...just listening to some Bob, Visions of Johanna...day after turkey day...should be studying evidence and corporations, but rather i will waste some time on big soccer. here are my visions of MLS... -----EASTERN CONFERENCE----- ATLANTIC DIVISION NE Revolution Metrostars FC NYC Philadelphia Athletic DC United MID-WEST DIVISION Chicago Fire Columbus Crew Kansas City Wizards Detroit Express St. Louis Americans -----WESTERN CONFERENCE----- WEST DIVISION Real Salt Lake Colorado Rapids FC Dallas CAF Houston Caballeros CD Alamo City PACIFIC CD Chivas USA LA Galaxy SJ Earthquakes Seattle Sounders Portland Timbers -I'm not a single table proponent (like many out there), as I like the idea of fostering regional rivalries, and I think divisions help that. -As far as scheduling...let's go with 2(h) and 2(a) with teams in your division would be a start. that's 16 matches right there. a home and away with the other division in your conference. that's 10 more matches. one match against the remaining 10 teams, totaling 36 matches or 1 match against 4 or 6 of the other teams based on some strenght of schedule formula (to keep the total to 30 or 32 matches) -I think Chivas and Galaxy is going to be a great rivalry. If turns out to be, I think a 2nd team in NY or Chicago at some point wouldn't be a bad idea. -Given the size and diversity of the markets, I think it is inevitable that the league expands to Houston, Philadelphia and Seattle at some point. -Detroit, San Antonio, Portland and St.Louis have all been mentioned at some point (to varying degrees) on these boards...they fit well into my divisions so i picked them. -btw, i just pulled the the expansion team names out of the air...the first thing that came to my mind (im sure most of them have been tossed around before). i really gotta study...the business judgment rule and the duty of care are calling my name.
you left out teams from the southeast, i dont think mls would leave out a team from that region. i see charlotte, atlanta, or florida getting a team by 2010. i think the mls should expand to 22 by breaking it into 2 12 team divisions. no promotion/relegation. just purely for the sake of expanding. i dont care what teams are in what division but i see it being: (existing 12) west la galaxy san jose cd chivas real slc colorado fc dallas 96 east kc wizards dc united chicago ne revs metrostars columbus (expansion 12) east nyc (empire fc) philly (philly union) atlanta (ac atl) miami (rebirth of the fusion?) charlotte (inter-carolina) rochester (rochester rhinos) west detroit (detroit city) houston (club houston) portland (portland timbers) seattle (seattle sounders) las vegas (vegas) phoenix playoffs would happen seperatly in each division. there would be a "mls cup" for both divisions seperatly. the winners of each division cup would meet up against each other for the champions cup. there could be promotion/relegation but it wouldnt make since because it wouldnt mean anything because each division would be equal in parity. this brings the league total to 24 teams. again this is a long shot but this is how i would like to see it.
Here's mine! Boston FC Hartford City FC Providence FC Metro Stars FC Cosmos FC Philadelphia FC DC United FC Rochester FC Chicago FC Columbus Crew FC Los Angeles FC San Jose FC Chivas FC FC Dallas 96 Denver FC Seattle FC Portland FC Real Salt Lake City MLS renamed "The Soccer League" No playoffs and Promotion/Relegation will exist.
The terms are interchangable. FC sounds more professional in my opinion (as 'soccer club' seems to be a youth soccer term). I'd have called it the "Football League" but there's already one of those.
The names are fine, pretty good even (as compared to the other plan currently in this thread). As I seem to be the only one who advocates non-traditional team names while everyone else would like to put an SC or whatever the other two letters are in front of the city name, this is a fairly reasonable compromise. Eventually, though, MLS will have to bring in a Canadian city or two into the fold. Whether it's in the next expansion round or the one after that, Toronto or Vancouver will be in the league mix. mls2atl is also right, a team from Florida or Atlanta would spring to mind for further expansion, which is why a 24-team league would be preferable. I think the problem with that is inter-conference play would make the season too long. Might have to mean an eastern team and a western team can only meet in the MLS Cup. So throw in playoffs and no pro/rel and this one's a winner.
Seems to work well in every other league. Instead of 2 teams having the largest amount of games, why not let all the teams have the same amount? We could help parity without the d#@$ salary cap.
FIFA rules state that a league cant have more than 18 teams. So here's how I see it when we finally reach 18. East: New England MetroStars D.C. United Rochestor Chicago Columbus Kansas City St. Louis Houston West: Los Angeles Chivas USA RSL San Jose Dallas Colorado Seattle San Antonio Oklahoma
I heard Japan has playoffs. No, wait...I live in Japan. They do have playoffs. I'm sorry, I wasn't listening. What's this about "every other league" again?
If MLS wants more than 18, FIFA will grant an exception. Why? Same reason that every rule in FIFA is created...money*. *synonym often used: "for the good of the game"
and I could swear I was watching a Mexican playoff game today. But it was in Spanish, so maybe I'm mistaken
If it was the Toluca game then yes it was a home and home 2 leg playoff the winner i believe plays the winner of Atlas v. Guatalajara "Chivas" for the apatura or clausura what ever it is this season.
League or division? I believe that once a league hits 18 it needs to create a second division to hold another 18, etc. The goal, as stated by MLS, is to eventually consisit of a single division of 18 teams. That doesn't mean a single table; we will still organize the teams into conferences. The sheer size of the country encourages that arrangement. If soccer ever really takes off, the issue of a second division -- and promotion/relegation -- will have to be seriously considered. As of now, the USL has reconfigured into a 1st Division and 2nd Division. I suppose that makes MLS our Premiere League.
Other leagues have more than 18 teams, also. FIFA declared that 18-team rule only in the past couple of years, after those leagues were formed. They now use whatever influence they care to (at this point, not much) to try to get the individual FA's to conform. So far, the Football Association, among others, is virtually ignoring the rule. In fact, I can't think of a country which has conformed to it at this point, which obviously means that the rule amounts to so much pissing into the wind on FIFA's part.
I'm not sure they are so inflexible that a leage can NOT have more than 18 teams. They just want to keep the number of games to a reasonable level and assume that all teams would play all other teams home and away. With regional conferences (and playoffs at the end to bring the conferences together), that wouldn't necessarily be the case, and the league could grow to larger than that without teams needing to play too many games. I honestly don't think FIFA would have a problem with that, and considering the large geographic area (and wealth and population) of the U.S., a league with more teams divided into regions actually makes more sense to me than a smaller, single-table league.
This is one point on which, if all goes well (and soccer does indeed grow as popular as I'm sure we all hope), MLS might go its own way on this issue. If there really are more than 18 cities and owners willing and able to support top-level soccer teams, I suspect MLS might continue to grow beyond 18 teams, dividing regionally (with playoffs to bring the regional tables together at the end of the season) rather than forcing some teams into lower divisions. I just don't think that once the pride of cities and major investors is involved that they will tolerate being relegated (assuming that they are financially successful enough to want to continue).
mine...10 in each division...2 games against division opponents (18) and 1 against other conference (10) and an extra game against two teams from the other conference for a total of 30 regular season games...top 4 in each conference make the playoffs...single elimination playoffs... WEST - Los Angeles Galaxy San Jose Earthquakes Kansas City Wizards FC Dallas Colorado Rapids CD Chivas USA Real Salt Lake Seattle Evergreens Portland Pioneers Houston Apollos EAST - DC United Chicago Fire Columbus Crew New England Revolution MetroStars Rochester Rhinos Miami Sharks Detroit Wolves Philadelphia Independence New York Empire
My vision of MLS is this: - 24 teams, 8-team playoffs, first round is best-of-five - regular season overtime - no promotion/relegation - mandated American football-style field markings - goals from outside the 18 count as double - every season, MLS draws from a pot containing all the FIFA LOTG that haven't been broken yet, and breaks the one that's drawn - plastic horns for every fan under 16 There. That way, in the future, if I've ever said something that's inconsistent with what's here, you can feel free to quote me in your reply.
Personally, I think 24 teams is too many. 18 is perfect. Play each team twice (home and away) for a total of 34 games.