This year's AOM has kicked off down in sunny Florida and there are lots of fun new developments that should be coming out of these meetings by the time next weekend rolls around. First, there's the talk of Syracuse joining the league and during the scheduling meetings this weekend they'll get to make things official. Another development is that, yes, hardcore supporters, the bonus point, or bogus point as so many have called it in recent years, is gone hopefully never to be heard from again. There have been whispers that South Florida will be re-entering the professional soccer playground, this time at the A-League level, but nothing confirmed as of yet but there could be an announcement one way or the other in the not too distant future. Then there's one of the happiest bits of news, the Vancouver Whitecaps appear to have found a new sugar daddy much to the relief of most A-League fans. Heck, even Seattle fans are glad to hear that their northern rivals will be back next year.
To go along with that information we shall probably wind up with a glut of information coming out of Florida in the coming days, weeks, and months but at this point, luckily, most of the news is good. With MLS waiving a number of potentially good players, not to mention the already proven A-League talent of Miguel Saavedra, it looks once again like the A-League could benefit seeing as how it definitely appears to be a buyer's market, so to speak. As a case in point, it appears that the ever-ambitious Mike Field has already snapped up Roy Lassiter for his Virginia Beach Mariners. Field has also made it known that he will be aggressive in the player market this year. If the Mariners do put together a solid club once again then their division will become the toughest division in the league with resident bullies, Charleston and Richmond, and perennial playoff contenders, Atlanta and Charlotte.
The AOM, home of marathon scheduling sessions and a bit of sequestered r&r for the USL's head honchos, is also the single most interesting event during the USL off-season. This is mainly because sometimes the fans just don't know what might come out of those meetings. Heck, there are already rumors floating around that some clubs didn't even send representation to the AOM but then again nobody has mentioned what league those no shows might be from. After all, these days the PDL and D3 seem to be shuffling more than a deck of cards in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, there's a tendency to not publicize as much of the lower division information right after these meetings as it seems the USL is almost always waiting to see where all the chips may fall in the months after the meetings.
Apparently, though, the league should have its official website back up, though we've all heard that one numerous times before. We shall see but it would be very useful and a nice addition to the emerging web presence of USL websites, albeit fan run for the most part. Anything that can help to get any word out for the league and its clubs should be a big help but hopefully whoever reboots the league's web presence will have taken note of the many numerous complaints fans had about the last incarnation.
There's other news in the rumor mill that the upcoming season in the USL will have even more television time than last season on Fox Sports World. If that's true then who knows what it could mean for soccer in North America as it might become possible that the A-League has as many matches on FSW as MLS gets on that other network with the mouse ears behind it. Wouldn't that be quite the interesting turn of events? Either way, no matter what comes out in the wash later it appears that there will be plenty of upward movement by the USL in the next season.
So what's the bottom line on this year's AOM? Well, hopefully most of the good rumors come true and most of the bad rumors prove to be just that and get swept away in the build-up to another year in the USL. It's not likely, though, as calamity almost always strikes in the months between seasons. This off-season might just have to do with the severity of said calamity and hopefully we can make it to April with the fewest casualties as possible. Apparently, we've got a plate full of rumor and innuendo to go along with a side of concrete information on the positive side. So what aren't they telling us? I can't say just now but no doubt it will be interesting… just like this year's AOM.
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