The MLS League Model -Where do we go from here? Do we ever try to make our league more European?

    There are many things and reasons that many avid soccer fans in the USA give to not support the MLS.  Most of these include world class players being absent and the league model simply being different overall.  MLS is a league that some people have called " football socialism." This title has floated around because the league has a lot of say in what clubs can and can not do.  There also is a salary cap that is almost unheard of in European soccer.  There also is no such thing as complete ownership of the team separate from the league.  All of these things combine lead to people saying why bother with the MLS?  I used to feel the very same way.  I did have an MLS team for a long time and had no desire to watch the very few games that were shown on TV.  The league now was begun to thrive and become a league that some very high quality players have come to.  I now feel that MLS league growth and support will lead to a strong league with even more high quality players. One of the key aspects of the MLS league model is that there is no such thing promotion and relegation as in other leagues around the world.  The first question is would the teams that get relegated from the MLS be able to survive?

San Antonio's stadium renderings

 There is a huge stigma in America about teams that are not in their top divisions of professional sports.  In a nutshell, minor league teams do not have a nice ring to it here in the states.  The league is quite young and I think any change in stability could be catastrophic. The next problem is where do the other teams for promotion come from?  There currently are two other leagues below MLS. These being the USL Pro and the NASL. The NASL will soon have nine teams and the USL Pro with 11. Both of these leagues on average attendance do not really draw big crowds and some of the teams even call high school fields their home.  I don't really think I could picture LA Galaxy playing a recently promoted lower division team at a high school stadium.  There have been recent talks about the USL forming some sort of partnership or agreement with MLS about harboring their reserve teams in their league and things of this nature.  This would seemingly give the USL Pro a bit of an advantage of being the league chosen to be the league that gets promotion rights.  The other league the NASL seems to have no interest in becoming affiliated with MLS.  The NASL seems to think that someday they can be at the same level or better than the MLS.  This of course could possibly happen but I highly doubt it.  It also doesn't help that teams from these leagues still aspire to jump to the MLS.  I think that until FIFA eventually steps in and deems that North American soccer needs a promotion/relegation system we should be content at what we have.  Maybe in 30 or 40 years North America will be there.  Just not now and we have to be patient.  I actually like the system or recent trend of the MLS expansion. There are former clubs from the USL Pro and NASL that have gained a following or are present in a great market area that can with patience be awarded the expansion franchise.  I feel that this unofficial model is working.  We have seen the success of former clubs like the Sounders and Timbers, as well as, the Montreal Impact become invaluable to the league.  There are some real big steps being taken by some the teams in the lower leagues of America to become a great product and maybe even be able to warrant an expansion bid later on.  You can see this with some of the lower division teams building brand new soccer specific stadiums.  Teams like the Pittsburgh Riverhounds and San Antonio Scorpions have both started to build new stadiums.

Renderings of the new Riverhounds stadium

  Most of these stadiums are designed with future size expansion in mind.  These developments would have never been seen in years past.  We also have teams that already have soccer specific stadiums like Charleston Battery and Rochester Rhinos.  These teams have great followings and even though they may not have MLS expansion in their future it is still good for pro soccer in America.  Orlando City of the USL Pro has gained a following and now has gained recognition of the MLS as a possible expansion franchise.  This is the model that should be followed and emulated by other lower division clubs.  Some future expansion cities talked about frequently do not have pro soccer.  My biggest piece of advice is try and get either a USL Pro franchise or NASL franchise.  At the very least try and get a PDL team in your area.

The insane Orlando City atmosphere

 This would make the MLS take note and also give the area some soccer credibility.  Another recent question that is asked about the MLS is how many teams should there be before expansion stops?  The MLS now sits at 19 teams.  The EPL purists are already screaming that 20 should be the stopping point.  It is true that most of the worlds top leagues only have 20 clubs or even less but they are not in America.  America can not be compared to these other leagues based on a marketability stand point.  You can't tell me that a country the size of the state of Pennsylvania should be the model of what a league should be in America.  America has over 300 million people living it.  My honest belief is that the league will eventually reach the team numbers of the NBA, NHL, NFL and MLB.  I only say this because those numbers make sense in a country this big. In fact MLS has something that all of those leagues do not, an unlimited number of players.  Those other leagues are almost solely supplied by Americans.  The MLS has the whole world to get players from and that is another reason why MLS expansion has been going so well.  I see a good number being around 30 MLS clubs.  Now, I'm not saying that this will happen in the next five years but when the MLS expansion is all said and done I could see it.  I think that talent will not suffer at all and our league will be stronger than ever and could be right behind the top leagues of Europe.