Just like financial hardship for some minor league teams in US. How many minor league teams went away with never having opportunity to be promoted not to mention the whole league collapsing.
Only 14 teams, what up with that? I know they have playoffs, but 14 teams means only a 26 game season.
I don't know about you, but I'm a fan of the sport first, then supporter of my local club. I'm not really into supporting a league.
It's a small country. 14 is actually only 2 shy from FIFA's 16 club suggestion. Not sure their schedule scheme, but they can always have more matches with unbalanced schedule. Remember MLS? Their baseball league got like 8-9 teams.
Well in MLS the league is kind of the club; well at least in MLS that means all the players play for the same "team". Edit: depending on how you define the term team. But I agree, FIRE and Red Sharks first, not MLS or FMF. Shit I actually like when small CFU and Central American teams beat MLS and FMF teams in the CCL.
Okay. Still not sure what that has to do with pro/rel. Whatever reasons the Korean league has for instituting pro/rel, the situation in the US and Canada is different. If we had pro/rel in MLS, DC United would have been relegated after the 2010 season and that would very likely have killed the team. At the very least, it would have permanently killed any hope of a new stadium.
Well it has nothing to do with MLS/NASL/USLPRO, unless the USSF plans on moving from Concacaf to the AFC any time soon. On another note, I wonder what is the policy in Conmebol regarding pro/rel? I know we get threads about fuck concacaf; the USA (what about Canadian MLS teams?) should merge with Conmebol. I wonder if the USSF ever did decide to switch (and Conmebol approved) if Conmebol would try to force pro/rel on MLS?
But if you are an advocate for the sport, surly you can see that replacing a financially strong team with a financially weaker team, and subsequently gutting the strong team by slashing its revenue isn't good for the sport Is it worth sacrificing Columbus to promote Charleston? Is it worth the loss of millions of TV dollars to swap an important media market like Boston for an irrelevant one like Edmonton? Is it worth alienating every governmental body that helped build these stadiums to change the deal and stick them with a second division team that may not be able to afford the rent? MLS isn't baring anyone for the league, but they insist on specific financial criteria and spending limits. They insist on having a say about who their partners are (and what they will invest) before they share their money with them. The insist on a level of professionalism. And only the disingenuous would now deny that it's working. Forgive me, but if you are really interested in the development of the sport in the United States as you say, yours is an incredibly irresponsible position.
Since when is South Korea small? It has a higher population than Spain. By size then? Does land area really matter? I mean, if we go by land area then Canada, Russia, China, the US, and Australia should have thousands of teams.
One of the pro pro/real arguments is that it would lead to more teams being created. Of course, this argument ignores the literally thousands of high school soccer teams and hundreds of college teams that already exist (plus the various other types of teams out there).
I believe the population itself is smaller than Canada, Russia, China, the US, and Australia. Also soccer's infrastructure and popularity is much smaller than Spain. So small in many ways.
High school -> college -> feeding system works nicely with US sports especially highly local sport like American-football in US, but not really for soccer. College soccer will be less and less relevant.
Do your homework and look at best 11 of each of the MLS clubs. Already more than 50% are coming from non-US-college sources.
Pro/rel of teams has nothing to do with player development. In your opinion, what is pro/rel supposed to accomplish that can't be accomplished in a closed system?
Wow what a timing.. hahahahahahahaha http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/soccer/149173415.html U.S. Soccer Federation: Academy team members not allowed to play for high schools "The U.S. Soccer Federation has decided high school soccer is an impediment to America catching up with the rest of the world."
So you are saying that any club owner (in the USA and Canada) that meats all criteria would automatically be allowed in MLS like they do in other countries (soccer leagues)?
I can immediately think of one MLS side where only 2 of the best starting XI didn't spend time in a U.S. college. Though generally I'm glad you've changed your viewpoint from college soccer being completely out of the picture to just less and less relevant, which I agree with.
U.S. Soccer Federation already decided that high school soccer is an impediment to America catching up with the rest of the world and not even letting our best youth play in high school. This situation is completely opposite from a local sport like american-sport. My view point have not changed much, I think it'll be much faster rate now though, and eventually almost out of the picture.
Yes. Though the criteria for joining MLS is more strict than in other soccer leagues. There is no qualified owner or team that is currently being excluded from MLS.
High School and College are very different in degree. There are 400,000 boys HS soccer players. There are about 4,000 Div I soccer players, and because it's easier to choose where you go to college, it's more like ~600-800 at the relevant programs, with about half of that figure getting all the playing time. So somewhere around 0.1% of all HS players are good enough to start at top 30 college programs. Now, it's a small fraction of those college guys who are good enough to have pro careers, but comparison wise, it's much greater than the fraction of HS kids who can move on to high level college careers. (Probably something close to two orders of magnitude greater.)
As has been said, High School != College. Also, since when do you consider "The USSF said so" to be a reasonable argument in this debate. Because if it is, be ready to spend a lot of time backpedaling