What goes up…
Ordinarily I won’t go near the topic of some type of promotion/relegation system in MLS. To be honest, I don’t think it’s needed. What will it really bring? For some reason there’s a romanticized notion that MLS will be better if the bottom club(s) were to drop to a lower level and the top teams from that level would replace them. Yeah, it’ll give those teams towards the bottom something extra to fight for but…well; RBNY would probably be already making plans for the lower level next season.
Anyway, what sparked the recent debate, which caused me to spend a couple of minutes putting this together, was this piece from some media outlet in Toronto.
If you were to ask me, and you’re reading my blog so I’ll answer, I’d say that MLS buying the USL would actually be a bad thing. I have no knowledge of anything (seriously) but my bet would be that if MLS ‘owned’ the USL, those teams at the lower level would become farm teams for the big clubs like in baseball. MLS would then own all the contracts of players at the lower levels too. But who knows?
The thing I’ve wondered about for a while is what will happen as more investors from overseas come in after being used to a different financial structure for the sport? I’m guessing even they won’t want to change much. Seriously, why open yourself up to additional business risk if you don’t have to?
On the flip side though, Seattle is now in MLS after being in USL for a while. Portland, Vancouver and probably Montreal are following in moving from USL to MLS….a sort of promotion route. Heck, they are even being allowed to keep some players which is an added bonus…in my opinion.
No, I’m of the believe that eventually MLS will have 20 or 30 some teams in various conferences playing regional teams in their conference twice each season a few other teams from other conferences and then decide the winner via the playoffs. I’m sure that’s been the goal of the league all along and I’m pretty confident that’s how things will end up in a few years.
However, a few years ago I was playing with the idea of creating a book based on the idea, “What if the USFL/ASL “Soccer War” had come to a different conclusion and the sport continued to grow the next 70+ years?” I never got very far with it. Did a little research and started to realize just how big a task it would be to create a different history. Anyway, the reason I mention that is, “What if MLS does actually decide to create a second (and possibly third) tier of the league. What would it look like?”
Well, the first thing would be that creating a lower level would make a simpler expansion path. Just like in many other countries, teams and their stadiums need to be certified in order to reach a certain level of the league. So, if a team hasn’t paid the equivalent of an “expansion fee,” then they couldn’t be promoted. If they don’t have a quality “Soccer Specific Stadium,” then they couldn’t be promoted. There would be protections to insure that certain teams don’t go down too easily by preventing some teams from coming up.
In addition, I’m certain there will always be some sort of playoff to decide the MLS Champion. Sports in this country are set up to where any team could be champion at the end of the season. Why wouldn’t it be created so that the Top 7 at the top level and the Champion of the second level are in the playoffs? Maybe that theory could use some tweaking but, why not?
Perhaps have a single top flight with each team playing each other twice and then each team also have a handful of regional matches which count in the standings against local rivals who are at a lower level or within one level?
I heard some time ago (can’t remember the source so it may or may not be accurate—but it makes sense) that the ‘magic number’ as far as the number of league games needed was 30. The further you get from that (more or fewer games) will then diminish returns. A 12-14 team league with other—lets use a good American term—“Non-Conference” matchups could make the number easily and leave room for Open Cup, Champions Cup, and International match dates.
A second tier of two conferences (East/West or whatever) with a couple more teams to fill it out could be a great place to start things. If you go with the theory that at the second level teams would make less money so save on travel costs by keeping them regional.
Right now there seem to be plenty of people with some interest in a new team. However, coming up with $40million and a stadium means you have to convince people with deep pockets to make the investment. Granted, there’s quite a bit of security in the structure the league has but still, how do you know your team will be able to sell tickets without bringing in some English underwear model to attract the teenybopper demographic? Playing at a lower level with fewer risks for a few years while building a plan for a stadium and Entrance Fee (I just made that up as a replacement for the Expansion Fee term) would make some business sense.
In performance terms, I’m of the belief that the structure of MLS forces teams to have to make numerous changes each winter and that teams with a core of players together longer generally do better. Yeah, there are exceptions to every rule but in my experience it’s always been better to keep as much of the team together as possible. This gives teams the chance to build who they are before making the jump to the ‘Show’. Yes, Seattle are doing well this season, but wouldn’t San Jose, Toronto and RSL have done better with a little time to come together rather than just being thrown in the fire?
Another benefit of this would be for small teams looking to grow. As I know the town from going to college there, Fresno Fuego have been averaging over 3000 a game since they started playing in the local AAA baseball team’s (Fresno Grizzlies) stadium in downtown Fresno. Those are pretty good numbers for an amateur team. Heck, half of USL1 and most USL2 teams would love that kind of average. However, attendance doesn’t translate into performance all the time. So far, the owners of the Fuego have chose to play it safe and not make the jump to USL1. But, even with being a smaller city, you’d have to think they could support more. After all, their stadium already holds more than the one KC currently plays in.
Yes, relegation sucks. Dropping down a level can be heart breaking. However, the thrill of your team getting promoted more than makes up for the loss you feel when your team drops. Dropping down two levels from the Premiership hasn’t hurt Manchester City much. I doubt in the long run that Leeds and Charlton will be that much worse off for playing in League 1 also. Heck, if your team is doing poorly, why not play against competition which isn’t as tough so your team can start to believe again and start winning. Look at college football. How many schools have teams in BCS conferences who may finish above .500 and actually go to a bowl game once every 10 years or so? Wouldn’t it be better if they dropped down and played a softer schedule to find their winning ways again before coming back up? (Of course, I went to a mid-major school who would love a chance at playing a more difficult schedule.)
Anyway, this is all theory and dreams. But it was fun to write. I doubt it would happen…but what’s life without dreams? Oh yeah, we are talking about Promotion and Relegation being incorporated by MLS, never mind.
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