Sep 17 2009
Like AF2, But for Soccer
Some rumors emerged yesterday that the Team Owners Association — the rebel group of American soccer club owners who don’t like the way USL is run and want more say over their league’s future — had arranged a meeting with Major League Soccer officials to discuss the possibility of creating an MLS2, a proper “2nd division” for the USA’s official top-flight league.
Whether this meeting is happening or not, of course, remains a mystery, but the mere mention of it is certain to spark every American soccer fan’s fantasy of a true promotion-and-relegation system. Look! Now we can be just like Europe and South America! New York Red Bulls games might actually have meaning now!
Well, someone needs to piss on this parade, and it might as well be me.
If an MLS2 actually happens — and I have my doubts, despite this ready-made cluster of clubs who would jump at the chance — it won’t be American equivalent of the Coca-Cola Championship. It’ll be the soccer version of ArenaFootball2 — that is, a separate entity that exists only to develop players, build the brand and cheaply expand into markets that aren’t quite developed enough for MLS. Harbor no illusions, Montreal Impact supporters, that you could win your way into MLS from MLS2 and replace San Jose in the process. The Saputos will still have to cut a large check to play, just like the Portland and Vancouver ownership groups did.
This isn’t to say that MLS2 is a bad thing, or that I would be against my Carolina Railhawks joining such a league. There are obvious benefits on both sides.
The TOA member clubs would gain a bit more legitimacy and have a slighty better marketing machine supporting them. Plus, the ownership structure within MLS is closer to what the TOA would like than the current USL model. There are question marks about salary caps and all those arcane allocation rules within MLS, but the owners probably won’t be thinking about that too much. Just being attached to the MLS brand, even at a lesser level, could give clubs a greater sense of legitimacy. Few people know what USL is. They know what MLS is, even if they don’t think that highly of it.
Meanwhile, MLS would practically eliminate its nearest rival by swiping some of USL’s biggest clubs. USL would be relegated to 3rd-division status in the wake of MLS2. Plus, MLS2 could quickly expand into markets MLS currently isn’t reaching, including a soft launch in major league sports cities like Atlanta, Miami, St. Louis and St. Paul. (And Raleigh. We won a Stanley Cup, y’know.) These markets could serve as test beds for future MLS expansion franchises. If Atlanta proves successful in MLS2, its owners could decide to pay the expansion fee, get a bigger stadium built and move up to the top flight. Smaller cities could emerge as decent MLS2 markets, too.
Most importantly for MLS, though, MLS2 could serve as a home for all those reserve squad players who can’t quite make it onto MLS rosters, because… well, MLS rosters are too damn small. So why not put all those squad players in a competitive environment and allow them to be called up to a top-flight club when they’re ready? That might sound a little too much like minor league baseball to some football purists, but AAA teams still draw decent crowds around here, and if MLS could allow MLS2 clubs to maintain some indepedence — like letting them compete in the U.S. Open Cup, for example — they could strike enough of a balance to let supporters feel like their club is still much more than, say, the Durham Bulls. It’s a thin line, but it’s not impossible to tread.
Exciting as this might sound to them, however, American soccer fans need to be reminded how much of a non-starter a pro/rel system is in any American sports league. No MLS owner will want to risk throwing away the huge expansion fee they paid by getting relegated. Sure, in a finer world, they would have to earn it on the pitch, but American sports owners just aren’t built that way. If all those owners choose to keep their league closed, it will remain that way.
That doesn’t mean they wouldn’t sign off on an MLS2, though. Even without a pro/rel system in place, MLS2 has enough other benefits to make it worthwhile for Don Garber and the TOA to team up and launch it. I’d still advise supporters of TOA clubs not to pin their hopes on MLS2 just yet. We’re a long way from writing the final chapter of this sordid tale.
Then again, MLS is taking a World Cup break and playing a balanced 30-game home-and-away schedule in 2010. Suddenly, anything seems possible, doesn’t it?
2 Responses to “Like AF2, But for Soccer”
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to have an MLS2 as a staging area for clubs thinking about moving up to MLS at some point in future (ie by paying the expansion fee); but that’s what USL1 has effectively become anyway. But then there’s no real need for MLS to make such an arrangement official, unless they think that an MLS2 would help to publicize the MLS brand more into markets the MLS currently missing from.
I have no idea why i just read you article. I have no idea what your opinion is. You say it should be a minor league but it wont be because they can play in the open cup. Your logic doesnt connect, try again.