The eight-team North American Soccer League has reached the semifinal round of the playoffs as it looks ahead to next season.

Last week, league officials were in Edmonton, Alberta, trying to drum up local support for a stadium for a new team, F.C. Edmonton. The reborn New York Cosmos last week announced they would be playing their home games at Hofstra University in Hempstead.

This year, the league that is the de facto second division in the United States, one rung below Major League Soccer, has shown growth on and off the field. Attendance showed a modest increase powered primarily by the impressive debut of the San Antonio Scorpions, who averaged 9,176 a game.

Over the weekend, Carolina and Minnesota each advanced to the home-and-home semifinal round, where they will play Tampa Bay and San Antonio, respectively. The semifinal winners advance to the title game and play for the Soccer Bowl trophy.

The N.A.S.L. is overseen by David Downs, who is in his second season as commissioner, with a big assist from Traffic U.S.A. (which owns several clubs). Note also that it was Traffic, which is based in Brazil, that engineered the TV deal with Concacaf that sent the rights to U.S. away World Cup qualifiers to the new beIn Sports Network. Downs, a former executive at Univision and the former executive director of the U.S. bid committee for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup, recently spoke with the Goal blog.

Q.

What has the success of the San Antonio Scorpions meant for the N.A.S.L.?

A.

They’ve been fantastic. With the Montreal Impact graduating to M.L.S., we faced a major task of showing growth in attendance this season. San Antonio has been such a successful first-year team both on and off the field; they really established the model for not only teams committed to coming to our league but also for anyone who’s considering coming into our league. They showed that it can be done and how it can be done.

Q.

Can you explain next season’s split-season format?

A.

It’s a system that works for us on different levels. It’s not unrealistic because many countries throughout the world have adopted this model, especially in Latin America.

Point 1: We think that by going from a long single regular season with playoffs that six out of eight teams advance to a split-season format, the champion of each season is highly rewarding because they will face each other in a single playoff round. By switching formats, we put a far greater emphasis on the importance of regular-season games.

Point 2: By having a strategic break, essentially in July, we synced our schedule with the international transfer window. So our teams have the option to utilize that break to try to bring in some key players who can come in and change their fate in the second half. Or they can use that break to schedule international friendlies or go on tour themselves.

This is a business and one of the downsides of our playoff structure is that there’s no revenue for the visiting team in the quarterfinal round. Even though a team may have clinched a playoff spot, it’s an additional expense because of the traveling and accommodations behind it.

By replacing a month of playoff games, there’s no longer the uncertainty as to who would participate and how much advance notice they would get for the games they were in. With a split-formation format, teams are able to budget and make the necessary accommodations. We believe it’s a positive step in the direction of the league and it’s the reason why our board was unanimous in adopting the split-season format.

Q.

Do you foresee a working relationship with Major League Soccer? Or are the models too different?

A.

We’ve had plenty of on-and-off discussions with M.L.S.. To be honest, I can’t give you a specific number. I’ve had great relations with M.L.S. headquarters in both my capacity as president of Univision Sports buying M.L.S. rights and more recent when I was executive director of the World Cup Bid where M.L.S. Commissioner Don Garber was on my board and our offices was on the same floor.

We’ve had a very open dialogue. You know, their goals and message and priorities for player development may be a little different than ours. I still believe that there ought to be a way that our league can help serve and make players better in the United States, especially players in M.L.S. who are not getting league playing time. I think those guys would be better off if they played in our league. I keep hoping that there’s a way that an agreement can be made where it’s beneficial to them and beneficial for us.

I would also tell you that we would never have an agreement if we felt it would demean the quality of our league. Our owners are not in this because they want to be considered a minor league. Our owners are in this because they want to offer the highest quality professional soccer available in person in the markets they’re serving. They want to say to their fans, ‘Come out and see the highest level of professional soccer in person and enjoy the experience.’

And not necessarily dwell on the fact that under our sanctioning we’re Division 2, USL Pro is Division 3 and M.L.S. is Division 1. The bottom line that we’re on top of the soccer pyramid in each of the markets we serve and that’s a good thing.

Q.

What is current relationship between the N.A.S.L. and Traffic Sports?

A.

The relationship with Traffic Sports USA is fine. They’re still one of our most important league owners and happily behind the success of the league 100 percent. Along with owning the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, they’re partial owners of the Carolina RailHawks and Atlanta Silverbacks. They’re now in the process of trying to get investors to purchase their ownership from Atlanta and Carolina. They have no interest in having multiple ownerships nor would the league prefer for that to be the case.

Q.

With the New York Cosmos joining the N.A.S.L. next season, what kind of impact do you think they will have considering what the San Antonio Scorpions have accomplished this season?

A.

Given the reaction from their brand name and past success, they’ll fare pretty well. I don’t dare predict specific numbers about their attendance would be like. I think they’ll do well and it’s tremendously important for our league that they made this decision.

It’s not only adding the presence of the New York media market, it’s adding a global brand name to our N.A.S.L. family which is very appropriate since they originated from the N.A.S.L. And we’re bringing some very sophisticated and well0financed owners to sit around the boardroom table and discuss our strategic vision. For all those reasons, it’s a tremendous thing for us and we can’t wait to get them on the field.

Q.

Knowing that the Cosmos have been clear about wanting to join M.L.S., what is your current arrangement with them?

A.

Without giving you specific details, what I will say is that we have a multiyear commitment with them. The deal does recognize that there may be a moment in time when they would make the jump to M.L.S. We are O.K. with that, but at the same time it’s my job and the league’s job to make sure their experience in the N.A.S.L. is so great that they wouldn’t want to or couldn’t afford to move to M.L.S.

Q.

Does the N.A.S.L. play a role in assisting expansion teams in assembling a squad and securing a site for their home matches?

A.

Our league office is certainly in the business in educating everybody of the best practices, sharing information and lending our political support. It depends on the needs of each team. Take San Antonio for example, they’re building their stadium for next year. That’s entirely their project.

Q.

What are the future plans of the N.A.S.L. when it comes to expansion, investors and TV deals?

A.

First thing first … from an expansion standpoint, it has already had that desired effect. A number of interested parties, who might have been on the fence about being part of the N.A.S.L., have reached out to us because they are now interested in being part of the league. So that’s been great and I think you’ll be hearing from us before the end of the year of a couple of announcements about expansion teams for 2014 and 2015.

As far as TV contracts go, we have had the ability to get on television but we have chosen not to. We felt it wouldn’t be the best use of our money. So as an option, we stream online all our games free of charge for our fans. As far as next year goes, we’ll explore our options again.

In general with expansion, we hope hope to have 18 to 20 teams by 2018. We’re looking to push farther out west and maybe a couple of cities in the Midwest. There are a number of top-25 markets in the United States that aren’t represented by a professional soccer team.

We believe it’s an obvious marriage to join the N.A.S.L., especially as the price is going up and the number of opportunities getting more and more limited to joining M.L.S. Not every market can afford to support a team at the level of economics of M.L.S. which at the moment is higher than ours.

Cesar Diaz is a freelance writer for several online soccer publications, including USSoccerPlayers.com, LatinoSports.com and ThisIsCosmosCountry.com. Contact him at CDiazNYC@gmail.com and @CesarDiazNYC.

A previous version of this post incorrectly stated that Fort Lauderdale had advanced to the semifinals. It was Carolina that advanced.