An interesting article by Ian Thompson over at thesoccerobserver.com came out the other day explaining the USL’s thought process behind this season’s schedule. It’s an interesting read with a couple things I’d like to highlight. As we mentioned in the podcast the schedule went from nice and balanced in 2013 to about as unbalanced as you can get which took us a bit by surprise. While it was never going to be a perfectly balanced schedule with 14 teams plus 2 MLS reserve matches, it appears finances played a much larger role than the number of teams.
Every eastern team embarked on a two-game road trip to Los Angeles and Phoenix last season. The addition of franchises in Oklahoma City, Sacramento and the Los Angeles Galaxy’s reserve side would significantly bump up travel costs if the home-and-away format had been retained.
“What we tried to do was keep the schedule as balanced as possible while having some regionalization that makes sense from a travel perspective,” Wagner said.
Travel cost is one of those things we as fans tend to forget about since it’s a trivial thing in the top leagues that we follow. With stories like the NASL player who was traded for room and board, and the number of back to back games we play every year, it’s a reminded that at these lower levels where teams are operating on a shoe string budget that travel is a big deal. I’m sure a team like Phoenix who had financial troubles last season is really happy with not coming out here so often. Even teams who aren’t so strapped for cash like the Hounds any dollar they save on travel can go back into the team or into the stadium.
The “regionalization” of the USL is something else we noticed, and apparently there’s a method to the madness. Per the article:
USL’s base formula involves its five western teams meeting each other four times, twice at home and twice on the road, for 16 of the 28 league games. Interleague match-ups with MLS reserve teams add another two games with the remaining 10 against eastern USL teams (with one opponent being faced home and away).
Eastern teams are set to meet at least twice with a third game against some rivals to complete the schedule.
USL President Tim Holt has mentioned a few times about becoming more regionalized as more teams enter the league. It’s the easy way to help travel costs. At this time there are two more confirmed western teams coming into the league in 2015 (Colorado Springs, Tulsa), a pair of rumored mid-west teams (St. Louis, Louisville) plus several MLS owned teams. With the western side of the league filling out it’s very possible we’ll play only eastern teams three times next season and not face any western teams until the playoffs.
The final interesting note is the “a third game against some rivals” part. The Hounds play Richmond, Charleston, Rochester, and Harrisburg three times this season. I wondered aloud on the podcast why we weren’t playing Dayton three times since they’re fairly close compared to some of those teams. While Rochester and Harrisburg are definitely rivals I’m not sure I would give that title to Richmond or Charleston even if they are consistently at the top of the league every year. I suppose once you get past the obvious the league looked at who’s been around the longest since they would have the most history with each other. With the exception of Harrisburg these teams have been around since the 90s. If Harrisburg wasn’t around Wilmington probably would’ve filled that spot to round out the Grandpa division.
The USL put out an interesting schedule this season that offers a glimpse into the future. With that said we’re only 46 days away until the 2014 season starts. We’ll worry about 2015 and beyond after we’re holding up the cup.
#UNLEASH
