The "hope" is kind of relative though, isn't it? In the US the only hope is for your team to win the championship. That's all anyone really cares about, and what anyone remembers. You can be middle of the pack one year, as long as you're building towards the championship the year after that. The idea that any team can go from nothing to the top league is appealing (as a guy from West Virginia, I would go absolutely insane if a team from WV ever did something like that). But its created a situation where a lot of clubs and their fans consider a "successful" season middle of the pack. And they know they'll probably never compete for the league championship (Leicester was an outlier) so all they can hope for and get is middle of the pack. That's not something a lot of American sports fans will get behind.
You're right. That's why I said what I did about waiting for the typical US sports fan to evolve into someone who could appreciate the game and love/support their club whether it wins or not. King Power stadium (Leicester City) holds 32K and they'd never won anything before 2015. The San Paolo (Napoli) holds 54K and they'd never won anything until Maradona got there, haven't won anything since he left. US fans need to learn to support clubs that never win, and that will take time. Here again, MLS chased American values again with the whole parity thing. The biggest, richest teams are supposed to win things. That's why Chelsea and Man City became relevant only after they were bought by someone who cares. But even in their days of worthlessness, they packed their respective venues. American soccer could have done that with a few years of proper socializing (I think). They don't right now, that's for sure. Of course, Europe's history of various caste systems and figurehead royalty kind of make it easy for fans to accept mediocrity (their station in life, transferred to football), but that's what football is. Vanderbilt packs their gridiron stadium every Saturday, and they've never won the SEC. Ole Miss hasn't won it in over 50 years. But they both have the same shot as Bama or Auburn do when the season begins.
A) Vandy (and many others) struggle to full their stadium, often only doing so on the basis of visiting fans. CFB has had issues with fan attendances dropping in all parts of the country. It's not universal and some of it is cyclical, but the sport has belied any perception of being invincible to such things. B) College sports are, IMHO, arguably the most egregious violators of ideals for parity due to their imbalanced schedules, handling of media contracts, recruitment rules, and abusing the student status of their athletes/ school affiliations. Put simply the business of college sports now orbits almost exclusively around, and for the benefit of, the highest class of programs. The concept of collegiality is all but in name only for some football and basketball factories, and the concept of amateurism is likewise all but gone. Could we envision a world where the Dallas Cowboys got more home games than, say, the Phoenix Cardinals simply because they're more popular? Or where the Lakers got to hold extra players just to keep talent away from other teams? Auburn's national title run featured 8 home games and 4 road games, for crying out loud. I love the spectacle of college sports but the nature of the industry of late has turned rotten. As a result color me enthused about prospects that push US sports more toward development academies and minor leagues while colleges get to focus on being academic institutions again. - I think pro/ rel would be great someday but only after the sport has entrenched the financial viability of the lower levels. When we prove there is sustainable life outside of MLS then the idea can work without killing established MLS brands. Says I, anyway.
I find these comments rather odd coming from you. Unless I have you confused with another Atlanta fan on the P&CE board (and I doubt it as there only seem to be three of us), you have admitted you never supported any of the previous Atlanta pro clubs or watched an MLS match prior to 2017. Now suddenly you complain the USSF "put the cart before the horse" by setting up a national league not allowing the sport to grow naturally via small, regional leagues without the pressure of having to appeal to casual fans. You claim the federation simply wanted to cash in on the World Cup. Here is a news flash, the US getting the '94 World Cup was contingent on having a viable national league up and running. The fact is the MLS kickoff in 1996 was 2 years behind schedule. Without the FIFA forced kick start there would have been no WC '94, no MLS, and certainly no Atlanta United. Just some food for thought.
Miles gets a nice new contract keeping him Atlanta for the next 4 years, well, at least until Europe comes calling. https://www.ajc.com/sports/soccer/m...t-with-atlanta-united/JZGTLwc86PAK8mJwJ6dt6O/
All true. I was pointing to cfb only as being closer to soccer in terms of how it's supported locally (within the state or may region) than the NFL, where teams have fanbases all over the country. No intent to make it seem clean or anything. It never was. Well, that's slightly different. Unlimited scholarships was the rule for every program. Any of them could have held players, but the players chose to be held at the successful programs because the programs had earned their interest by winning. Notre Dame and USC probably did it as much as Alabama, aside from whatever academic restrictions they had at the time. That sounds about right. 8 SEC games plus four OOC teams you're supposed to beat easily. Alabama had four road games in 2017. I think UGA had 5, but only because they chose to go to Notre Dame. Won't stay on cfb long here- it's just not right... Yep, and the bolded is the time-consuming thing right there. I don't think we can get there (pro/rel, abytime soon) at this point, and I don't really expect any attempt to be made.
The league is built on parity, so how does promotion/relegation work when you've got a byzantine salary system that lets any team compete with the Arthur Blanks? You can't buy a championship in the MLS, so in reality you are relegating management boards rather than soccer teams.
I think if you did move to pro/red you'd have to get rid of the cap. The assumption would be of you did keep the cap you'd have to have a sliding scale for the lower leagues, which would give you a problem in both directions. Teams going down would find themselves over a lower cap and have to cut players, even if they wanted to keep them. Teams going up wouldn't be able to stock players beforehand to be ready to compete in the higher level, and would be at a serious disadvantage trying to improve their talent level to stay up. Although to be honest, teams getting relegated because of poor management instead of not having enough money is kind of appealing.
Well right now the league is in expansion mode. Forget the salary cap, no way the relegation model works when you are adding teams.
MLS will just split into East/West...Now, after YEARS of that and a number of stable second division teams. I think promotion/relegation will become a serious discussion.
MLS East 1. Atlanta United 2. Inter Miami 3. Orlando City 4. Nashville 5. DC United 6. Philadelphia Union 7. New York Red Bulls 8. New York City FC 9. New England Revolution 10. Montreal Impact 11. Toronto FC 12. Columbus Crew 13. FC Cincinnati 14. Chicago Fire 15. ~TBD: Charlotte* 16. ~TBD: Indy Eleven 17. ~TBD: Detroit* 18. ~TBD: Louisville City FC* Alternates: ~1. Tampa Bay Rowdies ~2. Birmingham Legion FC ~3. Memphis 901 FC ~4. North Carolina FC ~5. Pittsburgh Riverbounds ~6. Hartford Athletic ~7. Cleveland ~8. Jacksonville ~9. Milwaukee ~10. Hampton Roads ~11. Richmond Kickers ~12. Rochester ~13. Buffalo MLS West 1. Los Angeles FC 2. LA Galaxy 3. San Jose Earthquakes 4. Portland Timbers 5. Seattle Sounders 6. Vancouver Whitecaps 7. Colorado Rapids 8. Real Salt Lake 9. Sporting Kansas City 10. Minnesota United 11. FC Dallas 12. Houston Dynamo 13. Austin FC 14. Saint Louis 15. ~TBD: Sacramento Republic 16. ~TBD: Phoenix Rising 17. ~TBD: Las Vegas Lights 18. ~TBD: Oklahoma City Energy Alternates ~1. San Diego ~2. New Mexico United ~3. El Paso Locomotive ~4. San Antonio FC ~5. Oakland/SF ~6. California Inland Empire* ~7. Union Omaha ~8. New Orleans* ~9. Fresno FC ~10. Tulsa Roughnecks
I am very confused... you get relegated from the MLS East into the USL East? Do MLS East teams even play MLS West teams?
#1 I’m just saying those are the alternate expansion teams. We’re still at least 10 years from that to know for sure. #2 not until the playoffs. Some fans aren’t going to like it. But once the league went past 18 teams, it was never going to be a perfectly balanced schedule. And this way, clubs cut down on travel costs.
I wanted Parkhurst to get the kind of sendoff that didn't risk anything... like last week. Now, our season might depend on him playing like a young man one last time. https://www.ajc.com/sports/atlanta-united-robinson-suffers-hamstring-injury/lvgEIFs1YqsaPouuZ019TM/ To USSF: Next time one of our players gets through one of your call ups without getting on the pitch, don't "work him out". Don't even ********ing speak to him. Just send him back to us just like he was when you took him from us- healthy and full of energy. There was no reason to call up anyone whose club is currently involved in the postseason. None. You know he's good enough to be there, so <Sugarloaf> don't call him- he'll call you... </Sugarloaf>
I agree. We’ve got these kids, Erik Palmer-Brown, Chris Richards, and Cameron Carter who would have been good call ups for a 4th defender anyways.
This won't be truly serious until the lower tier is financially viable for teams that endure temporary drops. The owners won't support it otherwise. There is layman's support for the concept but they're not going to sacrifice what they've built so far without greater assurance of how pro/rel would prove sustainable. Given that you have another TV deal coming up in 2 years you're looking at at least not broaching the idea again for some 7+ years. I suspect it will be another cycle after that, even.
Agreed. Coach Greg even used that excuse in leaving off Jozy and Bradley during the last break. I will concede that the idea a player strains a hammy in these types of work outs is quite extraordinary. It was arguably lighter than anything he would've done while still with the Stripes. But still, yeah, none of the players on deck for the playoffs should've been excused. Alas. At least this isn't a last minute injury, so now the team can adapt and prepare accordingly.
definitely. honestly, I think it’s probably 15-20 years away. things that need to happen: -Stable stadium -Stable fan base -Stable and better TV deals -Stable Youth academies that produce talent -Stable Reserve teams
Exactly. GB had to know what Miles has meant to us this season. Yeah, it's strange, but all the same, I want that strange to happen on our watch, not Berhalter's. He doesn't have anything serious to do but qualify for the World Cup, and that's a way off. There was talk on the FB page that FdB could have held Miles back by claiming that he was nursing an injury. I don't know if this is true, but if it is, he could have considered this. Miles is young, and might have felt some kinda way about it (young guys often think of themselves as indestructible, witness Almiron late in the 2017 season when he allegedly didn't stretch as well as he should have and got a slight hammy v. Montreal), but he'd have gotten over it, and he certainly is going to get called back. But somebody needs to let GB know the order of things football.
Waiting with bait on my breath for some word on Miles. Probably Monday PM. Hoping this isn't as bad as it could be, and if it is, that we can somehow not have it affect our title defense.
Right there with you. Would like to think that as Miles was likely not pushing too hard that it's not serious. Will be curious to see if this more down to his leg stretching in an awkward position or a matter of momentary over-exertion of the muscle.
I was hoping to wake up and read Doug Roberson's article on how Miles Robinson had joined the team for light training on Monday. I am still going with the theory that Miles couldn't turn down a national team call up for fear of going into Berhalter's dog house, but once it be came obvious GB wasn't going to play him he "pulled a hammy" in post match training so he could rejoin FdB and the Kings of the South (btw "Frank de Boer and the Kinds of the South" would great name for a Dutch fusion rock band).
Something like this for FdB and the Kings: There is not enough yodeling or flutes in Rock 'n Roll, just sayin'.