Hello again everyone, and welcome to this weeks Top 5. If you missed it last week, I did a similar piece to this one called Top 5: National Premier Soccer League Fixes. In that article I covered 5 things that the NPSL should fix moving forward to be the best league possible. Today, we're going to look at the UPSL and the Top 5 things they could do to make sure they're running the best league possible.

1. Allow individuals to buy shares of the league - Right now, the UPSL is owned by one man, and despite what you may think, it's not Yan Skwara. The UPSL is owned by Leonel Lopez. That's it. He's the only guy with any ownership stake in the league, and that makes a lot of people quite wary of signing on. An easy solution would be to allow people to buy into the league for a small sum, say $50 a share. Now you're on your way to not only having a diversified ownership group, but more people helping to steer the ship. Plus, it's a great way to generate extra investment into the league that can help rise the total amount of prize money.
2. Stop hiring people to hire people - It seems like every week the UPSL is touting some new hire who is the 'Director of Hispanic Relations Northeast' or something bizarre and nebulous like that. And the job descriptions are, to say the least, non existent. It's a strange, weird look for the league to keep adding staff that don't have job clear descriptions. Looks more like a government pork project than a amateur soccer league.
3. Promote what you already - Another issue is how the UPSL seems most concerned with expansion and staff addition news. Where is the consistent and constant promotion of the teams you already have? And I'm not talking retweeting what one of your clubs has already said. I'm talking interviews and features with your teams that go directly onto the league website. Show off what you have, rather than looking like you're always after the next shiny new toy.
4. Have a strategic vision - There isn't a week that goes by without an expansion announcement. But it all looks more like expansion for expansions sake rather than having anything to do with a strategic vision. Make a plan, make it public, and show people what you're aiming for. How many teams do you want in a region before starting a second division? How many regions do you have? How are you planning on engaging existing leagues to solidify the base of the pyramid? Being cheap and having promotion and relegation isn't a plan. It's just marketing.
5. Be upfront about actual cost - I'm the volunteer GM for Santa Fe Wanderers, and 2018 was our first season in the UPSL. We paid $2,000 to play in the 2018 season, plus a $500 membership fee. What we got out of that was a chance to make it to the regional playoffs (travel paid entirely out of our own pocket) with no prize money for a shot at making the national playoffs and a prize of $5,000. On top of that $2,500, we then wound up paying $600 for player registrations, our conference manager made us pay $500 into a travel fund for the Midwestern Conference winner to be able to go to nationals, (so we paid for the team that beat us, Bavarians, to go to nationals and win $5,000) and then last month, were surprised with a $90 bill for our referee assignor. So we actually spent $3,600, not counting paying for referees and field rental, to be able to play one season of 8 games in the UPSL. Either tell teams upfront there's going to be a bunch of additional cost, or raise your prices and start doing some of these things for your members. Otherwise, we're paying for the right to put the UPSL logo on our sleeve and not much else.
6. Bonus! Hire a graphic designer to do new logos for incoming teams - Seriously, the amount of crap clip art logos in the UPSL is absurd. Call Corner Flag creative, work out a good deal, and make sure the new teams coming in have logos that people will be drawn to, not repulsed by.

In reality, I could do a few more things the UPSL could fix, but that might need a part 2. 

Let me know what you think. Why am I wrong, why am I right, or what would you do differently? What would your Top 5 be?

Title of this post pretty much says it all. While NPSL gets some things right, there are a lot of things they could do far, far better. Here are the Top 5 things NPSL should fix to make sure they are around for years to come.

1. Get rid of expansion fees - Expansion fees are the curse of American Sports. Just because everyone else is doing it doesn't mean you should too! (Thanks for learning that lesson, NISA) Why on earth should an amateur men's soccer team have to pony up $17,000 PLUS a $5,000+ yearly fee just to be able to take the field? Imagine what these teams could do with an extra $17K, or how many more solid teams that don't have $17K laying around could be playing in the league right now? (Here's looking at you, Christos FC)
2. Limits on territory rights - Obviously certain cities aren't big enough to support multiple high level amateur soccer teams, like Hershey, PA, Santa Fe, NM, or Kingston, NY. But why on earth would you allow one amateur team in a place like Boston or San Francisco have a monopoly on the entire city? That's how you wind up losing the San Francisco City FC's of the world to the PDL. Set clear boundaries on what sizes of cities would be a protected territory, and which ones wouldn't. Better yet, have all territory rights expire after 5 years, so if the current team sucks, someone else can build something better.
3. Not giving teams value - Currently the only real value of playing in an amateur league is direct qualification for the US Open Cup. With the increase of pro teams in the US, however, those spots are going to start dwindling soon, and they're going to dwindle fast. So what value is the NPSL providing it's teams? Are they promoting their teams as much as they can? Are they covering player registrations as part of it's clubs yearly fees? No, they aren't. The common complaint I hear from NPSL teams is not knowing what their money actually goes towards once the check is written, which leads us to:
4. Be transparent - If you're clubs don't know how you're using their money, and they're forking over a lot of it, maybe it's time to open up and let people how you use their money to increase exposure for the league and it's teams and alleviate cost for everyone. Providing a small amount to help cover travel expenses come playoff time isn't very much, especially when so few benefit. How about cash prizes for conference winners, and the national champion, too? Heck, most NPSL teams would just take a trophy right now!
5. Get better at the little things - We're talking basic stuff. Like mentioned above, cash prizes for clubs, trophies for champions, (yeah, you don't get a trophy in NPSL for winning your conference) and no league fee the next year for those aforementioned champions. How about getting more sponsors to cover expenses at the league office, like a naming rights sponsor? Or getting two or three jersey manufacturers to offer discounts on jerseys to NPSL teams, (Paging Icarus FC and Stimulus Athletic) rather than leaving them completely out on their own? Oh, and here's a bonus Number 6!
6. Create NPSL 2 like you should have years ago and institute promotion and relegation - easy incentive to offer teams that win promotion? Cash prize, duh, with no league fee the next year! You want to win because there is money on the line! And whether or not you want to admit it, soccer all around the world at every level is all about one thing: money.

Sound of in the comments! Let me know how wrong or right I am on all this, or how much you agree with me or how strongly you disagree. Can't wait to hear from you.