Milo
Well-Known Member
I decided to start a new save in Football Manager 2013 using my fictional American Soccer Pyramid. Before I get into my actual play, a little background may be useful.
I created this database using the premise, “What if soccer was America’s dominant sport?” While simplistic in concept, it evolved into a massive project to create an entire landscape of soccer rather than just boost the reputations of twenty or so MLS teams.
The database in its current form consists of over 500 fictional teams with unique names, stadiums, and color schemes spread all across the United States. Every state from Maine to Hawaii is represented.
Each season over 300 of these teams compete somewhere in the nine playable tiers. At the top is the American Premier League, an 18-team competition between the best the country has to offer. These teams employ many of the best players in the world and play in massive stadiums, some that even seat over 100,000 people. At the very bottom of the pyramid is the USS Regional Leagues. Consisting of 8 independent regionally-based divisions, these leagues are semi-professional. Whereas a team like New York can expect near 70,000 people in attendance, the teams in this tier, like the mighty Appleton Foxes, may draw a few hundred.
For quick comparison, here are three teams from various tiers:
New York Empire (Tier 1)
Club Information
Facilities
Fort Worth Matadors (Tier 4)
Club Information
Facilities
Dearborn Mammoths (Tier 9)
Club Information
Facilities
The pyramid does implement promotion/relegation. So, in theory, a team from the top, like the Chicago Boxers, could fall all the way out of the pyramid while a team like the Scranton Beets could climb to the top. However, the massive gaps of money, facilities, and player quality between the tiers makes this very difficult.
There are many cups as well. The greatest of them all, the U.S. Open Cup, is a national competition where all 500+ teams compete.
There are also the tiered cups. For them, I divided into the nine league tiers into four groups and each each group has its own cup.
Each team also competes for a cup within its region. I divided the United States into eight separate regions and every year teams, from Dallas to San Angelo, will compete for the right to be champions of their region.
AND WE HAVE THE SOCCER BOWL!!!!(just a rip off of Ingerland’s Community shield)
So in summary, a team like New York will compete in the American Premier League(Tier 1), the U.S. Open, Cup, the Presidents Cup, the New England Cup every season.
A team in the 4[sup]th[/sup] tier(equivalent to upper-MLS/lower English Championship in quality) like the Birmingham Iron would compete in the NSA Championship East, the U.S. Open Cup, the Lamar Hunt Trophy, and the Dixie Cup every season.
Last, but not least, rather than have more unrealistic national youth leagues, I created customized state leagues. So, Massachusetts teams will only play other Massachusetts teams in their league games. The exception is the cups. Youth teams also compete for two cups(reserve teams do not)- a National Youth Cup(the u-18 equivalent of the U.S. Open Cup) and their regional league cup.
I created this database using the premise, “What if soccer was America’s dominant sport?” While simplistic in concept, it evolved into a massive project to create an entire landscape of soccer rather than just boost the reputations of twenty or so MLS teams.
The database in its current form consists of over 500 fictional teams with unique names, stadiums, and color schemes spread all across the United States. Every state from Maine to Hawaii is represented.
Each season over 300 of these teams compete somewhere in the nine playable tiers. At the top is the American Premier League, an 18-team competition between the best the country has to offer. These teams employ many of the best players in the world and play in massive stadiums, some that even seat over 100,000 people. At the very bottom of the pyramid is the USS Regional Leagues. Consisting of 8 independent regionally-based divisions, these leagues are semi-professional. Whereas a team like New York can expect near 70,000 people in attendance, the teams in this tier, like the mighty Appleton Foxes, may draw a few hundred.
For quick comparison, here are three teams from various tiers:
New York Empire (Tier 1)
Club Information
Facilities
Fort Worth Matadors (Tier 4)
Club Information
Facilities
Dearborn Mammoths (Tier 9)
Club Information
Facilities
The pyramid does implement promotion/relegation. So, in theory, a team from the top, like the Chicago Boxers, could fall all the way out of the pyramid while a team like the Scranton Beets could climb to the top. However, the massive gaps of money, facilities, and player quality between the tiers makes this very difficult.
There are many cups as well. The greatest of them all, the U.S. Open Cup, is a national competition where all 500+ teams compete.
There are also the tiered cups. For them, I divided into the nine league tiers into four groups and each each group has its own cup.
Each team also competes for a cup within its region. I divided the United States into eight separate regions and every year teams, from Dallas to San Angelo, will compete for the right to be champions of their region.
AND WE HAVE THE SOCCER BOWL!!!!(just a rip off of Ingerland’s Community shield)
So in summary, a team like New York will compete in the American Premier League(Tier 1), the U.S. Open, Cup, the Presidents Cup, the New England Cup every season.
A team in the 4[sup]th[/sup] tier(equivalent to upper-MLS/lower English Championship in quality) like the Birmingham Iron would compete in the NSA Championship East, the U.S. Open Cup, the Lamar Hunt Trophy, and the Dixie Cup every season.
Last, but not least, rather than have more unrealistic national youth leagues, I created customized state leagues. So, Massachusetts teams will only play other Massachusetts teams in their league games. The exception is the cups. Youth teams also compete for two cups(reserve teams do not)- a National Youth Cup(the u-18 equivalent of the U.S. Open Cup) and their regional league cup.
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