So, the MLS recently announced a way that it will be improving the league so it can become one of the best in the world- by unveiling a new logo. Now, the fact that the logo is ugly and that an 8 year old could have designed it is beside the point. This is the point- if MLS thinks that by marketing and piling on new teams it will improve its league, they have another thing coming.
Don Garber and co who are in charge of MLS say that there is no reason for promotion and relegation. They scoff it off and say it won’t happen for 50 years and never happen at all. The fact that they keep doing this shows that they aren’t willing to look at how soccer is successful in other countries and use it here- they want to continue copying the American leagues.
Soccer, in case they didn’t know, did not come from America. If you are going to model a soccer league based off another league, why do it off of a football or basketball league- why not do it after an amazing soccer league? And you know what all the amazing soccer leagues have? 24 teams, a salary cap, and an awful logo. No, promotion and relegation.
The fact that almost every single team gets into the play-offs and that there is no promotion or relegation really makes the MLS season quite pointless. In England and other leagues, the excitement comes from not only following who will get first, but also who will make the Champions League and who will get relegated. That excitement does not come from the MLS, and that does little to help the league.
If teams are going to be in a dog fight to get knocked out of the league, they are going to try harder and want to bring in more quality players, and therefore increase the quality of the MLS. Not only that, but in the US, stories of Hull and Swansea climbing the divisions are not possible. The US is a country of millions of people and soccer players, but without promotion there is no way to tap into that talent. If a team in the USL has an outstanding player, he will never get noticed unless his team his playing in the MLS. Look at how teams in England sign players from nonleague teams- that will never happen as amateur leagues are not taken seriously in the US.
Unfortunately, like the 2022 World Cup being moved from Qatar, promotion and relegation is not a possibility. The bigwigs in MLS are more concerned with marketing, franchises, and money than they are with improving soccer in the US. They honestly could care less whether or not the league is one of the best in 2022. They already think the league is very good, so are living in a fantasy world. A soccer league without promotion and relegation is like having a soccer match without headers. It just won’t work.
