The Teams Owners Association has officially announced their split from the USL. The Atlanta Silverbacks, Carolina Railhawks, Miami FC, Minnesota Thunder, Montreal Impact, Vancouver Whitecaps, and a new club to be formed by St. Louis Soccer United will begin play in April 2010 in a yet-to-be-named league.
The group submitted an application to the United States Soccer Federation for Division II yesterday, and intends to apply for Division I status in Canada.
Montreal Impact owner Joey Saputo was elected Chairman of the new league.
The following is the new league's press release. Thanks to Kartik of The Kartik Report for sending this along:
ATLANTA, CAROLINA, MIAMI, MINNESOTA, MONTREAL, ST. LOUIS AND VANCOUVER FORM NEW PRO SOCCER LEAGUE TO BEGIN PLAY IN 2010
Nov. 10, 2009 – The owners of the Atlanta Silverbacks, Carolina Railhawks, Miami FC, Minnesota Thunder, Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps, formerly of USL-1, together with St. Louis Soccer United today announced that they have formed a new professional soccer league to play in the United States and Canada beginning in April 2010.
The team owners yesterday submitted an application for sanctioning of the new league as a Division II Men’s Outdoor Professional League by the United States Soccer Federation. An application for sanctioning as a Division I League will be submitted to the Canadian Soccer Association shortly and applications to other sanctioning bodies in the region will be submitted as needed.
Joey Saputo, President of the 2009 USL-1 champion Montreal Impact, was recently elected Chairman of the Board of Governors of the new league.
“This is not your typical new league,” Saputo said. “Most of our teams have existed for years. We have united some of the best owners, teams and markets around a new vision for a professional soccer league in North America.
“We look forward to elevating our teams and league in order to give more opportunities to players, coaches, media and sponsors, entertain our fans and play our role in helping soccer truly recognize its potential in the United States and Canada.”
Jeff Cooper, the principal owner of St. Louis Soccer United and spokesperson for the new league, said team owners have commenced a search for a league commissioner and are actively finalizing other details, including a name for the league and its sales and marking plans. The league intends to launch an extensive marketing campaign in the coming months, Cooper said.
In addition, Cooper said the team owners are in active conversations with several teams and organizations throughout the world which have expressed interest in joining the new league.
“This will be a league that will offer the best of both worlds – outstanding experience and leadership at the ownership level combined with the promise and ability to chart our own course for success as a new league,” Cooper said. “It’s this structure that motivated me to bring St. Louis into the new league, and why I believe the new league will have a lot of success at launch next year and well into the future.”
What this means, exactly, is difficult to know at this point. The turnaround time for starting up the new league is short, and the TOA clubs will need get themselves together quickly. We should also find out fairly quickly just how serious claims on both sides (from USL of expansion to Baltimore, Detroit, Ottawa, and Edmonton and from the TOA of other interested parties) are.
Needless to say, with the effusive Joey Saputo as Chairman, the startup of the TOA league should be fun to follow.
