WITH THE DON STATING THAT 32 WILL BE THE END (for now) I AM REVISING MY PLAN AGAIN! Northeast: 1. DC United 2. Philadelphia Union 3. New York City FC 4. New York Red Bulls 5. New England Revolution 6. Toronto FC 7. Montreal Impact 8 Charlotte Town SC Southeast: 1. Atlanta United 2. Nashville SC 3. Inter Miami CF 4. Orlando City SC 5. FC Dallas 6. Houston Dynamo 7. Austin FC 8. Saint Louis FC Central: 1. FC Cincinnati 2. Columbus Crew 3. Chicago Fire 4. Minnesota United 5. Sporting Kansas City 6. Phoenix Rising or Indy XI 7. Colorado Rapids 8. Real Salt Lake West: 1. LA Galaxy 2. Los Angeles FC 3. Seattle Sounders 4. Portland Timbers 5. Vancouver Whitecaps 6. San Jose Earthquakes 7. Sacramento Republic 8. Las Vegas Lights
Anything except a west coast team would work but if there was one team from east coast and one from north / Midwest it would be perfect
Garber doesn't say they'll stop at 32, he just mentioned them in passing around the time Charlotte was introduced as team 30. How they divide the Conferences into Divisions will indicate a final number they're probably looking at. If it's 4 divisions per conference, 32 probably will be the final number for a long while. If it's 3 divisions per conference, then we'll probably be looking at further expansion, probably up to 36 teams. I think it's probably the latter as 4 teams per division is not enough rivalries, compared to 6 teams per division. <Edit: Just remembered that they're already not playing teams during the season, so I'm betting 36 teams to be the true final size of the league.>
Try #2. 2022 = 30 teams (where the Don has us stopping for now). 2 Conferences of 15. 4 Divisions of 8 or 7. Play division foes twice (14 or 12 games) + conference teams once 7 or 8 games) + an entire opposite conference division once (7 games if your division is 8, 8 if it is 7) = 28 games. 6 games left vs non-conference division foes in the other division, or an extra games vs a non-division conference rival. Mix & Match. Or go to 36 games, play everyone in the other conference once, and have a 2nd games vs a non-division conference for some teams. West: Pacific (7). LA, LAFC, SJ, Sac, Sea, Port, Van. Midwest (8). COL, RSL, FCD, Hou, Aust, SKC, STL, Min. East: Atlantic (7): DC, NYRB, NYC, NE, Philly, Mia, Orl. Central (8): CLB, Cincy, Fire, TFC, MTL, Nash, ATL, Cha. * Could put Cha or ATL in the Atlantic.
Sometime before 2026. 32 teams. 2 conferences of 16. 4 divisions of 8. Play div foes twice (14 games) + conference foes once (8 games), one non-conference division once (8 games) = 30 games. Plus half the other division once/select conference foes twice (4 games). Or bump to 38 & play the entire other conference once. Vegas & Phoenix look like the frontrunners, so: West: Pacific: LA, LAFC, SJ, Sac, Sea, Port, Van, Vegas. (SD, SF proper, PHX move). Midwest/Southwest: COL, RSL, FCD, Hou, Aust, SKC, STL, PHX. (SA, OKC, Memphis, El Paso). East: Atlantic: DC, NYRB, NYC, NE, Philly, Mia, Orl, Cha. (TB, Raleigh, Balt). Central: CLB, Cincy, Fire, Minny, TFC, MTL, ATL, Nash. (Det, Indy, Louisville, Pitt, CLE, Mil).
WITH THE DON STATING THAT 32 WILL BE THE END (for now) I AM REVISING MY PLAN AGAIN! Northeast: 1. DC United 2. Philadelphia Union 3. New York City FC 4. New York Red Bulls 5. New England Revolution 6. Toronto FC 7. Montreal Impact 8 Charlotte FC Southeast: 1. Atlanta United 2. Nashville SC 3. Inter Miami CF 4. Orlando City SC 5. FC Dallas 6. Houston Dynamo 7. Austin FC 8. Saint Louis FC Central: 1. FC Cincinnati 2. Columbus Crew 3. Chicago Fire 4. Minnesota United 5. Sporting Kansas City 6. Phoenix Rising (or Indy XI) 7. Colorado Rapids 8. Real Salt Lake West: 1. LA Galaxy 2. Los Angeles FC 3. Seattle Sounders 4. Portland Timbers 5. Vancouver Whitecaps 6. San Jose Earthquakes 7. Sacramento Republic 8. Las Vegas Lights
When and where did the Soccer Don say they are expanding to 32. The last I read and heard was that MLS was most likely ending expansion at 30 clubs. Show a link to proof this statement.
It is my believe that the league is considering breaking each of the two conference into three regions for scheduling reasons. Where clubs would play more matches within their own region rather than play everyone within their conference twice. This break the season into 22 matches within their own conference and 12 matches against the other conference. If this is true here is what I expect the re-alignment to look like. EASTERN CONFERENCE Atlantic Region DC United New England Revolution New York City FC New York Red Bulls Philadelphia Union Central Region Chicago Fire FC FC Cincinnati Columbus Crew SC Montreal Impact Toronto FC Southeast Region Atlanta United FC Charlotte FC Inter Miami CF Nashville SC Orlando City SC WESTERN CONFERENCE Northwest Region Colorado Rapids Minnesota United FC Portland Timbers Seattle Sounders FC Vancouver Whitecaps FC Southwest Region Austin FC FC Dallas Houston Dynamo Saint Louis Stars FC Sporting Kansas City Pacific Region LA Galaxy Los Angeles FC Real Salt Lake Sacramento Republic FC San Jose Earthquakes
since you asked so nicely and has been eliminated http://www.insideworldfootball.com/...-32-teams-headlines-soccerex-usa-opening-day/
He only added two clubs: Vegas and Phoenix (or Indy). Unless these two are horrible, then you are basically saying the current planned league composition is horrible.
To be fair, COVID-19 is making a lot of things not happen any time soon. It has already delayed most of the planned expansion teams.
============================= I would hate to have us looking like the frekin NFL.... Just keep 2 conferences of 15 or 16, play home and away within the conference. Then at the end of the season, #1 W vs #1E play for a single game "season" championship. This game can be neutral site or at the team with the best regular season points (ie: The Shield) After watching the MLS is Back Tournament, I think the MLS playoffs need to be formatted into the World Cup Style groupings..Adds some interest and even a casual fan who only watches soccer when the WC rolls around would understand the process. Otherwise, make the post season tournament all 32 teams, single elimination, highest seed to the end. Would be a few games shorter than the WC style tourney which would be ok after a long season. Also, for fans who would be upset the Western teams always don't play all the Eastern teams, the US Open Cup would also give a chance to play other teams. These are all problems caused when we long since passed the 20 team level. With 20, simple home and away against everyone, no issues. With so many teams now and in the future, we will be playing playoff gymnastics math forever. So sad.
Going with the traditional two-conference set-up as things look in 2023: EAST--Montreal, New England, 2 New York teams, Philadelphia, Toronto, DC United, Columbus, Cincinnati, Chicago, Nashville, Atlanta, Charlotte, Orlando, Miami. WEST--Minnesota, St. Louis, Kansas City, 3 Texas teams, Colorado, Salt Lake, 4 California teams, 3 Cascadia teams. Doing 3 conferences of 10 would be alright, except for the fact that there are only 9 'true Western' teams in MLS at present. Who gets to make trips to the Rockies and Pacific Coast? Dallas? Minnesota? Kansas City? If MLS eventually commits to a 32-team soccer league, I think 4 groups of 8 teams would be likely and relatively easy for schedule-makers to manage.
I certainly would prefer 3 conferences instead of 2. It would also help to create man Apertura/Clausura-style format. In each minitournament, each team plays its conference rivals once (9 matches), and each team from another division once (5 matches), for a total 14 matches. The winner from each division qualifies to the playoffs. Maybe a 15th match could be played between the winner and the runner-up of each division. The remaining teams in the playoffs would come from the aggregate table.
I don't see a three conference league being a thing. Odd numbers are cumbersome to deal with. East and West with or without subdivisions makes for cleaner playoffs and standings. It is a model used by the Big Four and it makes sense - especially in our massive geographical dispersal compared to leagues in nearly every other country. How many other leagues span four time zones? There is nothing intrinsically different about soccer that dictates that a different method of organization compared to our other sports leagues.
Except the "Big Four" don't all use the East/West division. NBA & NHL are east / west, but MLB & NFL are spilt into to nationwide conferences. NFL further divides each conference into 4 regional divisions. MLB however uses THREE regional divisions. Arguably,they make the odd numbers work. biggest take-away NBA & NHL are guaranteed a E vs W championship game, they may be regionally close (INDY vs MEM in the NBA) where MLB & NFL could both have an all LA or NY final...
Sure, they don't use "East" and "West," but they do have two distinct divisions that are further subdivided. MLB makes their three subdivisions of five work to determine a division champion for each of the TWO primary divisions. MLS could do the same thing, but that is not the structure I responded to. FWIW, it seems like MLB is moving closer to 32 in the near future. The expansion chatter has been very strong over the last 12 months. The regional structure being used this season (which admittedly does use 3 geographic regions) is kind of a test run for a proposed East/West realignment system.
If you wanted to use multiple divisions, similar to what the NFL has, you could have a decent demarcation of 6 divisions with 5 teams in each; 15 would be considered Western Conference and 15 Eastern Conference. Of course, this assumes MLS sticks to 30 teams in its lineup, and I think it's safe to say that's not going to happen. This league will eventually grow to 32 teams and possibly more, if there is an interest in other parts of the country for top-flight franchises. Just for fun: Western Conference Northwest Division: Vancouver, Seattle, Sacramento, San Jose, Portland Southwest Division: FC Dallas, Houston, Austin, LA Galaxy, LAFC West Central Division: Real Salt Lake, Colorado, Sporting Kansas City, Minnesota, St. Louis Eastern Conference Southeast Division: Nashville, Atlanta, Orlando, Charlotte, Miami East Central Division: Chicago, Columbus, Toronto, DC United, Cincinnati Northeast Division: Philadelphia, New York City, Montreal, New England, New York Red Bulls Each team would play teams in their conference twice. Cross-conference divisional play would rotate each season so for instance, the Southwest would play the Northeast one year, then switch to the Southeast the next year, and East Central in the third year of the rotation. The 34th game would be a random draw for each team to play someone from the other two divisions not in their rotation that particular year, For playoff consideration, take the top 2 teams from each division automatically, then the next best 4 teams, regardless of their division.
Just to center everyone: 1) NFL. 32 Teams. 2 Conferences of 16. 4 Divisions of 4 per Conference. 2) NBA. 30 Teams. 2 Conferences of 15. 3 Divisions of 5 per Conference. 3) MLB. Same as NBA. 30 Teams. 2 Leagues of 15. 3 Divisions of 5 per League. 4. NHL. 31 Teams. 2 Conferences of 16/15. 2 Divisions of 8/7 per Conference. -------------------------- I think divisions of some sort are a 100% certainty. We are already not playing every team every year. That bridge has been crossed. The only question is, at 30 teams, do they go the 15/3 of 5 route or the 15/2 of 8/7 route. Or 3 of 10? Given the geography of the teams at present, 8/7 makes more sense at present (LA, LAFC, SJ, Sea, Port, Van, Sac = western division). 3 of 10 would be 2nd. Then 6 of 5. Geographically, the MOST sense would be 14 team west + 16 team east. Pacific: LA, LAFC, SJ, Sac, Sea, Por, Van. Midwest: COL, RSL, FCD, Hou, Aut, SKC, STL. Central: CLB, FCC, Chi, Minny, TFC, MTL, Nash, ATL. Atlantic: DC, NYRB, NYCFC, NE, Phi, Orl, Mia, Cha. Minny (MW/Central) ATL (Central/Atlantic), and Cha (Central) seem like the ones that could fit in multiple spots. Of course, then the question is, are we stopping at 30? I think the answer is nearly 100% no. Though COVID/BLM and other issues in society have pushed things back a bit.
I think this really comes down to how they evaluate the significance of the financial benefits of geographic regions within each conference with an imbalanced schedule. We're already seeing that between east and west conferences, but same would also apply within the conferences.