With the current 22 teams, the 2 future teams in LA FC & Miami, & the some 12 bit cities does the league eventually expand to 32, 34, 36 teams or does the league stop at 30? CURRENT TEAMS (22) 01) Atlanta United FC 02) Chicago Fire 03) Colorado Rapids 04) Columbus Crew SC 05) D.C. United 06) FC Dallas 07) Houston Dynamo 08) LA Galaxy 09) Minnesota United FC 10) Montreal Impact 11) New England Revolution 12) New York FC 13) New York Red Bulls 14) Orlando City SC 15) Philadelphia Union 16) Portland Timbers 17) Real Salt Lake 18) San Jose Earthquakes 19) Seattle Sounders FC 20) Sporting Kansas City 21) Toronto FC 22) Vancouver Whitecaps FC FUTURE TEAMS (2) 23) Los Angeles FC 24) Miami CURRENT BIT CITIES / AREAS (12) - Who are the next to get in to the MLS Charlotte Cincinnati Detroit Indianapolis Nashville/ Phoenix Raleigh / Durham Sacramento San Antonio San Diego St. Louis Tampa / St. Petersburg What does the league design look like if eventually all the bid cites are some day part of the MLS (Conference alignment / Divisions, Number of matches against the opposing conference / divisions, ect)? What about cities / metropolitan areas like Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Jacksonville, Las Vegas, New Orleans, or event Buffalo. Would you rather see one of these cities in the league instead of a current bit city? Would it be good for the MLS to add possibly a 4th Canadian city like Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa, Quebec What's your ideal League Design?
We've been through this iteration a couple of times now, and I think MLS's goal is to cover all the key geographical and TV market areas with at least one team and group them in geographic divisions within driving distance for supporter groups. I don't think anybody believes that 28 teams is the end state, but thirty teams is just awkward unless they divide the league into East, Central, and West Conferences. Garber has stated that they don't want more than East and West conferences, so whatever league structure follows will be a 2 Conference, X division format. They will also have to keep the league at 34 games as there is too much fixture congestion with all the International Breaks, CCL/USOC/Voyageur Cup matches, and seasonal windows to add additional matches. For 28 teams, I see the league breaking each conference down into 2 Divisions (trying to keep existing rivalries intact), playing intra-division home-and-away matches, and alternate home and away matches with the other divisions for 33 games. The 34th game could be played with the team in their Conference's sister division that finished at the same rank in the standings the previous year, like they do with the NFL (ie. First place Atlantic plays extra game against First Place Northern, 2nd Atl plays 2nd Nor, etc.). Geographically, they would be broken down so a division is within 1 or 2 time zones and with North and South teams to help ease scheduling when playing at certain times of the year (Spring/Fall with lots of games in the south, Summer with lots of games in the North). So a setup could look like this: Western Conference Pacific Division: Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Jose, LAG, LAFC, Sacramento/San Diego/Phoenix Central Division: RSL, Colorado, Minnesota, SKC, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio/St Louis/Phoenix Eastern Conference Atlantic Division: Miami, Orlando, Atlanta, DCU, Philadelphia, NYRB, Tampa/Nashville/Charlotte/ Raleigh Northern Division: NYCFC, NER, Montreal, Toronto, Columbus, Chicago, Detroit/Cincinnati/Indianapolis/Nashville At 32 teams, they can add an additional team to each division, then split those divisions in half to four teams each, playing intra-division home-and-away matches, and alternate home and away matches with the other divisions for 34 games. I don't see them expanding past this point unless MLS introduces promotion and relegation, which I don't see the owner-operators ever approving. If I had to rank the expansion candidate cities MLS would prefer to be in (regardless of whether their bid is complete or not), they would be, in order of most likely to least likely: Pacific: Phoenix, San Diego, Sacramento Central: St Louis, Phoenix, San Antonio Atlantic: Charlotte, Nashville, Raleigh, Tampa Northern: Detroit, Nashville, Cincinnati, Indianapolis
Assuming they stay at 28 Phoenix, Sacramento, St. Louis and Detroit are next IMHO. Phx and Sac are established USL markets in growing cities with a high hispanic population. Stl and Det are midwestern heavyweights that plug holes in the media map. Beyond that? 32 should be good, nice and tidy conferences. Regional rivalries are strengthened and travel costs decrease. I have an inkling that 32 would be a good end game to aim for by 2026. The next teams youd get would be San Antonio, Tampa Bay, and then I guess one team in NC and Cincy.
The current iteration of Phoenix is new for this year while St Louis is pretty dead in the water at this point unless they find additional funding. Sacramento is just about guaranteed because MLS now has Cincinnati to act as the carrot for the rest of the bids. But that's all being debated in another thread.
Would like to see the league look something close to this down the road. Lets say eventually all the current expansion bid cities / metropolitan areas end up with an MLS team. That would put the league at 36 teams. What 2 or 4 cities would you eliminate and make the league a 32-34 team league? If there are 2 divisions in each conference what teams will be in each division? Will be interesting to see how all this expansion plays out over the next 5-10+ years Expansion Cities / Metropolitan areas 01) Charlotte 02) Cincinnati 03) Detroit 04) Indianapolis 05) Nashville 06) Phoenix 07) Raleigh / Durham 08) Sacramento 09) St. Louis 10) San Antonio 11) San Diego 12) Tampa / St. Petersburg Eastern Conference 01) Atlanta United FC 02) Chicago Fire 03) Columbus Crew SC 04) D.C. United 05) Montreal Impact 06) New England Revolution 07) New York City FC 08) New York Red Bulls 09) Orlando City SC 10) Philadelphia Union 11) Toronto FC 12) Miami - Expansion (year TBA possibly 2019) Atlantic Division Teams (Current teams + expansion teams)? Midwest Division Teams (Current teams + expansion teams)? - Western Conference 13) Colorado Rapids 14) FC Dallas 15) Houston Dynamo 16) LA Galaxy 17) Minnesota United FC 18) Portland Timbers 19) Real Salt Lake 20) San Jose Earthquakes 21) Seattle Sounders FC 22) Sporting Kansas City 23) Vancouver Whitecaps FC 24) Los Angeles FC - Expansion (year 2018) Central Division Teams (Current teams + expansion teams)? Pacific Division Teams (Current teams + expansion teams)?
They could expand to 36 teams, breaking the league into 2 Conferences of 3 six-team divisions, but to fit a 34-game schedule, it would require each of the teams to not play one of the other divisions each year. Or two 18-team leagues that don't play each other. Regardless, you'll end up not maximizing revenue with fewer LA-NY matchups.