could the MLS add teams in other places in North america. Costa Rica, they have a new 35,000 seat stadium, Mexico, the Mexican league would not like this but it could be possible that they could bring a few teams into the fold. Tijuana, close to the US and afraid of Relegation, they could use the MLS to better "Mine SoCal for talent" as they have said. Guadalajara, it's owner owns Chivas USA and others possibly. other places in Central america are possible as well. in a stretch they could even add teams in Venezuela.
Honestly, I never considered that before. Is the MLS going forward strictly American/Canadian league?
I think it would be difficult to add teams in other countries because they all have established national leagues.
Short answer: No. Except for Canada MLS can not expand to other countries. If that were the case, there would be a bunch of teams close to the border trying to gain Mexican league promotion.
If FIFA allowed this, then we'd already have a European Super League so powerful everyone would forget MLS exists here. Correct me if I'm wrong, but FIFA only allows MLS to expand into Canada because Canada doesn't have a true top division league of its own, right? It's the reason Rangers and Celtic can't join the English Premier League, because Scotland has it's own recognized first division.
I don't think FIFA has anything to do with it. Every year the Old Firm tries to push it's way into the League but it gets shot down by the FA. Scottish teams have participated in England before. Wales has a league but some of it's clubs still participate in England. Others that come to mind. Berwick Rangers is an English club and they participate in Scotland. Derry City are a Northern Irish club that play in the Republic of Ireland. Wellington Phoenix a New Zealand side plays in the A-league. To be honest, if getting ratings is the only way the MLS will grow, would it really be out of question bringing in Mexican teams if possible. The traditional rivalry might even boost ratings stateside.
From my understanding decisions always go FA>Confederation>Fifa. So the reason why we couldn't put a team in Mexico is because the Mexican FA wouldn't allow it. USSF and CSA agreed to use MLS as Canadian D1 because they didn't have one and Concacaf didn't have an issue. If you wanted to expand outside of the US, then you could certainly do it in Puerto Rico because that is a US territory. You might be able to even work out a deal with one of the other Caribbean islands if the FA thought it would help their domestic game if a team was let in. Bermuda and Antigua had small domestic leagues before USL came. In truth, MLS wouldn't be interested in expanding to any of these islands. It was said that Vergara wanted to create a Mexican league team in LA, and when USSF denied them, he decided to buy into MLS. I often wonder what would have happened if Gulati let them in in exchange for a profit share with SUM.
Yes, it is absolutely out of the question. The teams make far more money playing in the Mexican League. The Mex League is the most popular football league in the usa, with last Sunday's Final clearing 2 million viewers easily. It's a cash cow, and it would be far more beneficial for the galaxy or dynamo to join the Mex league, than any Mex teams joining this league. But the US Fed has blocked these kind of moves in the past. No offense to the OP, but your post is akin to asking about the basic rules of football. If this were any other football board, I'd know for a fact you were being sarcastic. Basically, there is no chance for that kind of expansion, and if you mentioned your suggestion to Guadalajara supporters, you'd be laughed out of the room, and they'd probably even be insulted. Regards...
Will a domestic Mexican league ever make similar revenue if the MLS had higher ratings? The commercial opportunities available if the MLS had higher ratings far exceed most leagues in the world. Say if Mexico had a American football league supported with the same passion as in the states, would the even touch the revenue of the NFL? I'm not talking about tomorrow but a couple decades down the line if the MLS develops into a competitive league, commercial revenue and ratings are up. Would it be out of the question? If clubs have any say I don't see why not. If it's about money a whole new market and sponsors looking to advertise in that market would be available. I'm not sure on the specific rule but what's to say two associations can't run a "joint-league"? Every season someone poses the idea of a European Super League, how would that be possible if clubs didn't have some sort of anonymity. That's a genuine question because I don't know.
I love the line " the Mexican league would not like this but it could be possible that ..". Newsflash if the MFL doesn't like it, it doesn't happen. MLS can't just add teams in other federations just like that. Same for all your other crazy suggestions.
You may have read something into the question that wasn't there. The original post asked nothing about the rules of FIFA, and most replies were discussoins of rules. I suspect the question was more about if it made financial or sporting sense. I want to take the moderate approach. Even though I want a team in my Motor City, I would go for the 20-teams and pause expansion for a few years; and the international club aspect handled by the current Concacaf Champions League (again, with moderate expansion growth, adding prize money eventually, and getting more participation from more Carribbean countries [in qualifying] and the Belize's). Remember, USL expanded into PR, and that lasted a whole fifth-of-a-season.
I'll have to agree with this. For someone who just joined BigSoccer, TheKill sure has a lot of suggestions for MLS (you be the Don), FIFA (you be the Sepp), Concacaf (you be the whomever-hasn't-been-expelled), WPS (you be the Pogs), USL/NASL (you be the you-get-the-idea). ("Pogs:" net-friendly nickname of WPS commander-in-chief Jennifer Pogorelec O'Sullivan). http://www.womensprosoccer.com/news/columnist/111011-flynn-osullivan
I'm not into wanton, long-term speculating. I prefer to focus on present reality and results that ensued. If I had to speculate, I'd say that the status quo would remain in world football, with Europe getting stronger. This league may pass up Central America and the Caribbean, but I don't see it matching Mexico ever. The Mex league is separating from the Mex Fed so it can go private and for-profit, so there should be more financial success ahead for Mex. A joint league won't happen. Mexico would have too much to lose if it did, and nothing to gain. Again, this is based in reality, without any "what ifs". Adding in the "what ifs" is pointless fantasizing. My point was that the OP showed he didn't know much about football.
Never say ever. Not when dealing with an economic superpower. Be it China or the United States. For instance, what if the already weak Mexican economy collapses due to a weakening of the county's infrastructure in about 5-10 years? That is not crazy talk. Economists have actually speculated on this happening if the drug war gets worse. Why knows where that would leave the Mexican league? MLS could zoom right past it. I would not be shocked if MLS were a more powerful league in 5-8 years. In fact, I expect it. Seeing in their prime Mexican players in MLS will become the norm.
Never? I'm not the only one speculating, it's a fun exercise innit. If the MLS can get viewership comparable to the NHL (which is a fringe sport) it would crush the mighty Mexico in commercial partnerships and media rights, because USA > Mexico. You seem rather defensive, seems like you don't want to consider the possibility of a relatively strong American domestic league and what effect it would have on Mexico. For this apparently dominant force that is Mexican football the entire revenue generated is around 16% of the NHL, at last check €350m while the NHL is north of €2bn, 3/4ths generated in the USA. It's a long way away but is the NHL model unreasonable for the MLS? The NHL support is regional with committed fan bases, that doesn't necessarily represent the entire region, rather a devoted segment of a region. We already have this and it's growing. In the coming years I can see the North East maybe down to Northern California being comparable to regions of Canada and how they support the NHL. NHL TV ratings are much better than the MLS but comparatively to other sports in America aren't too great. While a good sport it doesn't really appeal to casual fans. NHL regular season games average like a 1.2 rating, which isn't completely out of reach for the MLS if we keep progressing. The overall point is that for the MLS to be comparable to Mexican football financially it wouldn't even need to be the most popular league in the country. If the MLS in the coming years can get similar ratings to the NHL the commercial opportunities domestically would far exceed anything a Mexican league large support or not can get. American companies want advertise to Americans because the American consumer has the most disposable income. It stands to reason that as revenues increase so will the cap. So our financial ability to attract players will also far exceed Mexico and big market American clubs will be a more attractive destination then Mexico. Like I said before, I'm not saying all of this will happen tomorrow but to say you don't see any room for growth is transparently bias IMO.
NHL does not average a 1.2 rating for regular season games. More like 0.1-0.4 Most of the games on Vs barely do better than MLS games. I've seen quite a few NHL games on Vs get 0.0 ratings.
I was talking about locally, the average of the average if you will . I might be incorrect but I thought across the board locally the NHL averaged around 1.2-1.5 ish? To be honest I don't follow it too closely. They have there big performers like Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Detroit, St. Louis, Boston but overall it averages pretty low.
There is a long way to go. I'm assuming you are underestimating how much the Canadians support NHL. Now an achieveable goal is for MLS to reach the level of US NHL support in the Northeast and upper Midwest.
Put your sig and avi where your mouth is. A lot of posters here predicted this league would surpass Mexico by 2007 or 2010. It didn't happen. Unfortunately, no one wagered anything so those failed predictions weren't brought to light. Wager your sig and avi on your prediction. We'll bump this thread in 8 years and the loser will have to change sig/av to what the winner wants. These predictions are made all over this forum because posters won't have to eat crow if they don't come true, due to the long-term nature of the predictions. The Mex economy could collapse, but so can this one. With Obama in charge, it's definitely possible...
As a general rule, we should keep politics out of a sports forum. I mean, it wouldn't fair to point out that while Obama is bringing troops home from war, Mexico has all-out war on its home soil. A country that has spiraled down into anarchy on its own streets has no place talking about the possible collapse of another country. Anyway... I agree that MLS will eventually become the dominant league in CONCACAF, and possibly in the Americas as a whole. It will take a few decades, but I think it's inevitable given the advantages it has. It will continue to be financially sound barring a radical shift away from single-entity and salary caps. It's based in the United States, potentially giving it a global outreach through the media as it continues to rise in popularity. By that I mean American teams have a better chance to expand their brand recognition around the world than most Latin American teams do. And regardless of the current situation, America will remain a place people want to come to and invest in. Foreign players and wealthy owners will always be attracted to the US.
imo, why Mexico? Start with England. Then create a couple teams in Spain. Good markets, English speakers, Spanish speakers, perfect. Then expand into Germany, Italy and France. Maybe a team in Amsterdam. Then call it MLS European Champions Conference. Who wouldn't want to watch that? ok another thing --- i'm getting confused here. most of these posts talk about how Mexican (or whichever) soccer federation wouldn't allow it. so lets say MLS puts an expansion team in Mexico City. What can Mexican federation do in that case, exactly? The only measures that I'm certain of --- are excluding such a team from national cups and not giving them any access to Champions League etc tickets. What else?
If one poster talks about the collapse of a country's economy, it's only fair for another poster to mention the collapse of another. After all, anything's possible. And I wouldn't call it all-out war down there, but that discussion isn't for this forum. Keep in mind that this league is a niche that is largely ignored by the mainstream. And a strong usa economy will benefit foreign leagues as well, since many usa dollars go towards leagues such as EPL and Mex. Also, footballers who choose Mexico will get to play in the Liberators Cup, something they can't do up here. But as I said before, decades-long predictions are kinda pointless since the predictor won't likely be around to swallow crow if he's wrong. Kinda cowardly.