NCFC And The Same Old Song
North Carolina FC is shutting down. Or going on hiatus. Or entering suspended animation ahead of the United Soccer League's planned launch of a first division soccer league in 2028.
Whatever the words, the effect is the same: An established American soccer club will stop playing matches with only a possibility that it will return at a date too far in the future to feel imminent. Fans who gave years of their lives to supporting the club are left to twist in the wind while NCFC's ownership plays a game of chicken with its market and the league.
Because that's what this is. While we should acknowledge the difficult economic proposition of running any kind of soccer club in America, the incentives in place that make it a good business decision for NCFC owner Steve Malik[1] to shut down his men's soccer operation have to give us pause.
Not that any of this is new, but it's never fun to be smacked in the face with the reality that these teams, these constructs sold to us as more than businesses selling us a service, aren't really more than that at all.
USL posted this sentence as part of its statement on North Carolina FC shutting down.
The USL believes Raleigh has strong potential as a future Division One market if it meets the league’s professional standards, including a minimum 15,000-seat, purpose-built soccer stadium that will serve as an anchor for real estate development.[2]
I will say this for USL: At least they don't pretend the growth of American soccer, especially their version of American soccer, is going to be driven by anything but than a value proposition centered on real estate[3]. Flatly stating that a stadium in Raleigh will serve as an anchor for development is meant as an entreaty to the kind of people needed to get a project like that off the ground: local elected leaders and real estate investors.
In fact, if we're leaning into the cynicism, everything USL is doing comes back to real estate. Or rather, real estate is the fuel USL imagines will launch its business into a new stratosphere, bringing its version of American soccer along for the ride. If you're of the opinion that the churn of clubs that has marked the sport in the US at levels below MLS for decades can be ended by launching a first division and instituting promotion and relegation, then none of that matters too much. Let them cook.
Who cares what incentives are being sold to rich people if the upshot for soccer fans is more teams, more stadiums, and more stability? In an imperfect system, we have to make bargains with the imperfections to get what we want.
Of course, we have to buy that NCFC's hiatus is just a pothole in the road on the way to that utopia, a pothole that it just so happens looks a lot like the beginning of sinkholes that disappeared so many clubs over the years.
For more on North Carolina FC's move into purgatory, be sure to read Jeff Rueter's Five Aside. Jeff gets into the collateral damage the club's shuttering causes, especially for players[4].
Steve Malik has a wild history as part of the Soccer Warz of the last decade. It's always been difficult to pin down his motivations, but he's been open about wanting to lead top level soccer in Raleigh (hence his quest to attract MLS over and over again). He stated flatly that the decision to suspend NCFC is about boosting the Courage, a club he tried to find new investment for before NWSL rules upended those plans. ↩︎
Is it telling that the league mentions 15,000 seats as a minimum, meaning that the stadium capacity element of the Professional League Standard is unlikely to change? We have no direct reporting that USL is engaged with USSF on the PLS, but there's always been an assumption that negotiations could lessen certain requirements and make launching a first division league a little easier. ↩︎
USL pushing out a new announcment about discussions around a soccer stadium on a near weekly basis is a strategy. The more the organization can make it look like a trend, the more interest it will attract. USL has mostly dispensed with trying to paint itself as a purely soccer-focused benevolent actor. ↩︎
The USL's CBA expires at the end of the year and as of this point, the players say the league is making no real effort to engage on pressing issues like healthcare standards. We talked to USLPA president Conor Tobin last month on Morning Kickaround and the next roun do of meetings is set for next week. ↩︎
The new USMNT roster is out for matches against Paraguay and Uruguay.
No Christian, no Weston, no Richards, no Weah (injured), no Jedi (injured, still).
So what are we doing here? Mauricio Pochettino called 11 new players from the last camp, including the Gladbach duo of Giovanni Reyna and Joe Scally. Those two players getting back into the team after a period in the wilderness is interesting, though the conclusion I've come to is that we shouldn't read too much into any of Pochettino's selections.
This is not a coach who is going to be held to a previous standard, even one he himself established. Every camp is a clean slate and he's intent on calling up whichever players he wants to see. That means the idea of time ticking away and September (remember September?) being the last chance to blood new players ahead of the serious business of locking down a cohesive roster got tossed right out of the window.
I'm not sure why Pochettino needed to say it if he didn't intend to stick to it, but I guess it's possible that he himself didn't realize just how far he would verge from the plan.
Poch is also a coach sensitive (maybe overly so) to the club commitments of his internationals. Pulisic is likely to play for Milan on the weekend after his return from a short-term injury, but didn't get called for USMNT duty. Richards wasn't included after his Crystal Palace boss publicly questioned the demands put on him by playing every match for both club and country. Pochettino explained that McKennie will stay in Turin because he needs to get in good with yet another new manager, Luciano Spalletti.
There's lots of reaction out there to Reyna coming back into the team. I'm ambivalent, though I still hold a candle for the idea that Gio can be a game-changer when the Americans need one in 2026. His consistency and effort levels can be atrocious, but he's undeniable one of the most naturally talented players the United States has ever produced.
Maybe Poch can pull something out of him.
We'll be talking about the roster on tonight's episode of The Best Soccer Show, so join us at 9 ET on YouTube to be part of the discussion. The show will be available as a podcast tomorrow wherever you get your podcasts.