Before I start I just want to say, this is MY OPINIONS. Please don't start having a fit because I said something you don't agree with. IMPLEMENT PROMOTION AND RELEGATION, USING USL AS LOWER LEAGUES This would be a perfect for developing America's game, it need promotion and relegation to spice the league up, making it exciting. And place to loan out MLS young players who arn't good enough to play MLS but need minuets playing to improve and develop. I also have a solution for the owners who have intvested the money to join the league. If USL was incorportated into MLS...wouldn' the contract still be fufilled OR USL-1 promoted teams could buy out MLS relegated teams investments. But anyway we need get past the owners...we have to. We have to think of US Soccer future instead of short term money from owners. REMOVE THE DRAFT SYSTEM AND REPLACE IT WITH ACADEMIES I can't see how academies and draft system can work together. A club needs to treat an academy as an investment. The more money you put in...the better player you get out...the more trophies you win. Teams like Ajax, West Ham and Leeds have made millions out of selling the Sniedjer, the Ferdinand, the Milner (or Lennon). Young Players in europe are treated with care and attention because owners money is spent on them. They get a career ending injury and that could be so many years of coaches wages spent training them or money spent buying equipment for them gone down the drain. So they invest in physios and medical facilities to help/stop players getting and then recovering from injuries. Finally some people say parents wouldn't sacrifice education for sport but you don't have to. In europe, when an academy player turns 16 or 17, he is either given a pro contract or given the boot. If they start college at 18, he would already have some idea whether he was going to be a pro or go to college. Not to mention European academies take great care in player's education...they even meet with the schools to discuss education. GIVE CLUBS MORE CONTROL OVER THEIR "INVESTMENTS" If a club is going to spend money on players...they need assurance that it will benefit them, so there investments/players should be owned by them not MLS because MLS dosen't pay the coaches that train them (unless it's for the national teams but for MLS academies it dosen't), the clubs do. No point spending money on a player that might not even be your player. REMOVE THE SALARY CAP Replace the salary cap with new league rules and penalties on club finance's because although a salary cap might create equality in 1 league, it just handicaps you when competing against other countries leagues for like players. It works for NFL and MLB ect because they don't compete with other countries. If your an American Footballer or Basketball player, theres only 1 place you can go if your good at it....America no other league compare with it for those sports. In soccer your competing with other leagues, English, Spanish, German, Italian ect if your good at soccer there are many good league you can go to...so a salary cap dosen't create equality among multiple leagues, it just handicaps you. Sorry it's been so long. And btw I'm english, so if i've got anything wrong about US league systems, feel free to tell me and ask any questions.
All of this has been explained many, many times before your post to the point of nausea. You're just opening yourself up to major flaming. You'd be doing yourself a major favor by removing your post.
Before I start I just want to say, this are MY OPINIONS. Please don't start having a fit because I said something you don't agree with. You are an idiot. This has been discussed time and time again, ad nauseam. How many threads do we need to have on promotion and relegation? Were the first 10000000000 not enough? Just remember, this are MY OPINIONS!!!!!!!
i'll only touch on the academy vs draft. the league can exist with both academies and draft. It currently does. the US alone is a massive country that MLS academies cannot cover alone. Full blown academies cost money, especially if you want to carbon-copy the european counterparts (free to kids). Then you add Canada into the equation and it gets even crazier. players are bound to fall through the cracks, even if MLS, NASL and USL were all working together. College fills in the cracks. Some players take longer to develop then others. College allows room to grow. With more academies we are likely to see college have less and less of a factor, HOWEVER, it plays a vital role CURRENTLY and perhaps forever bar 4-5 divisions worth of soccer.
If this has been discussed many times before it just shows that many people also subscribe to the same views I have on how the league can improve like P&R.
Well when you put it like that...no the first 10000000000 weren't enough because promotion and relegation haven't been introduced.
This just about sums up everything you said : [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hfYJsQAhl0"]YouTube - Billy Madison - Ultimate Insult (Academic Decathlon)‏[/ame]
Clearly the OP doesn't understand how the salary cap works in the NBA and NFL. Without the financial sytem in place in the NFL, the Green Bay Packers might not exist much less be the reigning champs. MLS without a salary cap would basically be Baseball The OP probably is not familar with the USL/NASL because then he/she would realize why Pro/rel is not realistic
I'm sorry but it's "these are my opinions." And caps lock doesn't help your opinions, it removes your opinions' credibility. Lastly, forums are places of open discussion; it's normal for people to disagree and it's normal for people to have opposing opinions.
Humor is lost online. Guess I can't mock the OP's horrid grammar and idiotic ideas. Yup, everyone is allowed to have an opinion and I'm allowed to tell people their ideas are idiotic. But thanks for your little lecture on grammar.
Oh, the humor went over my head completely. I only came out that stern because I thought your post was by the OP, which changes everything. Apologies for being so stern, CCSUltra.
And it's telling how many of those people aren't American. Would you like our opinions on how English football could dramatically improve?
Because it's not like we don't have 4 of the 5 most successful sports leagues on the planet and MLS may just be the world most successful startup league. No. We know nothing about how sports work 3/4 of premiership teams lost money this season. The old dog still could learn some tricks. But you don't see us going on 606 telling them our opinions of how English football could dramatically improve
OK good for you, but were talking about Football which has nothing to do with MLB, NFL or NBA .. To you being successful is selling your team to a company, having the cooporation build a fancy stadium and buying players that cost millions.. Good for the English Premier League.. It's not the only league in the world.. You have Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Scotland, Holland, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Ecuador, etc... English league is bull crap with all due respect, they are selling there teams little by little to team owners and companies which to me, is disguiting.. Money can't do everything in sports you know ? It's not only buying good players, just look at Real Madrid, they have players worth 943229340 million dollars (random number) and they play bad.. Then go to watch Velez in Argentina and they play just like Barcelona with a budget of less than 30 million.. We don't even have to compare the fans.. In Argentina fans are so much different and more passional than Europeans.. That means more $$$ for the club OK, you also talk about 4 of the 5 most succesful sports in the world... Cricket is more popular than baseball or NFL, Rugby also.. Besides, NFL is only in the US and MLB is in the US and a couple of countries and that's it.. You can have a good market in the US, but you can't compare yourself worldwide Talking about MLB is like talking about English or Spanish league.. You never see no English or Spanish player in Latin America or Africa ! You don't see any Americans in Asia, Latin America, Africa, etc.. haha.. I think the MLS has all the stuff to be in the top 15 leagues, but it is doing stuff wrong.. It's just my opinion.. I know, Uruguayan league is bad, but that is because since we are so few and we have very good players, we sell them after 6 months just to get the money.. Our roster doesn't have players that last more than 2 years.. But if the US starts having younger divisions in team, that compete worldwide, and not only look for names, I think they can start having good players, because it's been a long time since I've seen a GOOD US player exported to another country
both spanish and english need a play-off system like america, it gives small budget teams a real shot. manu-chelsea, barca-madrid, nobody else can win crap with their single table
you need to understand that americans love sports but they also love having a successfull business. the germans are very good at it too. there is not pride on having a descent league where teams are in major debts and players arent getting their paycheck on time. mls needs to improve some things, but economically we are doing ok so far and that is very important. is an slow process but mls is doing smart business.
Yeah obviously Americans are good with buisness.. But I think people shouldn't compare sports, because they are all different. MLS in a few years will be in the top 15 or maybe the top 10 leagues
yes that is the whole purpose. most people that move here is upset because soccer is not number 1 and because mls is not as good as La Liga or EPL. it doesnt work that way, Americans love football, period. Soccer would grow on them but it will take time, that is reality. MLS is a young league who is not trying to be folded like the old American Soccer League did. They are doing smart business, and yes they have a lot to learn from NFL, NBA and heck even NCAA Football, all these entities are very profitable healthy business. If you look at Madrid, they are in major debt, heck, Valencia almost folded last season, they had to sell Villa and Silva to stay in business, we dont want that on MLS. About every other EPL team is in debt too. MLS is doing ok, we may need a few changes but so far we are doing great, we are only getting better.
I found a list of profit/loss from the EPL from the 2010 season. Makes for pretty grim reading. This is the richest soccer league in the world yet they are bleeding money. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/european_football/article7138664.ece
How come I go to MLS games week after week and totally enjoy it -even understanding that it is still a work in progress league, in which I am seeing progress- and I'm not left wanting for something else? Am I missing something here?