This is how a food chain works. This is how capitalism works. This is how the USSF allows soccer in this country to work. Literally no one is safe and no league is sacred. https://twitter.com/brianstraus/status/1298264841937805312

The NPSL comes for UPSL. USL comes for NPSL. USL cannibalizes itself. And everyone is at the mercy of MLS. Communities are markets. Supporters are fans willing to spend more money and do free advertising. And those who dare to do something different...

Are often marginalized, not out of spite or pettiness, but for lack of validation by the Fed. Even those working within the system for change are susceptible, no matter how clear their eyes and bright their eyes. The siren call of legitimization tempts all owners.

If amateur is good, professional is better. Bringing in out-of-town investors to meet PLS is intoxicating. 30 person ownership groups to move up a division seems innocent. Hiring ex-Fed employees as consultants is just good business.

Fans will help pay for stadiums, it’s just tourism pots of money meant for this exact sort of thing. Fans liked us before, they’ll love us now. Get Matt Wolff on the phone, let’s reimagine our brand. Didn’t cha know he did those Nigeria kits? More is better. THIS will be better.

And fans and supporters drink their beer and beat their drums and record their podcasts thinking they know what’s happening. Thinking they have an “in.” Its all on the up-and-up. Being done for the right reasons. We’re local, we’re a community, we’re a “club.”

But no one has it right. Pay-to-play academies, no women’s team, sub-minimum wage contracts, all white male ownership, allowing fans during a pandemic, no is doing it 100% right. It’s all concurrently happening on a spectrum and you do your best to believe in what you support.

And anyone who says they know what’s happening next, they don’t. And anyone dying on any sort of philosophical hill, know that it is built on a swamp and will sink. Your diamond absolutes needs to be questioned by yourself first and foremost or time will do it for you.

All of that is to say, be careful what you wish for, crow tastes like shit, and do your best to avoid throwing stones. Soccer in this country is literally just the friends we made along the way.