Affiliation, Brotherly Love at question with Harrisburg-Philadelphia Quarterfinal pairing

When the US Soccer Federation announced the Quarterfinal scenarios Saturday there was one surprise among them, the potential pairing of USL Pro’s Harrisburg City Islanders and the Philadelphia Union of MLS. The two sides have been official affiliate partners since 2010 and it was believed that the two would not be slated to face one another unless they both reached the championship match.

That belief was based primarily upon the 2012 US Open Cup Handbook given to the clubs prior to the tournament, laying out the rules and procedures of the competition.

In the 2012 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup’s Competition Handbook under 2012 US Open Cup Competition Format, it states:

General Provision: Pairings will be arranged to prevent the possibility of a lower division team playing a parent club (e.g. Chicago Fire PDL [PDL] will not be pitted against the Chicago Fire [MLS], should both teams be in the competition in the same round) except for the Championship Game.

In the section listing the competition’s entrants – as were known at the time of publication (no USASA, USCS or NPSL clubs) – there were eight sets of affiliations listed with the accompanying note.

Note: Eight teams listed above have affiliations with another club in the competition. Clubs and their related affiliates are indicated with matching asterisks. See page detailing competition format to see how these affiliations will impact the tournament.

While the list did not include the Harrisburg City Islanders and the Philadelphia Union as affiliates, it did however contain the Union and Reading United AC. Both clubs are described as an “affiliate partner” in recent news releases earlier this spring concerning exhibition friendlies set to take place this summer with trips to Harrisburg June 12 and Reading June 9 during the club’s break for the FIFA international competition window. It is unknown at this time if the Harrisburg friendly will be canceled if the two advance to play one another.

Photo: Derek Meluzio

Upon obtaining the US Open Cup Handbook prior to the tournament, TheCup.us inquired with US Soccer as to why the Harrisburg-Philadelphia affiliation partnership was not listed thinking that it may have been an innocent oversight as it was a new section added to the handbook from the previous year. It would not have been the only error in the handbook, as it has been since discovered that four players were also erroneously listed in the suspension list that had already served their penalties, creating confusion over the eligibility of Rochester’s Danny Earls prior to the club’s first match.

Follow-up requests for information regarding the USSF’s stance on the affiliation between the clubs was met with indecision and a few weeks ago the federation said they were “reviewing the relationship between Harrisburg and the Philadelphia Union, but currently they are not in the same bracket” after stating that “a clear example of a relationship is a situation where an organization has control or ownership of two or more teams. Teams with player development arrangements are also considered to have a relationship in most cases.”

However.

Clearly, with the two teams scheduled to meet in the next round if they both win, USSF believes that Harrisburg and Philadelphia do not have a close enough relationship to warrant avoiding them meeting until the Final.

According to Philadelphia’s March 1, 2010 news release [Union Partner with City Islanders: City Islanders to be Exclusive USL-2 Affiliate Club], the team was “further extending the Major League Soccer club’s player development model. The City Islanders will be Philadelphia Union’s Exclusive USL-2 Affiliate Club.”

It continued, saying: “The City Islanders will become a key part of Philadelphia’s player development strategy, as the club will have the option to loan players to Harrisburg for increased playing time. As partners, both clubs will also work to help identify City Islander players who have the potential to make the leap to MLS. The relationship continues the growth of Philadelphia Union’s player development strategy, building off of previously established relationships with PDL squad Reading United AC, Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer Association (EPYSA), Delaware Youth Soccer Association (DYSA) and YSC Sports.”

Nick Sakiewicz, CEO & Operating Partner of Philadelphia Union, stated: “With the Harrisburg City Islanders and our previously announced relationship with Reading United AC, Philadelphia Union Team Manager Peter Nowak will instill ‘first team’ principles in training and playing attacking, attractive football throughout Pennsylvania that our supporters will truly enjoy."

City Islanders President Eric Pettis added: “We’re proud and excited to make this announcement today. Before they’ve even played a game, Philadelphia Union have proven themselves to be a truly first-class organization. Both clubs will see numerous benefits, on and off the field, as a result of this partnership. It’s a natural fit.”

The release also noted: “An annual friendly match in Harrisburg between the clubs (date to be announced) is another highlight of the partnership. Other components will include cross promotional opportunities, clinics and Philadelphia Union player appearances in Harrisburg during the summer and off-season.”

These factors and comments clearly show the two clubs as affiliates that would warrant separation in the tournament until the Final as per the handbook and response from USSF. Given the movement of numerous players over the years, the staffs of the City Islanders and Union clearly are in regular coordination with one another. And perhaps more importantly, the presence of annual scheduled exhibition matches present a significant financial incentive to the City Islanders that make them subservient to the Union and – without accusation that they actually would – place them in a position of wanting to please Philadelphia in a manner that could result in impropriety, which is the entire reason that the ‘affiliation rule’ exists.

Incentivizing the US Open Cup for casual fans

The Seattle Sounders have made the US Open Cup a must-see competition for fans to attend. Now, the Philadelphia Union may be onto something else that could help bolster support for the event when they make their tournament debut later this spring.

The club has a “Loyalty Rewards” program that awards season ticket holders for just about everything. Obviously, the main portion of the points distributed to fans is for match attendance, but the system also rewards fans for watching road games and attending additional team-related events in the community. The best feature in the program is the variety of points awarded for home matches, rewarding fans that attend games that are midweek and/or against less popular opponents with more points than weekend fixtures against the most popular sides.

Reward fans who support both | @FCDallas Facebook

Though the story does not specifically mention US Open Cup contests, one would have to expect that if the Union play host to a game in the tournament, its fans would be able to receive a high value in points for going to the midweek contest against what is likely to be a lower division opponent.

Since the club has not qualified for the tournament in its brief history and has a fervent fan base, one would assume that the club would draw well regardless of the presence of the rewards system. However; for the good of the tournament, it is great that a program like this is in place in Philadelphia and being explored by many other teams around the league.

If it is not obvious at this point, I clearly like this program. And, I am glad to hear there is vast interest in it being duplicated around the league, and around the world.

My hope: that it is expanded to a co-operational, multi-national program led by MLS, the USSF and the CSA that includes the lower divisions, the women’s game and, most importantly, communities that do not have professional clubs. There are a lot of casual fans that I think could be converted into more loyal supporters of the game if there was a reason not to shrug off attending a lower division game or international friendly in their own back yard – there are certainly enough empty seats available.

There is no reason why loyal Sounders fans should not also be rewarded for being league fans that watch all MLS matches or attend a game between Chivas USA and FC Dallas at the HDC while in California for a Disney adventure with the kids. Season ticket holders for Toronto FC that attend every game should be able to buy discounted CSA match tickets and people who buy tickets to youth national team friendlies should earn credit toward their favorite pro club.

Sometimes players are forced to choose between club or country – there is no reason why fans should have to do the same.

At the very least, Major League Soccer should develop a league-wide program to drive support of the game nationwide instead of just a handful of the biggest cities. It would certainly be a great way of gauging potential expansion support as well as developing the soccer culture in places that need a boost.

MLS & USSF Establishing Long-Term Calendar?

With our report on TheCup.us Wednesday regarding the structural changes most likely upcoming for the 2012 US Open Cup and beyond, I was paying particular attention to Thursday's 'Best XI / State of the League' conference call with MLS Commissioner Don Garber. Although the topic itself was largely brushed over as he focused on league-specific scheduling and calendar issues, a few things did stand out in regards to long-term strategic planning for MLS and the US Open Cup.

Garber mentioned that the league is working on establishing a broad list of schedule dates over a multi-year period. To me it sounds like the league's competition committee is looking beyond the next season and trying to establish a mostly-fixed calendar for the league's season along with the competitions of the two federations and CONCACAF.

That is something long overdue, but until the recent growth and success in the US Open Cup (and Canadian Championship) and Champions League, it has been very difficult to accomplish. Now that the league, those competitions and the non-MLS clubs seem to be settling in, a master calendar seems to be emerging. The new schedule adaptations to the US Open Cup are a modification that appears to be making that the case the process is underway.

With clubs like the Seattle Sounders, FC Dallas and Real Salt Lake openly and actually taking all competitions seriously, the overlapping calendar of non-league competitions has made things difficult on the clubs and players (see the schedule flow chart pdf). With the CCL Group Phase lingering toward the end of the MLS regular season, it was important for the league to open the midweek windows occupied by the Open Cup semifinals and final that have fallen within the range of the CCL group games. By moving the Open Cup up, the league's elite teams will be able to provide more rest for its top players.

This is particularly important considering situations like Seattle and Los Angeles Galaxy, who are repeat CCL participants and could be virtually playing multiple competitions all campaign long. The knockout championship stage rounds of the CCL are in the spring followed by the bulk of US Open Cup in early summer. The CCL Preliminary Round for the next tournament pops up in the heat of the summer with the group phase coming shortly thereafter.

The other item that came up was the discussion of the league's competition committee itself. From a US Open Cup perspective it may be interesting to note the tournament-friendly composition of the group.

Clark Hunt (Dallas/Columbus) - The son of the tournament's namesake... Sunil Gulati (New England) - President of US Soccer... Adrian Hanauer (Seattle) - Sounders are one of the leading proponents of USOC... Andrew Hauptman (Chicago) - Fire are one of the leading proponents of USOC... Greg Kerfoot (Vancouver) - Whitecaps are an advocate for counterpart Canadian Championship... Todd Durbin - MLS. Nelson Rodriguez - MLS

While the group obviously has to take its lead from the whole of the ownership around the league, it is a good sign for the US Open Cup, and the league, that the men at the table for the discussion of the external competitions are among those who treat the events with gravitas. It is particularly great that two - Hanauer and Kerfoot - have experienced the tournaments from the lower division viewpoint as well.
-