Inside the Six, Episode #34: The United Soccer Leagues Saga, with Brian Quarstad
Early this summer, Nike ended its two year ownership of United Soccer Leagues (USL) when they sold the league to a group called NuRock Holdings. The transfer was a controversial one, as the owners of many USL-1 (the top tier of the league’s structure) had been informed St. Louis lawyer Jeff Cooper had won the bidding. Having already discussed with Cooper the changes teams felt necessary within USL, a group of USL teams called the Team Owners Association (TOA) were dismayed to discover NuRock intended to make few changes from the dissatisfactory model employed by Nike.
In this episode of Inside the Six, I an joined by Inside Minnesota Soccer’s Brian Quarstad. Brian has worked with Kartik Krishnaiyer (The Kartik Report) to lead the reporting on the ever-changing USL landscape. Brian walked us through the history of the league, the problems with the existing structure, and the implications should the TOA follow-through on their threat to form a breakaway league.
In the final segment, Kartik joins Brian and myself to look at the future of the USL, TOA, and the conflict between them.
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About Richard Farley
Richard Farley is a U.S.-based contributor to World Soccer Reader. He also hosts Inside the Six, the site's regular podcast. He can be reached at richardfarley at gmail dot com and followed on Twitter, username "richardfarley." And while you are at it, feel free to check out RF Football.
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[...] Quarstad (and Kartik) October 22, 2009 Richard Farley Leave a comment Go to comments On Wednesday’s edition of World Soccer Reader’s Inside the Six, I welcome Inside Minnesota Soccer’s Brian Quarstad to update my listeners on the news [...]
[...] Two weeks ago, Brian Quarstad of Inside Minnesota Soccer joined us to provide an overview of the drama surround the United Soccer Leagues (USL). Today, Brian makes his second appearance on the show to update us on the split between USL (and their new owners, NuRock) and the Team Owners Association – a group of owners from USL-1 clubs who seek to form a new league rather then persist with the same ownership structure. [...]
[...] Several weeks ago I was on Farley’s “Inside the Six” for the first time and the host did an excellent job of creating a time line and walking you the listener through the events of the past 2 years concerning the TOA with my commentary. It’s a good way to update yourself with the situation if you’ve not followed this drama over the last several months. At the end of the show we were joined by Kartik Krishnaiyer from The Kartik Report and Major League Soccer Talk as well as EPL talk. Krishnaiyer partnered with IMS to gather news concerning the TOA/USL saga. Go here to listen to that episode. [...]