Category: Sidewinder Insider

It spends a lot of time in my upstairs closet, situated toward the back of the clothes rack where it remains mostly unworn.

But every once in a while, I’ll break out the red jersey – the one with the Atlanta Silverbacks badge sandwiched between the Joma brand name on top and Premiere Global Services sponsor logo on the bottom.

It even has a sweet, old school USL logo on one of the sleeves.

And caps?

Oh, yeah, I got the caps – both a black one and a red one.

As a Birmingham native, Atlanta was always the closest big league town that had professional soccer.

So although I was a New York Cosmos fan back in the days of the original North America Soccer League, the Chiefs were something of a “home team” for me.

But while the Chiefs, like the NASL, are no more, the Silverbacks are survivors. And I’ve followed their odyssey from the beginning.

Officially, they’ve been around 20 years, becoming the Silverbacks in 1998. However, they actually started their soccer life as the Atlanta Ruckus in 1995.

Since then they’ve played in circuits such as the American Professional Soccer League (which morphed into the A-League), the United Soccer League First Division, the rebooted NASL and now the National Premier Soccer League.

I suppose one could make the case that they’re working their way down the ladder. But I’m not going to be that cynical, which is something of an upset because I’m cynical by nature.

True, in U.S. soccer’s unofficial pyramid, the NPSL represents the fourth division.

But if you like soccer from the ground up – and the NPSL is certainly that – it’s a great fit for a club that absolutely refuses to go six feet under.

And I love the way this club is going about its business.

Have you heard about the Atlanta Silverbacks FC Trust?

Go to asfctrust.org and read about it. Do that, and you’ll see how grassroots soccer is supposed to work.

The primary focus behind the trust is for fans to raise $100,000 to contribute to the club’s operating expenses. Once that threshold is met, it will own 25 percent of the team and have a seat on the board of directors.

This is the model of many successful soccer clubs in Europe and, in fact, partial fan ownership is required in Germany.

This is what community soccer is all about and what makes it accessible to everyone.

Certainly, Atlanta United FC is the “sexy” soccer team in the city right now. Shoot, with the number of fans it drew to Bobby Dodd Stadium and later Mercedes-Benz Stadium in its inaugural season in 2017, it’s the golden child of Major League Soccer.

And that’s terrific. The passion of Terminus Legion is very real and contagious – proof that the Deep South can be a futbol hotbed as well as a football hotbed.

But MLS has a single entity structure and Arthur Blank is the “investor-operator” of the franchise. The decision-making group is a small one.

If the Silverbacks get their way, though, fans will not only get a seat at the table, they’ll get to eat, too. It’ll be more than a club they root for because they’ll have skin in the game.

It’s kinda funny … for as long as the team has been around, I only got to cover it as a reporter once.

On March 28, 2015, the Silverbacks came to Riggs Field to play Clemson in an exhibition. Managed by Gary Smith (currently coach and TD of Nashville SC of the United Soccer League), they won on a goal by Matt Horth, who now serves as coach of Gordon College.

I spent a long time bending Smith’s ear after the match, and at the time it seemed that Atlanta and the modern iteration of the NASL might be in for a long association.

Of course that wasn’t the case.

Earlier in the week, the NASL announced it had canceled the 2018 season and you have to believe that decision was tantamount to folding for good.

But while that league won’t be going forward, the Silverbacks will, with their home opener at Silverbacks Park slated for May 26 against Asheville.

For those of us who want to see real change in American soccer, this is where it starts.

The Silverbacks are an old team that will feature young talent, and you don’t have to take out a loan to take your family to see a match.

I’m going to make a point to go to Silverbacks Park this season. The home team hosts Greenville FC on June 16, and since I’m based in Greenville, that might be a good excuse to take a road trip.

And the trust?

Maybe I’ll contribute to that as well. While it’s fun to talk about turning the United States into a soccer nation, it also requires some effort.

I need to put my money where my mouth is.

The Silverbacks have scratched and clawed their way through history, and I think their persistence should be rewarded.

It’s great to see them survive.

But it’ll be even greater to see them thrive.

As someone who considers himself a true believer in “The Beautiful Game,” I’m having a bit of an existential crisis these days.

Instead of questioning whether my life has meaning, purpose or value, though, I’m questioning whether my feelings toward American soccer have meaning, purpose or value.

To say they’re mixed would be a huge understatement.

On the one hand, I strongly favor the world model – and the engine that runs the world model is promotion and relegation – so I want fundamental change in the way the United States conducts the business of soccer.

I agree with virtually every word that’s been written which criticizes our closed pyramid, stunning gender inequality, and a youth soccer club structure that stifles diversity and is often more dependent on mommy and daddy’s money than the skill of the kids.

And the election of Carlos Cordeiro as United States Soccer Federation president likely means little will change in the umbrella organization. He is an insider who came into the election as the sitting vice president of the USSF, and it’s doubtful he’ll push for any kind of meaningful reform.

That suggests the people who run American soccer (and vote for the way it is run) like the way things are, and the way things are dictates that Major League Soccer is the country’s only first division league.

You can’t play your way into it, you can only buy your way into it via a $150 million franchise fee. It’s the standard American professional sports model and it’s anathema to the spirit of soccer’s intended international structure.

But …

I like MLS … always have.

I remember sitting in my living room on April 6, 1996, watching Eric Wynalda score the lone goal in the San Jose Clash’s victory over DC United in the first game in MLS history.

I’ve never even been to San Jose, but I leapt into the air as though they had just scored the greatest goal in the history of association football.

I was so happy to see North America bring back “top tier” soccer I wasn’t thinking about things like promotion/relegation, fan ownership, or the fact that some of the best soccer players in the United States and Canada might never get a real chance to grow because they can’t afford to play for their local elite club teams.

I was part of more than 55,000 fans packed into Bobby Dodd Stadium to watch Atlanta United FC make their league debut against the New York Red Bulls last March, and it was one of the most enjoyable fan experiences I’ve ever had.

It was a real soccer crowd and a real soccer experience.

And I always make a point to watch the Seattle Sounders face the Portland Timbers. The fans (the Emerald City Supporters on one side and Timbers Army on the other) create an atmosphere that practically bleeds through the television. Being in the crowd for one of their matches is near the top of my soccer bucket list.

MLS is closing in on half a century of existence and has put down deep and sturdy roots in North America. After a bit of a shaky start, it survived and now thrives, with cities vying for its affections and construction of soccer-specific stadiums becoming the rule rather than the exception.

The United Soccer League is a solid second division circuit, and next year D3, the USL’s third division league, debuts.

But remember what I said about the American sports model?

That works out fine for the current owners, coaches and players in MLS. And it’s obvious there are millions of people who are cool with the Americanization of the sport.

Yet if the United States ever wants to get in line with the rest of the soccer world, it’ll probably have to find a way outside MLS because MLS – with its single entity structure – has no reason to change.

Just last summer the league rejected a $4 billion TV deal that came with the stipulation of pro/rel. MLS commissioner Don Garber and the league’s stakeholders wanted no part of it.

“We are playing the world’s game but we are playing it here in North America that has a very, very competitive structure that has proven to work very well for the other major leagues that are in many ways the model for professional sports throughout the world,” Garber told ESPN FC in 2016.

While I never anticipate a day when MLS replaces the English Premier League, Bundesliga or Scottish Premier League as the primary object of my pro soccer affections, I still enjoy it.

Of course I wish it would adopt pro/rel, but I’ve taken a “don’t hate the player, hate the game” attitude when I watch, especially since so many players I covered in college now play in the league.

However, I am going to start thinking with more of a grassroots mentality.

I’m going to follow with great interest any renegade league and renegade idea that comes along, whether it’s Jacksonville Armada owner Robert Palmer’s “Division Zero” initiative (a pro league not sanctioned by FIFA) or the continued evolution of the fledgling National Independent Soccer Association.

I’ve said since its formation the NISA might just be the start of something revolutionary.

I hope it is.

I’ll support my local team, Greenville FC, which makes its National Premier Soccer League debut in May, and I’ll continue to cheer for the venerable Atlanta Silverbacks.

The 20-year old club has started a trust that will help fans buy 25 percent of the team.

As soon as I get some disposable income, I might just make a contribution.

And I want to see a stable women’s league and the United States Women’s National Team treated with the respect – financial and otherwise – it deserves.

I want to believe we’ll eventually come to the realization that the tried and true model of “soccer from the ground up” is the only model that will give us the chance to be a real soccer nation, and it will become the rule, not the exception.

This harangue reminds me of a line from the 2005 movie “The Game Of Their Lives,” which chronicled (in a very Hollywood way) the United States’ stunning victory over England in the 1950 World Cup.

“You want to know why soccer is the world’s greatest sport? I’ll tell you why. Because all you need is the ball and an open space. You don’t need fancy equipment or special fields. You don’t have to be big or strong or tall. It’s the most democratic of all the sports. The people’s game. Your people’s game. And America’s game in the future.”

Will it be a closed pyramid future? A pro/rel future? A future that features both options?

Shoot, I can even envision a future in which our men’s national team qualifies for the World Cup again.

Regardless, I’ll be there for it all – probably still trying to come to grips with my own mixed emotions.

All who know me understand that when I hear the phrase “alternative league,” my spider senses start to tingle.

My sports memories date back to being a young kid who was a much bigger fan of the American Football League than the National Football League. As painful as it is, I still cheer for the New York Jets.

My favorite basketball team?

I gave me heart to the New York Nets of the American Basketball Association.

Hockey?

I was a proud supporter of the World Hockey Association’s Birmingham Bulls.

And even though the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League were the primary object of my association football affections, I also tried to keep track of the American Soccer League.

Sure, the ASL was much older than the NASL so you can’t really assign it “alternative status,” but once the league that featured the likes of Pele, George Best, Johan Cruyff and Rodney Marsh became a sensation for a few remarkable years, the ASL was an afterthought.

Not to me, though. While teams came and went at a sometimes alarming pace, I did my best to follow such lost-to-history franchises as the New York Eagles, Carolina Lightnin’ and Los Angeles Skyhawks.

(Fun fact: Basketball legend Bob Cousy was ASL commissioner from 1974 to 1979).

So naturally, when Jacksonville Armada owner Robert Palmer dangled the carrot of an “unsanctioned professional league,” well, that got me really, really interested.

The Armada, of course, are part of the modern NASL, which is on life support since the United States Soccer Federation refused to grant it second division status for 2018. The league is hoping for relief from the courts, but failing that, the NASL might never host another competitive match.

In the interim, Jacksonville will compete in the National Premier Soccer League, a fourth-tier circuit that bills itself as a “national league with regional focus.”

And while Palmer released a statement assuring fans that his club is “engaged in discussions with other start-up leagues that intend to seek sanctioning from the United States Soccer Federation,” this was the part that caught my eye:

“For the future security of the Armada, I have put together a task force comprised of the brightest minds across my companies and soccer experts. This task force is exploring the possibility of funding and operating an unsanctioned professional league. It would be an option if the other leagues are not able to successfully navigate the political landscape of the USSF.”

Translation: In the current landscape of the USSF, it’s Major League Soccer’s world and only the United Soccer League (and its amateur Premier Development League) truly get to breathe the same air.

I had really hoped that the new NASL would survive and thrive and eventually provide MLS with some competition, because competition is healthy. That, however, now seems unlikely.

But let’s be extremely optimistic for a moment – or at least indulge me as I immerse myself in a soccer fantasy world.

What if Palmer’s task force comes up with the audacious idea of building a top-tier league from the ground up? And what if that American soccer alternative featured a promotion/relegation system? And what if the future USSF leaders decided it was ultimately worthy of sanction?

I’d get behind such a league in a heartbeat.

I’m already smitten with the fledgling third division National Independent Soccer Association, which will be built around pro/rel. It features fan ownership, has a forward-thinking business model, and checks all the boxes when it comes to how play-for-pay soccer leagues can grow and thrive.

Imagine that model applied to a “major league” that isn’t afraid to be part of a system that has helped make soccer the world’s most popular sport.

Let’s face it … MLS is a closed system and will almost certainly always be a closed system. Once an ownership group buys a franchise they know that win, lose or draw, that franchise will always be part of the first division.

(When Forbes looked at the value of MLS clubs in 2016, it determined they are worth $185 million on average).

In the current environment, about the best pro/rel proponents can hope for is a pyramid with a second division ceiling.

USL president Jake Edwards told the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News last month that his league, which will feature USL D3 starting in 2019, is taking a hard look at the model.

“I think it would be very interesting to look at pro/rel between those two divisions,” Edwards told the paper. “We certainly could do it now and I think there’s an interest to do it among our board.

“We are going to experiment with precursors, such as maybe some sort of inter-league competition, an inter-league cup. We’re going to look at options like that to see if that works.”

Maybe that’s what America’s current soccer overlords see as a compromise. They can say, “See, we have promotion/relegation!” even though it stops short of its ultimate purpose.

If I could work my will with a “renegade” league, it would start in August, end in May, crown a champion based on best record through 38 matches, send teams up, and send teams down.

The 24 flagship clubs (aside from Jacksonville, of course) would be in hotbed soccer markets large and small as well as cities that, to date, have been snubbed by MLS. San Francisco, Cincinnati, St. Louis, San Antonio, Charlotte, Detroit, and Phoenix come to mind immediately.

It would all be part of a real pyramid that includes some of the great lower division leagues already in existence, and built on the same foundation that has been the tried and true soccer blueprint used – with great success – across the world.

And every single club in that pyramid could dream of moving up.

Did I read too much into Palmer’s “funding and operating an unsanctioned professional league” remark?

Perhaps.

Are there too many obstacles to clear?

Probably. If you don’t get USSF sanctioning, you don’t get access to current and future United States Men’s National Team players or the governing body’s resources. Plus, I just don’t know if there are enough people (with enough cash and patience) willing to step into the ring and fight for the soul of U.S. soccer.

But I could be wrong. And if such a league is ever formed, I’ll be solidly in its corner.