It’s Friday the 13th! Notice how scary movies still only come out in October, though, and not December or May or whatever. I mean, some do, I suppose, but the film industry as a whole has determined that its customers really only want to be scared one month a year, and one month only: October. December is for Star Wars and Irishmen.

Yesterday was a bit busy around the USL, what with The Miami FC joining the league, Louisville City doing tweets that made people angsty, and people tweeting things about League 2 that weren’t exactly official. But more news kept pouring out, primarily from Jeff Reuter at The Athletic, who is in attendance at USL’s winter meetings.

Read his Thursday roundup. If you don’t have an Athletic subscription, it’s not that expensive, worth it for its sports coverage in general, and it’s one of the best non league-affiliated source of American soccer news out there. They’ve got very good writers, and no one’s more plugged into USL these days that Jeff in particular.

We’ve already detailed the Miami story, but some other quick highlights that Jeff picked up:

• Bethlehem Steel, who were never actually in Bethlehem, are rebranding to Philadelphia Union II.
• Penn FC is officially dead. RIP PennIslanders.
• The Rhinos aren’t dead yet, but won’t be back for another year at the earliest.
• There may be some movement toward conference-specific awards, like regular-season champions, MVPs, and other superlatives.

Finally, the league is planning to host a mid-season All-Star game, likely to be held in San Antonio. I personally think that All-Star games are dumb, no matter what sport you’re talking about. It’s a nice recognition for the players, that’s true. But, in my opinion, All-Star games are bad games to watch because at least one of the teams is made up of guys that have never played with each other before and have no idea what each other are doing. These contests are also completely inconsequential, so no one on the field really cares about the outcome, and it’s easy to tell.

Furthermore, aside from being a chance for league and club brass to get together and debauch on the Riverwalk, I struggle to see what benefit anyone actually gets out of it. Unless you’re just dying to see the other team play what amounts to a preseason game, why would fans tune in?

Finally, games like these are another opportunity for clubs’ best players to get hurt. It just doesn’t seem worth it to me.

But I’m a crank who hates fun, probably, so your opinion may differ. Have a great weekend!