Hi & welcome
Covering the Chicago Fire for MenInRed97 up close for the past four seasons has meant that I've devoted way, way more neuron-hours than would probably be recommended by, well, anyone to the way that Major League Soccer, and to some extent, soccer more broadly in North America works.
Speaking to people in positions where they actually know things about everything from way the MLS salary cap actually works (in case you were wondering: the roster rules you can find on the league's website aren't actually the complete set) to the how the league sees itself, where how they're trying to grow and change the game and stuff like that ‒ the kind of stuff that's incredibly boring to the vast, vast majority of people out there (including fans) but which is deeply, deeply interesting to the small sliver of humanity that's into it.
I've gotten perspectives from people who live, breathe and work the game in North America, but talking about those topics in a broad sense (rather than focused on the Fire) really doesn't fit in with what we're doing at MIR97, unless the goal is to really alienate the vast majority of our readership.
The Beautiful GAM gives me that platform. I'm not going to pigeonhole what I write about here (though it will stay soccer-focused), but it will mostly be nerd-focused stuff around the game with a focus almost entirely on the United States and Canada (fun fact[1][2]: Did you know I used to live in Canada and my brother is Canadian? Now you do!).
Expect that to mostly be things like salary cap/roster construction in MLS and NWSL, methodological stuff on stats and analytics, and the business of sports. I might also write occasional things about WoSo and US/Canadian national teams here, if I think I've got anything actually worth saying.
We've wanted to cover the (Red) Stars at MIR97 but haven't had the bandwidth to do it right. That's unfortunately still true, but I am someone who watches and cares about the game, so if I have something that I feel is actually worth reading (rather than worth saying, since, well, obviously I'd think that), I'll put it here.
If any of that kind of stuff sounds interesting to you, I've got good news and bad: The bad news is you're weird and you've got a sickness for which there is no known cure. The good is that you're not alone, and I'm one of those that's right there with you.
