Link: https://wburdine.substack.com/p/the-quietest-earthquake-in-us-soccer

Last week, two bits of news dropped in American soccer that may have been the most consequential shift in recent years and may signal a new front in the 30 Years War of the #SoccerWarz. Did you miss it? You probably did.

In March, USSF quietly updated its team ownership requirements in its League Standards. It’s a move that has not officially been ratified, but seems to have been released publicly nonetheless. The federation changed the rules so that teams no longer have to have a principal owner with a 35% stake. Instead, they only need a 15% stake.

I find this article particularly interesting from an NWSL perspective because Wes is the cofounder of the Minnesota Aurora, who have considered joining the NWSL in the past:

For every Des Moines Menace, however, there are 20 other clubs that—forgive me Father for this—come and go. The number of soccer teams in US Soccer history run by sometimes well-meaning dudes, but mostly itinerant monorail salesmen, that then crash and burn is depressing as hell. There are reasons we need strict vetting of owners, because each time one of these clubs fails, it hurts the entire ecosystem and makes it harder for the next club to come along and earn the trust of the community. And rather than tightening the standards for ownership in the US, both MLS and USSF seem to be loosening those standards.

Success in an individual market relies upon a two basic things: a stable financial situation (including deep pockets that understand losing money) and community buy-in. I’ve counted the Johnny Appleseed of American soccer, Peter Wilt, as a friend for over a decade and he has shown that you can make markets as small as Madison, WI punch far above its weight.1 Community buy-in doesn’t come from surveys and market reports. Community buy-in means going town to town and holding townhalls. It means going out and—handshake to handshake—creating a group of fans who feel not only engaged, but empowered. Just last week, I was writing about how MLS briefly learned the lesson that rather than creating clubs like Chivas USA that are designed to appeal to what they think soccer fans want, they turned to grassroots clubs with real connections to their communities such as the Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders.