soccer folks

[courtside]

For soccer folks...the NY Times is reporting that MLS has made it a done deal for Toronto to join the league. There is a $15 million dollar fee deadline for another team to join as expansion. The deadline is in December, then the price goes up significantly. The cities mentioned were, in no order: Atlanta, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Tulsa, and for whatever reason the 5th city is escaping me this second, but nothing near STL.

KC and San Jose have been up for sale for a year...and the report said their fates will be decided in a a couple of weeks.

...lastly I read online Donigan's article/reaction and I was floored at what I read. ...considering a "softer" non-conference schedule to get more wins/results.????? It did say only "considering".... wow...the problem is the conference reputation, and the need is to schedule tough non-conference games to overcome that low margin for error in conference. Perhaps a discussion would better be to see if they could play some of those non-conference games later in the season, instead of so early. I wish I read something that said, "We have to get better players and better results against top teams....We want to be a top team so we will continue to play top teams"

Obviously Providence was rewarded for playing in a tough conference despite not so good results. Seems to be better to be a 5th or 6th place club in a top league.