Eventually there will be cities that will be left out of MLS (Small TV markets, etc). Then again many of them would probably not make it to D1 anyways with pro/rel. Another thing is semi-monopolies in certain markets, if I won the lotto and wanted a team in Chicago, there would be a few extra hoops I would have to jump thru if I did not want to buy the FIRE (or I would be told to put my team in a different city). Buy hey maybe I am wrong and eventually we could have Club America USA playing somewhere in LA along side Chivas and Galaxy
BTW not that WSW cares, but NASL also has an expansion fee, why are they trying to keep out not so rich people out of the league?
Or stay there, if they did. Which is the other part of the equation that proles conveniently leave out of their analysis: the idea that you can either go right straight back down or that you're going to ask people to vote for a system that guarantees that every year one of them will be left without a chair when the music stops. And what have you done, then, exactly? Had that one afternoon of euphoria because you got promoted (which is a zero-sum game because someone else got relegated)? And then realized, "Oh, shit, first game in D1 is in 125 days, we have a lot to do."
Not only D1 but what you say would repeat in D2 and D3. But you miss the best part, making fun of Toronto fans that their team is going to play in the NASL. That is priceless.
Pro/rel should start with USL/NASL first. I'm sure Battery would do great in NASL and if they got relegated no big deal since they played in USL for years.
Except that the Battery don't want to move up. Sure, they could compete on the field, but financially, it doesn't make sense for the team to move up.
What MLS needs to do is take the handcuffs of teams and either raise the salary cap or get rid of it altogether. So teams can start bringing stars from all over the world and not just over the hill names trying to prolong their careers. They need to bring young world class talent. Soccer has grown so much all over the world. If you had star players in their prime sign with any MLS teams the sport would take off. Just go to any pub this weekend and you will see a bunch of fans tunning in to the real madrid vs barcelona clasico. MLS needs to take advantage of the growth of the sport in popularity. There will be plenty of investors with money willing to buy franchises in MLS and spend millions in salaries cause they know they will get that money back. []__[]
How will relegation hurt Charleston? If they played in NASL in 2013 and went back down too USL in 2014.
******** you. I'm asking you to do a little self-examination, moron. Look at that you're saying. Your whole premise (today, at least; tomorrow it'll be something else) is that pro/rel is great, would help Minnesota get an owner, blah blah blah blah blah. So there's no downside? No other side to the pro/rel coin? Teams just get promoted to the land of milk and honey, all positive impact, no negative impacts on the teams that go down? Just say, "Yes, that's my testimony. Nothing bad happens to teams that get relegated." Then we can continue the conversation.
AFAIK, there's nothing preventing an MLS team, right now, from spending as much as they want on their three DP's.
If USL and NASL want pro/rel, go for it. But trying to institute pro/rel involving MLS simply wouldn't work without a massive restructuring of MLS as an entity.
Eric Wynalda has a better chance of being named "Commish 4 life" of the NASL before we see pro/rel between the NASL and USL-Pro.
You know, they not only had the de facto pro/rel between Division II and Division III for years (with teams self-selecting), USL actually had a limited system of merit-based (with caveats) promotion whereby the Division III winner could go to the (then-) A-League if they met "other criteria." And that was when everything was under one umbrella. Good frigging luck getting two people who just had a war with each other deciding it was in their best interests to cooperate to the point where the NASL could get USL Pro's best team every year and USL Pro would get the NASL's worst. Good. Frigging. Luck.
Of course relegation hurts, that's the whole point! its a reflection of your performance, that's when the club, players and fans say to themselves, right, i'm better than this, we are going to improve and thats where the key is to get better, you need proper competition and you need to be all inclusive. If you can't see that then yes it probably isn't in your DNA.