USL to Vote on Relegation

[cyfanbr]

Source: USL set to vote on promotion/relegation

The USL is set to vote on whether to adopt promotion and relegation between its divisions, a source confirmed to ESPN.

www.espn.com

Love this move. I’ve discussed this in other topics, but ultimately I think relegation would help soccer keep growing, and maybe at an even faster pace in the US. Probably a pipe dream, but maybe one day MLS and USL will merge and then the relegation system gets implemented across the whole system.

 

[coolerifyoudid]

I love the concept, but I worry about fan and ownership support for relegated teams. Since there aren't teams with deep-rooted fanbases, I feel like many fans will lose interest, and the financial backing won't be there in certain markets.

 

[tman24]

I love the concept, but I worry about fan and ownership support for relegated teams. Since there aren't teams with deep-rooted fanbases, I feel like many fans will lose interest, and the financial backing won't be there in certain markets.

sounds like those owners would have to put effort into having a good team and listening to their fanbase......

 

[WooBadger18]

I'm excited for the vote too and I hope it passes. I think pro/rel would be cool for professional leagues in the U.S., but there are plenty of risks to it, and I don't think you can put the genie back in the bottle if things go badly. So I think it's a good idea to do it between the two USL where I think the differences between the leagues are probably smaller and, to be blunt, you aren't sacrificing your top league if things go really bad. It also gives the USL something to differentiate itself from MLS.

Selfishly, I also live in Wisconsin and would love Iowa, Milwaukee, and Madison to each have a USL team in the same league.

Finally, this gives the Americans who ostensibly don't follow American soccer due to a lack of pro/rel the opportunity to put their money where their mouth is.

 

[coolerifyoudid]

sounds like those owners would have to put effort into having a good team and listening to their fanbase......

I'm not sure if there are enough Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenneys out there.

 

[cyfanbr]

I love the concept, but I worry about fan and ownership support for relegated teams. Since there aren't teams with deep-rooted fanbases, I feel like many fans will lose interest, and the financial backing won't be there in certain markets.

I think it would help fandom. More teams across the US the more tiers you have, then your team is also more likely to be competitive by being in the tier that they currently belong in. Just see MLS or any other top tier sport in the US really. There are certain franchises that honestly are just not competitive and will almost always never be. To me that’s bad for fandom as apathy sets in.

 

[WooBadger18]

I love the concept, but I worry about fan and ownership support for relegated teams. Since there aren't teams with deep-rooted fanbases, I feel like many fans will lose interest, and the financial backing won't be there in certain markets.

I don't know. I feel like the differences between between the two USL leagues are smaller than the differences between the MLS and USLC (although I could be completely wrong on that). If true, that would hopefully lessen the impact of relegation.

Also, I'm hopeful that having it be between the two USL leagues would mean that the fanbases would respond pretty well to relegation. Because your team is not playing in the top league of American soccer. So at that point does it really matter if you are in the USL championship or the USL first league?

To compare it to baseball (which is the sport in the U.S. best suited to pro/rel imo), I would expect to see a massive drop off in fan support if the Boston Redsox were relegated to AAA. I would not expect to see nearly as much of a drop off if the Worchester Redsox were relegated to AA.

 

[BryceC]

I think it would help fandom. More teams across the US the more tiers you have, then your team is also more likely to be competitive by being in the tier that they currently belong in. Just see MLS or any other top tier sport in the US really. There are certain franchises that honestly are just not competitive and will almost always never be. To me that’s bad for fandom as apathy sets in.

Agree to disagree. There is a contingent of soccer fans that are obsessed with relegation but ultimately I think it's all negative. If I were an owner I'd never start a team in a league with relegation. I'd rather have a hard salary cap and keep teams on a level playing field there.

Relegation hasn't helped IMO leagues like Bundesliga and Ligue 1, where 1 team absolutely dominates. Those aren't competitive leagues either.

 

[Urbandale2013]

Agree to disagree. There is a contingent of soccer fans that are obsessed with relegation but ultimately I think it's all negative. If I were an owner I'd never start a team in a league with relegation. I'd rather have a hard salary cap and keep teams on a level playing field there.

Relegation hasn't helped IMO leagues like Bundesliga and Ligue 1, where 1 team absolutely dominates. Those aren't competitive leagues either.

You are always going to have issues on the top end but where it really helps is in the lower level leagues. Where it really helps is when teams get relegated they can rally and win a lot. It therefore keeps lower level teams more engaged.

 

[cyfanbr]

Agree to disagree. There is a contingent of soccer fans that are obsessed with relegation but ultimately I think it's all negative. If I were an owner I'd never start a team in a league with relegation. I'd rather have a hard salary cap and keep teams on a level playing field there.

Relegation hasn't helped IMO leagues like Bundesliga and Ligue 1, where 1 team absolutely dominates. Those aren't competitive leagues either.

Not sure I understand your view point. Why is it all negative?

On your second point, there is more to making a league competitive than promotion/relegation. In League 1 PSG has a huge financial advantage over the other teams, which is what makes that league absolutely garbage, so that no one watches it. However, I once don’t think it is right to reward garbage performance with the number one lottery pick like NFL and NBA does.

 

[brett108]

I love the concept, but I worry about fan and ownership support for relegated teams. Since there aren't teams with deep-rooted fanbases, I feel like many fans will lose interest, and the financial backing won't be there in certain markets.

Why do you say that? It hurts the owners but I think it would be great for the fans. Your team goes from a bottom feeder to actually winning matches in just a year. There’s no languishing in the bottom of a league trying to rebuild and then rebuild again when the coach gets sacked.

 

[tim_redd]

You are always going to have issues on the top end but where it really helps is in the lower level leagues. Where it really helps is when teams get relegated they can rally and win a lot. It therefore keeps lower level teams more engaged.

Forces the teams at the bottom of the standings to be competitive instead of an owner just cashing checks and not caring about winning.

 

[WooBadger18]

Not sure I understand your view point. Why is it all negative?

On your second point, there is more to making a league competitive than promotion/relegation. In League 1 PSG has a huge financial advantage over the other teams, which is what makes that league absolutely garbage, so that no one watches it. However, I once don’t think it is right to reward garbage performance with the number one lottery pick like NFL and NBA does.

I wouldn't say it's all negative, but it definitely contributes to certain teams getting a stranglehold on the league and it can also destroy rivalries. It can also lead to clubs behaving unsustainably in a bid to reach the top league and then going under when that doesn't work.

Also, things like the draft allow fans of all teams to have a realistic chance of winning the league. Karlsruhe is not winning the Bundesliga in my lifetime. And of all of the teams in the 2. Bundesliga only Schalke, Hertha, and Hamburg have a chance of winning the Bundesliga in my lifetime

 

[KnappShack]

Forces the teams at the bottom of the standings to be competitive instead of an owner just cashing checks and not caring about winning.

In a situation like this where the USL is a minor league it seems like a relegation is a death sentence

 

[WooBadger18]

In a situation like this where the USL is a minor league it seems like a relegation is a death sentence

Why would it be a death sentence? I don't see fans of USLC teams caring nearly as much what league they are in

 

[WooBadger18]

One thing to keep in mind about the vote. It's not whether to implement pro/rel in the USL, it's whether there's enough collective interest to warrant working towards creating pro/rel in the USL

 

[Nor'MidWester]

All of the downsides of pro/rel come from the billionaire owner side. I really don't see any downsides for the everyday fan. More teams get a chance to move up in the world (and down making the ending of the season for the bottom tier teams much more exciting), the owners have a stake in the team performing well and the culture of every medium sized city having a team would be amazing. I would jump on a Des Moines based soccer team in a heart beat, it's long due that we have a professional team owned by Iowans, not the farm teams we have now that literally no one cares wins or loses.

 

[KnappShack]

Why would it be a death sentence? I don't see fans of USLC teams caring nearly as much what league they are in

Then why not just go to a 5th grade YMCA league game?

If folks really don't care, that says a lot about the league.

 

[Urbandale2013]

Then why not just go to a 5th grade YMCA league game?

If folks really don't care, that says a lot about the league.

Promotion and relegation is the capitalist method. Fans that support their team will get them to a higher league. When fans don’t care they will move down leagues. Teams from a place like Des Moines may move up to the highest levels as they will likely support the team. Teams in bigger cities may be at a lower level as they just have less interest. You can have teams like in Cedar Rapids that float in a middle level. They want to move up but if they get relegated it isn’t the end of the world.

 

[mj4cy]

I would love to see this and hope it would go well.


I'm already excited to see how the 3 new teams will fair this upcoming season in the Premier League. Also interested to see how the relegated teams bounce back.