mls should expand to 16, with no divisions, home and away, and playoffs for the top 4 with home and home ne metros dc columbus chicago st louis okla city/ tulsa atlanta miami/tampa/orlando/jacksonville detroit dallas houston phoenix la sj portland seattle milwukee/philly any comments? suggestions? share your ideas
I would say both KC and Colorado have a better chance of sticking around than San Jose. And wouldn't Phoenix be a bit on the hot side?
EAST Metros (NJ) NYC Revs DC Philly MIDWEST Milwaukee Chicago Columbus KC Detroit WEST Colorado LA San Jose Portland Seattle SOUTH Houston Dallas OKC Atlanta Four division champs make playoffs
yeahhh this an usefull thread... please have more atention to current state of the league rather than dreaming about ideal ones
Put OKC in the Midwest, and put DC in the South. OKC in the South would be too much of a stretch, IMO.
Give continental and hemispheric tournament entries to the top MLS sides: MLS Champion: FC Champions' Cup and Copa Liberatores. 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place teams get into FCC also. Also, thanks for putting Detroit on the list. Mike
i dont see why they wouldnt get one if mls ever expanded like that.....they are a major city, could play ford field maybe? are close enough to canada(toronto?) to bring in fans and there arent any other mls teams up there really. plus, doesnt detroit have good fans in other sports? im pretty sure they are good with the wings right?
first Phoenix is still very hot at night... second...heres how i would have it... Chicago Columbus Colorado Dallas DC United Detroit Houston Kansas City Los Angeles MetroStars New England New York Oklahoma City Rochester San Jose Seattle Single Table... 30 Games... Top 8 teams make "MLS CUP" All teams in US Open Cup FCC - (League Champ, 2nd Place, MLS CUP, USOC) Copa Pan American Cup - (League, MLS CUP)
OKC in the south makes more sense as far as travel purposes, as does DC in the east. Its a much shorter trip for DC to go to NY or NE than it is to get them to a game in Houston or Dallas. Same with OKC. Dallas is 3 hours in the car and Houston is 6-7. Atlanta would obviously be the furthest away.
I don't see why people think that having the Metrostars play outside of the Meadowlands (the plan is to move to Harrison, NJ, right?) would turn them into a NJ team. The Meadowlands are in NJ! Four teams play in the Meadowlands: the Giants, the Jets, the Devils & the Nets. The former two are considered NYC teams because there are no other football teams in the NYC area. The Devils and the Nets (who play right across the parking lot from Giants Stadium) are not considered NYC teams because the Rangers and Knicks both play within the city. This shows that as long as no other soccer team is created, downstate NYers will still cheer for the Metrostars. Even if you put a team in Uniondale (Long Island), the Metrostars will probably remain the NYC team. Also, Rochester deserves to be bumped up to MLS before NYC gets another team. As long as MLS artificially keeps wages down, Rochester can support a competitive team (its attendance is already roughly on par with the rest of MLS) and there are plans for a new SSS. Regardless, Frontier Field is a much better stadium (certainly better than Naperville) than what most MLS teams play in. Also, why did you only put 4 teams in the South? There has to be another city down there (just stay out of Florida) that could support an MLS team to give the league an even 20.
i would say put at least 20 but thats just too long of a scedule plsu playoffs...and what says american sports more than playoffs?
Sorry to break your idealistic views of the league, but does MLS have the chance of expanding to 16 teams within the next 5 years?
I don't think that its that they consider the Metros a NJ team necessarily(right now anyway, altho going to Harrison wil make that a bit more persuasive.) I think its just a no-brainer that any team put in NYC proper will definitely have great attendance, irrespective of the Metros. If the Metros had better transport options from the city, their attendance would be the best in the league by far, IMO. Question is, what would happen to Metros attendance if NYC got a team. I know they have pretty good attendance now, but what would happen if the area had another, more transport convenient choice...? BTW, the reason the Jets/Giants are considered NY teams is because they both started and played in NY throughout much of their history-unlike the Nets/Devs. The only reasons the Metros were called 'NY/NJ' even though theyve only played in NJ is because 1-they wanted to tap into the NYC market and thought it'd help to have NY in the name. 2-There was a possibility that they would move to NYC.
The A-Leagues top talented players are competitive enough to play in the MLS if there were more teams. I look for MLS to have 20 teams by 2010: Atlantic Division New York-New Jersey New England Washington DC Rochester Philadelphia Great Lakes Division Chicago Columbus Kansas City Minnesota Detroit Pacific Coast Division Colorado Los Angeles San Jose Portland Seattle Gulf Coast Division Dallas Oklahoma City Houston Atlanta Wichita
Here are the current MLS teams (*) along with some past NASL locations and rumored future locations: *New England Revolution *Metrostars *DC United Philadelphia Rochester *Chicago Fire *Columbus Crew Milwaukee Minnesota *Dallas Burn Houston *Kansas City Wizards *San Jose Earthquakes Seattle Portland Timber *Los Angeles Galaxy *Colorado Rapids Atlanta Detroit Florida (Orlando/Jacksonville) Tampa Bay Miami San Diego Carolina Louisville/Memphis Oklahoma City/Tulsa Las Vegas I'll throw into this mix Sacramento. They shown they will support the NBA and there is little summer competition for the sport dollar there. Any other cities that I might have left out?
I'm pretty sure Harrison is right on top of a subway (or whatever the NY metro area calls their rapid transit outside of NYC). Also, its even closer to I-95 than the Meadowlands and its right on top of I-280. Anyway, how close is this stadium to actually becoming a reality?
some very unlikely choices are : cincinnati hartford richmond birmingham maybe some canadian teams if that could ever be worked out?
Well, there is a train line called the 'PATH' that runs to Harrison. But thats like taking a train to the suburbs (@ 30-40 min. ride, out of city proper.) To most NYC residents, thats much more of a hassle than if they could just hop on one of the local subway lines. As far as the highways, well, the whole point is that a city like NY isnt geared toward car transportation. But it may be more convenient (altho one strike is that EVERY NY'er knows how to get to Giants stadium-not many have ever heard of Harrison.) As far as the Harrison stadium goes, well, its a long story, but the short is that it'll be decided come Sept./Oct., next time the NJ assembly/Senate meet. Its attached to a Newark arena proposal, and the Meadowlands people are lobbying hard against that, so....we'll see.
16 MLS teams that are never relegated. 4 A-League teams, 3 of which are promoted every year while the best of the 4 stays in MLS. The A-League could be East/Central/West (I have no clue as to how or IF it's divided now.) Maybe this doesn't help the MLS directly, but it could add a nice incentive for A-League teams. Plus, the A-League seems to cover a nice portion of the country that the MLS doesn't and a connection between the two leagues would get the MLS more exposure.