How Would you Run the MLS?

[Munchlaxatives]

Perhaps have franchises in Mexico or some Hispanic brand teams (a la Chivas USA).

Before we got the Dynamo, Houston was a candidate for Club America USA. That would have sucked so much balls.

[Munchlaxatives]

Step 1: Sign Thierry Henry to our biggest market.
Step 2:
Step 3: Profit.

I paid my $30 to go see him.

The problem is, this goes back to the reason earlier leagues failed: fans come to see the old European stars and they stop coming to the games after they inevitably leave. Fans don't go to see the games, they go to say they got to see Pele, Beckenbauer, or in my case, Henry.

[and1GS]

It's not that american football is king...it's really hard to get a soccer game together. No lit up fields and really no grass areas to play at. Only make shift areas like a baseball diamond's outfield exist as the actual soccer fields are few and far between and are usually occupied by club teams.

I'll say this much, if on any given night at 7pm I want to play basketball against above average competition I know of 5 different pick-up locations all with more than 2 courts. Conversely, I know of one soccer field where if a game is in progress...you're out of luck. Also the lights shut off by 10pm...bball you can play indoors in the US but soccer you really can't.

This is all without mentioning how easy it is to find a bball hoop to shoot on while it is damn near impossible to find a regulation soccer goal to shoot on.

People can become legit bball players just by playing pickup, but that can't really happen here with soccer due to a lack of playing opportunities. Leagues are only half the equation. That's not where all your development occurs.

I'm gunna disagree with you here, you can find a field or vacant lot and if not you can play in alleys. I mean the kids in Brazil somehow manage to find a way to play in the Favelas, I've played in alleys before, I've played on deserted lots, I've played in parking lots. That's the beauty of soccer, all you need is a ball, 2 shirts to set up goal posts and one other person to start a game.

Like I said, I can find a ton of palces for random pick up basketball at 6pm on a Tuesday night but there's only one place within 20 minutes of my house that has pickup soccer around then. In Brazil they play pickup with random people...in America if you wanna play in an alley or vacant area you probably need to bring 2 teams, you're not gonna find random people to play with once you get there.

[Parataxis]

It's not that american football is king...it's really hard to get a soccer game together. No lit up fields and really no grass areas to play at. Only make shift areas like a baseball diamond's outfield exist as the actual soccer fields are few and far between and are usually occupied by club teams.

I'll say this much, if on any given night at 7pm I want to play basketball against above average competition I know of 5 different pick-up locations all with more than 2 courts. Conversely, I know of one soccer field where if a game is in progress...you're out of luck. Also the lights shut off by 10pm...bball you can play indoors in the US but soccer you really can't.

This is all without mentioning how easy it is to find a bball hoop to shoot on while it is damn near impossible to find a regulation soccer goal to shoot on.

People can become legit bball players just by playing pickup, but that can't really happen here with soccer due to a lack of playing opportunities. Leagues are only half the equation. That's not where all your development occurs.

I'm gunna disagree with you here, you can find a field or vacant lot and if not you can play in alleys. I mean the kids in Brazil somehow manage to find a way to play in the Favelas, I've played in alleys before, I've played on deserted lots, I've played in parking lots. That's the beauty of soccer, all you need is a ball, 2 shirts to set up goal posts and one other person to start a game.

Like I said, I can find a ton of palces for random pick up basketball at 6pm on a Tuesday night but there's only one place within 20 minutes of my house that has pickup soccer around then. In Brazil they play pickup with random people...in America if you wanna play in an alley or vacant area you probably need to bring 2 teams, you're not gonna find random people to play with once you get there.

Maybe the situation is different in the US than from Canada, but when I was visiting Vancouver, I was walking home from a bar at night, and a pickup soccer game broke out on a pedestrian street. People wearing dark colours vs people wearing light colours.

The play quality wasn't super-high, but it was hella fun.

[and1GS]

Ya that doesn't happen in the US very often. I found a place to play pickup but it's with a bunch of flopping latinos. Makes me want to sit home and play fifa instead.

[jerrod]

i know this thread is getting old now, but i can't believe you guys have such a hard time finding regulation goals and fields. when it's warm here nearly every school and most parks have a field with at least 2 goals

[and1GS]

Most schools with 2 goals and a field are a) private schools where they will kick you off if you're playing or b) they chain their goals up to the fence so nobody can use them.

[jerrod]

well that's lame

it's private of course, but my gym even has a 7 on 7 size field on the roof.

[Munchlaxatives]

Most schools with 2 goals and a field are a) private schools where they will kick you off if you're playing or b) they chain their goals up to the fence so nobody can use them.

Yup. I used to play every Saturday, but then schools, churches, parks, etc, either put gates around the fields, chained the goals together, or otherwise made their fields unavailable.

[Align1]

Looks like I've found this post a little late. Ha ha. Quite late. But, even so, what I would do is try to make the most balanced schedule as possible. Currently, with St. Louis City FC joining in, with a 29-team MLS, if making divisions is frowned upon, then I would also get rid of conferences as well. Keep the 34-game schedule, but make it "boundless" by playing every MLS team at least once (28 games) and then fill in the remaining 6 games playing rival or nearby teams twice. So, play 6 teams twice ea., and play remaining 22 teams once ea. How could this be determined?

One rational unbiased method is as follows: First, determine the average air travel distance each team is to the rest of the MLS. Some teams are more isolated/further away from most of the MLS teams, while others are clustered/closer to the rest of the MLS teams. Next, rank all 29 teams in order, most remote ranked first, closest ranked last. Then go thru 6 rounds of team picks of nearest available teams with which to play twice. The more remote teams get scheduling preference over lesser remote teams. Late in each round of picks, some manual manipulation is probably needed to make the final matchups fair, reasonable, or even possible at all. After several iteration attempts, I came up with the following possible 29-team MLS 34-game SCHEDULE - a kind of skewed balanced schedule where everyone gets preferences:

1) Vancouver Whitecaps FC: 2 games ea. w/ Sea., Por., RSL, SJE, LAG, LAFC
2) Seattle Sounders FC: 2 games ea. w/ Van., Por., RSL, SJE, LAG, LAFC
3) San Jose Earthquakes: 2 games ea. w/ LAG, LAFC, Por., Sea., Van., Col.
4) Portland Timbers: 2 games ea. w/ Sea., Van., SJE, RSL, LAG, LAFC
5) Los Angeles FC: 2 games ea. w/ LAG, SJE, Por., Col., Sea., Van.
6) L.A. Galaxy: 2 games ea. w/ LAFC, SJE, Por., Col., Sea., Van.
7) Inter Miami CF: 2 games ea. w/ Orl., Atl., Cha., Nas., DCU, Cin.
8) Real Salt Lake: 2 games ea. w/ Col., Por., Sea., Van., SKC, Min.
9) New England Revolution: 2 games ea. w/ NYC, NYRB, Mtl., Phi., Tor., CLB
10) Montreal Impact: 2 games ea. w/ NER, Tor., NYRB, NYC, Phi., CLB
11) Orlando City FC: 2 games ea. w/ Mia., Atl., Cha., Nas., Cin., Hou.
12) New York City FC: 2 games ea. w/ NYRB, Phi., NER, DCU, Mtl., Tor.
13) N.Y. Red Bulls: 2 games ea. w/ NYC, Phi., NER, DCU, Mtl., Cha.
14) Austin FC: 2 games ea. w/ Hou., Dal., SKC, StL., Atl., Chi.
15) Houston Dynamos FC: 2 games ea. w/ Aus., Dal., Nas., StL., Atl., Orl.
16) Colorado Rapids: 2 games ea. w/ RSL, SKC, Dal., LAG, LAFC, SJE
17) Philadelphia Union: 2 games ea. w/ NYRB, NYC, DCU, NER, Tor., Mtl.
18) D.C. United: 2 games ea. w/ Phi., NYRB, NYC, CLB, Cha., Mia.
19) Toronto CF: 2 games ea. w/ Mtl., CLB, Phi., NYC, NER, Chi.
20) FC Dallas: 2 games ea. w/ Aus., Hou., SKC, Col., Chi., Min.
21) Charlotte FC: 2 games ea. w/ Atl., DCU, CLB, Orl., NYRB, Mia.
22) Minnesota United FC: 2 games ea. w/ Chi., SKC, StL., Cin., Dal., RSL
23) Atlanta United FC: 2 games ea. w/ Nas., Cha., Orl., Mia., Hou., Aus.
24) Columbus Crew SC: 2 games ea. w/ Cin., Tor., DCU, Cha., Mtl., NER
25) Sporting Kansas City: 2 games ea. w/ StL., Min., Dal., Col., Aus., RSL
26) Nashville SC: 2 games ea. w/ Atl., Cin., StL., Orl., Hou., Mia.
27) Chicago Fire FC: 2 games ea. w/ Cin., StL., Min., Tor., Dal., Aus.
28) FC Cincinnati: 2 games ea. w/ CLB, Nas., Chi., Min., Orl., Mia.
29) St. Louis City FC: 2 games ea. w/ SKC, Nas., Chi., Min., Hou., Aus.

- All team matchups not shown play 1 game ea.

PLAYOFFS: seed all playoff teams as is done currently, except set it up league-wide rather than for conferences. In this way, it is possible for ANY 2 teams to matchup with each other in the MLS Cup championship game. Very interesting!

[Foye]

First thing to do is to reduce the number of teams to 18-20.
There is no way US has the talent pool to have a quality 29 team league. The lower the quality of the games, the less interesting the league is.

With the 9-11 teams that are gone from MLS you can start a second division and initiate promotion/relegation.