"Perpetual" is not a synonym for "three years." I'm talking "forever." Honestly, I've got a better shot at getting a hummer from Jessica Alba than some of the teams in the Premiership ever will have of winning the title. Is that what you want? Not me. I'd rather have a league where the difference between teams is razor-thin, and almost everybody's got a shot at the title. That's exciting. Oh, please. I'm hardly a Metros apologist, but MLS is definitely not rigging a USSF competition. Well, not any more than they were rigging it when the Rhinos were playing most of their Open Cup games at home or when the Burn won the '97 Open Cup while playing every single game on the road. Was it a league conspiracy when Chicago hosted both Open Cup finals that they've played before this year? monster addressed this point, but you need to look more closely at some of the salary-cap casualties in the NFL. It's become a yearly rite of the NFL offseason that stars on the downsides of their careers get let go or traded for salary cap reasons. Just ask Junior Seau, Emmitt Smith, or Bruce Smith. And if you don't think the NFL has parity then you should explain the following list: 2003: Tampa Bay 2002: New England 2001: Baltimore 2000: St. Louis 1999: Denver 1998: Denver 1997: Green Bay Six different champions in seven seasons. And if broaden the scope to the all the 14 finalists over that period, then you've got 11 different teams.
Good luck. Teams are just happy to be in the Premiership period. A totally different system than in MLS-in the Premiership the $ each team brings in is related to what the owner spends on the team I'd rather have a league where the difference between teams is razor-thin, and almost everybody's got a shot at the title. That's exciting Exciting to you, not me. I want the opportunity for DC United (or any other team in MLS) to stomp on the Metros for all eternity. I hope we make Mathis crazy, and their fans hate us. I want you and your Burn fans to hate us, every fan, from every other team The good news (to me anyway) is in the offseason MLS decided to let teams become more autonomous. At least that's what was reported. That means Ray and the organization has more room to make DC better than any other team in MLS. Ray would be unhappy, I would think, if he wasn't allowed to try to make his team better than any other MLS team
Actually, for all the talk about "for the good of soccer in the US" I believe they'll shut MLS down the second they don't believe they'll ever see a return on their investment. Just like a corporation. They investors have just chosen a long time horizon in this case because the payoff is so freaking huge if/when it catches on. Any idea what the guy who owns NASCAR is worth today?
According to a list of Florida's richest people; James and William France are worth $1 Billion .. making their money both from NASCAR and the Daytona International Speedway. Could they invest in a Florida soccer team? ECM