Promotion/Relegation

It is already being discussed though..........

here: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/the-all-encompassing-pro-rel-thread-on-soccer-in-the-usa.2029961/

And here's a MLS specific place: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/the-ybtd-pro-rel-thread-part-9-614.2029846/

And why, pray tell, should MLS do Pro/Rel?

Keep in mind that up until VERY recently (the past 2-3 years) the lower divisions of the sport in the US have been an absolute mess. The US just now finally has a stable second division. After that.....yeah...not so much. And let's not even start down the road the USSF and it's very laissez faire approach to the pro game in this country, never mind it's penchant for overall incompetence & buffoonery.

Yeah....MLS certainly SHOULDN'T have pro/rel. The league and the sport are growing just fine without it.

 

You'd be better off trying to persuade any other owner or group of wealthy people to start a league(s) with pro rel in mind than to move MLS away from Single Entity. If that did happen the major obstacle for the new 'elite leagues of the world game' is that they'd have competition in the form of MLS - something they don't have in Europe.

 

You just exposed yourself as knowing nothing about MLS nor its history.

 

@Ofori don’t sweat some of these guys. Best thing I can advise is that ignore button.

That said, I’m personally not a fan of promotion/relegation, and I tell you why...

Obviously, there’s the owner issue of not wanting to pay first tier money to purchase a second tier team.

Regardless, I am predicting when expansion is close to over, as it now seems to be coming to that point... The MLS owners are going to push for the weak links to get phased out for the betterment of the league. This will only happen when the Arthur Blanks and company recognize their product is devalued because of some of these dead weight teams. More so, when a lot of these original owners start retiring or dying out, ie Kraft, then the loyalty to keep them around if they can’t keep up is going to be less. Essentially, the conversation might be revisited in 10-20 years.

However, what will happen BEFORE promotion/relegation, as I believe it should, is that the league will split fully into MLS West/East first.

More so, all of the second division - eligible teams must be MLS ready. Right now, it would be a major embarrassment for the league to have some of these USL stadiums on prime time. Thus, we’re talking about stadiums with sport boxes, proper cameras, no football field lines, and so forth. Not to mention, each team needs to have their own academy system, and they’d need to be able to purchase DP’s... not all USL teams can afford that right now.

From a competitive standpoint, I don’t believe there will be that much added in value on the field. I’ve heard the “playing for survival” logic. But personally, I don’t like it. Instead, I argue that playing for the playoffs is a superior system. Besides, there’s a certain value to know, there’s always next year.

Lastly, America is not like England. Our country is not the size of California where there is London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, and bunch of small towns. USA would technically need to have a league of 50+ teams just to make sure every major city had access to soccer. That’s not an issue in other countries, but it is an issue here. For example, what would have happened to say Atlanta United fans if they were relegated? Before Charlotte and Nashville there were no other teams in the South. Therefore, all of a sudden, a major region of the country is no without major league soccer. In other words, it’s not like someone can just get on a short bus ride to the next team. Likewise, all of these regional rivalries are still so new and in their infancy, they still need to be really handheld by upper leadership. For instance, If Charlotte or Nashville were to be relegated in their first seasons, and they couldn’t get up, that would be devastating for their rivalry between Atlanta. And the league needs these rivalries to ensure the growth of the product.

Ultimately, In a promotion/relegation system, the league would just relegate itself into non existence. As much as MLS wants to say it’s ready to make the jump into the big leagues; it does not have the natural infrastructure of the European leagues.

 

No thanks. Our traditions count for something as well and pro/rel is not something you find in the big American leagues. Besides, I'm a big believer a Euro-style single table only distributes the pressure in a different manner than MLS does. Both systems are valid, both require that players deal with challenges unique to each system, but one isn't better than the other by definition. Significantly bumping up minimum salaries will bring MLS closer to elite, and you don't need pro/rel to accomplish that.

 

@Ofori , this is a particularly sensitive topic for many, many people on both sides of the debate.

It appears that you are very new around here, so here is a word of advice.

Please do yourself and the rest of us a favor and check if a thread on your topic of interest has been started before launching new threads.

You will save everybody (mostly yourself) quite a bit of consternation.

Mods, if you could break away from the social distancing and close this thread, we would be grateful.

 

I'm not all that pressed about having pro/rel. I'm even less pressed aboput MLS becoming a top-tier league. What brings about all the talk like there's some sort of competition for "best league", anyway? Nobody gets a trophy for that.

Now, if there was some measuring instrument that everyone agreed upon that could rank the leagues and there was an entity that would offer some sort of reward for being "the best league", maybe that would be more interesting. But right now, the discussion about who's league is best is nothing more than fan trashtalk.

Nobody in Europe is ever going to give MLS credit for improvement anyway. It's best to just ignore them and keep playing the football we play. I haven't watched five consecutive minutes of UEFA ball in over three years. I see no reason to return, now that I have a club of my own to support.