Fixing Soccer From The Ground Up: Connecticut

As a fan (and quasi journalist) of soccer in the US, I spend a lot of time reading, writing and thinking about soccer. What works, what doesn't, existing problems and potential solutions. Unfortunately, I feel like I spend more time complaining about things and asking questions then actually providing answers and outlining potential solutions. This article is my attempt to change that, and may be one in a series of articles.

One of the states that frustrates me the most is Connecticut. Currently it boasts a population of 3,576,452 as of 2016, while being bigger than only Delaware and it's immediate neighbor, Rhode Island. Yet for some reason, this state has five amateur men's soccer leagues. One is an over 40 league, so for the purpose of this article won't be included.

Why in the world does a state of this size and population have four men's league containing fifty one teams? Ultimately, that comes down to a number of things. Money, power, pride, a weak state soccer association, but why couldn't Connecticut show a better way forward now? 

​I don't have answers for overcoming those objections, but maybe by showing what the possible outcome of working together would look like, teams and leagues will be galvanized to move towards a better future.

Currently the four competing men's leagues are the Amateur Soccer League of Connecticut, the Connecticut Adult Soccer League, the Connecticut Soccer League, and the Shoreline Adult Soccer League. There are fifty teams between these four leagues, making it easy to start this new Connecticut State Soccer Conferences with an even number of teams per division. There are a couple of B teams in these leagues, and they actually reduce the total number to forty eight.

The structure of the new Connecticut State Soccer Conferences is simple. Four conferences of twelve teams, last place team gets relegated to the division beneath it, winner of the lower division gets promoted. Round robin, home and away schedule means you have a twenty two game season. This also makes it easy to coordinate a Connecticut State Soccer Cup that's open to all forty eight teams in the CSSC, with room to invite teams from local city or Hispanic leagues, or you can do the Cup with just the forty eight CSSC teams. 

Now, here is what your finished CSSC pyramid looks like, kicking off in 2018.

Championship Conference
Newtown Pride
FSA Inter
Polonia Falcon
Glastonbury Celtic
Waterbury City FC
Hartford Ports
Danbury United
Hamden Rovers FC
LDU
Silk City
Greenwich Arsenal
Club Napoli

Conference Two
Vasco Da Gama CC
North Branford SC
Clinton FC
Polonez United
Milford Tuesday
FC Shelton
Newington Portuguese
Newtown Salty Dogs
Stamford FC
Naugatuck Fusion
Henry C Reid FC
Litchfield County Blues

Conference Three
Watertown Geezers
Internazionale 
Milford Amigos
Caseus New Haven FC
Prospect Adriatic
Nonnewaug Nutmeggers
Orange O40
FC New Fairfield
Brookfield SC
Milford Magic
Southbury SC
Trumbull Wolves

Conference Four
Bridgeport United FC
Stratford FC
Clinton Internazionale FC
Woodbridge Yellow Jackets
Haddam Killingworth AC
New Fairfield FC
Southington United
Woodbridge WD40s
United Nations FC
Doyle FC
FUT United
Polonia Stamford

Admit it. That structure is awesome, and you'd love to see it happen. And there's still room to add new teams, by either promoting more teams up to create more space and keep schedules balanced, or you could just start a new Conference Five. This structure consolidates teams under one banner and makes it easier to market and promote soccer in Connecticut as a whole. Centralized social media for the Conference and the ability to use a service like MyCujoo for Conference wide live streaming. How would this be a bad thing?

Maybe it's time to start emailing this article to the people in charge of these leagues and sharing it with their social media pages. Who knows? Maybe we can make change happen from the ground up in the state of Connecticut.