I prefer how European sports league work!

[Stubblejumper]

Originally Posted by sammbriggs

spot on. i didn't say their leagues were perfect. imo, 80% of their squads should be homegrown. in europe it is illegal to stipulate that the players have to be born within a certain area, but to work around that law, they can stipulate that the 80% of the team has to come through the ranks. ie they have to be playing in the youth development squad for a stipulated period of time before they sign a pro contract with that club. that is what i would do.

perhaps i just yearn for the days when our local team played your local team. nowadays, my local team has more players from your neck of the woods than your team and vice versa.

That's understandable, and something I can relate to. It wasn't so different in North America, years ago, either. Though there's never been any geographical rules, players, especially stars, tended to play their entire career with one team. Nowadays, it's pretty rare for a player to do that.

Originally Posted by sammbriggs

no doubt about it, way too hard to implement. nevertheless, i have no sympathy with the owners. business is a risk/reward system, not just a reward system. what kinda gets my goat is that the sports franchises are endorsed by govt. i have no problem with the leagues being private, but then the president shouldn't be out there throwing pitches, unless he did so for any competing leagues too

Fair enough, though most smaller leagues will get celebrity/alumni to throw a ceremonial first pitch too. It's just an issue of not being big enough to attract the same kind of star quality. Minor league teams might end up with the mayor or state governor rather than the president, for example.

[e_cuyler]

Way too big a gap between the minor and major sports leagues in North America for some type of relegation system to work here. I'm pretty sure even the worst major league sports teams here are way, way better than even the best minor league team. Part of it is because I think the purpose of minor league teams is a lot different here.

[manderly6]

Originally Posted by sammbriggs

no doubt about it, way too hard to implement. nevertheless, i have no sympathy with the owners. business is a risk/reward system, not just a reward system. what kinda gets my goat is that the sports franchises are endorsed by govt. i have no problem with the leagues being private, but then the president shouldn't be out there throwing pitches, unless he did so for any competing leagues too

You don't have to sympathize with the owners, they would never allow it to happen. As for your throwing out the first pitch comment, exactly what competing league are you talking about?

[paull805]

Originally Posted by Stubblejumper

Scotland's never had a Premier League champion other than Celtic or Rangers.

Rangers, Celtic, Dumbarton, Dundee, Dundee United, Hearts, Hibernian, Third Lanark, Aberdeen, Kilmarnock and Motherwell have all won Scotland's top flight but not the re-branded Scottish Premier League, but I think things are changing with Rangers being caught out for spending to much money and kicked out the Scottish Premier League.

[Dopo]

In Europe the worst team gets relegated to 2nd division
In America the worst team gets the 1st draft pick