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Relegation in the MLS – Grant Wahl’s thoughts

By on August 6, 2014

Where to start? There are so many opinions regarding the future of Major League Soccer, not the least because of its growing popularity – and the sport’s broader following. While there are many opinoins, generally, they boil down to one of two things: either take the league in the direction in which European’s top leagues went, or keep to the path it has taken so far. And to be fair, this has been quite a bold one – so far, the league has warred off all criticisms from across the pond and kept to the trademark American Conference Playoff system.

Sure, this league system made sense when the league was comprised of just ten teams when it began, hardly enough for even one division. But already twenty-two franchises have been accepted into the league, with more rumored to be coming. At this point, it seems that a relegation and promotion system like that found in Europe’s top leagues makes increasing sense, rather than a league split into two conferences – the Western and Eastern Conference – that compete in a playoff cup at the end of the season. The benefits of an official second tier seem obvious to global soccer fans: more excitement at the bottom of the table, and a place for youngsters to get their chance to grow without leaving the league system. Yet MLS commissioner Mark Abbott said today that MLS has “never” planned to change from its unique, at least for this sport, rules.

“As far as relegation is concerned, I would love to see it someday, but I just understand the business realities.” – Grant Wahl

Speaking to me at Candlestick Park just ahead of the World Cup, the leading soccer journalist in the US, Grant Wahl, helped explain why – the league’s major driving force of owners. “Right now it’s very hard to get anyone, any owner, to drop millions of his own dollars into joining a league that they may not be a part of in a couple years,” Wahl said. As Abbott said himself, in comments published by SI.com, the leagues owners being “competitions on the field and business partners off the field.”

But Wahl did stress the importance he sees in a second division.

“I think there already are sort of minor soccer leagues in the US that the MLS has developed a relationship with, like USL Third Tier, where they are having to affiliate with MLS teams,” he said. ”
They can take young MLS players and give them playing time that helps them when they go back to the MLS teams. You saw Dom Dwyer at Kansas City last year, he went on loan in the USL, and then went and rejoined Kansas City and had an impact on Kansas City winning the league.”

And even if the MLS doesn’t start a relegation system, they still could just an official second tier. Wahl agrees something like this could be a possibility.

“It’s tough, so maybe in fifty years it would be neat to see promotion and relegation; I could see it potentially happening if MLS ever got big enough to have like forty teams and have a MLS 1 and MLS 2. But even then you could have movement between 2 and 1, but you probably wouldn’t want to have any between 2 and then the next tier down.”

But relegation may “never” happen, according to Abbott. Now, this implies a few problems apart from the obvious lack of competition late in the season at the bottom of the pack (granted, the league’s relative parity partly makes up for it). Namely, that comes in one of its main sources of growth: European talent. With their system remaining the way it is, European’s views of the league won’t change without the league doing more to prove itself. And in that comes the fact that a lot of their growth will come from attracting European talent, where the majority of the best currently play.

“MLS has talked big about wanting to become one of the world’s top soccer leagues by 2022, and there is a lot that needs to happen between now and then.”

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.