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| *SportsComet>>>General - Football (Soccer) |
Does anyone think MLS should merge with USL and make a league of relegation and promotions? |
I think this would help them a lot to be a real LEAGUE and have teams have problems with finishing last in your league. This would keep everyone competetive throughout the season. I think it would be interesting if the MLS were to be associated with the USL and have promotions and relegations between the two leagues. I agree that it would help to keep everyone competitive throughout the season. Unfortunately the sport isn't near being popular enough here in the US to do something like that. I think many American sports fans in general wouldn't like a format with promotions and relegations between the two leagues and would be highly opposed to it. It would cause both leagues to loose popularity. We just aren't ready for something like that. It's a good idea and I would like to see that happen someday. Another problem is that there isn't enough money going into the sport here. The sport need more investors here in addition to more fans. I do know that the MLS and the USL do not have any future plans to have a format with relegations and promotions between the 2 leages. I think a format like that might work better between the 1st and 2nd divisions of the USL but the sport needs to become more popular here for that to even be considered. I think the sport would need to become at least the 2nd most popular sport in the US for that to be possible at all. Then again a system with relegations and promotions would be a new and very bold idea to the majority of Americans that I don't believe they would accept. I would like to see that happen between the MLS and the USL but only if and when we can and are ready for something like that. yeah if your a puntang Nah, teams are already doing their best to cultivate a fanbase. Americans wouldn't be too happy if their team got booted to the minors. That would cost the league in the short run and MLS is already losing enough money as it is. Plus, most USL stadiums aren't equipped to handle more than a top-flight USL crowd. They would be a drain on the league (though sell out every game!) due to the inability to get anywhere near the league average. I think that that is a fascinaing idea however from a business perspective, there is no way that it will occur. The MLS really is still fledgling at this time and they are very deliberate regarding who they will accept into their league. The idea of the league voluntarily accepting whoever wins the USL 1 moving to the MLS and of the MLS losing franchises to a lower division seems unlikely. I attended a Minnesota Thunder game and they play in a high school staduim, perhaps averaging 1,500- 2,000 per game. If the whole USL league was near to the standard of the MLS in regards to stadiums, sponsorships, and attendance, perhaps that model could be put into place. Success for professional soccer at a large level is probably a generation away, as more youth players become adults and parents. I think that college sports (football, basketball, soccer, and perhaps baseball)should consider a relegation and advancement model. Several regional power conferences could be developed and the power teams could be made to only play themselves. There could be concurrent tournamants for old rivalries but a power league and a table for who is the champ. It wouldn't make any economic sense whatsoever. When you have MLS teams building 15-25,000 seat stadiums and building fan bases, who in their right mind would relegate Los Angeles (biggest soccer-specific stadium in the league, I believe, at 26,000) and replace it with a team that plays in a high school football stadium or even a public park (as some lower USL teams do). You might rebutt that question and say the same thing happens in England. True. But the sport in itself makes money (the premiership is the most-watched sports league in the world, with UK broadcast rights alone costing a billion dollars, whereas MLS is about 1/5th of that. USL? Every now and then I see one of their games on Fox Soccer Channel and attendance is at most 10,000. Why demote a club with a loyal, nationwide fan base and huge stadium in return for a club most American soccer enthusiasts (those that even follow the sport) have never even heard of? I too was thinking the same thing, and I think it would a great idea, if it could work. The problems are that America is too spread out and from a business perspective it just will not work, most USL stadiums seat a max of 5-6000 people while most MLS seat a max of 20-25000. The leagues are just too far apart in a business perspective, plus most American fans will not deal well with relegation and promotion and say its dumb since they never came up with the idea. Blue, you're one of my favorite posters here and a lot of your answers are 'best answer' material. I do have a friendly advice for you that I think will make your posts even better. Please break them into paragraphs, especially the long posts, to make them more eye-friendly. Thanks for your contributions here. |
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