The Canadian Soccer League doesn’t have a pro-rel system, either, but it’s mostly a semipro league, and there are MLS and USL teams in Canada.

So, here’s a novel idea…

What if states/provinces with large association football communities (like New York, Washington, Ontario, California, etc) each had their own governing bodies and domestic league systems (with pro/rel). The winners of each state Premier League would get a berth in the CONCACAF Champions Cup, where Amero-Canadians would have a chance to see their greatest clubs face one another while facing the greatest clubs from the rest of CONCACAF.

Don’t say there isn’t enough support for this system, and England is about the size of three US states and has thousands of clubs. True athletic clubs can only form where the emphasis is on amateur play and local play FIRST, and professional play LATER.

The real stumbling block is getting FIFA to grant governing bodies to states it doesn’t consider ’sovereign.’ It did for the constituent countries of the UK, but it probably wouldn’t here. I would love to root for a New York national team if that ever happened, but oh well. A possible way around said block is if the USSF/CSA delegates its powers to states/provinces. It’s not like their really ‘governing’ anything now anyway—just kissing MLS butt.

Viva decentralizacion. Viva futbol!

joejoejoe: I won’t take you up the USL-1 and -2 teams, but to put the PDL teams in any way on the same level as the professional teams seems a bit off base to me. The PDL teams are made up of college kids playing in their off-season and they have to toe the line on NCAA amateurism rules. I don’t think they’re adding an awful lot to the demand for high-level soccer in the States.

Dave: I only even give a darn about soccer because I went to a live game, after giving up more than once trying to watch soccer on TV. I think the difference may even even more than the legendary difference between seeing ice hockey live versus on TV. Having been bitten by the bug, I can appreciate the game on TV much more than before, but I don’t think we should let Soccer be a TV-only experience. I will try to support the highest level of outdoor soccer in the US, whatever its shortcomings, and I just happen to believe that more progress can be made by supporting MLS and encouraging the league’s evolution than from yet another cycle of tearing it down, waiting half a generation, and starting again from (almost) scratch.

That said, I do hope something happenes to prove me wrong about pro-rel, because I think it’s a wonderful system when revenue is shared properly. Also, we have GOT to do something to fix the MLS playoffs: 8 of 13 teams into a simple, three round tournament! It’s a joke, and I hate it, but I will keep watching for all the reasons I explained above.

Given the land mass of America and the limited travel options at the time, it probably wasn’t a bad idea. A lot of those same limitations don’t exist in this century, though.

The USL Rochester team averages 10,000 fans a game. That’s better than 2 MLS franchises. I didn’t even know the USL existed as it’s presently constructed until a few weeks ago. There is a lot of organic support for soccer in the US that goes untapped because of the MLS business model – sell for the sake of selling – instead of building the game.

*sigh*

“The irony here is that some people think making soccer more like other American sports will pull more American fans. Again, this is just more horse shit. American soccer fans don’t want more commercial breaks, more loud music or more cheerleaders…”

I think at some point, the goal is not to attract more American soccer fans, but to CREATE more. Appealing to a broader range of soccer fans in the US is just chasing rapidly diminishing returns.

USL First Division average 4,600 fans a game and has 13 teams. There are 10 Second Division teams and 63 Premier Development League teams. That’s 86 communties with soccer to follow tranfers, promotion, relegation. A PDL team might sell a player to First Division – a mid-table First Division team put a player on loan to a PDL team trying to get promoted.

There is a lot to follow but it’s FUN to follow this stuff if you are soccer fan. If you are a soccer fan in Atlanta it’s easier to support your local side even if they are First Division than to get excited about the Kansas City Wizards vs. Real Salt Lake on TV?

Read Yanks Abroad – there are 50+ Americans playing in the various leagues in Europe. You can root for American soccer success without rooting for MLS.

http://www.uslsoccer.com/schedules/2007/6187380.html

I’m rooting for the USL to take off and the MLS to either accept relegation/promotion as the Premiere Division in North America or to fail. Closed leagues are about franchise profits, not competition. You can have both with relegation/promotion.

I see your point, and I understand that travel costs are a huge reason why “pro-rel” seems unlikely to happen in America. The original closed-corp franchise model was created by American baseball owners in large part because they feared travel costs would eat into the budgets of relegated teams. Perhaps the pure economics of the situation just makes the whole idea unfeasible.

On the other hand, that doesn’t mean I have to like it, and it certainly doesn’t make MLS any less a dead-end league for footballers, from what I can see. The entire system could use an overhaul. Until it gets one, I’ll stick with the Prem, thanks.

The upshot is this: a relegated team in England can count on travel costs being reasonable, on the ownership & fans understanding that this is how it works, and that Association football is by far the dominant team sport in their country.

A team in America that was relegated from MLS would suddenly find that their revenues had been reduced to almost nothing while travel budgets and other expenses would stay pretty much the same. Even the promoted USL team would likely find its stadium inadequate, the costs of paying the salaries astronomical, and suddenly the small profit or bearable loss the team took last year balloons into something crippling, and there is no pot of the gold at the end of the rainbow where the owners can make back all the operating losses by selling the team for a profit.

Good call on the Copa Libertadores, though, and I hope the concafcaf tie in with copa america will be a good first step.