The soap opera that is the Montreal Impact’s final season in NASL has taken another bizarre turn. On Sunday, a day after a large number of the Ultras —the Impact’s largest and most vocal supporters’ group — walked out of Stade Saputo at the outset of a 3-1 loss to the NSC Minnesota Stars, owner Joey Saputo wrote an open letter to the fans.

In the end, the new graphic was well-received but the evening ended on a down note for Montreal, who dropped a 3-1 decision to the third-place Minnesota Stars, a game in which it did not challenge seriously for victory.

It's making its rounds throughout the soccer media. But seven of the eight NASL teams are represented (by supporters groups) in this open letter to U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati, urging him to grant the league official Div. 2 status. The USSF meets next week. Two weeks ago, the USSF stripped the NASL of its provisional acceptance as the official Div. 2 of soccer in America, but the NASL has carried on with business as usual, and is confident it can win back the status. The league has stated that going down to Div. 3 is not an option.