Promotion Idea

the MLS seems set on adding NY2 as their 20th team, but they can't seem to find a stadium. the MLS will be left with 19 teams until they expand agian, which means they will have one conference with 10 teams and one conference with 9 teams, which leads to and un balanced schedule. the idea that i have is that the number 1 team in NASL, the US second division, i the regular season gets promoted to the MLS. If that team Does not finish last in the league they stay in the MLS, if they do finish last in the league then they are relegated back to the NASL and the number one team from the NASL gets promoted. this would continue until MLS found a 20th team and expanded.

Oh man. You're gonna get flamed. This idea has been discussed to death.

This wouldn't work for a whole host of reasons, most notably being MLS single entity status and money. The NASL team would go bankrupt because of all the additional travel and games. They'd get beaten off the field because they are inferior teams. This would also never work because MLS owns all of the player contracts. All of the players on the team would have to be signed to MLS and away from the individual teams.

Obviously you are new, and I think you should just really look into how MLS work before you suggest something like this.

For instance all media contracts go through SUM, a different company that all the owners also own. That means Adidas and NBC and ESPN all pay this company, and each owner gets a check. Now the reason why fees are needed to get into the league, is because you are actually buying stock in this company that has many many millions of dollars worth of revenues and contracts.

The league as a whole MLS LLC pays the players, not these clubs. The clubs just have the rights to the players. So that means that if you don't buy in, like the NASL clubs wouldn't in your scenario, they wouldn't get a dime to pay any players or a dime or sponsorships or media revenues. Which means that the NASL clubs would be royally screwed. They play in tiny stadiums that they don't even own, so there is no place for them to make any revenue. And they would then need to pay millions more than they currently do in salary just so they don't get destroyed.

Its really hard to make it work out with our system. The only hope pro/rel has is that someday some rival league pops up, throws so much incredible amounts of money at this new league that the two companies MLS and rival league decide to create a merged league with pro/rel. That or USSF forces it, which would NEVER happen and if it did, all you would see is the MLS clubs break into 2 divisions of 10 or so teams each. They STILL wouldn't let outside teams in.

Fine. Smoke me. Go find the MLS a 20th franchise.

The league is actively doing that.

No one needs to find a 20th team, the league has set up a structure to operate with 19 teams. They will continue to do this for 1 year or 10 years until an ownership group steps up. There is no real reason why we need a 20th team since we are already going unbalanced/conference system. We will add a team when the time is right, a shotgun marriage with NASL champions makes no sense

Have you noticed that the MLB switched to Astros to the AL to even out the conferences. even though both conferences had an even number of teams the MLB felt that it was better to have an even number of teams in each league. the MLS should do the same. until then only 4 teams from the West miss the playoffs and 5 from the east do.

I'm sure you're all expecting me to be on the side of 'Yup, this idea is pretty dumb'. But, alas, I am not. A 20-team League is better than a 19-team league, like leaps and bounds better. So, I wouldn't mind promoting the D2 champion this year into MLS, barring the enterence of a real team. However, there are hurdles. Single-entity is the big one, but expansion fees, super draft, allocation, and re-enterance to NASL are there as well. The only solution I can possibly think of is making that team, by rule, a second class citizen. No allocation, no allocation order, no trades, no draft picks, no continental berths (like the Canadian teams). If the owner can use that money in their 2 years in MLS to build a stadium and pay the fee, they can be 'Full' D1, but otherwise they stay as D1*

It would in fact be much worse than having a 19 team league. MLS has a history of uneven teams and unbalanced schedules, its not that big of a deal.

Single entity would mean not only do they not get the rights to any players or salary budgets, but they won't get a dime of any SUM money. The NASL club would go forced to operate at minor league levels (stadium and players) so how does that help MLS? Instead of waiting a few years and having a big investor bring a real team to MLS, they let a minor league team in and essentially destroy that market. Remember the vast majority of sports fans a casual fans, so all those people who have never went to an MLS game will now be going to Blaine minnesota to watch a minor league team that we are now calling 'major league'. And if that club goes bankrupt, the newspapers will say 'MLS team goes bankrupt', the casual fan won't care about our strange little promotion system. All they know is that they went to go see an MLS game, and the team/field was crap and they heard later that the team went bankrupt. It would do far more damage than good. As long as there are potential investors out there, there really is no reason to try to prop up minor league owners.

close thread.

The railhawks have a stadium in the works.

http://www.townofcary.org/Town_Council/Agendas___Minutes/Staff_Reports/WakeMed_Soccer_Park_Stadium_Expansion_Project_Bid_Approval__PR12-12_.htm

http://www.townofcary.org/Departmen...ources/Projects/soccerstadiumimprovements.htm

an owner is the only issue.

How does that stadium make Cary MLS ready?

Just saying. they will have an MLS quality stadium.

When? That one won't cut it.

The expansion of Wake Med wouldn't even bring it up to the level of Columbus Crew Stadium.

No they won't. This has nothing to do with the RailHawks who draw 3k or MLS. The RailHawks are irrelevant in this. They do not own the stadium. Wake County owns the stadium and the town of Cary operates it. They pay rent and have nothing to do with the actual stadium.

This is about Cary wanting to bring back the NCAA College Cup and other college events. Events they believe make money for the area. Nothing to do with pro soccer. It would take a hell of a lot more than $6.3 mill to get that stadium MLS ready. They would basically need to build a new one to get MLS's interest. And yeah, also get a very rich owner.

It's better than buck-shaw stadium in san jose, and the Wizards played in their own dump for a decade.

Considering that the rail hawks play in that stadium, and it's in the same area that the rail hawks are based. they could easily get a lease for that stadium if they were in the MLS. sports teams rarely actually own their stadium.

Arrowhead Stadium is a dump? It's still infinitely better than where the Railhawks play.

I'm going to guess you mean Community America Ballpark, where KC played while their stadium was being built.

But face it, even Railhawks fans don't think the improvements to WakeMed would be good enough for the league. They wouldn't be good enough for the league. This idea would not work.

KC is an original club that started in an NFL stadium like most teams, you can't compare. And SJ got a new club (after the move) because they had a rich owner who payed a fee and had plans to build a real stadium. Buck Shaw alone wasn't the reason why the club exists now. If Carolina gets a rich owner, willing to pay the fee and build a real stadium then Carolina would probably get a team at some point.

This is a terrible idea. If we had this system in place this year, Minnesota would be joining the league. The same Minnesota team that doesn't have ownership, has a small fanbase and no MLS ready stadium.

Heavy sigh....

And that was only 3 years, not a decade.

As I always say the single entity and expansion fees is going to kill the integrity of the league.

US now gets amnesty because of the man Sepp, who still hangs part of him on US support. If any new leadership at FIFA decides the US market is no longer wanted, I can imagine MLS, and by extension USSF be outlaw until they scrap all the American adaptations. Which might kill the league, sure, but FIFA works by putting itself above all rules, just like any other Big four league...

It doesn't explain why FIFA would want to kill professional soccer in the United States.