The USL wrapped up the Annual General Meeting down in Tampa, Florida this past weekend. The Battery twitted that a tentative schedule has been made and to expect an exciting season. Several other tidbits of information came out of the meetings via the USL Press Release .
First it looks like there will be 16 teams in USL Pro. Officially USL has only announced 13 of those teams; Antigua Barracuda FC, Charlotte Eagles, Charleston Battery, Dayton Dutch Lions, FC New York, Harrisburg City Islanders, Orlando City SC (formally Austin Aztex) , Pittsburgh Riverhounds, Richmond Kickers, River Plate Puerto Rico, Rochester Rhinos, Sevilla FC Puerto Rico , and Wilmington Hammerheads. But rumors on the www.bigsoccer.com point to another team from Puerto Rico joining, Puerto Rico United.
the other two team aren't as clear but the signs point to two new expansion teams. Ft. Lauderdale in Florida and Pali Blues in LA, California. Ft. Lauderdale is rumored to actually be the Haitian national team. The natural disasters the island country has suffered over the last couple years has left no infrastructure for the players or organized soccer.
The Pali Blues rumor comes from a blog posted a month or so ago by someone in the organization claiming they were to be the new coach of the expansion team. If they are indeed one of the three remaining teams, it opens up the issues of travel from one side of the country to the other. Hopefully the team can afford the travel.
The regions and schedules will be released in December according to the press release.
The release tells us that there will be 24 regular season matches, four more than last season for Battery fans. Playoffs format will also be released in December.
There was also representation from several possible expansion teams at the meetings. Look for a 20-24 team league in 2012 with interest coming from the Mid-west and West coast.
Well pass along the details as we get them.
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