Caribbean Professional League? -

[Karl]

Plans to kick off pro league afoot
Published: Thursday | January 23, 2014

ORLANDO, Florida (CMC):

A California-based company and a firm registered in Barbados have come together to stage a professional soccer league for teams in the Caribbean.

The Caribbean Football Trust Limited, with offices in Florida and Canada, and Concorde Sports Agency, headquartered in Beverly Hills, say plans are in the pipeline for a kick-off date of September 2015.

Both organisations have already signed an agreement and are pressing ahead with plans for the tournament expected to attract 20 teams competing for the league title and over three million US dollars in prize money.

The organisers say prize monies are expected to grow to five million US dollars after the first three years.

The proposed league, dubbed Major League Futbol (MLS), will be the subject of a meeting in Orlando, Florida on February 25 involving the Caribbean Football Trust, an advisory group of investors, regional government officials, and other stakeholders of the league concept.

Concorde Sports Agency is a sports marketing firm which focuses on domestic and international player representation, player scouting, image rights, and branding.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...s/sports5.html

[Bricktop]

The proposed league, dubbed Major League Futbol (MLS)

Am I missing something here?

[USAF]

Saw that too....

[USAF]

Will the Jamaican clubs have the financial resources to compete??? Wasn't it just a year ago they pulled out of the CFU Club Championships citing lack of financial resources???
This is a LEAGUE, requiring far more money than the CFU Club Championships - 20 teams; possibly playing each team 4 times (2 home & 2 away).

[Gamma]

that is the question .... which is why i still prefer my mls franchise approach...

[Hortical]

dem nuh ready

[Assasin]

I remember a few years ago they had a similar Caribbean league. They had a team in Mobay, and the league badly.

If true better luck this time.

[Pbanta]

Money and Talent

I remember a few years ago they had a similar Caribbean league. They had a team in Mobay, and the league badly.

If true better luck this time.

Where will the money come from. I've had two president speak with me about this today in the CFU and they don't have the $ and the talented players. Having a pro team they must have players brought in. When this league began way back I four USA players who I coached at the NCAA D1 level play in the league. They told me they were the stars. They were go but would have never played in today MSL. Even your Captain thinks it's not ready yet. Who's right. Something has to change in the Caribbean because the rankings are not good and development is far behind other CONCACAF teams from CA and North America. If you can compete at this level a stronger youth development program is needed to be financed. I'm not sure the money spent on a CFU pro league is really worth it.

[OJ]

I think it should be MLF

[OJ]

Do we know where else a joint league has worked. I don't see a regional league that is dependent on air travel can financially succeed.. If we are talking about development I would rather see National pro leagues with team allocation or Franchises in Jamaica and the other countries. At the current time we have too many teams in Kingston and none in some areas. In Jamaica we need to go to two division which we have now in some ways (super League) and create a model at least two team in each confed ( this ensure local rivalry) we will ensure that there will be a Reno / MBFU or Village/ Waddah at all times.. We will do the same in St. Ann, St Mary.. Portland area and Manchester, Clarendon St Bess.. In smaller island it might be an 8 team league and at the end of the legues we have one country host a three week tournament with the winners of the smaller leagues and winners and runner up from the Jamaica and TT leagues.. That way we regionalise the competition and still maintain the National leagues that will develop the players.

[Bricktop]

then we would pronounce it MILF...awkward

[OJ]

i was thinking that.

[Me]

I think we should do a slightly modified version of the MLS franchise system. If it were up to me I would keep the following teams.

1Harbour View FC
2Montego Bay United FC
3Waterhouse FC
4Arnett Gardens FC
5Rivoli United FC
6Tivoli Gardens FC
7Portmore United FC
8Sporting Central FC

The following would have to play in a lower league because the area is already represneted or the infrastructure is simply too far behind.

1Cavalier SC
2Humble Lion FC
3Boys Town FC
4August Town FC

I would then add one more team for the St Ann/St Mary/Portland region and put one team in St Elizabeth and keep the league at 10 teams, so that we have less ballers who look like they should not be playing professional football.

Given the politics it isn't feasible, but that is what I would like to see.

[Gamma]

fair enough ....

next step is seed money to pay players, upgrade stadia and adminsitrative costs for 8 clubs in a market that has not tyipcally allowed the clubs to make any money...if however you could get most if not all of the fans to attend one game then the odds improve of getting some type of return.

if on any given weekend 10 thousand persons attend all the matches for all the clubs... maybe you could get 60% of them to go to a game where they are ALL supporting that team ...

[Me]

I don't know how you support one team in our country. We are not going to be let into MLS anytime soon as they have other teams higher on the list as they aim to include two more.

If you have a Caribbean League, who exactly is going cover the costs of travel? Especially since there is no big TV or merchandising money to share with the teams.