fatlever wrote:Unrelated to Charlotte's chances, I think that MLS is making a big mistake by trying to grow too fast. 28 teams is too many while trying to continue to increase the level of play. Seems that growing that fast will water down the league, which is exactly what shouldn't happen, if we want to improve the overall play and compete with some of the more well know leagues for players. I'd love to see 20 teams, with another 16 or so solid teams in the NASL (that all have solid stadiums), then we can start the promotion, relegation, that we know will never ever happen.
Maybe someone who follows MLS more closely can school me on why it is a good idea to expand the MLS so rapidly.
1. They've expanded pretty rapidly past 15 years and the quality of the league has still increased over time. They've added Toronto, Vancouver, Seattle, Philly, NYCFC, Montreal, RSL, Orlando, and the Current Iteration of San Jose since 2004. (Chivas was added and contracted and in the process of being reborn.) The league is infinitely better now than in 2004. New teams are generally better supported than the original teams.
2. Soccer is a global game and because of US labor law, anyone with a Green Card has to be treated like a domestic player. This means that there is plenty of poachable talent in Central\South America to fill out rosters. A lot of this talent can be counted as domestic roster spots after a couple seasons. Portland is infamous for fielding teams without a single player Eligible for the U.S. National team. (Nagbe was only recently naturalized.) This isn't the NBA\NFL\MLB where a new franchise would have to exclusively use talent from within the league. I also think the average american player is trending more skilled, so I believe the domestic pool of players is growing at a faster rate than the league is. (Its not showing up in the top end talent though)
3. MLS teams have to have Youth Academies. The more academies being run by professional teams the better in my eyes. (long term benefit)
4. Promotion\Relegation is never going to happen; the Jacksonville Jaguars are worth more than AC Milan and the people who are investing in MLS are in it for the Franchise Value.
20 premier league teams for a country of 340 million people as spread out as the U.S. is too little. The U.S. has a population greater than Italy,England, Germany and Spain combined. (Over 100 Million more if you include Canada.)
