Would you support promotion and relegation in Major League Soccer?
This has been a years long debated subject and to some, it is the sole reason that people do not view Major League Soccer as a potential competitor to the top football leagues in the world. Promotion and Relegation is one of the most vital parts of the footballing landscape as it provides some of the most exciting moments of every single season. Major League Soccer remains one of the few leagues in the world that does not use this system as they run their league more like the traditional American sports league. As they have drafts, playoffs, and a salary cap.
Now there are several different ways that Major League Soccer could establish a promotion and relegation system here in the United States. One of the ways that they could accomplish that would be to split Major League Soccer in half after a full season of “qualifiers” and have the bottom half of the teams in the league sent down to the second division. The second way would be to absorb the USL as a second and third division on the pyramid and have a solid system already in place.
Due to the way Major League Soccer is set up getting half of the teams in the league to agree to a demotion would be unlikely so it seems like option number two would be the easiest way to go. The USL or United Soccer League is already set up with a promotion and relegation system and I will come with several levels on the pyramid for Major League Soccer to play with.
The top level of the United Soccer League has 27 teams and Major League Soccer has 28 so if the USL could add another team it would perfectly balance it out. You would be able to promote two teams from each side of the United States per season and relegate two teams for each coast of the United States per season. You could even promote and relegate even more if you please, that is all depending on how the leagues would like the system set up.
Major League Soccer: Pro/Rel Thoughts
The addition of a promotion and relegation system with two levels would instantly boost the power of major league soccer and American soccer as a whole in terms of the rest of the world view of the sport. While it would still take a few years for the Gant even more respect, it would give fans of top-five leagues in Europe that reside in America a reason to watch Major League Soccer.
It would transform those late season games between last place teams into a huge relegation battle as teams will be fighting to stay up and be pushed to spend more money and be more competitive every single season. Would also likely come with some extra ticket sales as the atmospheric boost from a late season relegation matchup or a late season promotion matchup in the bottom level would be a can’t miss occasion for soccer fans around the nation.
So how would you as a fan feel about the idea of promotion and relegation coming to Major League Soccer? Would you be for it, or against it, and what are your reasons why? Would you be more interested in watching American soccer? Or would it make you want to watch it even less?
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