tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4577094464393024958.comments2008-07-24T13:48:04.861-04:00MLS Guynoreply@blogger.comBlogger3682125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4577094464393024958.post-43732178596731677772008-07-24T13:42:00.000-04:002008-07-24T13:42:00.000-04:00You know what the bad thing about pro/rel is?<BR/><BR/>You'll end up having the same top 2-3 teams winning the cup year after year.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4577094464393024958.post-5224693133244560772008-07-24T13:38:00.000-04:002008-07-24T13:38:00.000-04:00im neutral on a promotion/relegation system... im good with whatever works, and if the mls decides its a good idea then lets go for it. however, we shouldnt do it just because everyone else does. america is a vastly different sports market than the rest of the world.<BR/><BR/>as to attracting fans... frankly, the reason why i only casually follow the mls is because i dont have a team. i live in miami, and casually support miami fc. i really want to get into it, and i do follow it because i strongly support american soccer, but i dont pull for any one mls team... and that limits my interest. i also feel very hesitant on adopting a team because it looks like miami will be getting an expansion team soon and i dont want to throw my loyalty behind a future rival.<BR/><BR/>but, if anyone wants to try to convince me to put my lot temporarily behind their mls team, im all earsAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4577094464393024958.post-64493477393392035532008-07-24T13:37:00.000-04:002008-07-24T13:37:00.000-04:00I cannot see any league in this country adopting pro/rel.<BR/><BR/>You wanna juice up the regular season games? There are other ways, besides pro/rel, to punish/reward teams.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4577094464393024958.post-61945305988480983522008-07-24T13:33:00.000-04:002008-07-24T13:33:00.000-04:00Can the author explain how is it possible for the NFL/NBA/MLB to be hugely successful WITHOUT pro/rel?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4577094464393024958.post-91719002273836790702008-07-24T13:30:00.000-04:002008-07-24T13:30:00.000-04:00The promotion and relegation could work for the MLS for several reasons:<BR/><BR/>Soccer fans are different than others sports fans. They know the dynamics that exists around the world, so there wouldn't be a problem for them.<BR/><BR/>The MLS is and wants to be a different league than the MLB, the NBA or the NFL. The system will be part of that offer. There's hunger for something different.geha714noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4577094464393024958.post-92191186600036444622008-07-24T13:19:00.000-04:002008-07-24T13:19:00.000-04:00I like the idea of an MLS2 league, and I would love to see it as soon as possible. Without relegation the season ends very early for bad teams, and fans stop wanting to come. With relegation attendances will go up because every game will count. That is when we will truly have a real soccer league.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4577094464393024958.post-23367389394807506612008-07-24T13:14:00.000-04:002008-07-24T13:14:00.000-04:00I'm sorry, but your arguments are ridiculous. We don't have to adopt anything unless we think it is a good idea for us, not solely for the reason to keep us in uniform with the rest of the world. We are a different country and you are ignoring certain aspects of our culture that make us significantly different. Adopting a promotion/relegation system would effect our league much differently than in other countries.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4577094464393024958.post-78584303575767016512008-07-24T13:11:00.000-04:002008-07-24T13:11:00.000-04:00I love how people say that the league couldnt afford to have LA Chicago or NY go down, guess what, if your a shit team, then you deserve to be down. And that is the beauty with pro/rel, you can come right back up the next year, or the year after, people act like they would be stuck in the second division. You forget that they have the opportunity to make it right, and if they are a big market team, im sure they will. And how is pro/rel being a Eurosnob, the last time i checked the entire world except the US is not just Europe, there are actual other continents like Asia Africa and South America that do the exact same thing. AmerisnobsAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4577094464393024958.post-27076680087383559512008-07-24T13:08:00.000-04:002008-07-24T13:08:00.000-04:00Website looks basic, but maybe that's true to the grassroots nature of this.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4577094464393024958.post-36163927802068954902008-07-24T13:08:00.000-04:002008-07-24T13:08:00.000-04:001) the only thing keeping LA and NY from complete domination of the league is a salary cap, as more billionaires start investing in MLS, their will be less need for a cap. Once the league is profitable and stable and the league has the investment they want, the need for a cap goes out the window.<BR/><BR/>2) their are a ton of markets that can pull off a damn successful marketing and attendence and tv deal locally that would make them a profitable investment worth interest by some really wealthy americans, but arent on the level of NY, CHI, LA, DAL. Cities like Austin, San Antonio, Tampa, Raleigh, OKC, Portland (sorry portland), a couple Canadian cities. If all those cities had potential investors in an MLS2 league with a 5-10 year buffer to build the MLS2 league up and stabilize and set standards for promotion to the MLS1, as well as to allow the league to adapt and to insure LA and NY etc dont go straight down, then you are looking at the investment of lets say half of the current franchise fee to 20 new teams. Thats more than $400 Million dollars into the expansion of the leagues with minimal risk of key clubs going down.<BR/><BR/>3) Youth Systems will over time kill the draft as it is. Or at least take most of the talent out of it. The days of Brek Shea's and the next Dempsey coming into a draft is over. And the league is making sure that is the case. Especially if an increase in salary scales occurs to allow for youth interested in footy to see they can come up from a youth system like FCD juniors etc and make a really good living. <BR/><BR/>All that equals more of a demand for MLS teams than a single MLS league can provide and b/c of a lack of balance to the financial potential of more than 1/2 of the future expansion teams who cannot match the top 20 markets in the US without stunting the potential of the big markets to acquire top talent lesser markets cant afford to invest in.<BR/><BR/>i see the strong possibility that cities like OKC and San Antonio and a bunch of others who may not be top 20 markets but can add to the coffers of the league and add to its profitability and stability are there and in the waiting.<BR/><BR/>its just a matter of time.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4577094464393024958.post-75490723054544162472008-07-24T13:07:00.000-04:002008-07-24T13:07:00.000-04:00I think for pro/reg to work in the U.S. MLS-2 teams would have to be drawing what MLS teams draw now. And current MLS teams would have to draw double the current attendance. I think it's the only way teams could afford it. I would definitely support my team even if they were relegated, because they're my team, so I don't think that's an issue. It's whether or not the capital is there for MLS to achieve a pro/reg system.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4577094464393024958.post-46938280306307925482008-07-24T13:06:00.000-04:002008-07-24T13:06:00.000-04:00The problem I would see with promotion/relegation in the US would be the continuation of regional monopolies in MLS.<BR/><BR/>This is a very important concept in North American sports. MLB baseball teams even have to sign off on a minor league team locating near them, like the Mets and Yankees with the Brooklyn Cyclones.<BR/><BR/>If there was true promotion/relegation there would always be a NY/Chicago/LA team in the top division because there would be as many teams located in those cities as the market could support.Emmetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06489372248577177410noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4577094464393024958.post-83730514329432177192008-07-24T12:44:00.000-04:002008-07-24T12:44:00.000-04:00The two biggest hurdles in my mind to accepting this is MLS owners accepting the fact they could have thier teams relegated, and for MLS to properly set up an MLS-2 league with lower fees and lower restrictions that allows teams to still be profitable. <BR/><BR/>I think for this to happen, some of the teams will probably need new owners, since so many owners do exactly what you stated "field a team and hope for the best". Until the owners are constantly committed to challenging for the title, you won't see many owners willing to step down unless its proven the money is there....<BR/><BR/>Could it happen...yes...but that could easily be a decade or more away....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4577094464393024958.post-77084350313677590172008-07-24T12:34:00.000-04:002008-07-24T12:34:00.000-04:00"Really, who's going out to LA for MLS2 to see them play the Charleston Battery? Get real.<BR/><BR/>Your vision is very short term. Who is going out to see Chivas USA play Kansas City now?<BR/><BR/>As for investors, the article has a point, if American investors buy clubs like Scunthorpe United then there is no reason why they wouldn't buy into an MLS2 if that is the only way into MLS past the 24 teaam limit.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4577094464393024958.post-30955112851443743052008-07-24T12:31:00.000-04:002008-07-24T12:31:00.000-04:00There will be two teams in cities like LA, NY and Chicago. For that very reason<BR/><BR/>In fact there already are two in LA, there will be two in NY and who knows, maybe someone will want to put a 2nd one in Chicago eventually.<BR/><BR/>These are the same issues other countries have to deal with, they are not insurmountable.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4577094464393024958.post-32486878853182024322008-07-24T12:26:00.000-04:002008-07-24T12:26:00.000-04:00I don't think anyone in the MLS brass wants to see a city like LA, NY, or CHI get relegated. They would have to be idiots to accept relegation with this in mind.<BR/><BR/>I know soccer purists want to see relegation, but it doesn't make any sense as a business idea. The EPL can get away with it because they have quite a few teams in London, Birmingham, and other large locales, but you drop a city with one team and you lose tons of money.<BR/><BR/>Really, who's going out to LA for MLS2 to see them play the Charleston Battery? Get real.Michaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4577094464393024958.post-15962762369555321592008-07-24T12:22:00.000-04:002008-07-24T12:22:00.000-04:00I don't see what the size of the USA has to do with this. There are countries like Russia and China with fledgling leagues with pro/rel.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4577094464393024958.post-68208921481818077642008-07-24T12:15:00.000-04:002008-07-24T12:15:00.000-04:00The beauty of promotion and relegation is that it prevents owners from sitting around an doing nothing to improve their team. The security of staying at the top, allows them to just field a team and hope for the best.<BR/><BR/>Besides , the suggestion was to add an MLS2, which means they would have to meet the requirements that MLS sets up. In other words it would be, as an example, a 40-team league, but instead of having the conference side by side (East and West), it would have them up and down (MLS1 and MLS2).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4577094464393024958.post-74869264790506350082008-07-24T12:04:00.000-04:002008-07-24T12:04:00.000-04:00The J-League deals with that very problem by setting minimum standards for clubs which wish to be promoted. <BR/><BR/>This is done everywhere. <BR/><BR/>And let's be honest, is Rhino's stadium so bad? Currently Kansas City is playing in a minor league baseball park they don't even control. San Jose is playing at a college stadium, both seat 10,000.<BR/><BR/>If it can work for a few years in Kansas City and San Jose why not in Rochester, NY or Cary, NC?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4577094464393024958.post-75778623137613919952008-07-24T11:50:00.000-04:002008-07-24T11:50:00.000-04:00i hate to agree with this article but it is true. the probem is MONEY, all these new owners are in this for the money and not for their love for the game. i mean everybody involved with futbol cares about money but they also love the colors, all these new investers have noticed the success of EPL, La Liga, and Serie A and they want it too, but they want that success now, today. they don't care about FIFA, they don't care about history, they don't wanna wait 100 years for MLS to become a top league.<BR/>promotion/relegation is part of the game, is in the essence of the game and can't be ignored or erased from history just like that.heretic\bastardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01957204220376929114noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4577094464393024958.post-69451309055636199072008-07-24T11:49:00.000-04:002008-07-24T11:49:00.000-04:00I dont think this idea would work in the US. There are too many A-League teams that play in too small of markets in the US and it would not be a good business decision for the league to promote a club like Rochester Rhinos as they dont have the stadium capacity required for the MLS. It would decrease revenue and the market would be too small to support an MLS team. I like the idea but given the sheer size of the USA it wouldnt make senseAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4577094464393024958.post-68022500157044860632008-07-24T11:38:00.000-04:002008-07-24T11:38:00.000-04:00Garber the Great. Is the man fools !!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4577094464393024958.post-65534189487597514402008-07-24T11:36:00.000-04:002008-07-24T11:36:00.000-04:00Don Garber:should be knighted as " Garber The Great"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4577094464393024958.post-35114917853441380022008-07-24T11:15:00.000-04:002008-07-24T11:15:00.000-04:00I love it how everyone lives in this fantasy world where people would never attend a lower division match. I've got news for you, there's USL teams with higher attendance than MLS teams. Go check Portland and Montreal vs SJ, KC, or Columbus. And keep in mind that USL reports actual attendance, while MLS reports tickets sold.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4577094464393024958.post-60030442706078304052008-07-24T11:12:00.000-04:002008-07-24T11:12:00.000-04:00A million bucks? Insane, if they hold out and he puts up good numbers next year, 2-3 million dollar transfer fee. To a better team at that.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com