The American hierarchy of clubs, however, is set in stone. There is no movement. No team currently not in Major League Soccer can be promoted to play in MLS. You can only buy your way to the top with exorbitant expansion fees. Below MLS, no matter how much you win or lose, there's no escaping the North American Soccer League (2nd tier) or the United Soccer League (3rd tier). Under that sit the semi-pro Premier Development League and the National Premier Soccer League, which have no professional sanctioning or designation. New pro leagues must apply for sanctioning to U.S. Soccer and are allocated to a level. As a club, getting into such a league varies wildly in cost. An NASL entry apparently costs somewhere between $3 million and $9 million. The USL, which includes several reserve MLS teams, will let you in for about $3 million.Read More: Remembering Bruno, the Problem Bear That Overshadowed the 2006 World Cup
Gameday at Dietz Stadium. Photo by Mario Rabadi / Fairplay Magazine
Crowley was one of the founders of the Foursquare. Photo via Wikimedia Commons
The Stockade have averaged almost 800 fans per game. Photo by Ed Diller / Stockade FC
If Crowley can develop a winning, profitable model, however, all of the American soccer scene could benefit.One player who Crowley suspects might get an individual promotion is team captain Jamal Lis-Simmons. He's an interesting case in his own right. Lis-Simmons, who mostly plays in central defense, is 34. He played two years of Division I college soccer at SUNY-Albany before playing out his final years of college eligibility at SUNY-New Paltz when he was 30. He made his debut as a semi-professional at an age when others begin contemplating retirement. But then again, that was also the point of the Stockade: to give local players a showcase."I've been playing my whole life," Lis-Simmons said. "For this to all of a sudden happen in my backyard, in Kingston, was a really cool opportunity and I thought, 'What the hell, let's give this another shot.'" He isn't so sure that he'd move on to a higher level if given the chance. He has always lived locally, and he's just taken a job as the new head coach of SUNY-Ulster, a community college—he might well be the nation's only college soccer head coach who plays at a higher level than his players do.But he's certain that if he wanted to move up, or if others do, the Stockade wouldn't stand in his way. "I'm sure he would be in favor of being able to make any sort of local kid being a standout player and move on to another level," Lis-Simmons says of Crowley. "It would be great for the individual and soccer as a whole."Laundry's done. Welcome to D4 soccer! — Dennis Crowley (@dens)May 23, 2016
For now, Crowley does most things himself, printing tickets and programs, ordering jerseys and merchandise, handling media, arranging sponsorship, roping in friends to do commentary on live streams of the games. Everything but the actual soccer side of it, which he leaves to the experts he recruited to help him–mostly volunteers. During a game, he runs around with his walkie-talkie, making sure everything runs smoothly."Dennis loves to build things," says Greg Lalas, Major League Soccer's VP of content, who has advised Crowley in a private capacity. "And he doesn't just say it; he actually starts to do it. That's how Dennis operates. I think about Dennis a little bit like the kid who gets a Lego set. And he says, 'I think I could build a rocket ship out of this.' And he just starts doing it. There's a structure in his mind. And he just starts putting Lego pieces together."But what, exactly, is the end game? One team that still operates within a closed structure and, save for its underlying ideology, functions like most others, doesn't exactly drive the cause forward.GAME DAY! (aka load up the back seat of my dad's car day!) — Dennis Crowley (@dens)May 22, 2016
NCAA rules forbid Stockade players from getting paid. Photo by Ed Diller / Stockade FC