NHL will expand to Seattle as soon as they can. Same for the NBA unless a team moves. Most NBA small market NBA teams have newer arenas so moves aren't likely
The NHL will expand by one since they are at an odd 31 teams. Seattle and Quebec City are front runners with KC as another possibility. I personally am pulling for my dark horse hometown of Virginia Beach. The NBA doesn't have the talent to expand and would probably be better off losing a team or 4. The NFL will probably never expand even though they could. MLB can expand and probably will eventually by 2 teams.
You're crazy.. Basketball is 2nd place globally right behind soccer. These days the basketball talent pool is endless.
Just because they play doesn't mean they're any good. The only way 95% of people playing basketball around the world whether that's in US colleges or professionally internationally will only get to the NBA if they buy a ticket. The Knicks and the 76ers are pretty much unwatchable. Most of the stars are playing together on certain teams making most of the league obsolete. If the Kings and the Pacers disappeared would you notice? Would anyone outside of Sac and Indy notice?
It looks like in all reality, we are going to see a West League and an East League, with the MLS Cup being where the two duke it out. Just going off contenders, we could be looking at a league like: MLS West 1. LA Galaxy 2. LAFC 3. San Jose Earthquakes 4. Seattle Sounders 5. Portland Timbers 6. Vancouver Whitecaps 7. Colorado Rapids 8. Real Salt Lake 9. Sporting Kansas City 10. FC Dallas 11. Houston Dynamo 12. Minnesota United 13. Sacramento* 14. San Antonio* 15. San Diego* 16. Phoenix* 17. Saint Louis* 18. (Open) Contenders: San Francisco, Austin, El Paso, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Tulsa, Las Vegas, Albuquerque MLS East 1. Atlanta United 2. Orlando City 3. Chicago Fire 4. Columbus Crew 5. Toronto FC 6. Montreal Impact 7. New England Revolution 8. New York City FC 9. New York Red Bulls 10. Philadelphia Union 11. D.C. United 12. Miami* 13. Nashville* 14. Cincinnati* 15. Charlotte* (or Raleigh*) 16. Indianapolis* 17. Detroit* 18. Tampa Bay* Contenders: Jacksonville, Birmingham, New Orleans, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Ottawa, Rochester, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Louisville, Buffalo ----- Now, the final number may be 18, it could be 14 or it could be 20. The future of growth will decide that. ------ If I were in charge of scheduling, I'd do: MLK- Start of Preseason Presidents Day- Start of Opening Season Memorial Day- Close of Opening Season June 1 - July 31 - Tournament Season August 1- Start of Closing Season Halloween - End of Closing Season Nov 1 - Start of Playoffs Black Friday or Saturday after - MLS Cup ----- For each, Opening and Closing Season, teams play inside their conference once, so a total of approx 17 games in 3 months in the first half and then the same for the back half of the season for 3 months. Each conference has their own Supporters Shield Winner. ------ During June and July, I'd give a break in the regular season for the purpose of all the domestic club tournaments, international tournaments, and international club tournaments. For instance, the US Open Cup would have qualifiers that say, start from August of the previous year, up to June 1. The US Open Cup would be a 64 team knockout tournament, with every MLS team given a seed. This would help make this tournament more than an afterthought. I'd argue also for the end of the CONCACAF champions league, which is never going to be the UCL and instead focus on creating a 16 team Americas Club Cup, with slots: MLS 3 (MLS Cup winner, West and East Supporters Shield) Mexico 3 Brazil 3 Argentina 3 Rest of CONCACAF 1 Rest of CONMEBOL 3 Also, I'd argue for a Transatlantic Cup, making something more of these friendlies with European teams, that starts in July, as a 16 team tournament. MLS 8 (top 4 in each conference from last years standing) Europe 8 *The argument for this is to one, stop playing regular season games during the big international tournaments that takes key players away for long stretches of the season, and give more importance to the US Open Cup, also for the money making games with the big European teams, and have a more meaningful regional tournament, where we see MLS actually try to win these games. And for the Playoffs the top 6 from each conference advance. Ultimately, the benefit too is we don't have such a long offseason which seems overkill. Sure, some will say you can't play games in the North during the winter, but with some appropriate scheduling, this can be taken care of.
No NY-LA games will make this a no-fly for the TV executives. Say bye to those big contracts. Another problem is that half the teams are going to have one more away game or home game than the other half of the league, so it's still not balanced (actually, you would need home and away matches to make it balanced, but that defeats the purpose of your idea). It would have to be 17 teams per conference max. And CCL is under the jurisdiction of CONCACAF, so MLS will have no say in whatever they decide. Its purpose is to grow the game throughout the region. Getting rid of the CCL will not do that.
Assuming the league "stops" at 32, and the four long-shot expansion candidates as of August 2017 (Charlotte, Indianapolis, St Louis, San Diego) get left out: Play every other team once (31) + division rivals an additional time (7) = 38-game season OR you can scrap the divisions and just go with two 16-team conferences. In either case, the Western Conference would be comprised of markets in the Pacific, Mountain and Central time zones, while every Eastern Conference market except Nashville would be based in the Eastern time zone.
I think they will take a hard stop at 30 teams. Then they will only expand to 32 with the absolute best case scenario candidates to 32 if they come around. it will definitely be split east/west and will likely have 2 divisions each, so 4 total.
30 teams doesn't split the schedule as nicely as 32 (or 36) teams would. and they're not going to increase the number of games due to the congested fixture schedule. MLS will probably end up with 8 geographically-grouped 4-team divisions.
With the investment MLS are expecting franchises to make with regards to academies, it will be a lot harder to move clubs.
Why move clubs when you can fold them and charge $150 million+ for an expansion team to replace them?
but LAFC has pretty much taken over Chivas USA's spot in LA, they didn't move/build in a different city. I guess we'll see how things go over the next few years when there are no Expansion slots available.
How about this, have everyone play everyone once so a team will get gauranteed 27 games (this is with 28 team league) have top 8 in each conference qualify to next round. So 16 teams make it to play off out of 28. Play off round is made of four groups of four, two east and two west groups, head of the groups are headed by 1 and 2 seed. Each group will be 1,3,5,7 and 2,4,6,8 for east and west. This will consist of a total of three games for each team in the group. Top team in each group will get 3 home game against lower seeded teams. Top team in each group will qualify to the eastern/western conference final (two legged and away goals rule eliminated) winner of conference finals, plays in final (two legged final and away goals rule also eliminated) higher seed get last game. Thoughts??
I'd do three conferences of 7-9 teams. Each teams plays everyone conference rivals twice (12-16 matches), and non-conference rivals once (14-18 matches). That's at most 34 matches if there's 27 teams. The top 4 teams from each conference advance to a 12-team playoffs. The top team in each conference advances to quarter-finals, as well as the next best team. The other 8 teams play the repechage.
Why would the league agree to reduce the regular season schedule from 34 games to 27 games. That's a lot of lost gate sale income, especially for teams that play in small stadiums.
A simpler way, which may be the way it happens, MLS just breaks into a West and East League. West: LA Galaxy, Los Angeles FC, Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers, Vancouver Whitecaps, Colorado Rapids, Sporting Kansas City, Real Salt Lake, Minnesota United, FC Dallas, Houston Dynamo, Sacramento Republic*, Phoenix*, San Antonio*, Austin*, Las Vegas*, San Diego*, Saint Louis* East: Atlanta United, Orlando City, DC United, Philadelphia Union, New York Red Bulls, New York City FC, New England Revolution, Toronto FC, Columbus Crew, Montreal Impact, Chicago Fire, Miami*, Cincinnati*, Detroit*, Nashville*, Indianapolis*, Raleigh*, Tampa Bay* 34 league season, home/away. First 17 games played between February-May. Last 17 games played between August-Halloween. November playoffs. MLS playoffs West champion vs West3/6 West runner up vs West4/5 East champion vs East 3/6 East runner up vs East 4/5 In June and July, break for international tournaments, US Open Cup, World Footballs Challenge. US Open Cup group format: 8 groups of 40 teams, home/away Even Group 1. West Pot 1 2. East Pot 2 3. East Pot 3 4. West Pot 4 5. Guest/MLS Bottom 4 Odd Groups 1. East Pot 1 2. West Pot 2 3. West Pot 3 4. East Pot 4 5. Guest/MLS bottom 4 Guest receive 4 slots: NASL champion (automatic) USL champion (automatic) NASL runner up vs Guest USL runner up vs Guest Qualification for Guest begins earlier.
^We've been over this. An East-West split won't happen because the TV Networks will balk if there are no NY-LA matchups to sell to advertisers. MLS needs TV Contract Revenue if it wants to keep increasing it's quality. All the teams will have to play each other at least once to cover the NA TV Market footprint and make sure that no interesting matchups will be missed during a season (like a Columbus Cinderella end-of-season run). And there is no way the owners are ever going to vote a split into MLS1 and MLS2 divisions with a mix of teams. That puts a limit to the number of teams in the league at 34-38, depending on a 34-38 game schedule playing at least one home-and-away series against a designated geographic rival to encourage away-supporter trips.
Just have an actual MLS cup (separate from the league) which play two game eliminations home and away, there u get ur NY - LA match ups
MLS will continue to expand so long as there is a demand. That means more than any NY-LA matchup. That said, that’s what I argue the second point is to take a summer break, for international tournaments but also make the US Open Cup have more meaning by making it a summer binge tournament.
That said, they could also just realistically do away with home/away and have teams play only once an alternate home each year.