Project 14 and 26 - Soccer - Developing Leagues Around the World

[PWC2017]

Chapter 9: Distance and Possibility​

Summer–Fall 2014

The first few months in Las Vegas passed without ceremony.

There was no dramatic beginning, no defining moment that marked the transition from one life to another. Instead, time moved quietly—measured in routines, flights, emails, and long hours alone with ideas that had nowhere to settle yet.

From afar, Manson watched Hong Kong football begin to stabilise.

The leagues kicked off. Fixtures ran on schedule. Clubs appeared—at least publicly—more anchored than they had been before. Stadiums filled modestly but consistently. The system was working, not perfectly, but enough to justify the years spent arguing for it.

There was satisfaction in that.

And a strange sense of distance.

The project that had defined his early twenties no longer needed him in the same way. It had moved beyond theory. Others were now responsible for its day-to-day survival.

In Las Vegas, there was nothing yet to replace it.

A Different Kind of Silence​

Summer in the desert was relentless.

The heat made the city feel paused during the day, alive only at night. Manson spent long mornings inside—reading, writing, sketching models that were not yet meant to be shared.

This was thinking time.

Not the reactive thinking of meetings and deadlines, but the slower work of asking questions without expecting answers.

What would a proper North American football system look like if you weren’t constrained by what already existed?

Early Shapes​

The first realisation was uncomfortable but unavoidable:

MLS and USL could not continue as parallel worlds forever.

They served the same markets. Competed for players. Fragmented investment. Created confusion for supporters and broadcasters alike.

Amalgamation—once unthinkable—began to feel inevitable.

Not immediately. Not forcibly.

But eventually.

The question was not if, but how.

Would it be a tiered system?
A phased integration?
A shared commercial structure with sporting separation?

There were no answers yet—only frameworks.

Geography as Strategy​

North America demanded a different way of thinking.

Markets mattered.

Not just population size, but identity, history, and economic gravity.

Manson began mapping cities not as expansion targets, but as missing pieces:

• San Francisco – a global city without a football identity that matched its stature
• Detroit – a sleeping giant, defined by resilience and reinvention
• Baltimore – historically rich, culturally distinct, overshadowed but not insignificant

These were not speculative markets.

They were corrections.

The Power of Names​

Another idea surfaced repeatedly in his notes—almost obsessively.

Identity.

American sports understood the value of heritage better than most football cultures, yet soccer had abandoned much of its own history in the pursuit of novelty.

What if it didn’t have to?

Manson began exploring whether intellectual property rights to iconic names could be reclaimed.

Names that still carried weight:

• LA Aztecs
• New York Cosmos
• Others scattered through American soccer history

These weren’t brands to be revived for nostalgia.

They were anchors—shortcuts to legitimacy.

A new system didn’t need new names everywhere.

Sometimes it needed old ones, handled correctly.

Watching From Afar​

As summer turned to fall, the distance from Hong Kong felt less painful and more instructive.

The league he had helped design was running without him.

That mattered.

It meant the idea had outgrown its author.

In Vegas, nothing had begun yet.

But something was forming.

Not a plan.

A direction.

One shaped by scale, patience, and the understanding that North America could not be approached with the same urgency as Hong Kong.

This would take longer.

And that, for the first time, felt acceptable.

 

[Tommy MBE]

Is this all from memory? If so your very creative.

I always like reading BTB from you.

 

[PWC2017]

Is this all from memory? If so your very creative.

I always like reading BTB from you.

No, not from memory. I have outlines of what I want to get down and go from there. So lots of the names, tables, league structures etc, but the story is where I need help from most of the time.

 

[Tommy MBE]

No, not from memory. I have outlines of what I want to get down and go from there. So lots of the names, tables, league structures etc, but the story is where I need help from most of the time.

I enjoy what you write as it's football . Like the Birmingham F.C, BTB one was really enjoyable. So the storyis imagination, that what you mean?

 

[PWC2017]

Chapter 10: A System Apart​

North American Soccer, 2014–2015

By 2014 and 2015, professional soccer in North America was no longer an experiment.

It was a business.

Major League Soccer had survived its most fragile years and emerged as a stable, centrally controlled league with expanding attendance, improving infrastructure, and growing media relevance. The United Soccer League had positioned itself as a national second tier, increasingly aligned with MLS through affiliations and reserve teams.

From a distance, the system appeared healthy.

From closer inspection, it was isolated.

The Teams​

MLS was expanding aggressively, targeting ownership groups rather than markets alone. Entry was determined by:

• Expansion fees
• Stadium plans
• Ownership net worth

Sporting merit played no role.

USL, meanwhile, became a hybrid competition—part independent clubs, part development platform for MLS. Some teams existed to win. Others existed to develop players for a parent organisation.

The result was a fragmented ecosystem.

There was growth—but no ladder.

Allocation Money and Control​

At the heart of MLS’s uniqueness was its single-entity structure, reinforced by a system of allocation money.

General Allocation Money (GAM) and Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) allowed clubs to:

• Buy down player salaries
• Navigate the salary cap strategically
• Retain certain players without fully entering the open market

The philosophy was deliberate.

Parity over excellence.
Cost certainty over risk.
Central control over local autonomy.

It worked in its intended context.

But it came at a price.

A Different Sport​

MLS clubs did not operate like clubs elsewhere in the world.

They were not independent economic entities. They did not own player contracts in the traditional sense. Transfers were managed internally, often requiring league approval.

In Europe, South America, and Asia:

• Clubs bought and sold players freely
• Risk was rewarded, and failure punished
• Sporting ambition directly affected financial outcomes

In North America, ambition was filtered.

Failure did not carry existential consequence.

The Franchise Ceiling​

The franchise model had created safety—but also stagnation.

Without promotion or relegation:

• Lower-league clubs had no path upward
• Ambitious ownership was capped
• Local success had limited national consequence

Markets were chosen, not earned.

For supporters, this created emotional distance. Winning mattered—but only within a closed circle. There was no sense of ascent, no fear of collapse.

It was a league designed to avoid volatility, not harness it.

Disconnection From the Global Game​

As MLS grew, its divergence from the global football ecosystem widened.

Transfer windows operated differently. Player valuations were distorted. Development pathways were unclear to outsiders.

North American clubs existed near world football, but not fully within it.

This was not incompetence.

It was design.

Growth Without Gravity​

The system continued to expand—new teams, new stadiums, new cities.

But expansion alone did not equal evolution.

There was no mechanism forcing standards upward beyond internal benchmarks. No pressure from below. No threat from above.

Everything moved horizontally.

For Manson, this was the defining issue.

“The league was growing,” he noted,
“but nothing was pulling it forward.”

A Closed Success​

By any American sporting metric, MLS was successful.

By global football standards, it was incomplete.

The challenge was not replacing the system.

It was connecting it.

And that question—how to introduce movement, consequence, and continuity into a closed environment—would define every conversation that followed.

North American soccer had reached stability.

What it lacked was gravity.

 

[PWC2017]

I enjoy what you write as it's football . Like the Birmingham F.C, BTB one was really enjoyable. So the storyis imagination, that what you mean?

So yeah, I have the outline of the vision. So I have the league system all in excel docs, all that info is in place. Same with New World Pro-Wrestling - Weight classes and event details are in place. But the story around it isnt. Thats what I use other means to embellish.

 

[PWC2017]

Chapter 11: The Numbers and the Map​

2015

By 2015, Major League Soccer stood at 19 teams.

Chivas USA had folded, quietly and inevitably, serving as a reminder that even within a protected system, identity still mattered. The league continued to grow, expand, and professionalise, but for Matthew Manson, MLS was no longer the immediate question.

It was moving forward on its own trajectory.

Interfering with that process made little sense.

The real opportunity lay elsewhere.

The Blank Canvas​

Looking at North America from above—literally and figuratively—the scale was overwhelming.

Fifty states.

Dozens of major metropolitan areas. Hundreds of mid-sized cities. Regions with deep sporting cultures but no professional football presence at all.

In most countries, geography limits ambition.

In the United States, geography expanded it.

Manson began to see the continent not as a league, but as a network of markets—many capable of sustaining more than one professional club over time.

This was not about immediate saturation.

It was about sequencing.

Accepting MLS as a Constant​

One of the most important conclusions Manson reached in 2015 was deceptively simple:

MLS did not need to be fixed.

It would continue to expand, refine its commercial model, and strengthen its infrastructure. Attempting to force structural change onto MLS at that stage would only create resistance.

Instead, it needed context.

Something beneath it that could grow organically, market by market, without threatening existing investments.

Turning to the Lower Divisions​

Attention shifted toward the United Soccer League and the broader ecosystem beneath it.

USL was already expanding, but unevenly. Some clubs were ambitious and independent. Others existed primarily as MLS affiliates. Standards varied, but interest was growing.

Below USL sat leagues like the PDL—semi-professional, regional, and often overlooked.

To Manson, these leagues were not peripheral.

They were raw material.

If North American soccer was ever going to resemble a true pyramid, the process had to start here—not at the top.

Building, Not Jumping​

The idea was not to create immediate challengers to MLS.

It was to establish credible professional clubs in:

• Untapped markets
• Underserved regions
• Cities with sporting identity but no football pathway

Each club would be a foundation stone, not a finished product.

Some would fail.

That was part of the process.

The goal was density, not dominance.

A Long View​

Manson’s thinking was becoming increasingly clear:

• Let MLS grow naturally
• Strengthen USL into something structurally meaningful
• Encourage ambitious ownership below
• Create pathways where none existed

This was not a five-year plan.

It was the beginning of a decade-long build.

A system designed not to disrupt what existed, but to outgrow it—quietly, patiently, market by market.

Starting the Work​

By late 2015, the questions had shifted again.

Not whether North America could support more professional football.

But where to begin.

The map was open.

The numbers were undeniable.

And for the first time, the scale of the challenge no longer felt intimidating.

It felt inevitable.

 

[PWC2017]

Chapter 12: First Conversations​

2015

By mid-2015, the work moved from maps and notebooks into meeting rooms.

Not formal announcements. Not commitments.

Conversations.

The United Soccer League was the natural starting point. It sat in the space between ambition and reality—large enough to matter, flexible enough to evolve. Unlike MLS, it was not burdened by expectation. Unlike lower leagues, it possessed genuine professional intent.

This was where building could begin.

The First Markets​

Initial discussions focused on a small group of cities that shared common traits: strong local identity, manageable scale, and ownership groups willing to think beyond survival.

Among the first were:

• Louisville
• Pittsburgh
• Birmingham
• Tulsa
• Phoenix
• San Antonio
• Tampa Bay
• Sacramento
• Indianapolis

These were not speculative choices.

Each represented a market where football could grow with the city, rather than compete against it.

Working With USL​

Meetings with USL leadership in 2015 were practical rather than ideological.

The questions were basic, but essential:

• What does a professional club need to survive?
• What standards can be enforced without discouraging entry?
• How do you balance independence with cohesion?

There was no appetite for grand declarations.

Only for steady progress.

Paul McDonough​

A key part of this early phase was working alongside Paul McDonough, whose experience bridged multiple levels of the American game.

McDonough understood the gap between vision and implementation. He knew where ambition stalled and where it could be nurtured.

Together, the focus was not on branding or marketing.

It was infrastructure.

Grounds Before Glory​

Every conversation returned to the same fundamentals:

• Stadium location
• Training ground access
• Long-term site control

Temporary solutions were accepted—but only as stepping stones.

The objective was clear: clubs needed places they could call their own. Without that, everything else—supporter culture, commercial revenue, player development—remained fragile.

In Louisville, site evaluations were already underway.
In Sacramento and San Antonio, stadium conversations were gaining momentum.
In markets like Birmingham and Tulsa, the work was quieter but no less deliberate.

Nothing was rushed.

A Different Kind of Growth​

This phase was not about creating national relevance.

It was about local legitimacy.

Each club was encouraged to think like a permanent institution rather than a seasonal operation. Community integration mattered. Youth pathways mattered. Training environments mattered.

Winning was secondary.

Survival was the metric.

No Announcements Yet​

By the end of 2015, there was still nothing to announce publicly.

But something had shifted.

Clubs were no longer isolated projects. They were part of a conversation—one that extended beyond individual seasons or league tables.

For Manson, this was the first sign that the idea might hold.

Not because it was bold.

But because people were willing to do the unglamorous work required to make it real.

The foundation phase had begun.