Article content continued

The USL’s desire to be designated a Division 2 league, up from their third-tier status put the entire structure of professional soccer in North America in question.

In the end, the USSF decided to grant both leagues a provisional Division 2 status, which will be reevaluated at the end of the 2017 season.

“The reality is, that it’s really been business as usual for us and we’ve had to take that stance and it’s worked out,” Ball said. “The staff has always been excited over the past three or four weeks and we’ve been going great guns selling season seats.”

FC Edmonton will be the only Canadian team in the NASL next season. The league will operate with 10 teams as the San Francisco Deltas and North Carolina FC are expected to join the circuit. A schedule has yet to be drawn up for the 2017 campaign, which gets underway in April.

In an effort to increase their fan base, Ball and his staff targeted the various indoor soccer centres throughout the city. Surprisingly, while dealing with knowledgeable soccer fans, they did not encounter many concerns surrounding the future of the league.

“To be honest, we hadn’t heard anything,” Ball said. “There were some comments from the supporters’ group, but that was just online chatter. We were at the (minor) soccer tournaments over the holidays and weeks leading in and we actually had very little comment from people about the league. I think what we learned from that is that fans want is a quality product on the pitch and we already have that.

“They want an exciting family experience in the stadium and that’s the nature of the conversation we’ve had with people out in the community. It was hardly ever brought up, which surprised me a little bit. It was all about what we were doing next year, what’s happening in the stadium, and whether we were going to bring certain players back?”