A New Hope?
Across America, there is a movement towards what I feel will be the future for American Football.
Detroit City FC and the Northern Guard have grown a club from scratch and puts on a show every weekend that would rival the scenes of football fans around the world.
Minneapolis City SC are among the pioneers of fan ownership, A standard in German Football, but the only professional fan owned team in the United States is the Green Bay Packers. These are mechanics have been proven useful around the world and if implemented correctly, could set a part soccer from any other sport in the country. It is true that with the rigorous Professional League Standards, where teams like Bournemouth or even Leicester wouldn’t be allowed into the top flight, that countless communities are being passed over and left in the dust by Major League Soccer. But that fact has not been able to stamp out the embers of independent football. It is at this level that I hope to get a better understanding of what life is like week in and week out for not just the clubs as a whole, but the players, staff, and supporters.
It is admittedly hard to keep track of the number of teams that exist in a given region. Most of the local teams are made up of the NPSL or the UPSL. Both of those league are considered amateur so their rosters are made up of college athletes hoping to get more minutes. Even though these teams aren’t professional, they still have the capacity to be an important part of their community.
Despite these two leagues serving a very similar purpose, they are often at ends when it comes to a way forward for amateur teams. I have read that the governing body, the United States Adult Soccer Association, have been working on a ranking system so each league know where it officially stands in the “pyramid” but it doesn’t sound like it’s going well.
Next year, a new league called NISA hopes to carry the banner for independent football. The league hope to start at a DIII level and after it grows to a critical mass, it will move to have an official fourth division made to help pool together amateur teams that aren’t ready for the jump to fully professional. If the right people get involved and the league is not only stable but grows, founder Peter Wilt hopes to see NISA grow into the second and first Divisions creating an independent alternative to the MLS-USL duopoly.
It is my goal to see a home game for every team in the Bay Area this summer. I want to meet more people who share a common goal of growing local supporters culture. I hope to be able to capture the match day experience so that maybe someone might see it and want to go check it out for themselves.
For me personally, I am excited to check out FC Davis. Davis has always been known to be a hotbed for football in the area and it will be cool to see the city develop an identity both on the field and in the stands. Other teams I am excited to see are San Francisco City, who are fan owned, East Bay Stompers, since I have roots supporting east bay sports teams, and El Farolito, the San Francisco based, 1993 Open Cup winning side that is named after a Taqueria.
The war for soccer in America is far from over and the next couple of years will be pivotal of where we end up in the history books.
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