NWSL2LOU?
A couple of big news items arose this past week and they’re probably worth talking about. First, and probably more important to the Purple Family, are several articles recently published in The Athletic and the Courier-Journal about talks between the National Women’s Soccer League and Louisville City as an expansion candidate for 2020.
Mike Mountjoy, who is on Louisville City’s board of directors, confirmed that conversations between the club and the league have taken place, but stated that starting up operations in 2020 would be “a stretch” given that the stadium isn’t even finished yet. However, it certainly makes sense to try and fill as many soccer dates at Lynn Family Stadium as possible to recoup some investment more quickly. What’s more, joining NWSL is relatively inexpensive ($1 million, per reports), salaries are fairly comparable with the USL Championship, and other operating costs would likely be shared thanks to the marketing, ticketing, and other operations mechanisms already in place for Louisville City.
Further, I am of the opinion that there will be plenty of support for a women’s side here in Louisville. The women’s game in this city is just about as popular as the men’s if you use participation in youth leagues, rec leagues, and college programs as a metric.
The only slight downside is I don’t think ownership will be allowed to call the potential new NWSL side “Louisville City.” I frankly don’t see why not, but reasonable arguments could be made about brand confusion between the men’s team and the women’s. It certainly doesn’t seem to bother Manchester City or PSG or Lyon, but whatever.
Long story short, this seems like a no-brainer move for the club’s owners, and while I agree that 2020 is probably pushing it, 2021 seems perfectly reasonable. I look forward to it!
MLS2STL
In other news, MLS is finally coming to St. Louis. St. Louis FC’s owners combined forces with another group in the city to push their bid over the top. Thanks to MLS’s intellectual property rules, this probably spells the end of St. Louis FC as we know it – the MLS team will have a different name, most likely, and different branding.
MLS has now picked off three of Louisville City’s four closest geographical rivals (Nashville SC, we hardly knew ye), which is a bummer. However, at this point, Morados don’t necessarily need a close-by team to fuel interest in the club, which is good. Insider Louisville (RIP) attempted to gin up a story about City’s own MLS ambitions, but there haven’t been any new developments on that front in quite some time.
In the end, City will be fine. We still have Indy (for now), we’ll soon have a shiny new stadium, and the USL Championship is well positioned for future success. Away games are still challenging, as Birmingham and Memphis are really the only other close-ish opponents now, but at least they’re interesting places to visit. The League Cup is supposed to start next year, there are constant rumors of promotion and relegation between the Championship and League One which will be very interesting, and the Academy Cup competition means we’ll start seeing new, local players that LouCity has helped to develop on a bigger stage.
Club over league is a good mantra to remember. Louisville City is doing all the right things to be the best soccer club it can be. Whatever league we play in doesn’t matter as long as things are good with the club.
Vamos Morados.
