Nope MLS clubs and Mexican clubs go straight to the round of 16 knockout round. They don't play nobodies. What MLS should do is to seek entry into Copa Libertadores like the Mexicans after the level of MLS clubs is on par with the Mexican clubs. Maybe send the two best teams.
HOWEVER I'm open to this idea. US-Mex combined 1st division league - 8 or 10 from US and 8 or 10 from Mex. Home away balanced. US and Mex have its own domestic 2nd division leagues. Pro/Rel between 1st division and 2nd division. 2 bottom clubs from each country(total of 4) from the table go down. When the Mexican commissioner wants that, wake me up.
Liga MX teams don't play in the Copa Libertadores anymore and haven't for the last few years. Every confederation have a champions league. There is nothing wrong with the CCL. It helps all of the leagues, big and small, to get stronger by playing games against unfamiliar opponents.
Yea 2016 was the last year, but that doesn't mean they won't anymore in the future. Agreed that we need to improve the real things we have rather than creating fake competitions
MLS and Liga MX are going to keep trying things until they succeed at driving enough interest to generate more money from each other's core audiences ... ... or until they realize that the summer/winter schedule differences make scheduling meaningful and competitive matches prohibitively difficult. I'm not sure this one can be sorted out. Everybody wants money, but unless schedules are aligned they're going to be forever passing each other in the hallway going opposite directions. US/CAN aren't going to fight the winter schedule anytime soon so far as I can see, and there's no reason for Mexico to fight the summer heat.
Although, I don’t see this format happening, it would keep all the rival games and make sure everyone plays each other at least once. WEST North: Sporting Kansas City, Saint Louis, Chicago Fire, Columbus Crew, FC Cincinnati, Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers, Vancouver Whitecaps South: LA Galaxy, Los Angeles FC, Phoenix Rising, Las Vegas Lights, Colorado Rapids, Real Salt Lake, San Jose Earthquakes, Sacramento Republic EAST North: DC United, New York Red Bulls, New York City FC, Philadelphia Union, Montreal Impact, Toronto FC, New England Revolution, Minnesota United South: Atlanta United, Orlando City, Inter Miami, Nashville SC, Charlotte, FC Dallas, Houston Dynamo, Austin FC Conference games: home/away, 14 games Out of Conference games: alternate home/away, 24 games Total: 38 games Playoffs would have to be completely refigured... I’d say First game: Conference 3rd place @ Conference 2 place Second game: Winner @ Conference 1st place Third game: Conference N/S @ Conference NS higher rank fourth game: MLS cup final
Posted this in another thread, reposting here. There's been talk on this thread by myself and others of a 32 team league split along the lines of the NFL with 8 divisions and 2 conferences. One of the peeves that has been brought up by detractors is which team goes in what division. I'll copy paste below what I wrote in another thread. Would anyone find this interesting? Why do we have to have fixed divisions? What if we had 16 teams in each conference, and every year we had a draw to decide the 4 groups in each conference? Instead of using a completely random draw, we could base it on seeding. So the four division winners from one year couldn't be drawn into the same group the following year. The four runners up couldn't be drawn in the same group together. You could do the same with the 3rd and 4th place teams, or you could allow 3rd and 4th place teams to be drawn at random, which would still achieve balanced groups. Like the Champions League draw, it would become an event in its own right.
There should be no divisions. Personally they should get rid of them in every sport. I know it has been brought up in the NFL every time an 8-8 division winner keeps out a team with a much better record is left out because they didn't win their division.
The reasons for not switching up divisions like this is to build (relatively) local rivalries that encourages away support to travel (one of the points of supporter fandom). Annually switching up divisions would dilute that. So here's my repost from another thread, attempting to keep the best rivalries together and the remaining teams in relatively close proximity on the interstates: EASTERN CONFERENCE: Central Division (I-94/I-65/I-71) Chicago Cincinnati Minnesota Columbus Northeast Division (I-95/I-90/401) Philadelphia New England Toronto Montreal Atlantic Division (I-95) DC United Charlotte NY Red Bulls NYCFC Southeast Division (I-75/I-95) Atlanta Nashville Orlando Miami WESTERN CONFERENCE: Cascadia Division(I-5/US-95) Vancouver Seattle Portland Las Vegas California Division (I-5) LA Galaxy LAFC Sacramento San Jose Rockies Division (I-80/I-70) Salt Lake Colorado Kansas City Saint Louis Southwest Division (I-10/I-35) Austin Dallas Houston Phoenix
It’s going to be much simpler than that... MLS East 1. Atlanta United 2. Charlotte 3. Nashville 4. Inter Miami 5. Orlando City 6. Columbus Crew 7. FC Cincinnati 8. Philadelphia Union 9. DC United 10. New England Revolution 11. Toronto FC 12. Montreal Impact 13. New York City FC 14. New York Red Bulls 15. Chicago Fire 16. Saint Louis MLS West 1. LA Galaxy 2. Los Angeles FC 3. San Jose Earthquakes 4. Sacramento Republic 5. Seattle Sounders 6. Portland Timbers 7. Vancouver Whitecaps 8. Colorado Rapids 9. Real Salt Lake 10. FC Dallas 11. Houston Dynamo 12. Austin FC 13. Minnesota United 14. Sporting Kansas City 15. Las Vegas Lights 16. Phoenix Rising
Since Charlotte is reportedly going to be paying an expansion fee of $350M its going to cost the next clubs in the $400M range just to get a seat at the owners table. Meaning its going to cost $1B+ just to get started. This will greatly limit the pool of future owners. I look for a pause of 5 to 6 years till after the 30th club hits the field. When it comes to when they finally do add clubs 31st and 32nd, any of the current favorites may very well be out of the picture. The league has made it clear the schedule is maxed at 34 games. Meaning they will be moving to a NFL type schedule; that everyone will not be playing everyone each year. This I believe will translate into an alignment of either 3 conferences of 10 clubs or more likely two conferences of 3 divisions with each division being made up of 5 clubs. This will foster local rivalries and reduce travel expenses.
I think we're ultimately headed to a format where the West and East play each other very little. For 2020 there will already be 3 no-plays for each team. For a 32 team league, there would only be 4 non-conference games with a 34 game schedule. It would also be simple to mandate these as charter flights. The biggest question would be if opponents are distributed geographically (i.e., pods for scheduling purposes) or based solely on the previous year's standings). Western 1. Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, Minnesota 2. Sacramento, San Jose, LAFC, LA Galaxy 3. Colorado, Salt Lake, Phoenix, Las Vegas 4. Austin, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City Eastern 1. Chicago, Saint Louis, Nashville, Cincinnati 2. Columbus, Toronto, Philadelphia, Washington 3. Montreal, New England, NY City, NY Red Bulls 4. Miami, Orlando, Atlanta, Charlotte For example Minnesota might play Nashville, Philadelphia, Montreal, and Miami in Year 1. In Year 2 they play Chicago, Toronto, NY City, and Atlanta. The process cycles every four years.
I was just listening to Garber's announcement for Charlotte as #30 and I picked up on where he listed Charlotte's 'rivals' (DCU, Nashville, Atlanta, Orlando and Miami) and specifically called them "The Southeast". That's 6 clubs. Maybe MLS really is going to a Five Conference alignment with 6 teams per Conference. MLS Northeast Montreal Impact Philadelphia Union New York City FC New York Red Bulls New England Revolution Toronto FC MLS Southeast Atlanta United Charlotte Nashville Inter Miami Orlando City DC United MLS Central FC Cincinnati Columbus Crew Minnesota United Sporting Kansas City Chicago Fire Saint Louis MLS Northwest LA Galaxy Los Angeles FC San Jose Earthquakes Seattle Sounders Portland Timbers Vancouver Whitecaps MLS Southwest FC Dallas Houston Dynamo Austin FC Colorado Rapids Real Salt Lake Sacramento Republic Waiting in the Wings Las Vegas Lights Phoenix Rising Playoffs are top 2 teams in each Conference, with wildcards being the next 4-6 clubs with the best overall records in the league. Thoughts?
Actually, I can imagine that if Charlotte is the end of expansion for quite some time, perhaps they will go to an NFL type alignment and schedule. Which would be two conferences with three division each conference, five clubs per division. Just a thought.. remember The commissioner is an NFL guy and he has stated in the past that he has always dreamed that MLS would become the new NFL.
I see MLS keeping to West/East. It gets too weird when things split into West/Central/East. West Northwestern: 1. Seattle Sounders 2. Portland Timbers 3. Vancouver Whitecaps 4. San Jose Earthquakes 5. Sacramento Republic Southwestern: 6. LA Galaxy 7. Los Angeles FC 8. Austin FC 9. Houston Dynamo 10. FC Dallas Mountain: 11. Sporting Kansas City 12. Minnesota United 13. Saint Louis 14. Colorado Rapids 15. Real Salt Lake East Southern: 1. Atlanta United 2. Charlotte 3. Inter Miami 4. Orlando City SC 5. Nashville SC Midwestern: 6. Columbus Crew 7. FC Cincinnati 8. Chicago Fire 9. Toronto FC 10. Montreal Impact Northern: 11. New York Red Bulls 12. New York City FC 13. New England Revolution 14. Philadelphia Union 15. DC United Regular Season: Option A: *Play inside division (West/East), home/away, for a total of 28 games. *Play an extra set of home/away games inside regional conference, to make it 36 games. *Play-offs still the same format Option B: *Play everyone once, both West/East, alternating home/away, each season... for a total of 29 games. *Play home/away inside regional conference, +8 games, for 37 games. *OR; Play regional conference once more +4 games, 33 games. *Play-offs still the same format.
If they do switch into a 3-division, 2-Conference format, I could see them following the NFL scheduling where they don't play every club each year. If each club ends up playing every team in their conference, 2 of 3 divisions in the opposite conference, and the remaining games all in-division, that would allow for expansion to continue up to 36 clubs in a 24-game season. Anything larger than that size feels unwieldy to me. Eleven Bravo's alignment looks closest to what I would expect the 30 team format to look like. So he should have an Option C: *Play two of three opposing Conference Divisions once per season, switching the fallow division every season (3 Season Cycle) for a total of 10-12 games per season. *Play in-Conference divisions once per season, for a total of 10-12 games per season *Play remaining games against in-division (10-14 games), for 34 games total per season. *Play-offs still the same format.
Haven't seen much movement in this thread, so I thought I'd throw this out there: I've given some more thought to a Conference setup that fans would find palatable with so many team, do you think that when the league hits 36 teams, they might do a reorg? Say they move the top 9 teams from East and West Conferences into a new National Conference, and the remaining teams will be placed in a Continental Conference. Playoffs will be as now but between the top 8 Continental teams and the bottom 8 National teams, with the teams that make the Quarterfinals being moved to the National Conference and the losers being moved to the Continental Conference. Winner of the playoffs get the MLS Cup, but the top National team at the end of the season gets the Supporter's Shield. This is not Pro-Rel, simply an annual reorganization within both Div 1 Conferences.
I can't see that happening. Teams are going to want to possibly move every year. If it is not pro/rel, what is the purpose?
36 Teams: What I'd like to happen: (but it's never going to happen) Two Conferences - East/West Teams play conference opponents home/away (34 games) Winners of each conference have a one-game Championship. More likely to happen: Two Conferences - East/West Four Divisions - Northeast/Southeast/Central/Pacific Play division opponents home/away (16 games) Play Conference opponents once (home/away alternate years) (9 games) Play one non-conference division once (alternating years) (9 games) Play-offs - winner of each division (2 teams each conf) 2nd of each division (2 teams) 3rd of each division (2 teams) 4 wild card each conference (4 teams) Each Conference (aggregate 1-4; one-off championship): This would add 7 - 9 games depending upon if wild card advances. 43 games at most
The fans might find it palatable but the players and owners wouldn't go for it because of the amount of travel and costs. You are looking at adding tens of millions of dollars.
2 conferences, no divisions. Top 8 of each conference make playoffs. 1v8, 2v7, etc. Change league theme song to Roundball Rock. Hold draft lottery during halftime of conf semifinal game. Or 2 conferences, 2 divisions per conference. West is named Hunt Conference. East is named Meola Conference. The 2 divisions in Hunt are Donovan Division and McBride Division. 2 in Meola are Hamm Division and Lalas Division. Top 4 teams from each division make playoffs. 1v4, 2v3 from each division. Division Semifinals, Division Finals, Conference Finals, Cup Final.