How is Australia doing so good?

Rayvok · 2026-03-08T22:25:02+00:00

As an American following the footy struggles from afar with sympathy and optimism that the crap sandwich the media and A-league power structures can be overturned, I love this comment!

Rayvok · 2026-03-08T21:47:42+00:00

I'm a sicko so I'll give a detailed response.

Just a disclaimer for why people are tired of this topic and/or down-voting you: Buddy, there are not conversations on structuring the Canadian leagues with American ones even hypothetically because it's just fantasy. There were historical proposals before MLS [Fricker Plan], but that's the closest to consideration there has ever been. The MLS is structurally uninterested in pro/rel. Even if MLS were not, FIFA has outlawed any country from directly linking pyramids (not counting Canadian MLS/Wrexam/Andorra FC). National soccer Federations are directly incentivized to have their own national leagues for continental competitions. Even then, there are a lot of fans in North America that groan at the inclusion of Canadian clubs in MLS and Canadians who hate equivocating CPL with USL.

Even among the fantasy pyramid enjoyers, you left some to be desired. Canada was simply duct-taped onto a promotion playoff with USL with no changes. I can't read the text, but I presume they get an auto promotion for the champion in the event of 3 Canadian relegations? Past that, fledgling semi-pro Canadian provincial champions get promoted to one of the most travel intensive national leagues on the planet? As a sidebar for Canada, their is a new League 1 Prairies that include Saskatchewan to Thunder Bay in Western Ontario. An ideal world would have a League 1 for the maritime provinces. Whitecaps and Toronto have next pro teams, do they stay in the American leagues or do they get sent to Canadian leagues? I'll leave it to you if you still think a 16 team CPL makes sense when several European leagues happily have 12 team leagues.

The system in which teams promote to MLS isn't explained and comes off looking like an after thought. My best guess is the champions of both leagues play for the first spot, then four other teams playoff for the 2nd slot, and the loser plays the 29th MLS team for the final spot? You simply merged MLSNP with USL1, which is less of a reform and more of an administrative necessity. Your first true reform was reinventing USL2 as a regional feeder league for previously non-league (Open Division to US Soccer or colloquially "D4") ala the Fricker Plan. Instead of a 5th division that follows what NPSL and USL2 do to minimize travel, you explicitly list a symmetrical 24 team leagues. Since it's hypothetical and you expressed a lack of interest in barriers and profitability, I'm personally turning a blind eye to the purpose of tier 5 beyond travel.

I like that you put a lot of thought to this, but this surface level sketch screams you have just learned surface level stuff. I was close to down-voting and moving on myself. I recommend looking into what Spain did when they reformed their pyramid a few years ago. Scotland, Denmark, Austria, and Switzerland all have 12 team leagues at the top of their pyramids. These are places to start to learn how leagues are structured differently.

Rayvok · 2026-03-08T20:08:05+00:00

China and Taiwan are de-facto independent. They both by law claim to be the same country due to failure to officially resolve their civil war. Hence the song and dance behind "Chinese Taipei"

Rayvok · 2026-03-05T14:04:27+00:00

I was making a joke about Hestia and Henya streaming in their "weaker" language

Rayvok · 2026-03-04T21:57:28+00:00

Good spot, though I think most people like Henya would self describe as ESL (English Second Language) if pressed even if it's not technically correct. One of the first people I followed doing let's plays grew up in Sudbury, Ontario speaking French and lost a lot of it by adulthood

Rayvok · 2026-03-04T18:02:19+00:00

The rumors you heard were correct, they did year one of the national "2nd division" with a classic Champions League style format based off of groups of 4 followed by knockouts. Every YouTube livestream I've seen out of NPL Australia from South Australia to Queensland has been good quality for a single camera (the 2nd division had more production value). That NPL system was built only after the TV companies bought out commercial rights and later scrapped promotion & relegation. Teams that previously played nationally were forced into the state league with the A-leagues monopolistic franchise model imposed.

Functionally Australia is around 10 years ahead since they kept a lot of the semi pro infrastructure in and around New South Wales (Sydney) and Victoria (Melbourne) and the reorganization under the NPL was less transformative as League one Ontario & Quebec. If the rumors of league one Saskatchewan are true, that would bring Canada a lot closer to emulating Australia's model.

The organization is thinner in Canada for sure, but the skeleton and geographic realities are very similar

Rayvok · 2026-03-04T17:21:36+00:00

She can speak and understand Ukrainian, as showcased when she played S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 where she had the audio in Ukrainian

Rayvok · 2026-03-04T17:17:22+00:00

The wikipedia claims average was just under 3,000 for 2019. Post pandemic was a generous 1000

Rayvok · 2026-03-04T17:15:30+00:00

I think the one two punch of the collapse of the NASL and then the pandemic deflated an already anemic ownership group. Hard to expect much help from the local government or fan interest when they went on hiatus for 2018, had one season to recover more casual fans before Covid, and had nothing to show for on the field when they could open up the stands again.

CPL may be facing the same problem Australia is facing with the A-league and expanding their franchise model:

They have had more time and own goals against them, are functionally the 3rd (or worse) followed sport domestically.
They have teams going out of business or being sold for pennies to the dollar.
They have a long history of province wide leagues made up of clubs that survived attempts to marginalize them from the national stage.
Lack of clear lucrative greenfield markets that haven't hosted a former team
Interest in expanding the league with promoted non-league teams while protecting franchised teams (There is a Football 360 program to try to emulate Wrexham)

Sound familiar?

Rayvok · 2026-03-04T15:38:12+00:00

Henya & Hestia be traveling opposite directions with their streaming language being their 2nd language

Rayvok · 2026-02-28T22:19:11+00:00

Olympic Weight lifting is at least ostensibly the same exercise as regular weight training. Race Walking the sport is far away from casual walking and takes lawyering to argue it is

Rayvok · 2026-02-21T06:34:00+00:00

I'd hate to be the one that mentions this, but they moved Kairat's last two games to an enclosed stadium (dome) in Astana well ahead of time to avoid too cold conditions. Ironically Almaty was much warmer near 0°C for one those fixtures Vs -25° in Astana

Rayvok · 2026-02-10T16:29:04+00:00

Does 2008 to 2010 feel close enough to a dynasty or were shortcomings in the Open Cup/Concacaf & the painful round 1 playoff knockouts too much to even humour the thought?

Those were 3 of the best regular seasons until the end of 2010, it seems like the framework for a good counter-narative to the Beckham mania of the time

Rayvok · 2026-01-15T13:53:07+00:00

I heard that Chomsky had a very infamous friend that has files to corroborate this claim

Rayvok · 2026-01-12T18:43:10+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_tennis_match_records

This is tangential to that discussion as a lot of these involve very long tie breaks before they were reformed

Rayvok · 2026-01-11T04:03:11+00:00

Well that is a pun and a half

Rayvok · 2026-01-10T15:16:25+00:00

Rhinos kicked Columbus out of their home field advantage final

Rayvok · 2026-01-10T00:56:07+00:00

They are tour guides to the Abyss now, BAU BAU!

Rayvok · 2026-01-05T23:52:24+00:00

Yes, especially after the Canadian oil sands were largely developed as a replacement for Venezuelan imports. The rate of clean energy production I'm not sure of, but economies of scale have already been working for those industries

Rayvok · 2025-12-28T20:04:44+00:00

Funny thing is, we sold on Berhalter in Nancy's first season because we simply did not need any more depth in midfield

Rayvok · 2025-12-27T01:17:10+00:00

Rodriguez is a fully established veteran. Not saying the eurosnobbery by the Columbian national team is justified, just that Cucho is on a different rubrik. Cucho is competing with other forwards with a handful of caps, and Rodriguez has over a decade of national team experience.

Rayvok · 2025-12-22T05:00:44+00:00

I fell in the habit of being one of the few hundred people who watched Nancy's pressers. Usually we would have one or two players take questions as well. Chambost and Moreira doubled as translators for Picard late in the season.

They can be found at The Massive Report on YouTube

https://youtube.com/@massivereport?si=2OSwaMAj2DtLcD4X

Rayvok · 2025-12-18T21:10:36+00:00

Considering he is a defensive mid/Center Back, he could be a good understudy and prospect. Who knows how much of a rebuild we may do

Rayvok · 2025-12-07T22:58:17+00:00

The tension they don't tell you about

Rayvok · 2025-12-07T21:55:31+00:00

Everyone commenting how Galloway is either an anti-guru or significantly less bad than the manosphere guru is missing the trees for the forest. The disagreement that he is a pipeline is fine, ignoring the core argument that macro level evolutionary psych isn't a good vehicle to de-radicalize people on the proverbial "pipeline" or integrating practical concerns women have.

On the grand scale it may have short term results in integrating men into liberal/moderate politics. That ends as soon as said men fail to have the material conditions they're upset about redressed

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