Couch: Lansing United explores step up to higher soccer league; can Lansing support it?

EAST LANSING – There is risk involved in what owner Jeremy Sampson hopes is next for Lansing United.

Then again, the risk of not testing the limits of this gutsy Lansing soccer dream, which began five years ago on a bar napkin, is probably worse than failure. To always wonder, to regret not trying.

Sampson, whose Lansing United last week began its fourth season in the National Premier Soccer League, is exploring the possibility of moving to a higher level of U.S. soccer. 

The United Soccer League, a professional league below Major League Soccer, is planning a site visit to Lansing on Thursday, considering the United for one of its franchises in a new Division 3 league beginning play in 2019.

Another new-forming pro league, at that same level but on the other side of the U.S. soccer pyramid, also is interested in Lansing.

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Before we go further, it’s important to understand the pyramid. 

On one side, there is MLS at the top (Division 1), followed by USL (moving from Division 1 to Division 2), the soon-to-be USL Division 3 league, and the Premier Development League (Division 4).

On the other side — not under the MLS umbrella — there is the North American Soccer League (Division 2), followed by a soon-to-form third-division league, and then the NPSL (Division 4), which includes Lansing United, Detroit City FC, along with clubs in Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo. 

The top three divisions are professional leagues. Division 4 is primarily comprised of amateurs — college players and former pros looking to get back into the professional game.

In the NPSL, the United has found a place in Lansing’s sports community and within the lowest level of minor league soccer. The team found fast success, has a consistent following, an ardent supporters section, a family friendly venue at the East Lansing Soccer Complex, and a disciplined owner who’s figured out how to make this work financially.

Twice in the United’s three previous seasons, Sampson has done better than break even. “It’s so minuscule, I hate saying it,” he said of his profits. Enough, though, to take his wife and two children on a vacation, he acknowledged.

Why then rock the boat? After all, Sampson’s creation has already beaten the odds. 

The answer goes beyond ambition and lofty dreams. Stability is not the No. 1 attribute of lower-tier minor league soccer. Detroit City FC has designs on moving up. As does the club in Grand Rapids. What exists in Michigan today — close rivalries and inexpensive travel — won’t exist forever. Somebody will fold, others will move. Rarely does anything last for decades at this level. The United almost certainly wouldn’t exist in the NPSL beyond Sampson’s willingness to pour his time and energy into the club.

Not all leagues are equally stable, either, especially on the non-MLS side of the pyramid. The Division 2 NASL nearly folded this past year, saved only by the saving of the New York Cosmos. That prompted the USL to apply for Division 2 status. The PDL, on the side of the USL, then tried to lure as many NPSL clubs as it could — including Lansing — thinking that entire branch of U.S. soccer might be vulnerable and for the taking.

“The stress of this stuff changing is my least favorite part,” Sampson said. “I have to stay on top of it so when the music stops, I’m not the only one who doesn’t have a chair.”

He’s begun to ask the question: “Where does Lansing fit into the soccer pyramid?”

“Somewhere in here,” he continued, pointing to the Division 3 and 4 levels on a diagram he’d drawn on a piece of notebook paper. “Is there an opportunity to fit within Division 3? Yes.”

Greater Lansing is big enough for it. Population size, though, doesn’t mean support. And not just fan support. Financial support. Sampson is a former sportscaster, state worker and now works for the Michigan High School Athletic Association. He’s an everyman. That’s part of why what he’s done is so cool.

“For me to do this, I’ve got bring in investors, at least a couple with deep pockets,” Sampson said. “One of the minimums for D-3 is an owner with at least 35 percent stake that has $10 million in assets.”

The entry fee alone to be a franchisee in USL’s Division 3 league is $500,000. 

“I don’t have anywhere near close to that kind of (money),” Sampson said. “I’m bringing to the table an intellectual property that will now have four or five years of branding.”

Sampson met with the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP) and the Greater Lansing Sports Authority last Thursday. The GLSA is a big part of showing the USL around town this Thursday.

If this all sounds far-fetched, understand that it’s hardly new territory for a community of Lansing’s size or dynamics. Harrisburg City has played in the USL since 2004 and has moved up to Division 2 with the rest of the league. Like Lansing, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, is a state capital with a metro area of about a half-million people. The Dayton (Ohio) Dutch Lions, founded in 2009, played in the USL from 2011 through 2014, before going back down to the Division 4 PDL. Dayton is a similar-sized market and, just like Lansing, has a popular Midwest League baseball team in a downtown stadium. 

Unlike the Lansing United, both Harrisburg City and the Dayton Dutch Lions have youth academies that link them to a large number of families. That model is similar to what Lansing’s women’s soccer team, the Michigan Chill, had. The Chill’s WPSL team folded after its only season last summer.

The advice to Lansing United from Harrisburg City and the Dayton Dutch Lions, above all else: Get a stadium. Harrisburg City is building one — 5,000 seats at first, a second stage to get to 8,000 seats — but, for now, shares a field with the Double-AA baseball Harrisburg Senators. 

Flipping the field for soccer — including sod over the infield — is an expensive two-day operation. In Lansing, where the Lugnuts control the stadium and concessions, such an arrangement isn’t likely.

“Playing in a baseball facility (owned by the city) and having the expenses we have, it’s not the financial model we want,” said Harrisburg City club president Tiago Lopes, whose team draws about 3,500 fans per night, about five times less than some of the most successful clubs, like Cincinnati, which is partly owned by the Dayton club. 

Dayton’s decision to drop down to PDL was based largely on the club’s inability to get a stadium project off the ground.

“They were never able to find a home,” said Dutch Lions club director Ric Campbell, who wasn’t part of the organization during that frustration. “They had three stadium projects they attempted. Each one they ended up not being able to finish.

“There has truly only been one successful professional organization in Dayton, the Dayton Dragons. The reality is, we played at a high school. If the Dayton Dragons had to play at a high school, would they show out every night like they do the 8,000-seat stadium they have? They’ve done a great job of making it a destination family event, and that’s why they’ve been successful.”

At the East Lansing High School Soccer Complex, the United often draw about 1,000 fans. It’s a good number for the location and the league they’re in, which includes one salaried employee, the head coach and general manager. 

In the USL, Lansing would also pay its players — as much as it wanted or could afford, but usually around $15,000 to $20,000 per player.

That doesn’t work without quadrupling attendance and having a stadium that fits that need, and a fan experience and product with greater reach. 

Unlike minor league baseball, winning matters in soccer. The fan base knows the score and is more aware of what’s happening on the field. You can’t not spend, lose and succeed.

“For you to attract fans, youth, support, you have to win,” Lopes said. 

“For a team like ours or a team like Lansing United, it’s all about having the right support from the local partners, local authorities, public and private support — that combination is key.”

The appeal of USL, beyond the move up, is also that it would put Lansing United on the MLS side of the pyramid.

“Much like single-A, double-A, triple-A (baseball), you’d now have two levels of professional soccer leading up to MLS,” Campbell said. “There’s definitely a market for it. It’s just a matter of finding the right cities and franchises that can support it.”

“I know what I have to do to make it happen,” Sampson said. “Now I have to go find an investor.”

Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.