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After living in Europe and comparing how American sports leagues work compared to European, i can say without a doubt the European systems work better.
take European soccer. any team can make it into the big leagues. every year, the bottom 3 teams in a league get demoted to the lower leagues. the top 3 teams of a particular league, get promoted to the higher league. IMO, this is preferable to the franchise system which, IMO, protects mediocrity.
i'll use the example of the Toronto maple leafs. they're arguably the biggest, hockey mad city on the planet and their team hasn't won the Stanley cup in nearly 50 years, yet they play to a full house every game and therefore the owners have very little incentive to win. in Europe, a city like Toronto would have anywhere from 5-20 professional soccer teams. with no guarantee of a place in the top league, the sport is more competitive.
I agree. I would like to see the NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL all have minor leagues with AAA, AA, and A. The teams that finish last place get demoted to a lower level, and the teams that win the championship get promoted to a higher level. It would make minor league sports way more exciting because every city in america could potentially work their way into the majors if they can keep winning titles at each level. It would be interesting to see which small town would be the first to climb up to the highest level. The attendance at minor league sports would have a huge increase if fans thought that their local team could get promoted to the next level.
I agree. I would like to see the NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL all have minor leagues with AAA, AA, and A. The teams that finish last place get demoted to a lower level, and the teams that win the championship get promoted to a higher level. It would make minor league sports way more exciting because every city in america could potentially work their way into the majors if they can keep winning titles at each level. It would be interesting to see which small town would be the first to climb up to the highest level. The attendance at minor league sports would have a huge increase if fans thought that their local team could get promoted to the next level.
i think you put it better than me. that's exactly what i meant. as things stand, there are whole states without an nfl, nba, mlb or nhl franchise. i don't like that. i however would imo improve the european system by stating that a certain percentage of players had to be local. it would be cool to see the lower leagues battling for a place in the majors.
There's certainly some merit to promotion/demotion systems, but overall competitiveness isn't one of them.
It seems very common for a select group of teams to dominate a league. Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea have collectively won 18 of 20 Premier League titles. Real Madrid's won a third of La Liga titles. Scotland's never had a Premier League champion other than Celtic or Rangers.
By contrast, and to use your example, the NHL is probably the closest to team parity of any professional league - There hasn't been a seriously dominant team since the 1980's, and it's fairly common for a dark horse team to make a deep run in the playoffs.
I think that would be extremely hard to implement at this point. It is just way too different from what people know and expect.
I also imagine no owner of a pro sport would go along with this. They paid hundreds of millions of dollars for some of these teams. They sure as heck aren't going to agree to a system where they get knocked down to a lower league and have the value of their franchise decimated.
And football and basketball don't even have a minor league system at this point. Just college.
There's certainly some merit to promotion/demotion systems, but overall competitiveness isn't one of them.
It seems very common for a select group of teams to dominate a league. Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea have collectively won 18 of 20 Premier League titles. Real Madrid's won a third of La Liga titles. Scotland's never had a Premier League champion other than Celtic or Rangers.
By contrast, and to use your example, the NHL is probably the closest to team parity of any professional league - There hasn't been a seriously dominant team since the 1980's, and it's fairly common for a dark horse team to make a deep run in the playoffs.
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.
I think that would be extremely hard to implement at this point. It is just way too different from what people know and expect.
I also imagine no owner of a pro sport would go along with this. They paid hundreds of millions of dollars for some of these teams. They sure as heck aren't going to agree to a system where they get knocked down to a lower league and have the value of their franchise decimated.
And football and basketball don't even have a minor league system at this point. Just college.
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
Small clubs will only ever win the right to play in the big leagues, never win them. Kind of pointless and condescending, really.
fair comment, but they used to, esp in england. the reason that used to happen was because if you were born in a certain area, you played for your local team. sure some players moved, but that was the exception.
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