There are 14 teams meeting this weekend to discuss NPSL Pro: New York Cosmos, Miami FC, Jacksonville Armada, Chattanooga FC, Detroit City, New Orleans Jesters, Milwaukee Torrent, Boston City, Hartford City,  FC Arizona, ASC San Diego, Virginia Beach, Miami United, & Asheville City.

NISA is seeking sanctioning as a D3 league with 8 to 10 teams. I don't know who all those teams are, but from what little I've heard, it sounds like it could be an even split between west coast and east coast, and likely 8 teams to start.

Now, lets consider this. NPSL Pro is attempting to start as a new league, with only 2 teams on the west coast. The remaining 12 are east coast/south. 

If NPSL Pro and NISA can come together and start one new league, it would launch with 22 teams total. Lets say 6 on the west coast and 16 on the east coast/south. I've heard of a couple of groups looking at this situation waiting to decide which way to go. 2 in the mid west, 1 on the west coast, plus a couple of other NPSL teams.

This means within a couple of years this merged league could have anywhere from 25 to 27 teams based on existing ownership groups. That's a lot of teams!

How much better would this one league be than two? Wouldn't this make the stated desired of both leagues, promotion and relegation, so much easier if you launch this way?

Come on NPSL Pro and NISA. Figure it out. Find a way to work together. Do something great that could change the face of US Soccer forever! 

Indie Wrestling. Indie Soccer. What in the world do these two things have in common, and how can they learn from each other? I'm glad you asked, because there is a lot more to be learned than you'd think!

​In the world of professional wrestling, and entertainment in particular, most people are familiar with World Wrestling Entertainment, or WWE, formerly known as WWF. They are the big dog, the big cheese, the monopoly of professional wrestling in the United States. Yet in spite of everything, the indie scene of professional wrestling continues to thrive against the odds.

Ring of Honor, Lucha Underground, the National Wrestling Alliance, and a host of local and regional promotions continue to operate in front of good crowds and even appear on television. But for a long time, there was very little co-operation, other than a talent sharing deal between Ring of Honor (ROH) and New Japan Pro Wrestling. (NJPW) But as WWE continues to make more and more money and sign more and more talent, these independent promotions were faced with the stark reality that if they wanted to grow their market share, something had to change. Enter the largest non WWE wrestling show in North America in decades:

The brain child of popular wrestling tag team The Young Bucks and the wrestler formerly known as Cody Rhodes, All In was an attempt to create a show that could actually sell out a 10,000 seat arena. But how on earth do you secure the type of talent needed to put together a show strong enough to sell that many tickets? By working together for the common good.

NJPW and ROH already have a working relationship, but started finding new ways to work together with other promotions, like Lucha Underground, Impact Wrestling and the NWA. All In provided these promotions with a vision for how to challenge the status quo and begin to chip away at the monopoly that is the WWE. Going it alone hadn't worked. In fact, it almost wrecked several promotions, like the NWA, Impact, and Lucha Underground. But by working together, they realized they could do something so monumental that it could change the face of wrestling in North America forever.

You might still be asking yourself, what does this have to do with indie/non league/amateur soccer and MLS/USL? Okay, lets break it down.

MLS, alongside it's arrangement with the USL, is able to operate as a monopoly in the United States, just like WWE does in professional wrestling. Indie soccer has little room to maneuver, and as the announcements of new teams in the USL D3 in Greenville, SC and Chattanooga, TN, where there are thriving indie teams shows, the amateur scene is being squeezed ever tighter.

There's a big lesson to be learned here. In the world of wrestling, promotions from Japan, Canada, Mexico, the UK and the US have enough common ground to begin laying aside differences and egos to start pursuing a common goal. They aren't merging or buying each other out, but are simply working together to the best of their ability. And their competition is a company with a legitimate global following and foothold, not just a company with a foothold in one country.

This is what indie soccer can learn from wrestling. Common ground is powerful if you're willing to find it, talk to the other party, and begin moving towards a common goal that benefits everyone. 

Why do UPSL and NPSL need to merge? Why not find a way for the UPSL to promote it's teams where applicable to the NPSL, and the NPSL relegates to UPSL? Could regional leagues do the same with the UPSL? 

There is common ground a plenty for indie soccer right now if leagues are willing to start moving towards it. But the longer they wait, the more that common ground becomes smaller and smaller and self preservation grows stronger and stronger. Now is the time for indie soccer to learn from indie wrestling and start working together. There's still room in the market, there's still time to make something happen that changes the face and perception of indie soccer in the US for years to come.

But if they wait to much longer, it may wind up being too late.

As I emerge from almost finishing my second cup of coffee and my clouded, hangover feeling brain sharpens after another night of choppy sleep due to baby refusing to understand how glorious sleep is, I've decided to write an article, my first in a long time. And yes, the lack of sleep is worth it when you have a baby. 100% worth it.

I read an article this morning that inspired me on E Pluribus Loonum, Should the NPSL North Expand? It was an interesting article, mentioning some of the reasons the division should consider adding a couple more teams to continue to grow it's presence and strength and coverage of the state.

However, having talked to several NPSL teams in similar situations, (strong conference, good presence, more potential markets) I can tell you, resistance to expanding is real.

Why would they resist that? you might ask. More teams means more games which is good for everyone, right?
Not always. Especially not when your season is only 10 weeks long.

Consider the aforementioned NPSL North. Currently they have 8 teams. That's 14 games over 10 weeks. Not great, not terrible, but anything more is really pushing it when it comes to player health and having room for reschedules if needed. 

This is one of the key issues with the NPSL. A short season relying on college players limits your growth potential unless there is a strategic plan in place.

I believe I wrote about it once again but I cannot find the article, and it might have been a post on BigSoccer, actually, NPSL could have, and really should have, implemented promotion and relegation years ago. With the right plan in place, it could have been a reality, and their might not have been a need for UPSL to grow beyond southern California.

Here's how simple the plan could have been.

Every conference has a cap on it's number of teams. Only 6 teams per conference, so everyone is playing 10 league games across a 10 week season. Anyone else who wants in after that forms a second division that will also be capped at between 6 to 8 teams based on geography and population centers in the region to ensure limited travel. 

Boom. There you have it. Of course, NPSL would also need to get rid of it's ridiculous and completely unwarranted $17,000+ expansion fee, but this really could have worked and you'd have something very special going on. In fact, if they wanted to the NPSL could still do this and even break up some of it's bigger existing conferences to get it going. In the North Atlantic, you'd already have a 5 team second division ready to go.

And of course, if this had been the plan from the start, we wouldn't have this weird world where we're just hoping that NPSL and UPSL merge to help the amateur game in the US survive.

​Where there is no vision, the people perish.