I believe I have a viable idea for a version of promotion/relegation that could work for MLS. It's not a perfect European-style system, but it could create a good deal of the same kind of excitement: Leave two slots open at the bottom of the MLS table. The winners of USL and NASL fill those slots and can play in MLS the following season. If they make the playoffs, they can stay up. If they fail, they are relegated and the winner of the league they came from is promoted. This way, no MLS teams are at risk of losing money, and some lower division teams have a chance for greater glory. In fact, this would also serve to entice potential owners to create new USL and NASL franchises, with the hope that they might see some bigger crowds and more money by reaching MLS and staying there as long as they can. Thoughts?
Please move thread to the "You Be The Don" forum. http://forums.bigsoccer.com/forums/mls-commissioner-you-be-the-don.1444/
@Ismitje can move the topic. USL is below NASL, so alocksley shouldn't treat them as equal leagues. The first post did give me an idea about testing promotion and relegation by doing it between the NASL and the USL. The marginal loss of revenue from going from NASL to USL would be less than the marginal loss of revenue from going from MLS to NASL.
I have an idea for pro/reg. NASL wants it, right? Let say NASL decided to do pro/reg just on their own. NASL goes to all the big cities that MLS won't go. Then go to all secondairy markets. NASL can get to 20 teams. They can start pro/reg. the first 20 play to see who will stay up, top 10 teams. The next season 3 teams go up and 3 teams go down. All new teams start in NASL2 and have to get promoted. NASL could market themselves as a pro/reg league and grow and so on. Or you can switch NASL for MLS.
It isn't going away. Embrace it. But really, as long as people watch European leagues where they have this system, people will always talk about it.
And despite how vehemently and clearly MLS execs say it will never happen, people will travel to magical fairly land and assume it will.
I'm gonna got out on a limb here and say that anything the NASL types say regarding promotion and relegation is just lip service. Sure, they don't have a salary cap. Good for them. However, everything else they've done follows the pattern of every closed league in America. The franchise system, more specifically, giving a club exclusive rights to a certain location, is just not compatitble with an open pyramid.
Asked whether MLS would ever adopt promotion-relegation, Abbott response was short and to the point: "Never."
Please move this thread to the dustbin of history, with all the other idiotic promotion/relegation threads.
My thoughts on this particular system, as opposed to pro/rel generally, is that the Carolina Railhawks probably don't want to. The increased cost, only to be almost-guaranteed to drop down the next year. The cost-v-risk is even higher for USL teams. (Also, promoting straight from D3 to D1 is goofy, and with the MLS-USL deal, strange).
Kind of an ass, aren't you? Bisquick-in-MGM makes an interesting point, as long as people see pro/rel on TV when they watch this sport, they will talk about it.
Leaving aside the various issues that people bring up in these threads, I think there is an obligation for those proposing pro/rel to say why it would be good for MLS. Obviously it would be good for the NASL, but it would involve MLS playing teams that likely have worse facilities, smaller payrolls and less benefits in terms of revenue sharing.
That's not true. They can demonstrate either why the BoG of MLS would vote for this or demonstrate that the USSF would be willing and able to force the most successful thing to happen to American soccer ever to fundamentally change the way they do business. See, it just got twice as easy to demonstrate.
Sorry, but he does not make an interesting point. People who "talk about it" because they "see pro/rel on TV" are sort of dumb, especially starting thread after thread, month after month. This crap has been beaten to death, shot down, and stabbed dozens of times in dozens of different threads and yet it arises like a zombie. There is no promotion and relegation in MLS, there has never been promotion and relegation in MLS, there never will be promotion and relegation.
It'd be good for MLS only if MLS controls all divisions, MLS can get inflated expansion fees from teams entering at the lower levels (use these fees to pay off teams that get demoted), and the cities that pay those inflated fees build SSS with at least 15,000 seats (expandable to at least 20,000 seats if promoted) and fill those stadiums. In other words there is absolutely no benefit to MLS because in a country of 300 million any city that can do those things can and will just be added to division 1. I know many don't want a huge league but given how local revenue drives MLS and the United States is so large MLS could easily grow larger than any of the big 4 currently are (their reliance on national TV revenue makes expansion less profitable and the one big 4 league that relies on attendance (NHL) is limited by a lack of markets strong enough to support hockey at the NHL level).
I do believe this was the main reason behind the you be the Don forum, to keep the crazies in one place.
And yet in the next few weeks, people will be watching the Premier League, or other European Leagues, some for the first time. They will be enjoying it, wondering why the atmosphere is so good so early in the season; learning about Pro/Rel, and then wondering onto a site like this one and asking or suggesting they do it in the MLS. Deal with it or take a break from it. But don't be such a smug ass.
Okay, one more time. There are many, many threads on BigSoccer. There is no reason for another one. Call me names if it makes you feel better. I won't bother returning the favor, although I certainly could, Mr. Camus.