Given that the RailHawks might be playing in a new league come April (or August), I'm wondering what would folks like to see in a new league. For me, the first thing that comes to mind is a single table, no playoffs. If you finish the regular season on top of the table you should get some hardware. Portland got screwed this past year, they were the best team by far. I wouldn’t object to a relegation/promotion structure should the league get large enough. Say once the league goes above 16 teams you add a 2nd division, Top teams stay up in an eight team 1st division, new teams come in at the 2nd division to play along with the existing underachievers. Might never be necessary, but might as well add it in at the start so that anyone buying in to the league is aware of the possibility. Talk to FIFA about willingness to be a testing ground for FIFA’s new things. Goal line microchips, 2nd on-field official? Bring ‘em on. The thought of a August to May schedule frightens me. But assuming it’s an eight team league, you could have a two season year like in Mexico with each team playing 14 matches in the fall and 14 in the spring. Using the EPL start and finish dates as a guide, you’d see matches played from around Aug 15 to Nov 21 and then from Jan 31 until May 9. This might work, but would look better with that spring season starting about 3 weeks later, in which case you’re looking at a 13 week winter break as opposed to a 10 week summer break. And once you go above 8 teams, you’d either have to extend the season or play an unbalanced schedule. Thoughts?
Well one thing I would like to see, if promo/relegation is really going to happen, is have any new teams pay to join the league and play FIRST in the 2nd Division. Once their one of the top 2 teams, they can move up to 1st Division.
Interesting takes, especially the one about FIFA. I never would have thought about that, but I like it. As far as the scheduling, that's what I'm the most concerned about. Personally, I'd rather see an earlier start and a break during the first two months of July or something. One of the things I'd like to see with the league is a better website. If I want to find any information on a USL team, I have to go their individual website. Usually that's not all that helpful, so I look on a message board or a fan blog. A few things I'd like to see - a simple game tracker with live score updates, an easier way to watch game highlights on the actual league website, a weekly league round-up column, more in-depth information on individual team stadiums, history, etc. I know it would be difficult to do this because of individual teams and their different sponsorship deals but I'd like to see a uniform merchandise provider for all team gear. Actually, I'd like for every team to use the same platform for their entire website so everything's more organized and you know where to look for certain things no matter what team it is.
I was thinking about it this morning - maybe they could start up a league cup if they decided not to have playoffs?
These clubs need to think about economic survival. Starting up a new league is going to take money, so any new league we see I'm afraid is going to be rather bare-bones. Only the essentials. I really wanted the clubs to get on with it and play in the USL. *sigh*
Good news is that the groups behind the TOA have probably more money than the new owners of the USL (Traffic, Cooper in St Louis, Saputo, Kerfoot etc vs. NuRock). And TOA won't have the baggage of the other teams/leagues that USL does. So there's that plus.