Re: Toronto - imo, no go WAS: [nas] Expansion banter

[Darrin's original comments are below.]

 

First off, good point about the author's original point (although I thought it was Sean Wheelock's article... ;-)  It certainly would be easier to do if MLS is operating at a true Major League level and had more teams - the WUSA situation was very extreme.

 

At the same time, though, if you look at every major sports league in the US that is successful, they have conferences.  Same for college sports.  Why?  MLB originally had an EPL style system (iirc) way back when, but abandonded it for east and west divisions a long time ago - and we know that until recently, baseball has been one of the least 'trend-setting' of the leagues.

 

Additionally, I think playoffs are here to stay, as well.  By the time the average US Joe Six Pack would be ready and understand the idea of a league table-style champion, we will have played with playoffs for so long it probably wouldn't make business sense to drop a whole set of game off the schedule.

 

Promotion and relegation, though, might be something that works (although this is a WAY down the road kind of deal and would require a VERY strong second division - where the drop off is there, but not a business killer).  Amusingly, there are a few sports radio personalities in Dallas that will talk about p/r when they are trying to suggest ways to help baseball's business situation, and they are not afraid to talk about European soccer as an example of how it could work.  I will admit, in some ways, it is very capitalistic/evolusionary (well, at least, survival of the fittest) that could have its own appeal and have some business savvy to it.

 

I will admit, though, I like the fact that we are to a point where we can seriously discuss these possibilities.  The loss of WUSA reminded me a lot of 1984, and I will admit, in some ways, MLS has yet to truly turn the corner and you could make the argument that if you corrolate the MNT to the Cosmos, you once again have one team that everyone points to as "soccer CAN work" in the US, but the rest of the teams struggle.  The sooner we get all of the teams into SSS or other venues where they are financially stable, the better - that is the thing (along with a majority of the players being US players) that could differentiate MLS from the NASL. 

 

BTW, not to bash the NASL, but I recently acquired some NASL footage - thanks to David Brett Wasser, see my website for details on how to contact him - and frankly, I'd rather watch the A-League....  Not that it isn't important - and worth watching - but it sure seemed like the average NASL game was, well, average.

 

So Sez Drum'r Boy
http://flashpages.prodigy.net/klindstr/home.html

----- Original Message -----

From: Casbahman@aol.com

To: nas@americakicks.com

Sent: Saturday, September 20, 2003 1:12 PM

Subject: Re: Toronto - imo, no go WAS: [nas] Expansion banter

In a message dated 9/19/2003 10:54:45 AM Pacific Daylight Time, KLINDSTR@flash.net writes:

Why?  What is the fasination with the EPL when we have
seen as recently as this week that such a system
(which is exactly what WUSA had, btw) puts
extraorginary and unnecessary strain on travel costs.

I think this is a strong point.  I like the EPL's setup because it is a balanced schedule.  Obviously that is required when you don't have playoffs.  But it also works in England because everywhere is basically a 2 or 3 hour train ride away.  It takes me twice that long just to get to southern Calfornia.  A balanced schedule is not financially practical and will not be for some time.  However, in Ridge Mahoney's original article on this, he did say that this would be he ultimate dream, not something that should happen anytime soon.

Darrin