I've given this some good thought and think I've finally figured out where MLS is going with this, unless someone has already proposed this. In fact, I'm absolutely certain it will be something similar to this when it's all said and done. It goes against what some people like to see, and I expect that many of you will hate it, but I truly think it works on all levels. Basically, it's a 32 team league. I am assuming here that St Louis, Sacramento, Phoenix, Detroit and Charlotte are the expansion cities which make up the 32 teams. We all know there are surprises that come up all the time, but I don't think it'll be that much different from that list. Maybe Indianapolis sneaks in, maybe San Diego gets something done. All up, though, it's safe to assume at least 4 of those teams will make MLS at some point, assuming the league does indeed expand to 32 teams. How would it work? No large conferences/divisions, which is what most proposals seem to focus on. The numbers just don't add up. If you want to ensure that western teams play home and away games against western teams while also playing eastern teams that broadcasters want and not have a 38 game+ season, you can't do 16 team conferences. Even 8 team divisions is a struggle to make work without a large season or silly divisional rotation like you have in the NFL. So it needs to have a few ingredients: - play rivals home and away. This is important for TV, and there's no way MLS will ever allow for rivals to play one game against each other a season -play all the other teams at least once. Again, broadcasters want LA vs NY. You can't remove that. - ensure that every team plays every other at least once - make the regular season more interesting across the board, keeping the playoff hopes of teams alive for longer - maintain the current 34 game regular season schedule as a maximum - maintain current single elimination playoffs in a simple and easy to understand format I think the following model I'll present ticks all these boxes. So here it is: 1. 32 teams, split into 8 divisions of 4 teams each. These divisions are: A: Vancouver Whitecaps, Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers, Real Salt Lake B: Sacramento Republic, San Jose Earthquakes, LA Galaxy, LAFC C: Colorado Rapids, Sporting KC, AC St Louis, Nashville SC D: FC Dallas, Houston Dynamo, Austin FC, Phoenix Rising E: Inter Miami, Orlando City, Atlanta United, Charlotte Independence F: Toronto FC, Montreal Impact, NE Revs, Detroit G: Chicago Fire, Minnesota United, Columbus Crew, Cincinnati FC H: DC United, NYCFC, NY Red Bulls, Philadelphia Union 2 . Teams in each division play each other twice (home/away) for a total of 6 games a season. 3. Every team plays every other team from outside their division once for a total of 28 games (14 of these are home, 14 are away). That makes for a 34 game regular season. 4. The top two teams from each division qualify for a 16 team single elimination playoff based on seeding (seeding is decided by points accrued during season, tie breaker goal difference, goals scored, etc)
I do agree with you that the scheduling aspect makes sense of this alignment. However I would add the following changes of two conferences with 4 divisions each. I think MLS likes the idea of dividing the Continent into Eastern and Western Conferences, especially when it comes to the MLS Cup. The another adjustment would be with the playoffs, the four division winners plus four teams regardless of divisions from each conference would qualify. Playing a single elimination tournament, with the winners of the East v. the West.
If it was up to me I would have a division solely for the teams with synthetic turf: Vancouver, Seattle, Atlanta, NE.
The only changes I would suggest to the alignment is based on who teams 31 and 32 more end up finally being. For example here is San Diego with the stadium being built for SDSU their maybe new hope with a new ownership group. If this materializes this could bump to the top of the list for expansion past 28 or 30 (depending on the timing). In addition to adding East & West conference. With this in mind this my prediction for 32 clubs: EASTERN CONFERENCE Atlantic Division Inter Miami CF New York City FC New York Red Bulls Philadelphia Union Midwest Division Chicago Fire FC Cincinnati Columbus Crew SC Minnesota United FC Northeast Division DC United Montreal Impact New England Revolution Toronto FC Southeast Division Atlanta United FC Charlotte FC Nashville Beat Orlando City SC WESTERN CONFERENCE Central Division Colorado Rapids Real Salt Lake St. Louis Athletic Sporting Kansas City Northwest Division Portland Timbers Sacramento Republic FC Seattle Sounders FC Vancouver Whitecaps FC Pacific Division Los Angeles FC Los Angeles Galaxy San Diego FC San Jose Earthquakes Southwest Division Austin FC FC Dallas Houston Dynamo Phoenix Rising FC This alignment fosters natural rivals and keeps current rivals: such as Miami with New York, San Jose with Los Angeles; Orlando with Atlanta and Chicago with Minnesota.
How about Rivalries that already have Rivalry trophies like the Atlantic Cup?!?!?! Why did you put put Miami in DC United's place? We already have the league's oldest rivalry with the Red Bulls and our rivalry with the Union is important too. Miami is more likely to have a rivalry with Orlando and Atlanta due to simple geography.
Miami is best suited to be placed in a division which includes clubs from New York. It is more of a natural rival as proven in other sports leagues. Location is not the best teller of rivals. Therefore, New York is a natural rival and Orlando is not.
Bullshit. How about I place the LA Galaxy in a division that includes FC Dallas and the Whitecaps rather than one that includes the Earthquakes and LAFC? Why don't you come to the northeast corridor and see which teams sports fans here view as their rivals? We all view the other northeast corridor teams as rivals, not Miami. Miami is farther away than Chicago from Washington. Where did you even get that Miami is seen a rival for New York and Philadelphia fans than neighboring Washington? Go to a Nats game against the Phillies or Mets. You'll see a TON of road fans. Same as a Phillies game against the Nats. Those road fans are mostly people who grew up in the neighboring city and moved to the new city in their adult life. Like my wife, who grew up in Philadelphia. You won't see road fans of the Marlins. Further, Miami had an MLS team back in 2001. Were they a bigger rival to the Metrostars than DC United then?
In my personal opinion a better option for re-alignment for a 32 club league, would also require an expansion of the schedule to 38 games. Which is what many of the leagues in Europe play. This would allow alignment into 4 conference of 8 clubs each, where each club plays all the clubs in their conference twice (home & away). Then to complete the schedule they play all other clubs once (rotating home & away games each season). As an initial idea structure the conferences as North, South, East and West (similar to the division names in the NFL). This could also help in the creation of rivalries. This is my first stable: EAST CONFERENCE FC Cincinnati Columbus Crew SC DC United Inter Miami CF New England Revolution New York City FC New York Red Bulls Philadelphia Union WEST CONFERENCE Los Angeles FC Los Angeles Galaxy Portland Timbers Sacramento Republic FC San Diego FC San Jose Earthquakes Seattle Sounders FC Vancouver Whitecaps FC NORTH CONFERENCE Chicago Fire Colorado Rapids Minnesota United FC Montreal Impact Real Salt Lake St. Louis Athletic Sporting Kansas City Toronto FC SOUTH CONFERENCE Atlanta United FC Austin FC Charlotte FC FC Dallas Houston Dynamo Nashville Beat Orlando City SC Phoenix Rising FC Before you ask I placed Miami in the East rather than the South because of the natural rivalries with New York and Boston. In addition Orlando has a more natural rivalry with Charlotte and Atlanta than Miami.
Actually Vancouver and Seattle are bigger rivals to the Galaxy than the manufactured rivalry with LAFC.
For many reasons it looks like MLS is headed to 32 clubs by perhaps 2026. With any things considered aligning the league into 4 conferences of 8 clubs makes prefect sense for scheduling and playoffs reasons. Four conferences allows for a 38 game schedule (the current standard with the leagues around the world). This would allow for clubs to play everyone within their conference twice (home and away) and play everyone else once. The playoffs could easily consist of 16 clubs playing down in a single elimination tournament to decide the MLS Cup champions. After further consideration in this an idea for a 32 club MLS alignment: NORTHERN CONFERENCE Chicago Fire Minnesota United FC Montreal Impact New England Revolution New York City FC New York Red Bulls Philadelphia Union Toronto FC EASTERN CONFERENCE Atlanta United FC Charlotte FC FC Cincinnati Columbus Crew SC DC United Inter Miami CF Nashville SC Orlando City SC CENTRAL CONFERENCE Austin FC Colorado Rapids FC Dallas Houston Dynamo Phoenix Rising FC Real Salt Lake St. Louis Athletic Sporting Kansas City WESTERN CONFERENCE Los Angeles FC LA Galaxy Portland Timbers Sacramento Republic FC San Diego FC San Jose Earthquakes Seattle Sounders FC Vancouver Whitecaps FC This alignment should keep most rivalries, but it will in some cases foster new rivalries, especially in the case of DC United, similar when in the NHL the Washington Capitals were placed in the Southeast Division, with Carolina, Florida, Atlanta and Tampa Bay years ago.
Why are you so obsessed with separating DC United from its rivals, the New York Red Bulls and the Philadelphia Union? Why should DC United be in a separate conference from the teams that are geographically closest, increasing league travel expenses? I don't think you realize how close together distances are in the northeast corridor. It's closer from Washington DC to Philadelphia than from Irvine to Ventura. Your alignment puts DC United's closest conference opponent in Columbus or Charlotte, both six hour or more drives. DC to Chester, PA is under two hours. It's less than a three hour train ride from DC's Union station to Newark, NJ's Penn Station on the Acela and that's how DC United usually travels to road games at Red Bull Arena and Yankee Stadium. In your NHL example, the league has since reoriented the Washington Capitals into the Metropolitan Division so they can play against their biggest rivals, the Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers, and New York Rangers. It was also to reduce travel costs.
Because that's just the way it is!!!!!! As a matter of fact I do know how close things are, I used to in York, PA.
Keep it Simple. 30 teams in 3 divisions of 10. Play everyone in your division twice and others once. Thirty-eight games. EAST NYRB NYFC DC Phil NE TOR MTL ORL MIAMI ATL MIDWEST KC STL CIN MIN NASH CHI COL HOU DAL AUST WEST LAFC LAG SEA PORT VAN SAC SJ COL SLC PHOENIX
They don't have enough weeks for 38 games considering they just compressed the schedule. They're going to stick to 34 games per season and playoffs, USOC, and CCL games will be on top of that for probably over 40 games for some teams.
I agree that 38 games is too much, especially if other competitions expand too, and 3 conferences usually makes playoffs messy. However, I think you *could* make a 30-team, 3-conference system work if you apply for a north-south divisional setup and then go a little loose with the playoffs by using north-south there instead of east-central-west. Schedule would be lightened by only playing two of the four non-conference divisions per year, alternating so to hit all opponents every two years. This also opens the possibility of having a conference rivalry game in the final, which is a possibility that's sorely lacking in the current east-v-west setup.
Actually, a three conference playoff would be quite simple, especially since the league is going to a single elimination tournament. Conference championship are awarded for regular season performance and a first round bye in the playoffs. The conference champion (Supporter's shield winner) has an easier path to the cup. A total of 13 clubs qualify for the playoffs, top three each conference followed by the next 4 clubs regardless of conference. Two brackets are formed one of 7 clubs and one of 6 clubs. See attach for bracket breakdown.
Playing more than 50 games a year is no different than what clubs in Europe are expected to play. As to fit in additional games in the schedule is also easy, start the season two weeks earlier in Mid February (this time could be used to fill the avoid in the U.S. following the Super Bowl), with southern clubs hosting northern clubs, due to weather issues. Also add two weeks during the season where they play (2 games) Wednesday and weekend (Saturday-Sunday) matches. Easy their you go!!
MLS West 1. LA Galaxy 2. Los Angeles FC 3. San Jose Earthquakes 4. Seattle Sounders 5. Portland Timbers 6. Vancouver Whitecaps 7. Real Salt Lake 8. Colorado Rapids 9. Sporting Kansas City 10. Sacramento Republic* Alternates: San Diego, Las Vegas, San Francisco MLS Central 1. FC Dallas 2. Houston Dynamo 3. Montreal Impact 4. Minnesota United 5. Chicago Fire 6. FC Cincinnati 7. Columbus Crew 8. Toronto 9. Austin 10. Saint Louis* Alternates: Indianapolis, Detroit, Cleveland, Milwaukee, San Antonio, Oklahoma MLS East 1. Atlanta United 2. Orlando City 3. Inter Miami 4. Nashville 5. New York Red Bull 6. New York City FC 7. New England Revolution 8. Philadelphia Union 9. DC United 10. Charlotte* Alternates: Tampa Bay, Raleigh, Pittsburgh, Baltimore
Just switch Nashville and Montreal and you will have it as good as possible. Montreal is an east coast city, Nashville is a central city. Montreal loses its main rival Toronto but picks up all its east coast rivals. Nashville gets its central rivals including Cincinnati.
Looking at the above list a little more, it becomes clear to me that the best balance will be if Phoenix is #30 instead of Charlotte. And also switch Nashville and Montreal. That way you do not need to break up the KC/StL and Toronto/Montreal rivalres. Each conference is geographically solid: MLS West 1. LA Galaxy 2. Los Angeles FC 3. San Jose Earthquakes 4. Seattle Sounders 5. Portland Timbers 6. Vancouver Whitecaps 7. Real Salt Lake 8. Colorado Rapids 9. Phoenix* 10. Sacramento Republic* MLS Central 1. FC Dallas 2. Houston Dynamo 3. Minnesota United 4. Chicago Fire 5. FC Cincinnati 6. Columbus Crew 7. Austin 8. Sporting Kansas City 9. Saint Louis* 10. Nashville* MLS East 1. Atlanta United 2. Orlando City 3. Inter Miami 4. New York Red Bulls 5. New York City FC 6. New England Revolution 7. Philadelphia Union 8. DC United 9. Montreal Impact 10. Toronto
I actually foresee the following are the new alignment when club 30 begins play. Like I have said before, looking into the tea leafs club 28 thru 30 should be Sacramento, St. Louis and San Diego. Yes, I see San Diego over Phoenix; all I can say just wait and see what develops with San Diego. MLS WESTERN 1. Colorado Rapids 2. LA Galaxy 3. Los Angeles FC 4. Portland Timbers 5. Real Salt Lake 6. Sacramento Republic FC 7. San Diego FC 8. San Jose Earthquakes 9. Seattle Sounders FC 10. Vancouver Whitecaps FC MLS CENTRAL 1. Austin FC 2. Chicago Fire 3. Columbus Crew SC 4. FC Cincinnati 5. FC Dallas 6. Houston Dynamo 7. Minnesota United FC 8. Nashville SC 9. Saint Louis Athletic 10. Sporting Kansas City MLS EASTERN 1. Atlanta United FC 2. DC United 3. Inter Miami CF 4. Montreal Impact 5. New England Revolution 6. New York City FC 7. New York Red Bulls 8. Orlando City SC 9. Philadelphia Union 10. Toronto FC This will give Major League Soccer solid regional rivalries, along with reduced travel costs. With each club playing all clubs within their conference twice and all other clubs once, for a 38 game semi-balanced schedule.