An alternative to pro/rel

It reminded me of an old joke about Soviet shops, that were out of most stock most of the time, but shopworkers were told to offer some alternatives to customers. Out of one sort of sausage, offer another sort of sausage, out of watermelons, offer other fruits. One shop was out of toilet paper all the time, so they sold sandpaper as an alternative.

 

FFS, in what universe would a players union agree to flat pay across the board with the balance based on bonus pay? Seriously. How do you attract players of any value to the league on any team outside the top few in a given year? You have to be missing a significant portion of brain cells for anything like this to seem even remotely plausible.

 

Employees get paid for their work as they do it. Would it be legal for an employee to have their year's salary determined and given once a year? With promotion and relegation, a relegated club could sell off its highest paid players because 1. the club would be getting less revenue the next season and could afford fewer expenses and 2. that those players would be good enough to play in the league their club got relegated out of. With what adam tash proposed, the best player on the worst club wouldn't be treated any better than the worst player on that club. In 2008, Los Angeles was tied for the fewest points in MLS, and they had Beckham. Can you imagine if Beckham had to play a year for free or for $20,000 because of how bad his club was?

 

Its a ridiculous idea. I know TBT basketball tournament has a 2M prize. But that is basically just a more interesting format to the regular summer leagues that feature non NBA guys trying to get back into the league. You can't format an entire league like this where only winners get paid. Its a non starter.

But I do agree that if MLS set up huge playoff or MLS Cup bonuses, that could be a form or motivation to climb the table because you know you'll get a bigger check. You could make the penalty for the last place team that they are eliminated from being able to pick up bonus checks the following year. So I think you could add some kind of motivation factor at the top and bottom of the table kinda similar to pro/rel with bonuses, but you can't have professional players not get paid for playing. It has to be about adding to players salaries not taking them away.

 

The lengths people will go to triple down on a terrible idea should make me cry but I'm numb to it at this point.

 

MLS adding win bonuses is a terrible idea? Many competitions have win bonuses. I totally rejected the idea of connecting salaries to team performance in the league, I'm saying win bonuses would be good for players. Explain to me why they would be bad for players or for the league?

 

Funny. last night Balboa (you know, a guy who actually played the game unlike all of us here) was talking about what's on the line for a player every time he steps on the field. You're fighting for you contract next year, you're fighting for a spot in the gameday 18, you're fighting for a starting spot.

Yet somehow adding extra bonuses will somehow make these players play harder?

SMH

 

Yes. First, there are bonuses for making the playoffs, winning MLS cup and the like. Guess what? Someone still finishes last. What you've suggested is stupid because 25-50% of a roster turns over each year, so it makes zero sense to a) remove the "incentive" this year based on performance last year, b) allow players who "failed" to find another team to get back the "incentive", and c) handicap a team's ability to recruit better players to make up for last years crappy performance increasing the likelihood the next season is also bonus free even if they win MLS Cup absent the "incentive". I still fail to understand the fetish many soccer fans have for punishment. So yeah you took a stupid idea and doubled down.

 

The fact that the original post is not simply "The Franchise System" demonstrates that it's not a good alternate to pro/rel.

The fact that there are unions demonstrates that this isn't going to happen, anyway.

 

This is an idiotic idea.
How do I hate this idea? Let me count the ways:

1. This has nothing to do with Promotion and Relegation.
2. Each player gets the same amount on every team. Are you a "true" communist and think there should be forced equality?
3. How would a team play with "no salary"?
4. Obviously? (for the playoffs). That makes no sense. That would be doubly punishing the teams that failed to make the playoffs.
5. There is no guarantee that competition level would skyrocket if team results were directly tied to salaries/compensation." This simply makes no sense. You are essentially setting up a commission based compensation plan, where the players who do not play, for whatever reason, are completely beholden to those who do play for their very livelihood.
6. This would result in near chaos.
7. NO player would ever "vote for" such a ridiculous, risky, dangerous suggestion.

I could go on, but @adam tash, this is just another idiotic hair-brained scheme of yours.

I should have learned my lesson after your "goalkeepers can use their hands in BOTH AREAS" suggestion in your 2 rules change IDEAS thread.

 

The 'benefits' of D1 sanctions in this country are:

1. Three direct berths of CONCACAF Champions League
2. Entering the US Open Cup later than any other league

So here's my proposal of an alternative to pro/rel:

1. Apply for exemptions from FIFA and vacate D1, D2, D3, etc...if failed:
Give all pro league in this country D1 sanction and give all amateur league D2 sanction
NASL people claim that there can be two D1 leagues. If there can be two D1, why can't there be 3 or 4 or 5?

2. Put all of the CCL berths the USSF has into USOP, D2(or amateur) clubs entering in the first round, D1(or pro) clubs entering in the second round. Forget about drawing and scheduling.

3. BOOM! NASL replaced MLS and became the best domestic league in 3 years with its unrestricted model! /s

 

I don't see how this helps NASL. MLS would be still clearly the best league(players, stadiums...). In 3 years the best thing that can happen to NASL is it becomes a stable league.

 

Pretty sure he was kidding.

NASL has issues that can't be fixed by provisionally sanctioning it as D1. While league membership was surprisingly stable in its first few years--one team folding and one team leaving for MLS in four seasons, while five teams were added--that has changed. Some churn in new sports leagues is to be expected; finding a North American league that didn't have several early closures or relocations is quite a challenge. However, when that number is increasing, it's alarming.

Last year saw two teams leave, as Atlanta couldn't attract new ownership under the impending shadow of MLS, and SSE in San Antonio chose not to replace the Scorpions in NASL and went to the USL. Now, Minnesota plans to leave, Fort Lauderdale has had attendance crater following the debut of Miami FC (the two teams combined manage as many attendees as FTL had last year) and has reportedly been late with paychecks, continued terrible attendance in Edmonton, and there's an emerging ownership crisis in Oklahoma City.

This year's addition of three teams may have offset the loss of two others at the close of the 2015 season, but it should still have been read as cause for concern. Now, with one team scheduled to depart, two in crisis, and another with continued fundamental problems, the arrival of the San Francisco Deltas may slow the bleeding but certainly can't alleviate general concerns about long-term viability.