{"id":37852,"date":"2015-08-23T23:23:13","date_gmt":"2015-08-24T03:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=37852"},"modified":"2015-08-23T23:23:13","modified_gmt":"2015-08-24T03:23:13","slug":"asl-scraps-fall-spring-format-play-to-resume-in-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=37852","title":{"rendered":"ASL Scraps Fall-Spring Format; Play to Resume in 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Oceaneers1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Days before it was supposed to kick off its second season, the American Soccer League announced that had scrapped its Fall-Spring schedule, and will instead resume play next spring.<\/p>\n

“We believe our first year was a resounding success. Switching to a Spring-To-Fall season allows us to do more with players during the Summer break such as league-wide All-Star Games and promotional tours,” ASL CEO Matt Driver said in a league release.\u00a0“It also allows a break for players right before each of the two international transfer periods. This will facilitate tryouts and short and long-term loans that lead to permanent transfers.”<\/p>\n

Among those affected by the development are the Rhode Island Oceaneers and Mass United FC, both of whom participated in the league’s debut season. 2014-15 regular season champion Western Mass Pro Soccer did not renew its contract with the ASL ahead of the league’s second season.<\/p>\n

According to a source, at least two more of the league’s original eight teams were contemplating the prospect of sitting out the Fall season.<\/p>\n

Mass United was supposed to open the\u00a0Fall season against the\u00a0expansion Lancaster Lions.\u00a0\u00a0Mass United owner Jim Antonakis expressed his reaction to the news in league release.<\/p>\n

“Of course, it is a disappointment for fans and other stakeholders,” Antonakis said.\u00a0“However, we support Matt and the League’s decision as being in the best long-term interests of the League. We believe the spring season will shock people with our expansion. We can’t wait for Spring to arrive!”<\/p>\n

The seven-team ASL is expected to resume play with “possibly 14 to 16 teams,” according to the league, including a not-yet-named\u00a0expansion club in Connecticut.<\/p>\n

Newly-established Worcester FC was set to debut in ASL this year before ultimately\u00a0pulling out of the league entirely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ASL won’t be kicking off later this month after scrapping its Fall-Spring schedule format. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[933],"tags":[625,1296,858,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Oceaneers11.png?fit=600%2C415","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37852"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37852"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37853,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37852\/revisions\/37853"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}