The situation at Fort Lauderdale Strikers remains uncertain. The PSG group visited the office of Strikers in November and are believed to have signed a promissory note to the NASL in early December. While that is certainly good news for the financially unstable franchise, the details of the takeover are still murky.

Picture credit: Fort Lauderdale Strikers (www.strikers.com)

Initially, it was reported that a PSG takeover deal was contingent on a switch to USL. Given that one of their creditors — Bill Edwards, owner of Tampa Bay Rowdies —was suing them, it made sense that the club was USL-bound, as it would appease the notoriously unpredictable Edwards. However, a source associated with the club has informed me that the converse is true. That, PSG will invest in the club as long as the club continues in the NASL (which, of course, is contingent on the NASL surviving).

There are financial reasons for this decision. As Wes Burdine from Fifty Five One points out, as things stand, exiting NASL would involve financial penalties. An exit toll that a club like Strikers simply cannot afford. Particularly, as they currently owe a significant amount of money to the NASL.

As Neil Morris reported in September, Strikers were expected to ask the league for a loan to fund expenses. Sources confirm that multiple loans were given by the league to the Strikers ownership to run day-to-day operations, pay players, staff and adjunct support staff. A source suggests that 4–5 such loans were consigned to the Strikers, each worth around $200k-$250k. This debt is in addition to money owed to Bill Edwards. Therefore, the PSG group seem to be buying a struggling club loaded with debt and are determined to keep it in a struggling league.

But, why?

I have posed this question to multiple people associated with NASL and the Strikers. I’ve never been given a satisfactory answer apart from “The Strikers name is worth something” — or a variant thereof. Of course it is. The Strikers are a historic franchise, but there surely has to be another reason. Because, logically (and financially) buying and keeping Strikers in the NASL does not make sense.

As for progress on loan payment, source suggests that paying back the Edwards loan “has progressed”, while paying back the NASL loan has not. Perhaps, that is the reason why the PSG group is aligning themselves with NASL. But, again, entirely conjectural — nobody knows why.

Speaking of uncertainty, the NASL itself seems to be better off than many of us expected. Multiple sources have suggested that NASL will be awarded D2 status once more; and that this “decision” will be announced as early as next week. However, I must point out that not ALL sources believe this. There is a credible source (one whose info was corroborated recently) that still believes that USL will be awarded D2. So, yeah, more uncertainty.

Based on what I’m hearing, NY Cosmos supporters should look forward to some positive (yet, not clearly-defined) news regarding their own historic club soon. A source suggested that they might play in the 2nd half of the 2017 season; but I believe that that timeline is unlikely.

So, to summarize: An uncertain Strikers Franchise will be uncertainly be taken over by PSG and continue to play in an uncertain league, which will uncertainly be awarded D2 status for the 2017 season.

And that’s the summary you get when you read a Medium post written by a no-talent hack.