NASL Teams Won’t Play In 2011 U.S. Open Cup

NASL won the right to be called Division 2, but that decision apparently came too late to allow the five U.S.-based teams to play in what is arguably their biggest showcase event: the U.S. Open Cup. During a conference call with reporters, U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati revealed the timing of the NASL’s one-year sanctioning made it impossible for the league’s teams to compete in the country’s longest continuously running championship. He also ruled out the possibility of some kind of play-in mechanism.

“There is no place in the structure, they’re not going to be included,” Gulati said.

This news surely comes as a blow for second division soccer, which was allowed to send all nine of its U.S.-based teams into the first round of last year’s tournament and have historically played reasonably well. Five of those teams made it as far as the third round, but none got any farther and Miami FC (soon to be rebranded as the Strikers) was the only one of those five that is playing in NASL this year. Two non-MLS teams, the Harrisburg City Islanders and the Charleston Battery, made it as far as the fourth round last year. Both of those teams will play in the Division 3 USL-Pro this year, and will be allowed to play in the Open Cup.

This will be the first time in the modern era (1995-present) that a sanctioned professional league will not be allowed to compete in the tournament, according to theCup.US. The original NASL (1968-84) also did not play in the Open Cup. The Montreal Impact and FC Edmonton will be playing in the Canadian Nutrilite Championship (Voyageurs Cup).

The other particularly newsworthy piece of information to come out of the conference call was the revelation that there is no strict timeline for Traffic USA to divest itself of two of three NASL franchises in which it currently has large stakes. It had been rumored that one of the main reasons for the league’s one-year provisional status was that ownership situation, but Gulati indicated that may not be the case.

“We haven’t put a restriction on ownership on the provisional approval,” said Gulati, while also addressing the league-owned status of the NSC Minnesota Stars. “The pro league development task force witll contine to work with NASL on a number of points that have been discussed. The immediate resolution in terms of single team, single ownership, we don’t have a timetable on that.

“In an ideal world, we’d like to see individual investment groups for all eight teams or however many they have.”

Aaron Davidson, NASL CEO and Miami FC owner, continued to stress that Traffic USA is not directly operating the Atlanta Silverbacks and Carolina Railhawks, and that there are local investors with their own managements.

“We’ve been very clear all along that it was out of necessity that Traffic had to invest into multiple teams,” Davidson said. “We are very cognizant that the sport is the No. 1 prioirty.

“We believe those teams will maintain the highest level of integrity. Everyone will have chance to win championship.”