Welcome back to another edition of SRFC Question of the week. This week, ICS wants to talk about self demotion, something we saw both the Dayton Dutch Lions and Charlotte Eagles do last season. What we want to know is, will we have any teams going the same route this year?

You guys know how this works; leave us your answer in the comments section.

After the last two seasons, at least one USL team has either ceased to exist or demoted itself to the PDL. Will that happen again this year, and who would it be?

Josh - @josh_beeman

I’m not sure if it’s optimism or just plain ignorance, but I don’t see a disappearance or self-demotion happening this season. There aren’t that many teams in the same boat as, say, the Dayton Dutch Lions. USL is stronger in 2015 than last season, and the teams in it are run well enough and ambitious enough that they’ll want to stick around for 2016.

Although, that being said, if I had to pick a team I viewed as most likely to fail/self-demote, I’d have to go with Wilmington Hammerheads.

Kyle - @kylejkepner

Conjecture among fans around the league seems to run the gamut from OC Blues to Wilmington to pick-a-small-budget-organization. I’ve only heard one rumor that may have merit, but I’ll let it play out on its own. Realistically speaking, the clubs in the league today, on average, are better informed and better suited than ever before to survive long term. Worst-case scenario, an existing club is sold to a stronger ownership group.

This week’s special guest is none other than Mr. Zach Hall. Zach is the editor of CrownTownsoccer.com, your home for professional soccer in the Queen City.

I think one of the biggest indicators that a team might self-relegate down to the PDL is attendance numbers - you saw that right here in Charlotte after the 2014 season with the Eagles moving themselves to the PDL and the same thing happened in Dayton with the Dutch Lions. While Charlotte is once again in the cellar with attendance numbers, this time as the Independence, if you look around the league, attendance numbers are pretty consistent and probably right where they realistically should be. Your average independent USL team is probably pulling in 2750-3250 fans every home game with obvious outliers like Sacramento pulling five-digits and Louisville pulling north of 6000.

For that reason, I don’t think that we’ll see a USL team drop down this offseason. But, I think there are three prime candidates for self-relegation sometime in the next three years: Orange County, Wilmington and Richmond.

OC Blues have the distinct pleasure of being at the absolute bottom of the attendance ranking for independent clubs, averaging ~1100 fans every home game. While they’ve had some really great success on the field this season, they haven’t been able to pull as many fans in through the gate and that’s where they’re going to be able to make their money. Add in that yet another MLS team will be starting up in their area in 2017 and I think they’ll just be too much competition for eyes for the Blues to continue on at the pro level.

It’s a slightly different story for the Hammerheads and Kickers, both being USL stalwarts, “the old guard” if you will. Unfortunately, teams in the USL seem to be surviving on new and modern and I think that both these teams have saturated their market as much as they possibly can. There is no money to try and renovate existing stadiums or find a soccer specific stadium and their brand doesn’t seem to be reaching any new fans. I could see both of them pulling an “Eagles” and move to PDL, be very successful on the field and continue to put on great youth camps throughout the year.

Now it’s your turn. Leave your answer in the comment section. Do it. Don’t be shy. You’ll feel good about yourself.