Totally bored as I'm at home sick on my days off, Manchester United aren't playing and Torquay just lost, and theres nothing to do in this forum either with it being post season, so I thought I'd resurrect one of the threads lost in the crash, basically it's your vision of what the MLS will look like in 2030 given it's current growth, so basically fully expanded and a top league in the states.

Heres mine:

Basically it'd be set up as two seperate leagues (like MLB), but one in the East and one in the West, inter-conference games would still be played but more games would be played against teams in your division. The end of season play offs would be inter conference, so 1st in East would play 4th in West, 2nd in West would play 3rd in West etc etc

East Conference
New England Revolution (existing)
New York Red Bulls (existing)
Toronto FC (existing)
DC United (existing)
Chicago Fire (existing)
Memphis Rogues (moved from Kansas City)
Indianapolis Steelers (moved from Columbus)
Saint Louis Crusaders
Atlanta Phoenix
New York Skyliners
Philadelphia Independence
Montreal Impact
Miami
Detroit
Milwaukee
Chicago Hielo ()

Western Conference
Los Angeles Galaxy (existing)
Los Angeles Aztecs (current Chivas USA)
Real Salt Lake (existing)
Houston Dynamo (existing)
FC Dallas (existing)
Colorado Rapids (existing)
San Jose Earthquakes (2008 expansion)
Seattle Sounders (2009 expansion)
Las Vegas Aces
Vancouver Whitecaps
Phoenix
San Francisco
Portland Timbers
Sacramento
San Diego
Hawaii Warriors (what the hell, lets have a wild card, airtravel is cheap these days)

Great idea for a thread. Does it have to be in terms of the teams and expansion or could it be about different rules and developments regarding players?

Indianapolis Steelers?!?!?! that sounds wrong on so many levels not the least of which being that the team moved from Columbus.

Good on ya to give a team to San Diego, I'm thinking Border FC or San Diego/Tijuana Metrostars

edit: fuck it, you just cant beat San Diego Sockers

Anything, rules, league set up, expansion teams anything at all.



Ha I couldn't think of a name for them, so just pinched it considering Indy was heavy industry based in the end I just gave up trying to think up names, haha.

or maybe from a curent team pittsburgh steelers? ha

great thread.


where do you guys think we'll s tand compared to other leagues?

With all the Hispanics, Bosnians and Serbs in Florida you only have one team there? Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville would probably have a team. Three big cities with tons and tons of kids playing the game.

Google's cache of the original thread.

Haha thats where I pinched it from

As for where MLS stands, I can see:

NFL
MLB
MLS
NBA
NHL
NLL (National Lacrosse League )

Tampa's been tried and it failed, Jacksonville aint exactly a major market and theres much more pressing markets than Orlando for certain. Besides the majority of Hispanics in Florida are Cubans, they like baseball not football. The only reason I put Miami in, is for a presence in Florida and another team in the south outside Atlanta and Memphis, plus the fact theres a larger population and more money floating around Miami than the other Floridian cities.



Indeed, I just figured that given recent expansion news and what we now know as opposed to back then, it'd just be aswell to make a whole new thread given the new situation of the league.

well id go with a 20 team league, and change it to a single standing league. and in that Id put the league winner in the copa libertadores group stage, 2nd qualifies and third goes to the copa suda america. the open cup winners also go to the suda america. bottom three relegated to usl one and three go up. Id make it so that usl sends 3 down to usl 2 nd usl two sends for down to state leagues, winner of state preimer leagues (they do exist) go to usl 2 on alottery. id make it to come up to the mls and to usl even, you need to have a set stadium plan and a good budget, an donations could help. the scottish spl does a similar thing with the lower teams who come up. there is no point in going to the concaaf champions cup (champions league in 2009) the mexicans like the libertadores and suda americana better and the exposure will help the mls.

The N.L.L. is indoor and I think it stinks. However, there is an entertaining (in my opinion) outdoor league called Major League Lacrosse (I am a New Jersey Pride fan).

They also have an Arena Football League (I am a Buffalo Destroyers fan).

As for where Major League Soccer might stand, I will now make a list, but it is all an educated guess.

N.F.L.
American League
National League
National Basketball Association
Major League Soccer
National Hockey League
Arena Football League
National Lacrosse League
Major League Lacrosse

What would have been good is if the most consistent Premiership teams had adopted a state or two.

For instance Arsenal - NY, Chelsea - LA etc.

The clubs would be feeder clubs for Premiership teams younger talents, and we could have even hosted Premiership games in our adoptive states and then vice versa.

I think that would have been mutually beneficial and Soccer would have had a bigger impact in the US.

The only problem I see is the Allocating of the states as there are only a small number of Consistent Premier League teams and 50 states. I suppose it would have been good to also include other leagues and have Barcelona, Juventus, AC Milan, Bayern etc also joining in.

Oh well it is too late but it would have been a great Idea.

I suppose the only other negative is that with the US being sooooooooo big and powerful commercially, the league may have become the best in the world which will be to the detriment of the Epl.

Look at the English town of York, as compared to New York, they took it to a whole. 'Nother. Le-vel.

The National Hockey League already uses a similar system (called a Farm System) to develop its players. My own New York Islanders develop their players through a feeder team named Bridgeport Sound Tigers, which plays its home games in the State of Connecticut. It is a system that I do not like, because instead of fighting for promotion to the N.H.L. (which would give them a chance at such awards as the Stanley Cup and the President's Trophy), the feeder teams are forever subject to the whims of their parent clubs.

Chivas of Guadalajara have already adopted part of the State of California by placing a new Chivas U.S.A. team in Los Angeles, which is not something that I believe in. I expected them to have a Name the Team contest, but instead, they permanently kept what I thought was only a temporary name, Chivas U.S.A.

This is Major League Soccer. It is a North American League containing North American clubs.

This is not a Farm League, therefore I think that Farm Teams should be kept out of it. I believe the same thing about the United Soccer Leagues, which already contain a Crystal Palace U.S.A. team that plays its home games in Baltimore, Maryland.

18 team league. Single table.
Promotion and relegation from the PDL up.
No Salary cap.
International player restriction set to 6.
FIFA dates being recognized by MLS.
Youth academies actually matter.
College soccer abolished.

Somewhere, I remember being told that it is difficult for high school graduates in the U.S.A. to receive football (soccer) scholarships. This causes many people to quit playing organized football after they go off to college, and that in turn is not good for the develoment of the game of football in North America.

The problem is, I can't remember where I received that information. It may have been from a radio show, or it may have been posted in these forums.

Not really, Los Angeles Galaxy are quite free to compete for Californian players, and other teams can pick up players from California via the draft or just by signing them, Chivas have no claims to California whatsoever. Also Chivas USA is moving away from the status of a feeder team, by getting more investors onboard and moving away from the Mexi-centric playing staff (which is having a good effect on the playing field).

Chivas USA is an awful idea anyways, one by focusing solely on the Hispanics your depriving yourself of a large market and two by explictly linking the club to Chivas de Guadalajara you're further reducing your pool of potential fans by alienating non Chivas supporting Mexicans. Renaming them as the Los Angeles Aztecs or something like that would be much better, they could still continue with the Mexican focused marketing, but with a name that alienates blacks and whites less and one that doesn't just limit itself to a certain Mexican fanbase.

That being said, I agree MLS isn't a farm league and the sooner Chivas changes it's brand and severs explicit ties with Guadalajara the better, I have nothing against them having the same owners just them being seen as a feeder/farm team to the Mexican version.



Clicky

One of the best post I have ever read. I just think there is one fault with blaming college soccer for the slow growth of the sport in America, there were schools that abandoned American football in favor of soccer. I realize that American football still takes up most scholarship opportunities in college, there is still an argument that title IX helped soccer survive.

Making the MLS a farm system for other leagues would be a bad decision and so would be abolishing college soccer. I think that the elite players should go into MLS academies, but what about the ones on the fringes that still want to get a good education. They could possibly blossom into good players and if they don't, they have something to lean on.

Yeah that's what I was trying to remember. Thanks.

Its hard to justify college soccer when it becomes second class. College baseball has made it through all these years, but the main reason for that has been the established history of baseball in America. And it is one of the least profitable (male) sports in college athletics.
I agree that education is important and the price of college is ridiculous, but it just doesn't seem that necessary to have it anymore.
And I hope most MLS academies are able to identify talent enough to see players that will blossom in their early twenties.