Unlike last year, I was not able to observe the First Division scheduling this year, so I observed the PDL and the W-League instead. Unlike the First Division, the PDL and W-League are largely regional leagues, so the teams were grouped by their division, as most of the schedules are done within the division. Each team started out with scheduling their Open Cup games and out-of-division games, then settled with their divisions. It didn't mean that scheduling was easy though, as a few times PDL Director Steve Clamp had to be called upon to settled scheduling snafus. It seemed that when a few teams would hit a scheduling snag, they moved to the foyer to settle the dispute around a round glass table there. I'm not sure what drew them to it, but it happened a few times, so I guess it had it's purpose. Most of the teams have played together for years though, so the scheduling actually went very smoothly.

The PDL teams working on their schedules A short distance away, the W-League do the same Some PDL teams move into the foyer to work out schedule issues Upstairs, the First Division teams hard at work And farewell from Sunny Tampa for another year

But it also became clear why the W-League and PDL were doing their scheduling close to one another, because there was a constant parade of W-League and PDL teams going back and forth as there are several PDL and W-League teams who are closely associated and need to coordinate their schedules. Particularly busy was Virginia Beach Mariners owner Mike McCann, who had to work on the First Division Mariners schedule upstairs, and the W-League Hampton Roads Piranhas (who are sharing the Virginia Beach Sportsplex in 2006) and PDL Submariners schedules downstairs. With many teams only having only one or two representatives at the meetings, and only four hours to work on the bulk of their schedules, it was amazing to see that that PDL teams seemed pretty much done after about three hours, while the First Division were still hard at work after four hours.

Without the last-day sand soccer tournament to cover this year, and not having access to the First Division scheduling meeting, I know my report is a bit shorter this year. But I do hope I was able to give a bit of the flavor of the USL meetings.

With the Miami team now officially announced for the First Division for next year, I will add that the Traffic Sports group seem very much committed to the success of the new team in Miami, and I know the USL were thrilled that the group decided to put the team into the First Division, as they had other options, and of course to have the top USL league have a team in the state of Florida.

One item that I don't think was reported, though I think is probably obvious, is that as far as the "scheduling groups" that the USL First Division uses (four games within your group, two games against the teams in the other groups), the Virginia Beach Mariners will move to the group with the Montreal Impact, Rochester Raging Rhinos, and Toronto Lynx. The Miami team will be in a group with the Atlanta Silverbacks, Charleston Battery, and Puerto Rico Islanders.

And I would like to thank Tim Holt and the excellent USL staff for welcoming me to the meetings again, as well as the representatives of the various teams who welcomed me as well and took the time to talk to me, and it was especially nice to meet Marcie Laumann of the Hampton Roads Piranhas, who I wrote about last year after she was honored during the Hall of Fame dinner, and who sent me a nice note afterwards thanking me for my comments.

And I apologize that the day 3 page took me a few days to post. I also found out at the AGM that my journal does get read, even by many of the AGM participants, and it's always nice to know that what you write is being read.

Here's to an exciting 2006 season for all the USL leagues, and good luck to all the teams.