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It won't happen. What may end up happening is a minor league system similar to baseball. Where the top flight MLS club has an affiliate in the NASL where they can develop young talent.
A professional team in Wilmington, NC will not be able to survive financially in the same manner a team in Norwich, England has not been able to survive in the Premiere League.
I think travel has something to do with it too. All of the cities in the United States are spread out, and to get from one coast to the other is about 3,000 miles while outside of New York all of the cities only have 1 team. Relegation works better in England where 1 city has about 10% of the league's team, and the 2 farthest cities (probably Swansea to Newcastle) aren't more then 320 miles away which is roughly the same distance as Boston, MA to Philadelphia, PA is.
I'm an American,and a HUGE fan of pro/relin other countries, but not here. As has been said, we are too unstable. Both our leagues and our teams.
Somebody was talking about women's soccer. Even worse on that side. Though I do think at some point, there could be a women's U.S. Open Cup with the NWSL, W-League, and WPSL. But no pro-rel, and unfortunately no Women's Champions League like in UEFA.
There are some even more minor leagues that apparently do have a little bit of promotion/relegation, as I think the Dayton Dutch Lions, a development team somewhat affiliated with FC Twente, got promoted recently.
Did they actually get promoted or just move on from a different league ? Houston Dutch Lions here play in USL and its all conferences and no promo/rel.
Did they actually get promoted or just move on from a different league ? Houston Dutch Lions here play in USL and its all conferences and no promo/rel.
They promoted themselves from the PDL to USL PRO prior to the 2011 season. They relegated themselves back to the PDL for 2015.
I suggest Rochester Rhinos, Richmond Kickers, Wilmington Hammerheads, Charleston Battery and Pittsburgh or Harrisburg.
Why would MLS want to expand to small television markets such as Rochester, Wilmington, and Harrisburg? And what makes you think that owners in those cities would want to pony up a $100 million expansion fee? Let's be realistic here. Of those cities, only Pittsburgh has a remote chance of having a MLS franchise one day. And I don't see that happening anytime soon because there are larger television markets to be had (where median annual incomes are higher, which appeals to the corporate advertisers).
Promotion and relegation will never happen in the U.S. because the league doesn't want to lose teams from the most coveted markets (NY, LA, Chicago). The television networks won't pay much for MLS rights if the largest markets are not represented in the league. Also, relegation to a second division would kill attendance. You cannot expect fans in existing MLS cities to settle for minor league soccer games when they are used to watching their teams in the top-flight. Similarly, you cannot expect owners to make an investment risk ($100M expansion fee for starters) when there is no guarantee that the team will remain in MLS.
Fans in smaller markets that aren't worthy of Major League Soccer will have to settle for minor league and amateur soccer (or they can support the closest MLS team like Don Garber told Cleveland fans to do) because pro/rel will never happen in this country.
I used to live in Pittsburgh and still keep track of their USL club, Riverhounds. They just went in front of a bankruptcy judge not too long ago. Easy does it in Pgh.
MLS is still single entity. Ownership among all levels of US soccer is not stable enough. Relegation would be disastrous. NASL and USL and supported enough. It's all about the money.
It's not disastrous in the 100+ other soccer leagues around the world that use it.
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