I've only heard the 30/3 conference stuff here. Three conferences is a logistical nightmare when it comes to playoff scheduling. American leagues have even numbers for a reason. Typically, multiples of four look ideal because it makes easy symmetry for playoff brackets. The NBA and MLB set their system up to accommodate even numbers in the "real" playoffs (post-wildcard play-in). The NHL has worked with a wonky playoff alignment since moving Detroit and Columbus to the East, but will be back on track the a normal eight team per conference playoff in the 2021-2022 season when Seattle enters. Think about it: if conferences are the "big" division and are inherently equal in terms of strength, how would you see three conference winners? That's why the breakdown usually occurs within two conferences (East/West, American/National). Division winners tend to get AQs and then any odd numbers are handled with overall rank (NHL & NBA) or wildcards (MLB & NFL). MLS has clung fairly close to the "American" model of organization thus far. Unless they dump the playoffs, I do not see them using an odd-numbered conference structure. It will remain two conferences that may get split into smaller divisions, but its structure will continue to look like the Big Four.
Soon. Let us wait 3 months & get to 28. Columbus saved officially + Austin & STL in. It won't be long.
True. But, NFL expansion into Canada, Mexico and Europe is being driven in large part by anxiety and desperation. Unlike baseball (which is also popular in some Carribean Islands) some countries bordering on the Gulf of Mexco, and the Far East, and basketball (which is also popular in Europe, South America, and Asia), hockey (which is popular in Northern Europe as well as in Canda and the USA) and soccer (which is popular worldwide), American-style gridiron football is only played professionally in the United States and Canada. Unless the NFL can get other continents interested in playing and watching the game of gridiron football, its prospects for future sports hegemony beyond the United States are very limited.
I don't think so, with a single elimination tournament. What could be done is award the Conference Championships based of the regular season records. Then award the Conference Champions first round byes and the conference champ that wins the supporters shield an easier path to MLS Cup finals. This would allow for 13 clubs total to make the playoffs. See bracket example attached. I would make the top 3 in each conference place finishers automatic, with the remaining 4 spots being awarded at-large regardless of conference.
You have seen that the NFL has sold out every game they have played in London since returning. I don't think they are going to expand to multiple markets in Europe but the London market looks like a no brainer.
kinda OT, but in the A-League down under, Melbourne and Sydney are getting THIRD teams, and rumors abound 4th teams in each city are not off the table. In the post 30 world, could we be looking at LA3 or NY3 or CHI2 by team 30-32?
No. There are 6 EPL teams most seasons in London. Because there's only a handful of large cities. Same with Australia. The United States and Canada have the same number of markets over one million as all of Europe. Toronto could support several NHL teams, but it only has one because there is no way the Leafs want to share the fans, the sponsors, and the broadcast revenues with anyone else.
No way. Australia has only a few large cities so having several in each is a good thing for them but it doesn't make sense for us. Chicago 2 is the only possibility I can see.
I could see three teams in the NYC area. There is certainly the population to support it. It's not like MLS would be the first league to do that since the NHL has three (Rangers, Islanders, and Devils) and four just over twenty years ago, if you count Hartford. I would rather have a team in Milwaukee than a second Chicago team, to be honest. The cities are fairly close to each other and Milwaukee would give Minnesota an even closer rival.
And, Chicago has yet to establish that it could support two MLS teams while the greater New York metropolitan area (North Jersey, the Five Boroughs, and Hartford have supported MLS teams. I could see MLS teams playing in North Jersey (the Bergen County Red Bulls), the Bronx (NYCFC), Queens (NYCFC or an expansion team), Brooklyn (an expansion team), or Hartford (an expansion team).
Having the population to support it isn't what matters these days. Existing teams don't want to share the local audience, the local sponsors, the local broadcasters. They also don't want the local competition in case they suck for a few years and see the fair weather fans flock to another club.
I have to chuckle when I see the Toronto FC - Montreal Impact match-up used to tout the "proximity" of MLS markets (particularly when mentioned in the same breath as the Los Angeles and Greater New York derbies). LAFC - LA Galaxy = 12.8 mile drive between stadia NYCFC - New York Red Bulls = 20.5 mile drive McKalla Place (Austin) - Toyota Field (San Antonio) = 77.3 mile drive MAPFRE Stadium - Willard R. Stargell Stadium (Cincinnati) = 113 mile drive Toronto FC - Montreal Impact = 346 mile drive And while the Vancouver-to-Seattle and Seattle-to-Portland match-ups in Cascadia respectively require 144 mile and 173 mile drives between stadia, the Vancouver-Portland pairing sees the driving distance balloon to 314 miles... which is still 32 miles shorter than the Toronto-to-Montreal trip. Hell, the drive from Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta to the proposed Nashville MLS stadium site would be shorter (245 miles) than the Toronto-to-Montreal trip, as would be the drive between the proposed MLS stadia in Nashville and Cincinnati (275 miles).
While there are parts of the State of Connecticut that fall within the Greater New York Metropolitan Area, the City of Hartford isn't one of them. Fairfield County, Connecticut? Absolutely. There's a reason that Fairfield County has earned the nickname "The Sixth Borough". Litchfield County? Yes, particularly the southwestern portions. New Haven County? Yes, like Litchfield County, focusing on the more southwesterly portions. However, the City of Hartford - indeed, I'd argue Hartford County as a whole - is an island unto itself. It serves as a "demilitarized zone" between spheres of influence aligned more closely with Boston in the eastern portion of the state (Windham, New London, and Tolland Counties, along with parts of Middlesex County) and New York City in the western portion (Fairfield, New Haven and Litchfield Counties).
Not direct news, but the commercial property across the street to the north of where North Carolina FC has proposed to build a downtown Raleigh stadium has just been sold. Raleigh’s Seaboard Station set for $250M development, after William Peace sells property https://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article223073140.html The brutalist government buildings on the NCFC targeted site will eventually be replaced, that's increasingly clear to anyone watching urban redevelopment in Raleigh and Durham. The question isn't really, "if", but is more of a "when" and "what with". Unless there's some sort of locked in negotiating period, this is probably bad news for NCFC as this redevelopment will just make the NCFC site all the more desirable. On the flip side, if they can get a stadium built on the location, the surrounding area could be very similar to the area around the stadium in Portland with regards to a mix of residential and commercial.
its pure rhetorical conjecture, but a team in Burbank/North LA might be able to be an LA3 team, but that is still a stretch for me in a city that is notoriously fairweather. I would say New York has by far and away the best chance of having a NY3 team get in. If the perfect storm happened; a billionaire ownership group, local govt support, and a SSS site ready to go, with the Cosmos name brand. Absolutely no way in gods green earth MLS says no to that IMO. That said, this is NYC we are talking about, who turned down Flusching Meadows, the absolute ideal stadium site so.........nothing........could be built there. We shouldnt be focusing on NYC3 until NYCFC has a stadium to call their own. It is entirely loathsome watching a NYCFC game, its arguably not even real soccer. now if the already present teams LET them in is another question.
They need to be aggressive and bend this to their advantage. If the Raleigh group is serious, they can lock down what would surely be the last marked in the southern region for MLS. Design a plan that makes the stadium a centerpiece of downtown revitalization, and foster that development. It could be masterful if done correctly.
Yeah. More a 'rivalry' thing there than proximity. Though some are both. Both are good. Van/Por are not close, really. Or SJ/LA. But they are rivalries. I should have been more precise.
Just for the hell of it... St. Louis to Kansas City: 250 miles St. Louis to Chicago: 310 miles St. Louis to Nashville: 310 miles St. Louis to Cincinnati: 360 miles