How to break up the league in 2011

[NWsportsfan]

I am wondering what you all think about this:
Keep the status quo (and if so which team heads east?), go to 3 conferences like they had from 2000-2001, or go to one table like so many other soccer leagues do?

[dmbishop]

East
=======
Columbus
New England
New Jersey
Philadelphia
Toronto
Washington

Central
=======
Chicago
Dallas
Denver
Houston
Kansas City
Salt Lake


Pacific
=======
Chivas
Los Angeles
Portland
San Jose
Seattle
Vancouver

[minorleagueguy]

...how about this?

East-
NE
NY
Philly
Wash
Tor

Central-
Col
Chi
KC
Dallas

NorthWest-
Port
SJ
Sea
Van

West-
Chivas
LA
Salt
Den
Hou

[SanJoseEarthquakes74]

Football should only have 1 table, it's as simple as that. Look at how the best leagues in the world are run and you'll get no arguments. MLS also needs promotion and relegation with USL. That's hard for me to say as a life long Quakes supporter, but I know it's for the best.

It's tiresome watching the top footy division on this continent try to ape the NHL, NFL, MLB, etc, with these silly 'divisions' that don't mean a single thing. Get rid of your inferiority complex Garber and run a proper league we can all get behind 100%.

[nksports]

MLS also needs promotion and relegation with USL. That's hard for me to say as a life long Quakes supporter, but I know it's for the best.

As romantic as it sounds, you will never ever see that in American sports. In fact, it's days are numbered in the English Premier League and probably a few other European leagues.

Why? Say I am AEG, Hunt Sports or another one of the big money ownership groups in the MLS. I sank $xxx million into my franchise. While an MLS franchise isn't the most popular in the US (or Canada), it still has considerable value. A franchise dropped from the MLS sees that value plummet.

It worked for so many years in Europe because most of those teams started as local athletic clubs. They were "owned" by their members. Now that European ownership groups often look like the American model, these owners are going to fight to protect their value. A Premier League team is worth millions (of Euros or Pounds or Arab Emirate Dirham) more than an FA team. These people didn't come into the league to see their teams relagated. After the promotion-relagation system is disbanded, look for the salary cap (western European wide) come in to stop the massive spending that only the New York Yankees can rival.

[dmbishop]

Football should only have 1 table

A very important reason for having divisions is to create local rivals and reduce travel costs. In Europe (let's use England as an example) the teams are generally very close together and travel times are rather short. Remember that all of the UK (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/uk.html) is only the size of Oregon and no team in the Premier League is more than a 5 hour drive away from each other. In fact, most of the EPL teams are a lot closer than that. There are 6 teams in London, 8 teams in the Liverpool / Manchester / Blackburn triangle, and 3 teams in Birmingham. That in itself crates natural rivals with virtually no travel.

Having geographic divisions allows teams that are near each other play more often than teams that are 3000 miles away (approximately half the distance between London and Moscow (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_distance_between_London_England_and_Mo scow_Russia)). It's cheaper for the teams and more exciting for the fans.

I understand that tradition is important, it's just that there are circumstances that preclude it from being used in this instance. If the entire MLS was in Northern California cities, I could absolutely see all the teams being in 1 big group, but it's not.

Dave

[Shootmaster_44]

A very important reason for having divisions is to create local rivals and reduce travel costs. In Europe (let's use England as an example) the teams are generally very close together and travel times are rather short. Remember that all of the UK (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/uk.html) is only the size of Oregon and no team in the Premier League is more than a 5 hour drive away from each other. In fact, most of the EPL teams are a lot closer than that. There are 6 teams in London, 8 teams in the Liverpool / Manchester / Blackburn triangle, and 3 teams in Birmingham. That in itself crates natural rivals with virtually no travel.

Having geographic divisions allows teams that are near each other play more often than teams that are 3000 miles away (approximately half the distance between London and Moscow (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_distance_between_London_England_and_Mo scow_Russia)). It's cheaper for the teams and more exciting for the fans.

I understand that tradition is important, it's just that there are circumstances that preclude it from being used in this instance. If the entire MLS was in Northern California cities, I could absolutely see all the teams being in 1 big group, but it's not.

Dave

Now I personally don't have a problem with the multi-division setup the MLS currently uses. But if there is a push toward a single table, they could still schedule based on regional pods. Nobody says that simply because the standings are the entire league top to bottom, that the schedule must feature home and away with all the teams. Granted, it could cause a bit of inequity as a certain pod may have one strong team that gets a lot of its wins against the weaker teams, where as another pod could be evenly matched and it ends up closer to .500. But in a small league such as this, this would happen anyway.

Another idea which soccer purists would scoff at, would be to organize a two-stage schedule. After the all-star break the top teams only play each other and the bottom teams only play each other. The standings stay as is and if a bottom team beats upon the little teams and finishes in first then so be it. Conversely, you could have the top flight simply jockey for playoff position with the bottom finisher out and the top bottom feeder in. Either way you could have the "playoffs" start at the All-star break and use a system akin to the Super 8 for Cricket.

The best idea though would be to simply leave things as is. Once 2011 hits either simply add the teams to the existing divisions or break them into 4 divisions. Three divisions cause problems for the playoffs as it generally involves a complicated tiebreaker or a second set of standings. I say top two from each of the four divisions make the playoffs and play each other in the first round. Split the four divisions into an Eastern and Western Conference, have the winners from each division play each other in the second round and then the conference champs play each other for the MLS Cup.

As an aside, for those decrying the untraditional divisions for the MLS, just remember all club tournaments and international tournaments split the teams into divisions. I have never heard anyone saying the World Cup should become a single table event. So I don't see why the MLS has to.

[Pounder]

Single table with REGIONAL scheduling... WORST IDEA EVER. If you play the single table, play home and home. Funny thing is that Mexico plays a regional table, but everyone plays everyone once... with playoffs after... and two separate seasons (fall-winter and winter-spring)... and a 3-year weighted promotion/relegation system that's been manipulated more than once.

Any further all-star games should be primarily for charity as opposed to a big TV opportunity... perhaps shouldn't even exist. National team matches, especially World Cup qualifiers, obliterate the need for this. Besides...

...Scotland has a variant of this proposal. 12-team premier league doesn't want to play 44 league games, so the teams schedule each other 3 times, then the top 6 play each other the last 5 matches, and the bottom 6 do the same, emphasizing the championship battle in one (even though it's almost always Rangers and Celtic) and the relegation battle in the other.

MLS may very well go to a National League / American League setup down the road... thus allowing them to continue to collect expansion fees while maybe, perhaps, having both single table (or two single tables) AND playoffs. The Open Cup can always feature cross-league play. But that's down the road.