North American Soccer League (2011)

This article covers the North American Soccer League, founded in 2009. The article on the American professional football league, which existed from 1968 to 1984, can be found under North American Soccer League .

North American Soccer League
Full name	North American Soccer League
abbreviation	NASL
Association	USSF
First edition	2011
Last event	2017
Teams	6th
master	2017 : San Francisco Deltas
Record champions	New York Cosmos (3)
Record player	Pablo Campos
Record scorer	Pablo Campos (45)
Website	www.nasl.com
Qualification for	US Open Cup
region	Canada United States

The North American Soccer League (NASL) was a professional soccer league in the United States , Canada, and Puerto Rico .

From 2011 to 2017, the North American Soccer League was accepted by the United States Soccer Federation as the second division within the United States' league system. It was thus below the Major League Soccer and was equal to the United Soccer League .

In February 2018, NASL's second division status was withdrawn by the USSF , and games did not take place in the 2018 season.

history

On August 27, 2009, the US sporting goods supplier Nike sold its shares in the United Soccer Leagues (USL) to Rob Hoskins and Alec Papadakis from NuRock Soccer Holdings. Actually, these shares should go to the Team Owner's Association (TOA). The TOA is an association of owners of various USL First Division franchises and St. Louis Soccer United .

After the sale was completed, many TOA members expressed their displeasure and criticized the USL's management and organization. The sale to NuRock also caused the Team Owner's Association to see its influence waning within the USL. In the weeks that followed, many team owners announced that they did not want to participate in the USL leagues in order to found their own league. This became official on November 10, 2009 when six clubs in the USL-1 and St. Louis asked the United States Soccer Federation, the Canadian Soccer Association and FIFA for permission to establish a new division, the North American Division 2 League.

On November 23, 2009, the official name of the new league was announced. The name North American Soccer League is intended to honor the pioneers of the first professional league in North America. Previously, the league was unofficially called the TOA League.

The league operation for 2010 was not approved by the USSF, as the USL still had binding contracts with individual franchises. As a compromise solution, the USSF Division 2 Professional League was launched for one year. In this league there was a NASL and a USL conference.

In the course of 2010, due to the constant uncertainty as to whether the league could even start playing, some teams announced their withdrawal from the NASL. Minnesota Thunder had financial problems and had to stop playing. The Rochester Rhinos have withdrawn and will continue to operate in the USL league and play in the United Soccer League from 2011 . The Crystal Palace Baltimore also withdrew.

After the USSF D2 Pro League was played in 2010, the NASL applied again to be recognized as the second division in the US and Canadian league systems. This application was provisionally granted on November 21, 2010. The USSF revoked this decision in January 2011. The reason for this was the loss of two owners of the league and thus the risk of instability in the league. On February 12, the league was again confirmed as a provisional second division in the US and Canada.

In April 2011, eight teams started playing for the first time. By the spring season 2016, the number of teams grew to eleven despite several departures, from the fall season the league will be expanded to include Puerto Rico FC .

In 2017 the NASL lost its status as the second division after this status had only been granted provisionally for 2017. At this point in time, the USSF announced that the NASL did not meet all of its standards. These standards specify, among other things, the number of teams, the geographical distribution of the teams and the size of the markets for the teams involved, as well as the minimum financial requirements of the team owners. Actually, these standards require that at least 12 teams take part in the game, but the NASL lost four clubs after their fall season 2016 and in 2017 only played with eight teams.

On February 27, 2018, the NASL announced that the game would be suspended for the 2018 season because it had not been able to obtain an injunction that would have prevented the USSF from revoking its Division II status. Three of the NASL members, Jacksonville Armada FC, Miami FC and New York Cosmos would use their teams in the fourth-highest National Premier Soccer League during this break .

organization

owner

In the NASL, unlike in Major League Soccer, the individual franchise owners are also shareholders in the league. Thus, each franchise is significantly involved in the decisions of the league. Both in sporting and financial matters. The NASL executive committee currently consists of twelve owners. Traffic Sports owns two franchises. The current owner, Aaron Davidson, is also chairman of the board.

Sponsors

The league itself does not have any sponsorship agreements, except that the respective match ball is manufactured by Voit. There is also a cooperation with the company Seiko , which provides devices for timing the individual football matches.

Some NASL teams have shirt sponsorship deals. New York Cosmos has received the largest sum to date from Emirates . The franchise here receives a million dollars annually. Furthermore, all teams have agreements with local and regional sponsors.

Stages

The largest stadium in the league is TD Place Stadium in Ottawa. This holds 24,000 spectators. With 5,000 seats each, the stadiums in Atlanta and Edmonton are the smallest in the league. The stadiums in Atlanta , Blaine , San Antonio and Cary are football-only stadiums. All others also play baseball or American football .

media

During the 2013 season, all games were streamed freely on the NASL website. An agreement was signed with the Perform Group company for the 2014 season. Viewers were able to watch all games via Internet stream for US $ 4.99 a month. The US sports channel ESPN3 has been the official broadcast partner of NASL since 2014. A final game of the NASL, the SoccerBowl 2013, was broadcast there for the first time. Furthermore, the game of the week could be seen every week.

The individual franchises can also determine where their games are broadcast. Everyone has their own agreements with local TV and radio stations.

Competition format

Since 2013, the season has been divided into two separate competitions. As is usual in many Central American leagues, there is also a season in spring (spring season) and one in autumn (fall season). The winners of these seasons automatically qualify for the play-off semi-finals. The other two semi-finalists are the teams that performed best over both seasons. Should a team win both seasons, the third strongest team will automatically move up. The final is known as the SoccerBowl and is always played in the stadium of the spring season winner.

The spring season is usually played from April to July 4th. After a break of one month, the fall season begins and ends at the beginning of November. Due to international tournaments such as soccer world championships or the CONCACAF Gold Cup, there may be postponements.

As usual in American leagues, there is no promoted or relegated here either. If franchises meet certain criteria, however, there is the possibility of switching to Major League Soccer . The reason for this is that the leagues are under the supervision of the United States Soccer Federation , but unlike many European leagues, they belong to different organizations.

NASL teams have the opportunity to qualify for international soccer competitions. All US teams take part in the national Lamar Hunt US Open Cup competition. Its winner qualifies for the CONCACAF Champions League . The Canadian teams do not take part in the US Open Cup, but play in the Canadian Championship . This is made up of the five professional teams from Canada. Here, too, the winner qualifies for the CONCACAF Champions League.

Teams

Teams 2017

team	Founded	entry	Stadion	capacity	city	State / Province	Trainer
Jacksonville Armada	2013	2015	Hodges Stadium	09,400	Jacksonville	Florida	Mark Lowry
Miami FC	2015	2016	Riccardo Silva Stadium	20,000	Miami	Florida	Paul Dalglish
New York Cosmos	2010	2013	MCU Park	07,000	Hempstead	new York
Puerto Rico FC	2015	2016 (autumn)	Estadio Juan Ramón Loubriel	22,000	Bayamón	Puerto Rico	Marco Velez

Former teams

team	city	Stadion	capacity	entry	exit
Montreal Impact	Montreal	Saputo Stadium	13,034	2011	2011
Puerto Rico Islanders	Bayamón	Estadio Juan Ramón Loubriel	22,000	2011	2012
San Antonio Scorpions	San Antonio	Toyota Field	08,000	2012	2015
Atlanta Silverbacks	Atlanta	Atlanta Silverbacks Park	07,500	2011	2015
Minnesota United	Blaine	National Sports Center	12,000	2011	2016
Tampa Bay rowdies	Saint Petersburg	Al Lang Stadium	07,250	2011	2016
Ottawa Fury	Ottawa	TD Place Stadium	28,826	2014	2016
Fort Lauderdale Strikers	Fort Lauderdale	Lockhart Stadium	20,500	2010	2016
Rayo OKC	Yukon	Miller Stadium	06,000	2016	2016

statistics

Season statistics

season	Attendees	Spring season	Fall Season	Woosnam Cup	Soccer Bowl Winner
2011	08th	-	-	Carolina RailHawks	Minnesota Stars
2012	08th	-	-	San Antonio Scorpions	Tampa Bay rowdies
2013	08th	Atlanta Silverbacks	New York Cosmos	Carolina RailHawks	New York Cosmos
2014	10	Minnesota United	San Antonio Scorpions	Minnesota United	San Antonio Scorpions
2015	11	New York Cosmos	Ottawa Fury	New York Cosmos	New York Cosmos
2016	12	Indy Eleven	New York Cosmos	New York Cosmos	New York Cosmos
2017	8th	Miami FC	Miami FC	Miami FC	San Francisco Deltas

Record goal scorers

Regular season

	player	Gates
1	Pablo Campos	53
2	Christian Ramirez	50
3	Brian Shriver	37
4th	Georgi Christow	34
5	Mike Ambersley	25th
6th	Etienne Barbara	23
	Ty Shipalane	23
8th	Simone Bracalello	22nd
9	Nick Zimmerman	20th
10	Shaun Saiko	19th
	Pedro Ferreira-Mendes	18th

As of November 13, 2016

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} U.S. Soccer denies NASL Division 2 status for 2018 . In: ESPNFC.com , February 26, 2018. Retrieved November 26, 2017. 
2. ↑ Brian Quarstad: NASL Releases Press Statement Concerning US Soccer's Decision to Decline Sanctioning . In: Inside Minnesota Soccer , January 21, 2010. Retrieved February 9, 2011. 
3. ↑ North American Soccer League Announces Cancellation Of 2018 Season . ( nasl.com [accessed September 9, 2018]).
4. ↑ NASL 2012 Media Guide . July 19, 2012. Archived from the original on October 8, 2012. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
5. ↑ NASL, Voit Announce Official Match Ball Partnership . NASL. January 25, 2014. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
6. ^ TD Place Stadium. (No longer available online.) Tdplace.ca, archived from the original on March 23, 2015 ; accessed on March 22, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

Web links

• official page

See also

• Soccer in the United States