The All-Encompassing Pro/Rel Thread on Soccer in the USA

You said you didn't want your USL team to get promoted because of issues around scheduling. I don't know what those issues would be considering that they play the same time of the year, and play national schedules down to USL-1. Maybe there is a scheduling issue I am missing.

 

I know within the investing world which one is considered a more exciting field.

 

Implementing Pro/Rel in the US is too late at this point. It is something that should have been implemented in the NASL era. Instead of trying to build "superclubs," resources should have been directed towards youth development and crafting distinct club and fan cultures where fans would have been hardcore enough to stay if they one day did get relegated. Decades of attempting to replicate the NFL model have successfully inflated the value of first-division clubs, making relegation financially risky and potentially disastrous for any club and its investors.

 

You misinterpreted me. I said winning the league is the prize in itself. Promotion wouldn’t make it better for me. It would simply be a structural and scheduling matter that affects the future.

 

The top of England's League Two is interesting. The top two spots are taken by the last two National League champions - Stockport County and Wrexham, the third spot is taken by the 19/20 champions - Barrow - and sixth spot is taken by last year's other club promoted from the National League - Notts County. Three of those teams are averaging ~10k or more and even poorly supported Barrow are averaging 3.6k. Amazing.

 

A good example of how much pro/rel means to the fans.

 

So you approve?

 

I disapprove in the same way I disapprove of riots and vandalism after teams win playoffs in US closed leagues.

 

The thought of P/R sure doesn’t seem to be helping the second most successful team in Paris draw more than 5K on a Tuesday night. Even with free tickets (Paris FC is giving all their standard tickets away free this season).

But I was happy to be one of that sub-5K crowd. Beautiful second goal from the Parisians as the Rodez keeper got chipped from midfield.

 

38,998 at Everton's game tonight... essentially a full house once again.

 

Over 100 K at JerryWorld for the Big 12 Championship Game.

 

Yep EVERY league game is a sell out, a relegation fight only adds to the drama.

 

Approve of what? Violence? No but its certainly a fine example of the level of 'emotion' that pro/rel brings - its fantastic.

 

Tell me when England poisons a tree.

 

Cash helps in the US.

 

But this is where subjectivity enters.

You and I cannot state that winning the USLC isn't as good or is the same or is better or is worse than winning the EFL Championship. We both can justify our opinions on it to the moon and back but ultimately it is just our opinion. The only truth is that it is different.

We went through that already and .....

anyway that's not what he's saying. He's merely saying that he'd love his club winning USLC for the fact of winning USLC. If anything else was attached it'd just be a scheduling/format matter.

Pro/Rel being more interesting is an opinion ... the fact that not everyone in this discussion on this board necessarily finds it that way is proof of that. "Interesting" is a subjective term by definition.

They're comparable in the sense of ... which approach makes the most sense for the ENTIRETY of the picture. One relies MOSTLY on a singular variable while the other uses multiple variables.

This poster does not reflect those of us that are lower league fans. It is quite fun/exciting/fulfilling/etc being an SAFC fan here in USLC. And yes, I'd dare say I have as much or more joy and am in a better fandom situation than many clubs in pro/rel systems.

But we don't have that kind of passion here because we don't have pro/rel .... remember

... like riots and vandalism here in the US after teams, oh wait we don't have that because we don't have pro/rel so we don't have that emotion or passion, but that other guys seems to think that there's riots and vandalism because ....

....
....

 

Good to see one US sports cartel being challenged in the courts:

"Seven states filed suit in federal court on Thursday, challenging the NCAA’s transfer eligibility rule as an illegal restraint on college athletes under the Sherman Antitrust Act."

https://theathletic.com/5121301/2023/12/07/ncaa-antitrust-lawsuit-transfer-eligibility-rule/

 

Let's set some cars on fire because we have to play in slightly smaller stadiums next season!

 

It's not just (or even necessarily) smaller stadiums though. First and foremost they are not playing top tier football!

Of course there is no excuse for setting cars on fire though! I'm old enough to remember when that kind of thing was almost a weekly event at Stamford Bridge! :-(, all in the name of nothing more than 'having a laugh'! Hooliganism almost killed my club.

 

Paris is a very odd place when it comes to football.

It's a big city and ought to have a number of at least half decent clubs, but the game has always struggled there. Sure, PSG have done well, especially since their financial boost, but the Parisiens are stubbornsly difficult to impress.

Paris have recently had an injection of money from Bahrain, and crowds have nearly doubled from last season, but they aren't really pushing for promotion.

"Paris' 2nd club" has often had a "tallest of the seven dwarfs" feel as regarding a boast. Paris FC and Red Star are only recent recovering from long slumps into obscurity, and Racing Club, arguably France's biggest club in the 60s, languish in the regionalised 4th tier, playing to just a few hundred people.

 

France was never a big soccer country until the 1980s. Individual sports were more popular.

Outside of Marseille, St Etienne and a few industrial towns it doesn't the passionate local loyalty you see in England.

 

Rugby Union is quite popular in France as well. The Top 14 draws very well.

 

The official sport of the Vichy government.

PSG was formed in 1969. PSG and Paris FC split in 1972. Because Paris FC was based in Paris they got the Ligue 1 status and all the professional players. PSG were cast into the amateur leagues, which of course they won, never to look back.

 

You might want to notice which country most posters here are in. Incidents that the English might call hooligan are common in other sports here, though rarely in soccer.

 

Darlington & Aidan. What a moment. 💛#MLSCup pres. by Audi pic.twitter.com/u6ncTldFAj

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) December 9, 2023