USL Live not so Live

USL fans are not happy, which may raise two questions. What is USL, and why aren’t the fans happy? USL is United Soccer Leagues, the second tier of professional football in the US of A. And the fans aren’t happy because many of them have paid $50 or more for a subscription to USL Live, an online streaming service that shows all the USL-1 games live. Or at least it’s supposed to.

Seems several games have been unavailable for broadcast due to “technical difficulties.” But some fans and bloggers are unconvinced by this rather vague excuse. Instead they suspect the failure to broadcast certain games is due to the financial mismanagement of some of the franchises.

The always excellent Triangle Soccer Fanatics was so upset with USL Live’s failure to broadcast the Carolina Railhawks crucial league game away to California Victory (which they needed to win to make the playoffs) that Tri-Soccer-Fan founder Jarrett wrote a very reasonably worded open letter to USL-1 Vice-President Tim Holt asking him to sort things out.

What seems most annoying isn’t just that fans have paid good money for a service they’re not getting, it’s that they’re being fobbed off with a “technical difficulties” excuse instead of being told the truth.

But there was some good news for Carolina fans. The Railhawks won 2-0 in California and scraped into the playoffs in 8th place.

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Category: World Football