Couch: For Lansing United, a better league, lost rivalries and big dreams

LANSING – You can hear a hint of sadness in Eric Walcott's voice.

The leader of Lansing United’s devoted supporters group is reckoning with the loss of cozy and contentious in-state rivalries, with the end of the start-up era of LanU soccer. After four years in the National Premier Soccer League, United is moving over and slightly upward to the Premier Development League, with eyes on something bigger.

Year 5 begins next week without guaranteed matchups with Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo and without a chance of playing Detroit City FC.

“We’ll kind of miss all of them,” said Walcott, a co-creator of United’s supporters group, Sons of Ransom, renamed Ransom this year as United’s women’s team begins play.

“There’s not as much of a supporter culture in the PDL. So we’ll be looking to bring that at home and on the road. And hopefully have a chance to meet up with a few of those in-state rivals through the (Michigan) Milk Cup and down the road, potentially some friendlies.

“New league, new opportunities,” he said.

Better college players. More future pros. Possibly a pro team soon in Lansing.

“Overall, we’re really excited,” Walcott said.

There’s not much risk for United owner and founder Jeremy Sampson. There’s added expense — about 25 percent more for travel, for example. But, if done right, it will be a higher caliber of soccer, even if it's still considered the fourth tier of American soccer.

As Sampson pointed out, about 70 percent of the Major League Soccer draft picks last season had some Premier Development League experience.

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Lansing United men's schedule

Lansing United women's schedule

United coach and general manager Nate Miller said a similar percentage of this year’s roster wouldn’t have joined United if the club was still in the National Premier Soccer League, where it went 24-19-9 over four seasons, including reaching the NPSL national semifinals in its inaugural season in 2014. The Premier Development League is on the MLS/United Soccer League side of the U.S. Soccer pyramid. That’s the draw for the top college players.

“It’s changed everything,” Miller said Tuesday, after the club’s first training session of the season. “PDL is path to pro. They want an avenue to be seen. The league we play in...there’s a lot of exposure. If you’re really talented, you will get looked at for the next level. I don’t think that was present in the NPSL.”

(Watch Lansing United coach Nate Miller talk about why the PDL is better than the NPSL and discuss starting practice with his newborn son still in the hospital.)

The best example of the lure of the Premier Development League is Lansing’s own DeJuan Jones, who starred at East Lansing High School and, as a junior last season, was among Michigan State’s top goal scorers. Jones played for Myrtle Beach’s PDL team last summer. This summer, he’ll stay home and play for United.

“He’s somebody I expect to have his name called in the MLS draft next year,” Sampson said. “I really do. I think this platform will give him something this summer and then, of course, what he does (this fall) at Michigan State. The kid’s got every tool.”

United had plenty of big-time talent during its National Premier Soccer League era. Tyler Pasher, the star of United’s inaugural team in 2014, has played in the MLS and top division of USL. He was a pro before he arrived in Lansing. Rafael Mentzingen, who stars at Valparaiso University and dazzled United fans last summer, is playing for Detroit City FC this season. So this isn’t an obvious leap with clear separation between all players. In basketball terms, think of it more as a move from the Atlantic 10 to the Big East. Or from, in minor league baseball terms, from Low-Single-A to High-A.

The big step — and risk — is what Sampson hopes to do next: Bring professional soccer to Lansing, by joining the United Soccer League’s new third-tier league as soon as 2020. USL Division III is set to begin in 2019.

RELATED: United explores step up to USL pro league; can Lansing support it?

RELATED: United switches leagues, joins PDL to better align with pro soccer

United’s operating budget in the Premier Development League is around $100,000, Sampson said. To play in the United Soccer League, it’ll have to be between $1.5 and $2.5 million. United will draw between 700 and 1,000 fans to most games this summer. In the USL, that’ll need to be between 4,000 and 5,000, for a season that lasts half the year.

It’s a real test of Sampson’s soccer-in-Lansing dream, which began on a bar napkin several years ago. Joining the USL would make United the first pro soccer team in Michigan in nearly 40 years, since the Detroit Express left the Pontiac in the early 1980s.

UNITED'S BEGINNINGS: Former sportscaster Jeremy Sampson chases bar napkin dream with Lansing United soccer franchise

A jump to the United Soccer League couldn’t happen without being in the PDL first, which is under the same umbrella.

“It allows me to understand the organization, what the USL is all about, what they stand for and allows us to really have those conversations about what a Division III team in Lansing would look like,” Sampson said. “We’ve had conversations with investors about professional soccer in Lansing. Good discussions that continue to evolve. There are no agreements or anything like that. But I really like the tenor of the discussions we’ve had.”

If United moves to the USL by 2020, that team would begin play — somewhere in town — in about 21 months.

“If you would have told me at this point four years ago that we’d be standing here having that conversation about professional soccer in Lansing, I’d tell you, you were crazy. But it’s just been part of the natural progression as the entity has evolved. Could we do this? Absolutely,” continued Sampson, buoyed by seeing the city support the Lugnuts Single-A baseball team and growing attendance for MSU soccer. “For this city, for this region, for this area to have a professional soccer team in it and be able to play a seven-to-eight-month season would be something special I think.”

That’s potentially on the horizon. What’s now, next week, is the PDL. Lansing opens against Livonia City at home on Tuesday in the first leg of the Michigan Milk Cup — an effort, sans Detroit City FC, to keep alive in-state rivalries. Next Saturday, the Michigan Bucks, a storied PDL franchise, visit Lansing for the United’s PDL opener.

Then, more new rivalries — Cincinnati, Dayton, Derby City and West Virginia, along with the Bucks — make up the rest of the Great Lakes Division of the PDL, which has 74 teams throughout the country.

The Ransom plan to be at every game, no matter the distance.

“We’ll lose that home-and-away matching up with other supporters groups on a week-by-week basis,” Walcott said, “but that means we’ll be the ones making the noise at every game.”

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

Lansing United men’s upcoming games

Home vs. Livonia FC (Michigan Milk Cup), 7 p.m. May 8

Home vs. Michigan Bucks (PDL opener), 7 p.m. May 12

Away vs. Livonia FC (Michigan Milk Cup), 6:30 p.m. May 15

Home vs. Derby City Rovers (PDL), 7 p.m. May 18

Home games at East Lansing Soccer Complex

LanU’s women’s opener is May 13 at GRFC; women’s home opener is June 10