[madhoman]

With the Kickers' upset of DCU this week, I got to thinking....

Would a EPL style relegation work for sports here in the US?
Imagine if teams got downgraded on the regular. The Brooklyn Cyclones replacing the Detroit Tigers, Richmond Kickers taking over for DC, etc.

Yes I know I'm being a little melodramatic, but hey....it's almost soccer saturday.

[nsamsarmy]

I don't see why baseball couldn't do it, and it would certainly give teams something to play for. It'd be cool. Nice Avatar by the way. I miss the trips down to Dale Mabry to see them play...

[modenafc1912]

Relegation has always been a hot topic here on bs.

My bay, it would work in the Us soccer, which - of the "fab 5" - is the "less american" sport. Relegation, in whatever sport, gives always a reason to battle for: are you out of playoff? that's ok, but stay tuned cause you have to avoid relegation. Beside that, the opportunity to get promoted to mls could help the growing of A-league sides and the whole soccer community.

On the other side, someone could say that the risk of relegation could drop investors away from mls: they don't want to put $$$ into a new mls franchise that maybe could get relegated, that means waste of money. But I could reply to this saying that the opportunity to climb from A-league to mls, could give investor one more reason to invest into A-league sides.

It's a hard question, just like talking about single table or divisions/conferences: I think - in the end - that relegation would work fine with mls & a-league, but I also think we'll not see it into mls rules for several years.

[picaraza]

Relegation promotion would work if it were instituted early in the game... If the MLS and A League were to do it now for example. (impossible)

In Major League Baseball the opportunity was there maybe back in the 1920s-40s when there were powerful "minor" leagues like the PCL. But expansion to the west coast and the growing disinterest in the game have made it impossible.

With Football and Basketball the NCAA has always been the minor league-minor city farm system. Not a chance.

[Mach1]

The only sport other than soccer that could have relegation as it stands right now would be hockey. The Major League teams for baseball own all of the players from the MLB down to A (expect for the few independant leagues), and the "minor" leagues for football and basketball are college teams, so I don't see how a minor league could be created now for either sport that could create any profit.

[Beakmon FC]

Never. Why invest in a league where 5-10% of the teams are relegated each season? And I might have to try and sell Rochester-size markets to my season ticketholders instead of major markets? And how do you sell the TV rights beyond one season without certainty of the markets involves?

Not in my lifetime..........

[IASocFan]

Our local youth soccer leagues and our racketball leagues do relegation/promotion. It's not a formal process, but if you win your league, you move up a division. If you are at the bottom, you go down a division. Leagues and teams (players) re-form and re-sign each season so you don't always play the same people.

[modenafc1912]

@ Beackmon FC
Accordingly to your post, markets like Rochester will never come into mls, just because not major markets.
But I was wondering ... for an I/O, what is more important? a medium/big market where soccer is the 4th-5th sport with the risk to lose himself into indifference, or rather a small/medium market with a strong soccer community where soccer is meant to be the top flight sport?
Always talking from investors' point of view. If I invest into an A-league side, and my team becomes the stronger of the league, why shouldn't I have the opportunity to face upper level teams? Don't you want to give me this opportunity straightly? Fine, but give me almost a chance: play-off between the first a-league team versus the last mls team. It will give more intrest to the final part of the season, even for bottom table teams.
And, talking in general: if a team does s**k, what's better than a "purgatory" year leaving upper place for a deserving team?

[(TxT)]

Relegation would only work in the US for soccer because it is a new sport for so many people in this country and if pro/rel was added they probably wouldn't question it as long as they are told that is how soccer is done around the world.

In other sports it wouldn't work for many reasons:

If you have a local team in the second division you might think they suck since they can't make the first division, so you won't go to the games causing a loss in money. With not as much money you won't be able to get back to division 1 so therefore even less people wil attend and the team goes bankrupt.

If baseball adds pro/rel betwen the major and minor leagues you'll have stadium problems. Most minor league stadiums don't exceed 15,000 capacity and when any former major league team will come to town ticket demand will be high and most minor league teams will want to expand stadiums. But if you expand you will have an empty stadium when a regular minor league team comes to town. Now most of the teams that will be relegated from the majors (Tigers, Pirates, D-Backs, Mariners) have reltivly new stadiums that were built for major league use therefore they are huge. So when a minor league team comes to town you'll see 30,000 empty seats in your brand new stadium.

One other reason is in order to have pro/rel in the NHL, NBA, NFL, and MLB more teams would be needed so therefore the talent pool will be thinned out so the quality of play will be horrible.

Last but not least the whole country will think it is stupid that not every team can compete for the championship like they have for as long as they had lived.

[Treetaliano]

not this ******** again.