Okay, this is an interesting point and one which i personally think the MLS people should let the fans get involved with. The MLS has reached a high stage after such few years, what should be the next step the league takes and when should it be. Heres a few things i think should be considered 1. Copa Libertadores entry, should it be considered and can the MLS afford not to, after all a succesfull league requires a good continental competition 2. more teams being added, possibly creating a 15-20 team league 3. If the above is implemented, a second division added creating promotion and relegation, or the A-League is bought out and using those teams, create a 2nd division I personally would like to see the A-League and MLS merge (MLS take over and put all MLS rules etc in a league), it would create a 30 team leage (or however may teams are in there) which would be good. another thing, please mls fans, get yourself over to a game store and buy yourself Championship Manager 4 for the PC, It is the best soccer management game of all time and the MLS option is amazing on it. Can anyone reccomend any MLS only managment games???
What about get better coaching It seem that like you and many of the naive american fans are not aware of the main problem of SOCCER IN USA !!coaching!! we need to make some changes on that department, MLS could even consider give a chance to many good college coaches, perhaps we could find another BRUCE ARENA, but something have to be done. but before something is done we need to think and be aware of the problem....
I don't like the idea of the A-League merge. MLS needs to get mainstream. In order to do that, they have to stay in larger markets. San Jose and Columbus are generally considered smaller markets, but they are still much larger than most A-League teams.
Promotion/Relagation is awesome and a lot of fun. It also will never happen here. Especially now--the league is doing well and heading in the right direction, but it can't afford to tell fans in an MLS market 'Sorry, but you're not Major League next year--prepare to meet the Hampton Roads Mariners!' Not gonna fly. The system is not familiar to Americans. The sports culture here is deeply entrenched and professional soccer needs to work within what Americans expect and understand. Expansion, of course, needs to happen. And will, in due time. In a year or two, we'll be looking at AT LEAST back to a 12-team league, with more to follow. International competitions are a good thing--and we already take part in them. The next step is doing well, well enough to force the mainstream sports media here to notice, or at least pay lip service. And it's not 'the' MLS. Just 'MLS.'
This stuff is mentioned repeatedly on Bigsoccer, but its easier said than done. Sure, let's just add a few teams on there. Its not that easy. They want to be sure there is a fan base, an investor, a stadium that can be used for soccer or a soccer specific stadium, etc. We can't just add teams at will, or else it would have already been done. And even if we do add teams right now, the MLS level of talent would be spread very thin. Thus causing some teams to be horrible and other pretty good. The horrible teams will not draw fans, particularly if they are new teams, which is no good for MLS. If you meant add teams over time, then my mistake. Let's get in the Copa Libertadores. I think most people want that, but I don't think there's any point in MLS getting in it until we continue to prove ourselves in the other competitions. The MLS teams in those competitions at the beginning of this year got swept up. I'd rather wait for the teams to get stronger to avoid jumping into Copa Libertadores right now and embarrass ourselves. You're right though, we do need to try to get into this competition. Buy the A-league? Interesting idea. I don't really know what to say about that. But I don't think we'll see Promotion/Relegation any time soon. Too difficult to organize and the teams haven't been around long enough to have built a large loyal fan base. There could be financial problems as well. You say make one league with 30 teams? No way. That's the last thing we need. IMO, we should have no more than 20. That way, you play the other 19 teams once home and once away which is a total of 38 games. A 30 team league is just way too big. IMO, you need to play every team in the league home and away at least once, and that's just not possible with 30 teams. My two cents.