http://www.metronews.ca/toronto/comm...ing-to-buy-usl I wonder how this will effect the sale of the team???
Well..this could lead to the creation of a viable MLS with a prem, 1st and 3nd divisions...Scotland is looking at the same idea...have the prem play half a season then split and the lower half compete against the USL 1 champs for rel/pro...the other idea is to have MLS squads having 1st and 2nd division teams as their farm teams..works in the NHL..why not in MLS..streamline the leagues and get rid of the dead wood and it may flourish..
If that is true, either jointly owned teams or part of a corporation or amalgamation of teams. In the NHL and AHL etc, teams are seperately owned but have agreements with NHL teams as farm teams. Either way, it would establish a good feeder system or network for players to be moved up and down other than the transfer market and loans which exists today. Transfer payments are outrageous and would over price players true values.
The rumor going around for over a year and a half now has been that a group of USL owners was working to buy the league and reposition it with a few changes...it will be interesting to see if that is the anonymous "private group of investors" he mentions. I was sort of seeing Cleveland's decision to put the team up for sale as an indicator that the ownership buyout of the league was now not going to happen...seems like an awfully fluid situation all the way around.
Hopefully the MLS buys it and then USL1 gets draft picks, and promotion/relegation is put into place. Maybe combine leagues a little though so there are 20 ish teams per league and then get rid of east vs. west. Right now there are around 25 teams in USL 1 and 2 and 16? in the MLS. MLS wants 20 teams by 2012. So a couple of USL teams move up....here's Clevelands chance to go pro .... If they introduced promotion/relegation it wouldn't matter what league you were in to start if you were really THAT good of a team. I say drop USL 2 and make it MLS and USL.
I don't know why I'm bothering but... there are 20 teams in the USL 1 and 2 now and 15 in MLS. MLS never said that it "wants 20 teams by 2012". Find me that quote. Cleveland is already pro. USL1 is pro(maybe partially semi-pro), USL2 is for the most part semi-pro. Hell, you could argue that MLS is semi-pro with the terrible league minimum that they pay their benches. Pro/rel will NEVER happen. No way is any current owner in MLS that paid millions for the rights to an expansion team going to okay anything that would reduce the value of their investment. Pro/rel will eventually go the way of the dodo. Top leagues in Europe are already trying to get rid of it. Also, no USL teams will move up without an expansion fee of $30 million+.
Major League Soccer is the top-flight professional soccer league in the United States and was founded in 1996, after the country hosted the 1994 FIFA World Cup. MLS kicked off its 14th campaign on March 19, 2009 with the League's 15th and newest team Seattle Sounders FC making their debut in front of more than 32,000 fans at Qwest Field in Seattle. MLS continues to grow as the Philadelphia Union will begin play in 2010 and teams in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and Portland, Oregon will become the 17th and 18th clubs in 2011. http://web.mlsnet.com/about/ MLS commissioner Don Garber was in Vancouver today to announce Vancouver's inclusion as the 17th team in MLS, but he also revealed an interesting nugget on MLS expansion. Garber revealed that MLS plans to expand to 20 teams by 2012. http://www.fannation.com/truth_and_rumors/view/96210-mls-to-expand-to-20-teams-by-2012 When I said Cleveland go pro I just meant that they could get into the MLS, I should have worded it better, like people were talking about the other day . I agree that pro/rel probably won't happen but I feel it'd make for a more interesting league which would have teams stay motivated or drop down a level, it would make for better competition. I haven't seen anything about leagues in Europe wanting to get rid of pro/rel anywhere...(but then I really only follow the stars and the Italian League)
There was a story on ESPN months ago about how some Italian teams want to start their own league without pro/rel. Same thing has happened a bit in the EPL. Pro/rel will never happen here. Not when teams are franchises and not clubs started from the ground up. And Cleveland would have to find a MAJOR inverstor for MLS to even be a possibility.
Why in the name of all that's holy can people not accept that pro/rel is not going to happen in the US? I swear, by this point it's entering the realm of "Elvis is alive" or "the moon landing was a hoax". Nothing convinces these people. The same arguments are made over and over, and they just bounce off. There is never going to be pro/rel in the United States. No American businessman is going to allow his $45,000,000+ investment to be turned into a minor-league club. It just isn't going to happen. EVER. The sooner everyone accepts that and gets on with their lives, the happier we'll all be. ------RM
If that works, I'm gonna start repeating "Scarlett Johansson will join me the shower". Hey, it's as likely as pro/rel. ------RM
Rel = "relegation", the process of moving the worst performing team or teams down to a lower league. And it's the number one reason while you'll never see team owners agree to pro/rel. ------RM
wow doodz may b we can get pro/rel now????? I'm sorry, I had to. I prefer it myself, but it's not happening.
And, for further clarification, 'pro' means promotion, not professional. As in, 'moving up from a lower league.'
The only place that pro/rel really works is in England. Because the teams in League Championship (which by the way finished 6th in the world in average league attendance) has great scouting and developmental programs which is why little Burnley beat the crap out of Man U yesterday. I mean, MK Dons, formerly Wimbldon FC, spent 10+ years in the EPL before it reloacted then dropped out of the EPL. I think they are in league 1 now. There were many teams in league 1 that have been in the English top flight before. After the Man U and Aresenals of the world, there isnt much difference between Wigan and Derby County. But it doesnt work is most countries because the lower levels teams dont have the money or fan base liek it does in England.
FourFourTwo ran an article a couple of months ago, called "The Curse of the Premier League". It describes how the financial gulf between the Premier League and the Championship has grown so great that long-time Premier League clubs are just destroyed when they get relegated. These are teams that spent at a Premier League-level and had Premier League-levels of debt. When the club drops to the Championship, its revenues drop so severely it can't keep up. Southampton is the poster child for this syndrome. After 27 years in the top flight, they were relegated. The debt incurred from their new stadium ate them alive, and they were relegated again last season, starting this season with -10 points as a penalty for going into receivership. They've begun their League One season with a draw and two losses. At this rate, they'll be out of the league altogether in a few years. Teams that are satisfied to float around the bottom of the Premiership, yo-yo'ing between levels, will do fine. But God help a club who decides to spend what it actually takes to compete and fails. Just making the point that all is not sunshine and roses in the land of promotion and relegation. ------RM
You make a great point there with a greatexample. I have no argument there. I stand corrected, it doesnt work well in England. Other examples will be New castle ( I dont think they will make it back this season), The former Wimbledon FC now MK Dons, and Millwall (Who i beleive is in league 2 or came close to dropping last season)
I don't know about that. The Championship has higher attendance than the 2 BL and their TV contract is worth more. Both countries do have strong attendance for their lower leagues though, even down a couple of more levels. Now, if you mean "better" by your own subjective valuation, well, then you're welcome to that.
I actually did mean higher attendance. I really did think that 2BL was better. Oh well. I wonder if 2BL has a higher percentage of seats filled or more sellouts. They may not, I'm just curious because the bundesliga is the best attended league in Europe. It doesn't really matter, though. Both are strong second divisions.
