promotion and relegation*

I'm one that thinks there could be "kind of" a pro/reg situation and I actually think other sports may start looking into this kind of design as well.

The real main issue for Pro/Reg is that if a team is "demoted", their fans feel as if their team is a 2nd class team and won't come out and support it. If MLS had Pro/Reg and the "2nd division" teams could still win the "Main MLS Cup", then I think it still could work. Make it so the playoffs are still 8 teams but 6 from Division 1 and 2 from Division 2 make it.

With regards to money, as long as it is spread out evenly it shouldn't matter. The owners should still make the same amount of cash whether they were in the 1st or 2nd division.

As for other designs, I can totally see in 15-20 years the MLB realligning by salary cap. Teams over x amount of millions of dollars are in one league, teams lower are in another. The playoffs are the same.

 

Do you really think that American soccer fans are really that shallow?

Then what's the point of even having pro/rel? If you can win the MLS Cup by beating up a load of weaker opponents and then having a lucky streak in the playoffs, it's completely unfair to the teams which are playing the elite week in week out. The MLS Cup should be for the best 8 teams in the country. If you're not in MLS1, you're clearly not one of the best 8.

Besides, MLS2 teams would already have a competition in which to play against and beat MLS1 teams on an even field: the US Open Cup.

 

Yes. Perhaps you've noticed the lack of support most D2 teams "enjoy" in this country right now? And it isn't unique to soccer fans either. All minor league teams have a fraction of the support that top tier teams have.

 

The Chicago Cubs seem to draw a good crowd.

 

Based on the attendances for the USL Sounders vs. the MLS Sounders (and the USL Lynx vs. the MLS Toronto FC, just to name a couple) yes.

 

Big difference between when you got stuck 2nd 3rd level league forever VS you were once at the top level, and you can go back up anytime depends on your performance.

Let's say that MLS had pro/rel, and Seattle got relegated. Attendance may go down somewhat, but not to the level when it was in USL.

 

BS. Seattle sees itself as a "major league" team and does not support minor league teams in the least. Attendance might not drop down to USL2 numbers immediately, but if they don't get promoted right away, they'll be back down to USL2 numbers with in a matter of a few years.

 

If you suck, then fans won't come no matter where you are.

The team that got promoted and replaced Seattle would get good attendance.

Justice served. So, what's lost?

 

*laugh* And the USL2 Sounders were one of the most successful teams in D2 and still had a crap following. So how is Pro/Rel going to help soccer in the US if all that is happening is swapping one good area with attendance with another area? I thought your whole argument was that pro/rel would make support for soccer stronger.

 

Let's say a team in your local area is in D2, would you be more interested in the team if 1. the team is just stuck in that D2 thing forever 2. there's pro/rel system, so if the team do good, it has chance to go to MLS.

So, if more soccer fans have more interest in their local teams than ever before, wouldn't it be a big help for soccer in US or what.

Actually as a fan I'm taking some risk by supporting pro/rel since I have a local team in MLS that I support, but I would gladly take that risk for the good of soccer in US as a whole.

 

For a majority of soccer fans in the US there would functionally be no difference between the two.

 

Were there some sort of survey or market research or something I'm not aware of?
If so, give me a link.

Personally, I would be definitely more interested in DCU in the 2nd case and follow the team. How about you?

 

I'm already a STH, can't get much more interested in that.

So, there is a survey or market research, or something supporting your opinion then? I trust there was a significant drop in interest in Korean second division teams when K-League eliminated promotion prior to the 2008 season?

 

I still believe the only way to get pro/rel in the US is to Americanize it.

Imagine a 30 team MLS.

MLS1 and MLS2 each have 15 teams. They each play 32-36 game schedules, however they want to arrange that. MLS1 teams only play MLS1 teams, MLS2 teams only play MLS2 teams.

At the end of the regular season MLS1 13, 14, 15 all relegate. MLS2 #1 and #2 promote automatically. MLS2 #3, 4, 5, 6 have a promotion playoff.

MLS1 #1-6 and MLS2 #1-2 enter the MLS Cup playoffs.

Every team has a shot at the MLS Cup Title, which is a must in American sports for the fan base.

 

I'm gonna fyp every single post on here that refers to the "A-League". If people do the same with calling MLS the "NASL" or New England the "Tea Men", I'll just have to unleash a virus on BS.

So, anyway, as far as my take on pro/rel. It would be cool to see it happen here....if it didn't risk completely destroying some franchises, thus potentially the whole league structure. We're obviously having problems as it is. NE, and maybe some others, aren't drawing well. Tier II is kind of up in the air, as the USSF has had to step in to clean up the mess the USL/TOA war causaed. So, we have a Step II league for 2010, but 2011? Who knows. So therefore, who really knows how any of the current Step II teams will do at the gate.

All that said, I LOVE seeing pro/rel in the English system, which I watch closely. And I think most other soccer federations the world over can handle it. But p/r is not for everybody, and I've become glad that FIFA doesn't mandate it.

 

Just make sure they aren't referring to Australia's A-Leauge

 

Speaking of the Australian A-League.. When are they implementing pro/rel anyways?

 

I was wondering why Blatter pressuruing Australian A-league already, but not MLS??

 

Hmm.. This apparently explains a lot of your idiocy.. You live in a hole.

 

wtf are you talking about... didn't you hear about Blatter's pressure on Austrailian A-league about pro/rel especially with the World Cup hosting card??????????????????????????????????????????????

On the other hand, Blatter's keep talking about schedule on MLS, but not about pro/rel.

so... if you don't know what I'm talking about just stfu and go f*** yourself.

oh that's the big reason that A-league is planning to implement pro/rel, but I doubt they'll begin soon....

 

You don't know what you are talking about. Blatter never said Australia's chances to host the World cup would be hurt if they didn't implement pro/rel. Australia said they were going to implement it to improve their bid on their own accord. Kind of like putting a cherry on top of ice cream, if you will.

 

sigh...

http://news.theage.com.au/sport/aleague-plans-for-promotionrelegation-20080530-2jv3.html

"With the Asian Football Confederation and FIFA putting pressure on the league to introduce a multi-tier system. Buckley confirmed FFA had informed the AFC it would have plans in place within the next five months."

"We said to the AFC we would get back to them by October this year as to what our plan is via promotion-relegation," Buckley said.

"Promotion and relegation was a hot topic at Friday's FIFA Congress in Sydney, where world football's governing body approved changes to laws ensuring that teams could only be promoted and relegated on the basis of their sporting achievements, not monetary issues."

Now you can really go f*** yourself.

It's matter of time, FIFA start giving real pressrue to MLS on pro/rel

 

Yes.... And MLS is getting pressure from FIFA to implement pro/rel as well. But you said:

Please note the lack of reference that the pressure on FFA to implement pro/rel was in relation to the World Cup bid. FIFA is pressuring every federation that doesn't have pro/rel to implement it, including USSF. That doesn't mean it is using the "World Cup hosting card", or that it is only using that card on FFA.

 

"FFA chairman Frank Lowy last week revealed the FFA were looking to introduce the system to strengthen Australia's ranking in Asia and enhance its prospects of hosting a World Cup."

I wonder why FFA chairman Frank and chief executive Ben Buckley think that there's good correlation between hosting a World Cup and implementing pro/rel while FIFA/Blatter did and said nothing about that? I'm not sure about you, but I'm pretty sure FIFA/Blatter gave them strong impression.

Seems like there's a evidence FIFA expressly pressuring FFA specifically on pro/rel, and FFA even thinks that pro/rel would help it's chance to host World Cup.

I saw number of times that FIFA expressed it's concern about schedule on MLS.

Have you ever seen FIFA talked anything about pro/rel on MLS exclusively?

 

And I'm sure there's a lot of conspiracies going on in your mind that aren't true either. Australia is a very outside shot at hosting a World Cup. They aren't a top tier league in their confederation and in order to have a chance at hosting a World Cup they need to ingratiate themselves to both their confederation and FIFA. That doesn't mean that FFA is being told "Implement pro/rel, or else you won't get a World Cup", it just means FFA knows where the squeaky wheel is and knows how to make it so that wheel isn't squeaking anymore.