The data below is somewhat dated, but still quite relevant.
"I am a non-English football fan (a Villa supporter of course) and I approve of promotion and relegation. I wish we had it in North America as well as I would love to to see the poorest performing teams in the MLS relegated to the NASL." - Stephen Sharp, an Aston Villa fan from the United States, on Facebook
It's a reality everywhere else in the world. There are different ways to do it. So, what's up with North America - the United States and Canada combined - not getting on board?
Say what you will about the US losing its 2022 World Cup bid to Qatar because of money. This issue is a very clearly stated reason the US did not get that bid.
I am talking about promotion and relegation. Or, in the case of North America, the total lack thereof.
Promotion and relegation is already well-established in soccer leagues around the world. Once you've exposed yourself to it, it's actually quite simple: if you do well, you move up a level; conversely, if you suck, you go down a level.
For some reason, the US and Canada have not caught on to this concept. But they'll need to, and soon.
Reality #1: With the questionable "promotion" of NASL second-bottom finisher Montreal Impact (it's better described as "pay-to-play") to MLS next season, the North American top flight (itself a concession to FIFA for the US hosting the 1994 World Cup) risks further pissing off FIFA by exceeding the sport's international governing body's top-flight cap of 20 teams.
Reality #2: Once you get to 20, there will definitely be more cities wanting to play in the top flight. Promotion and relegation gives these cities that opportunity. Further, FIFA's own literature states that promotion and relegation is "the essence of the game."
"As a fan of a non-Football League side (outside of the top 4 levels in England), many clubs have dreams of moving up the English pyramid. AFC Wimbledon came from the ninth tier to reach League Two (D4) in 10 years. Under this idea, would promotion stop at the Championship (D2), or throughout the Football League, since there no longer may be much incentive to promote." - FlyerzFan, talking about England's Premier League potentially scrapping promotion and relegation, thus Americanizing said league, on Yahoo
Reality #3: Unlike American football, baseball, basketball, or hockey, soccer is a truly international sport and we have to play by their rules. The typical American major league structure - a single division split into 2 conferences of 3-4 divisions each with the same 30-32 teams playing it out every year - WILL NOT WORK for soccer. There is no way MLS will ever be allowed to field 30-32 teams at the top level.
Reality #4: Here's how serious FIFA is about getting North America to join the rest of the world on this issue: Upon meeting with President Obama, FIFA President Sepp Blatter specifically asked when the US would adopt promotion and relegation.
Hell, even Australia, another country with a non-pro-rel sports tradition, is moving toward instituting promotion and relegation.
Reality #5: Many current MLS players, especially those who have played in Europe, are in favor of a promotion and relegation system. Most importantly, so are American soccer fans, especially if they've been exposed to the international game.
Reality #6: Without promotion and relegation, lower level leagues have no incentive to actually try to compete. Whereas in the top tier, without relegation teams that are not competing have to play meaningless games. Take baseball for example: a September game between the KC Royals and the Baltimore Orioles would have much more meaning - and more excitement - if either of these teams were actually threatened with being relegated to AAA and replaced by a team like the Albuquerque Isotopes.
Reality #7: Adding promotion and relegation to MLS would give that league a unique feel, one you won't find in the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL. Think of the start of promotion and relegation as a really cool novelty which fans will embrace.
These are the realities. Now, here are the excuses:
Excuse #1: MLS is a single-entity league, thus relegation would be a breach of contract.
Response: You can still set up a promotion and relegation model within the confines of a single-entity. That, or you can get rid of the single-entity and move toward independent clubs (like in England; also, this is what the NASL is trying to do). I do give some credit to MLS Commissioner Don Garber for at least being open to the idea of promotion and relegation in the long-term.
Excuse #2: Potential owners don't want to spend millions of dollars on a MLS team just to see them get relegated.
Response: At least 3 MLS teams (CD Chivas USA, Colorado Rapids, and NY Red Bulls) share ownership with teams that participate in leagues with promotion and relegation (Chivas Guadalajara, Arsenal, and Red Bull Salzburg (and all other Red Bull teams), respectively). Further, at least 4 more MLS owners (recently "promoted" Portland Timbers, Seattle Sounders, and Vancouver Whitecaps, as well as Sporting KC) have stated that they're at least open to promotion and relegation.
Excuse #3: The lower divisions of North American soccer are unstable.
Response: The current Division 2 league in North America is the NASL, and they have just completed their first year of play. I see great potential for stability in this league, as opposed to the USL, which occupies divisions 3 (USL Pro) and 4 (PDL) and has a not-so-pleasant history with teams going out of business. Further, NASL is open to the idea of setting up a promotion and relegation system with MLS.
Excuse #4: If MLS went to a promotion and relegation system, there would be the risk of a big-city team, namely NY Red Bulls or LA Galaxy, going down and that would be bad.
Response: This is a multi-parter:
- (a) Of the nine remaining MLS charter members (Colorado, Columbus, DC United, FC Dallas, LA Galaxy, New England, NY Red Bulls, San Jose, Sporting KC), only one has yet to win a major honor (MLS Cup, Supporters' Shield, US Open Cup/Canadian Championship, CONCACAF Champions' League), and that would be NY Red Bulls.
- (b) The National Football League hasn't had a team in Los Angeles since 1995, when the Rams moved to St. Louis and the Raiders went back to Oakland. Despite the league's recent machinations to return to LA, the NFL is doing just fine without it.
- (c) Assuming New York does wind up bringing NY Cosmos into MLS, both New York (Cosmos and Red Bulls) and LA (Galaxy and Chivas) would have 2 MLS teams. So, if one went down, the other would theoretically stay up, thus protecting that city's place in MLS. And, if you want to get anal about it, USL Pro also featured teams in these two cities (now defunct FCNY and barely functional LA Blues, respectively).
So, how do we do this?
Step 1: Fire both USSF President Sunil Gulati and MLS President Mark Abbott. Gulati is seen as having a massive conflict of interest as the President of USSF (the American equivalent of England's FA) and as President of MLS side New England Revolution. Abbott has been the most vocal opponent of promotion and relegation, making him an immediate gots-to-go situation.
Further, tell the USL to "piss off" and just let them do their own thing. There is so much instability in that league, not to mention they're actively looking for expansion team owners online. How can anyone take you seriously with a track record like that?
One last thing, and this is an annoying feature of North American sports that I'd personally like to see done away with period: stop referring to cities and/or teams as "markets." Fans are more than just customers, especially in soccer. Don't treat them as such.
Step 2: Eliminate conferences. MLS has got to model themselves more off the traditional European model, not the American model they've been trying to use since their inception. The American model works well for other sports, but not in soccer. So, screw conferences and go to single table.
"In my wildest dreams I see us (NASL) operating such a successful Division 2 that there’s a public clamor for promotion and relegation (with MLS)." - David Downs, NASL Commissioner
Step 3: Since MLS and NASL have at least hinted at being open to the idea of promotion and relegation, and MLS' single-entity setup is seen as a hinderance to that, just have MLS buy out NASL. However, this cannot be like the NFL and AFL merging, creating two parallel conferences. In order for promotion and relegation to work, there needs to be a clear hierarchy. So, NASL essentially becomes MLS2 (although I like the NASL name, so in my example, we'll keep it). Then, to even things out, relegate the appropriate number of teams from MLS1 to MLS2/NASL. Using the current standings of both leagues as a guide, and taking into account NASL's announced expansion teams in San Antonio and Ottawa, the new setup would look something like this:
| MLS1 | MLS2/NASL |
| Chicago Fire | Atlanta Silverbacks |
| Colorado Rapids | Carolina RailHawks FC |
| Columbus Crew | CD Chivas USA |
| DC United | FC Edmonton |
| FC Dallas | Fort Lauderdale Strikers |
| Houston Dynamo | Minnesota Stars FC |
| Los Angeles Galaxy | Montreal Impact |
| New York Red Bulls | New England Revolution |
| Philadelphia Union | Ottawa (NASL) |
| Portland Timbers | Puerto Rico Islanders |
| Real Salt Lake | San Antonio Scorpions FC |
| San Jose Earthquakes | Tampa Bay Rowdies |
| Seattle Sounders FC | Toronto FC |
| Sporting Kansas City | Vancouver Whitecaps FC |
Yellow indicates MLS teams relegated to MLS2/NASL based on 2011 MLS standings; Aqua indicates announced NASL expansion teams; Pink for Montreal, a 2011 NASL team being "promoted" to MLS for 2012.
What's
really neat about this setup is that when more teams come in, you can
adjust the size of the two divisions accordingly but not exceeding the
FIFA-imposed 20 in the top tier. If the second division becomes too
congested (using England's D2, Football League Championship, as an
example, there are 24 teams in that league at any given time), you can
create a third division, and so on with promotion and relegation between
those divisions as well. If you want to regionalize the leagues at the
D3 or D4 level (examples include MLS3 East; MLS3 West; MLS3 Canada),
that's perfectly fine.
Looking at the cities mentioned in the "Watch as I destroy this guy" article:
- Atlanta, Miami, San Antonio and Tampa would already be in by virtue of their existing NASL teams, as would Puerto Rico, Raleigh-Durham, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Edmonton and Ottawa (and, potentially, Baltimore, which is constantly rumored to be returning the team formerly known as Crystal Palace Baltimore to NASL play).
- Existing/planned teams such as those in Charlotte, New York (Cosmos), Orlando and Rochester could be brought in, but would have to start in the lower division.
- Detroit, Phoenix, St. Louis, San Diego and any other city not already listed could be granted expansion teams, but like the aforementioned cities they'd have to start in the lower division.
- I would avoid Las Vegas like the plague because of the whole gambling issue.
In addition to these cities, further expansion and/or creation of further lower divisions can include the following:
- NASL Commissioner David Downs mentions the following cities in his interview with the New York Times: Sacramento and Cincinnati in addition to Phoenix and San Diego.
- If you want to put additional teams in Chicago, the Bay Area, and any other large city (over 5 million metropolitan area population), have at it.
- All cities that are now or were ever "Grand Slam Cities" (cities with all 4 NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL) should be considered. This adds Cleveland (whose NFL owner also owns Aston Villa FC in England; I'm all for the creation of Aston Villa Cleveland) and Pittsburgh (home to USL Pro Pittsburgh Riverhounds) to the list.
- All 2022 World Cup bid cities should be considered. This further adds Indianapolis (Racing Indy FC movement) and Nashville to the list.
- Other cities with existing Big Four teams not already listed: Buffalo (considered a different metro area from Rochester), Calgary, Jacksonville, Memphis, Milwaukee (which would include Green Bay), New Orleans, Oklahoma City, and Winnipeg.
If you want to guarantee that none of these teams will suffer from being relegated, there would still be:
Granted, those last bits are not true promotion and relegation, which would expose crappy teams to a potentially devastating fate, but it's the best we can do with what we have.
- some amount of revenue sharing among all of the teams within the single-entity.
- a guarantee that they wouldn't be relegated out of the lowest MLS division.
Granted, those last bits are not true promotion and relegation, which would expose crappy teams to a potentially devastating fate, but it's the best we can do with what we have.
Step 4a: This is the version of promotion and relegation I like best:
- the bottom 2 teams in MLS1 are automatically relegated to MLS2/NASL
- the top 2 teams in MLS2/NASL are automatically promoted to MLS1
- the third-bottom team in MLS1 would be subject to a playoff game with the winner of an MLS2/NASL playoff between teams 3-6. The loser of that playoff goes to MLS2/NASL; the winner to MLS1
- when you first get started, institute Scottish-style promotion and relegation rules which require stadiums to be of a certain size (in Scotland, at least 10,000) to gain promotion.
- if other divisions are added (third division, etc.), institute the same principles as stated above.
Step 4b: This is an alternate version of promotion and
relegation that I also think may work, and this one preserves
traditional playoffs in the lower tier(s):
Step 5: I would keep the playoffs in MLS1 because that's a feature of American sports culture. Borrowing from Derek Richey's "simulated promotion and relegation" as illustrated in the video above, the MLS2/NASL champion would get a berth in the playoffs, as would the US Open Cup winner (the US equivalent of the FA Cup). Thus, the MLS1 playoff tree would look something like this:
- the bottom team in MLS1 is automatically relegated to MLS2/NASL
- the top MLS2/NASL team is automatically promoted to MLS1
- if the playoff winner in MLS2/NASL is a team other than the top team, that team is also promoted and the second-bottom MLS1 team is relegated
- optional: the second-place team in MLS2/NASL is automatically promoted to MLS1, the second-bottom MLS1 team is automatically relegated to MLS2/NASL, meaning a third MLS1 team could be relegated to MLS2/NASL depending on the playoff winner.
- if other divisions are added, institute the same principles as states above.
- using this year's finishes, promotion and relegation would look like this:
- MLS-NASL:
- Carolina RailHawks (NASL regular season champs) promoted
- Minnesota Stars (NASL playoff champions) promoted
- New England Revolution (MLS second-bottom team) relegated
- Vancouver Whitecaps (MLS bottom team) relegated
- Optional: Puerto Rico Islanders (NASL second-place team) promoted
- Optional: Toronto FC (MLS third-bottom team) relegated
- NASL-USL Pro:
- Orlando City (USL Pro regular season and playoffs champions) promoted
- Atlanta Silverbacks (NASL bottom team) relegated
- Optional: Wilmington Hammerheads (USL Pro second-place team) promoted
- Optional: Montreal Impact (NASL second-bottom) relegated
- below D3 (USL Pro) is too clusterfuckish for me to contemplate right now, so we'll restrict this promotion and relegation model to D3 and above.
Step 5: I would keep the playoffs in MLS1 because that's a feature of American sports culture. Borrowing from Derek Richey's "simulated promotion and relegation" as illustrated in the video above, the MLS2/NASL champion would get a berth in the playoffs, as would the US Open Cup winner (the US equivalent of the FA Cup). Thus, the MLS1 playoff tree would look something like this:
- Wild Card round match between the MLS2/NASL champion and the seventh-best MLS1 team.
- Quarterfinal round matches (two-leg):
- 1 seed vs. the Wild Card round winner
- 4 seed vs. 5 seed
- 2 seed vs. US Open Cup winner (if USOC winner is not in MLS1 top 7; otherwise, this goes to the eighth-best MLS1 team)
- 3 seed vs. 6 seed
- Semifinal round matches (two-leg):
- Winner of 1/WC vs. winner of 4/5
- Winner of 2/OC vs. winner of 3/6
- Finals (two-leg)
Step
6 (optional): One of my favorite features of English soccer is the
Carling Cup, which is contested by ALL 92 teams in the top 4 tiers of
English soccer (Premier League, Football League Championship, Football
League 1, Football League 2). While the MLS Cup is the kinda-sorta
equivalent of this, it's still limited to MLS teams who make the
playoffs. I would at least entertain the possibility of instituting a
season-long Carling Cup-style tourney with ALL teams in the MLS family.
"I for one think relegation and promotion is a great idea. If we want soccer to grow in the US we would be smart to adopt a similar system. Instead of propped up teams in big cities you would see where the sport has its true fn base. I am an owner of a 4th tier (PDL or NPSL) team in the USA and as much as I want to dream about growth and making it to the big leagues we can't. The "system" assures that as long as I am not as financially blessed as someone else, we can have the best coaches, players and ideas and not threaten the establishment. Typical American BAD IDEAS. By the way I'm American." - Jeffrey, on Yahoo
This
is how I think North American soccer finally achieves promotion and
relegation and joins the rest of the world in doing so. My ideas may be
subject to change, but for the most part I like it. Any way you do it,
promotion and relegation has to happen and, in the next 10 years (provided anybody's actually listening), will happen.
