So American soccer is growing...good!

I think to truly capture the imagination of the average sports fan, that we eventually need a system that involves as many markets as possible.

Personally, I think that's a big part of what has made college sports so special here, but you do seem to see a similar dynamic in other countries with robust pyramids.

Anyway, the problem here is going to be these owners are investing so much capital in creating big time clubs that risking their investments by allowing relegation will probably be dead on arrival. Well, we need to find a way around that in order to have a truly world class league and nationwide phenomenon.

I think I have a way around the problem.

1. We start with 40 clubs at the top flight.

This number would virtually ensure that any big money clubs would never go down. All the major markets worth tapping in order to acquire an expansion fee will be covered in this number. The smaller market clubs will likely be the ones clawing to survive every year.

This means that once MLS gets done with it's next round of franchise grants, that it should probably just promote a few good markets to help with early viewership.

2. Demote the bottom 4 to the 2nd division.

It almost doesn't matter how large the 2nd level is, but for the sake of symmetry let's say it also has 40 clubs.

This ratio should help keep the more valuable clubs in the top flight.

3. Play a round robin schedule.

That's a total of 39 games. No home and home. No unbalanced schedule. One table.

4. An MLS Cup with revenue bonuses for participants.

You can still take the top 8 or something like that and have an MLS Cup. Americans are used to playoffs and this will probably help with popularity and viewership.

Also giving out revenue bonuses to clubs that make the playoffs should help keep the owners that invested so much in the game.

In short, is this system rigged? You bet your sweet patootie it is! But it's necessary to guarantee the participation of the richer clubs which ends up being better than everyone.

You should be able to create a system where the TV money is pretty good for the top flight and maybe the 2nd division could split about a 1/3 of it to make it worth their while.

I'd be happy just to see MLS trash the "unified league" structure and let teams spend freely for talent. If they don't do something like that, then MLS won't even catch up to the quality of play in Liga MX, let alone any of the top leagues in Europe.

(02-19-2018 01:46 AM)Wedge Wrote:  I'd be happy just to see MLS trash the "unified league" structure and let teams spend freely for talent. If they don't do something like that, then MLS won't even catch up to the quality of play in Liga MX, let alone any of the top leagues in Europe.

I think they'll have to do that too eventually.

40? Starting with the current cities, known expansion (italicized), rumored expansion (underlined), and named potential expansion (bold):


1. Columbus
2. Washington, D.C.
3. Boston
4. New York
5. Denver
6. Dallas
7. Kansas City
8. Los Angeles
9. San Jose
10. Chicago
11. Salt Lake City
12. Houston
13. Toronto
14. Seattle
15. Philadelphia
16. Vancouver
17. Portland
18. Montreal
19. New York #2
20. Orlando
21. Atlanta
22. Minneapolis
23. Los Angeles #2
24. Miami
25. Nashville
26. Cincinnati
27. Detroit
28. Sacramento
29. Charlotte or Raleigh/Durham
30. San Antonio or Austin
31. San Diego
32. St. Louis
33. Tampa/St. Petersburg
34. Indianapolis
35. Phoenix
36. Las Vegas

That leaves 4. The metropolitan areas in the top 50 (population) not on this list:

Riverside/San Bernardino, California
Baltimore, Maryland
Cleveland, Ohio
Virginia Beach/Norfolk, Virginia
Providence, Rhode Island
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Jacksonville, Florida
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Memphis, Tennessee
Louisville, Kentucky
Richmond, Virginia
New Orleans, Louisiana
Hartford, Connecticut
Birmingham, Alabama
Buffalo, New York

(02-19-2018 01:46 AM)Wedge Wrote:  I'd be happy just to see MLS trash the "unified league" structure and let teams spend freely for talent. If they don't do something like that, then MLS won't even catch up to the quality of play in Liga MX, let alone any of the top leagues in Europe.

actually Liga MX is second guessing pro/rel themselves.

(03-13-2018 12:16 PM)EPJr2 Wrote:  

(02-19-2018 01:46 AM)Wedge Wrote:  I'd be happy just to see MLS trash the "unified league" structure and let teams spend freely for talent. If they don't do something like that, then MLS won't even catch up to the quality of play in Liga MX, let alone any of the top leagues in Europe.

actually Liga MX is second guessing pro/rel themselves.

That's not because Liga MX wants to encourage bad teams to feel secure, though. It's because they are concerned that very few of their second division teams have sufficient financial support and/or sufficient stadium quality for the top division, even after being promoted.

La Liga in Spain has financial requirements that any promoted team must meet, in addition to finishing at the top of the second division. They have to show that they have enough money available for La Liga-level salaries and other operational expenses. If a team doesn't meet those requirements, they have to stay in the second division. Liga MX should probably take a similar approach to promotion.