registered players in the US. National Affiliates are slightly smaller in that they must compete in at least 26 states but have no requirement on the number of players. US Youth Futsal is currently the only National Affiliate.

There are only four NAs. US Youth Soccer Association and American Youth Soccer Association focus on amateur youth soccer. US Club Soccer deals with both amateur youth and amateur adult soccer. And, the US Adult Soccer Association (USASA) focuses solely on adult amateur soccer. AYSA and US Club Soccer are also affiliates of USASA.

Smaller in scope than the National Associations and Affiliations are the State Associations. These are amateur soccer organizations covering a specific territory as determined by USSF that governs amateur adult and/or amateur youth soccer in that territory. The final pieces of the puzzle are relatively small number of other amatuer organizations that focus on specialized areas of the sports.

All of these member organizations are empowered to run leagues. And clubs are able to field teams in leagues governed by different member organizations.

Interlude

Let’s take a pause here. You basically now have all the information you need to understand the US soccer pyramids. There are three hierarchical divisions each of men’s and women’s professional outdoor soccer and one division of professional indoor soccer.

As of the 2019 season, there is one Division I men’s outdoor league, MLS, with 24 teams and one Division 1 women’s outdoor league, NWSL, with nine teams. The USSF also sanctions one Division II men’s outdoor league, USL Championship, with 36 clubs, and two Division III men’s outdoor leagues: USL League One with 10 clubs; and NISA with 8 clubs. There are no Division 2 or 3 women’s outdoor leagues and no USSF-sanctioned professional indoor leagues. The handful of indoor soccer leagues operating in the US are governed by organizations completely outside the FIFA/USSF structure.

Every other league is considered an amateur competition. These amateur leagues are not sanctioned to have any Division level so they formally do not sit hierarchically under the pro pyramids.

Three small pro pyramids and a huge mass of amateur leagues. That’s the formal U.S. soccer structure.

Division 4

There is no Division 4 and never has been. It’s a term of art that came about in the 1990s to generally denote the best soccer below the official Division III. Specifically, it referred to the USISL’s Premier Development League. After MLS was founded in 1996, and through the early 2000s, the USISL (now the USL) was the only organization sanctioned for men’s outdoor professional soccer in the US. Its A-League sat at Division II and its Pro League sat at Division III. The PDL was the USISL’s other national league but did not have professional sanctioning as it was primarily a league for college and other developing players seeking to keep their amateur status. The league was usually referred to as being “Division 4” (oftentimes with those quotes included) because it was a national league, was within the USL organization, and was considered the highest level of play outside the pro leagues. Ever since, any time a big amateur league pops up, it’s usually given that “unofficial Division 4” label.

The Semi-pro Game

Semi-professional competitions are ones where the athletes receive regular payments but at a much lower amount than fully professional athletes. Salaries are low enough that the sport isn’t the athletes’ full-time occupation and/or they may have to have a second job.

You’ll notice that the USSF doesn’t designate any internal or external organization as governing at a semi-pro level. That is to be understood because, like “Division 4”, semi-pro is also a term of art. It is professional but just at a lower level. So, under the USSF structure, an organization operating at a semi-pro level should be sanctioned under a Professional League. But, practically, if an organization would like to operate professionally (semi-pro or fully) but can not or does not want to meet the stringent Professional League Standards, then its only recourse is to work within the structure of one of the amateur governing bodies.

When you think of the classic soccer pyramid, you visualize the few fully professional clubs/leagues at the top, the vast number of amateur clubs/leagues at the bottom, and, in the middle, you have the transitional clubs/leagues. This is the area where organizations are moving between amateur and semi-pro, are solidly semi-pro, or moving between semi-pro and fully professional. USSF lacks the structure to govern the middle section of the classic pyramid.

This is the Catch-22 of the US soccer pyramid for an organization: unless a club has the capacity to be fully professional, it must formally be designated an amateur. Pro clubs need pro leagues that are sanctioned. To be sanctioned, pro leagues need pro clubs that meet stringent requirements.

Because the Federation has no formal process for clubs and leagues to organically grow into the professional game, those organizations must already meet the PLS’ league and club requirements from the jump. The situation creates a risky, all-or-nothing proposition for organizations. So, the semi-pro soccer game in the U.S. is a strange, Twilight Zone of neither one thing nor another that has no obvious and safe ways to grow or to reorganize.

The Amateur Game

As noted above, the amateur game (which includes those semi-pro clubs we just talked about) does not have any formal tiered hierarchy. But, USASA does sanction leagues at different levels.

The largest are the USASA’s National Leagues. These are the National Premier Soccer League and United Premier Soccer League for the men’s game, and the Women’s Premier Soccer League and United Women’s Soccer for the women’s game. All four are adult leagues with the two men’s leagues are generally thought of to live at that informal Division 4. The UPSL tends to operate at a lower financial level and is sometimes considered an informal Division 5. The only other amateur National League is the United Soccer League’s League Two, formerly known as the Premier Development League.

The Pelican should haunt every national league’s dreams.

The next largest are the USASA’s Multi-State Leagues (aka Regional Leagues). The Gulf Coast Premier League is the only current adult Multi-State League. The two other current Multi-State Leagues are the Eastern Development Program and West Coast Soccer Association, which provides playing opportunities for youth players entering college.

Below this category are the myriad of state-level leagues. Similar to the USSF’s relationship to both FIFA and CONCACAF, most State Associations are members of both the USSF and USASA (a minority are affiliated with the smaller National Associations/Affiliates). The 50 plus State Associations are also organized into four regions. Each State Association sanctions any number of state-level leagues. USASA categorizes a subset of these state leagues as State Premier Leagues. These leagues are recognized by USASA as the top amateur leagues in the country. There are currently roughly 19 of these State Premier Leagues. Finally, state associations also sponsor a variety of cup tournaments.

Clubs can field any number of adult and youth teams in men’s, women’s and co-ed leagues at a variety of competitive levels from recreational to elite amateur to professional. Clubs can also field these teams in any number of state-level, regional or national leagues. It’s not hard to find a club fielding teams in the NPSL, UPSL and State Premier Leagues during the same season.

The College Game

While outside the traditional club soccer system, the prep and college soccer programs are an important part of the U.S. soccer game. Similar to other American sports, soccer at the collegiate and, sometimes, the prep levels provide an informal minor league system to the professional leagues. For the men’s game, while collegiate soccer is not as important as in the pre-modern era, it still functions as a developmental system on a similar par to collegiate baseball and hockey. Because the U.S. only has one, relatively small, top-division league, the women’s college game still holds an important place in the soccer development pipeline.

- Dan Creel