Chattanooga FC looks to unite US Soccer, backs away from NISA

Image credit: Chattanooga FC

With his team almost a decade old, Tim Kelly, chairman of Chattanooga FC, is equal parts concerned and bullish about the future of American soccer. During our conversation, he repeatedly pivoted his concerns with statements of, “We need to end the divisiveness,” and “I’m not going to throw stones.”

Kelly’s goal for organizing the summit was centered on the concept of unity and building a healthy ecosystem for community-based clubs and sustainability. “(I wanted to) elucidate some common vision that we can all agree on,” he said. The goal was to have “teams with sustainable business models playing in stable leagues against quality opponents with enthusiastic community support.”

The vision

While details about the exact structure of the new system are scarce and fluid (Soc Takes will have a separate article on this next week), the summit attempted to get teams to sign up for five common principles:

• Club > League. “The central malfunction in American soccer is that we have placed leagues above teams. What is extraordinary is that we now have clubs, like ours that are a success in spite of their leagues, not because of it,” said Kelly.
• Commitment to the community. Will never pick up and leave.
• Club is bigger than the game. We do as much work in the community as we do in the field. We have a non-profit arm doing work in the community.
• World’s game, World’s rules – Promotion/Relegation is the right course – legally, ethically and economically. Kelly argues that Pro/Rel would help generate investment into the US Soccer pyramid.
• Supporter ownership. At the meeting, Kim Arnome, Vice president of Cutting Edge Capital presented the attendees with ideas to generate community capital, via crowdfunding, via public offering or via community investment funds. Per her presentation (provided to Soc Takes), each method of revenue generation has its own pros and cons, including caps on money raised, costs, etc. Per Kelly, the idea of supporter ownership received pushback from some of the attendees.

Kelly said that as of March 14, 12-13 teams have signed on to these principles.

NISA

It is noticeable that some of the ideas shared in the vision align well with those postulated by NISA. Therefore, it is no coincidence that Chattanooga FC was “one of the first teams who spoke to Peter (Wilt) about NISA, “ Kelly says, “We visited him in Chicago and tried to reform the terms of agreement with him.”

Luis Hernandez of Pint after Podcast  was the first to report that Chattanooga FC is not expected to play in NISA.

Hearing that Chattanooga may officially be out of #NISA.

I have not confirmed this.

— Luis Hernandez (@DeltaReaper) March 10, 2018

Per Kelly, Chattanooga FC has backed away from its commitment to NISA. “In some ways, this meeting was a consequence of how long (NISA) was taking,” Kelly said, later adding, “The clock is ticking, if they get critical mass, we will take a look at it again.”

In recent weeks, Soc Takes has been told that some other early proponents of NISA are exploring other options and reneging on commitments to NISA. Unanimously, each conversation has heaped praise on the integrity of NISA co-founder Peter Wilt, but raised concerns about the other partners involved in the NISA project.

When asked if he had such concerns (about Wilt’s partners), Kelly refused to comment.

Soc Takes reached out to Wilt for comment. Wilt said:

“Tim and I communicated today. We agreed that for them, NISA needs to solidify behind critical mass. There are many teams like them that want to be team number nine, 10 or 11. We have five qualified commitments now and expect a sixth tomorrow. We are working to add several more before April 1. When we reach eight, we will submit to US Soccer for sanctioning consideration. If Chattanooga would like to join NISA once we achieve that critical mass, they will be welcomed.”

Wilt was not in attendance at the summit last weekend.

Unity

Kelly plans on scheduling another meeting to finalize the next steps. Those steps involve finding ways to reach “critical mass,” working on the NPSL’s full-season play and continuing to unite the leagues.

.@SocTakes understands that @NPSLSoccer has appointed Scott Frauenhofer (co-owner of FC Buffalo) to oversee the likely transition to full-season play in 2019. Frauenhofer will vet interested teams in the next few months.

— Nipun Chopra (@NipunChopra7) March 14, 2018

In order to unite the leagues, Kelly (and other interested owners such as Robert Palmer) will have to find ways to bring the UPSL and NPSL to the table, two leagues that have an uneasy relationship. Kelly is cognizant of the issues. “Yeah, there is some antagonism. But, we had a couple of UPSL teams at the meeting, and I want them (UPSL) to be a part of it.”

Also post-Chattanooga worth noting @JaxArmadaFC owner @rp_robertpalmer is emerging quickly as a real leader in independent US soccer. Not partial to any league, personality or ideology, and has in short-time won the trust of many in #NPSL #NASL & #UPSL .

— Kartik Krishnaiyer (@kkfla737) March 13, 2018

“If we (NPSL/UPSL) can just agree on common principles and suspend all the bullshit, we can make it work. We don’t have to agree on every single detail, and that’s OK.”

Kelly is also concerned that setting up to play a full season for the NPSL may provide logistical, financial and legal challenges going forward. Soc Takes has reported on some of the logistical issues, which include the new USASA standards.

The legal pushback may come from other sanctioned leagues. If the NPSL operates as a professional league (it would likely have to pay players to play a full season) sanctioned by the USASA, as opposed to the USSF, that would raise questions about the need for stringent Professional League Standards as codified by the USSF.

Soc Takes understands that Robert Palmer, who was in attendance at the meeting, along with Riccardo Silva, are expected to help provide financial backstops for some teams. Kelly clarified that Chattanooga FC is “self-sufficient,” but suggested a financial backstop for other teams would help reach critical mass.

Conclusion

From the perspective of conversation, the summit in Chattanooga was a success. Multiple teams and US soccer personnel were in attendance. Yet, the follow up to the summit will be ultimately be more interesting. Meanwhile, while ideologically similar, Wilt’s NISA league may suddenly find itself in competition to secure “independent” markets, as owners suddenly find themselves with other options.

Follow Nipun on Twitter: @NipunChopra7.

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