Totally. I forgot about that one. I'm surprised I was able to type that all out, considering how much I had to drink that night. . . BTW, since we're posting SC in SF's PM's (too many acronyms there)
I agree with Calexico 77. By the way, SC in SF, I'm glad that you're interested in soccer and that you're thinking about the future of MLS. But, until soccer is more firmly established in the US (that is, has a much bigger fan base and much bigger T.V. revenues -- which may take a long, long time), it's way too early to even begin to start thinking merging the two leagues. I hope that you and your friends & family go to Earthquake games -- the Quakes need as many good fans as they can get if they are to make enough money to be able to remain in the Bay Area -- the rumor is that they may have to move to Texas the year after next.
the why not, owners aren't going to keep sinking 30 million + of their own money into soccer-specific stadiums if relegation was a possibility to the A-League that draws <5,000 fans for most teams. They've lost ~400 million starting MLS and wouldn't do it with a merged system. pro soccer desperately needs the stadiums and long-term contracts that locks up the best young US talent (Convey, Beasley, Howard) to sell them tot Europe when they're ready. neither would make sense if demotion caused revenues to become ~1 million a year in the A-League. also MLS has salary cap that produces parity, so the bottom teams vary quite a bit year after year. owners would have to drop the cap if they were to face demotion and MLS can't do that i did this cause I get the feeling "some" here won't go back and read the countless threads and this'll happen even more than once every 2 weeks
It's MLS offseason time here at BigSoccer. I'd say the nuttiness is alreadly off to a good start. We're overdue for both "rename all the teams" and "put corporate logos on the front of the jerseys" threads.