What If? Cal-soccexit

This article is intentionally absurd. I want to be clear about that. Friday's are slow days, and I come up with all kinds of absurd soccer ideas on Friday's. Soccer in Hawaii with two divisions, complete with hand-drawn logos. Same for New Mexico. How the UPSL could create promotion and relegation structure in California from city and county leagues all the way up to one statewide league. Crazy stuff like that. 

Today's crazy idea was simple. What if all the non-MLS teams in California decided that they would be better off forming their own league? It would cut down on travel, for sure, and since the state would be the worlds sixth largest economy if it were it's own country, that gives you a lot of potential capital. And, obviously, a lot of population to draw fans from.

Now, in this absurd scenario, what would the league look like? Well, it would be several tiers, for starters. All the NPSL, UPSL, PDL and CSL USA Region 4 teams would create two separate championship conferences, NorCal Conference 1 and SoCal Conference 1. It would look like this:

NorCal Conference 1

Ashland Starphire FC
​Bay Area United
Chico City Rangers FC
Dynamos FC
Glenn County Barnstormers FC
Lassen County Forest FC
Redding Royals FC
Yuba City Alliance FC
California Victory FC
CD Pamperos
Real San Jose
IFX Ballistic
FC Sacramento
CD Aguiluchos USA
Sonoma County Sol FC
Sacramento Gold
Napa Valley 1839 FC
East Bay FC Stompers
Burlingame Dragons FC
Fresno Fuego
San Francisco City FC
FC Golden State Force

SoCal Conference 1

San Diego Zest FC
Southern California Seahorses
Ventura County Fusion
Southern California Surf
Riverside Coras
Orange County FC
Temecula FC
Albion SC
SoCal SC
Oxnard Guerreros FC
SC Corinthians USA
City of Angels FC
Strikers FC
Santa Ana Winds FC
La Maquina FC
Moreno Valley FC
Ozzy's Laguna FC
LA Wolves FC
PSC Football Club
Valley United SC
Santa Clarita Storm
Avalanche FC

That's pretty impressive, and I had to leave 8 UPSL clubs out of the SoCal Conference 1. Even though this article is an exercise in the fantastic, those are sweet 22 team conferences.

Now, let's look at the top. We'll call it the California Liga for kicks. Who would play in this league? As part of this, I'm going to include rumored USL and NASL alongside the existing USL and NASL teams making up the California Liga.

California Liga

San Francisco Deltas
Orange County SC
Sacramento Republic
Orange County NASL
San Diego NASL
Oakland NASL
​Fresno USL
San Diego USL
San Francisco USL
Santa Barbara (making this one up)

First thing I realized is that there are not as many pro teams in California as I thought for some reason. Second, without the LA Galaxy 2, you'd have a 9 team league. Since I love Santa Barbara, and believe it would make a great market for an amateur or pro team done right, I gave them an imaginary team in the imaginary Liga. (seriously, Santa Barbara needs a team. If I lived  there, I'd have done it by done)

The Liga is very tilted towards the major metro areas. But it won't remain that way, because this local league structure allows for promotion and relegation with ease!

Anyway, I'm done now. Hope you enjoyed this exercise in What If with me. Until the muse claims me again, enjoy your weekend!