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| Support for relegation in MLS remains high but don't hold your breath Support for relegation in MLS remains high but don't hold your breath | |
| (about 20 hours later) | |
| In a more conventional soccer universe, Indy Eleven might be preparing for a 2017 season against the likes of the Los Angeles Galaxy and Seattle Sounders. In only their third campaign, the team from Indianapolis finished second in the second-tier North American Soccer League: runners-up in the standings to the New York Cosmos, who also beat them on penalties in the championship playoff. | In a more conventional soccer universe, Indy Eleven might be preparing for a 2017 season against the likes of the Los Angeles Galaxy and Seattle Sounders. In only their third campaign, the team from Indianapolis finished second in the second-tier North American Soccer League: runners-up in the standings to the New York Cosmos, who also beat them on penalties in the championship playoff. |
| With average attendances of about 8,500, the club is hoping to get approval for an 18,500-seat stadium. In a couple of years it is not hard to imagine Indy boasting a major-league quality team in a major league-quality stadium, with only one thing missing: Major League Soccer. In American sport, improvement does not mean that the only way is up. | With average attendances of about 8,500, the club is hoping to get approval for an 18,500-seat stadium. In a couple of years it is not hard to imagine Indy boasting a major-league quality team in a major league-quality stadium, with only one thing missing: Major League Soccer. In American sport, improvement does not mean that the only way is up. |
| “We’ve always said we want to play at the highest level possible,” said Tom Dunmore, Indy’s senior vice-president of marketing and operations. “We want to have the best standard on and off the pitch. We’re obviously part of a system where you can’t earn that through merit on the field so we’re working to grow the NASL. That’s our focus.” | “We’ve always said we want to play at the highest level possible,” said Tom Dunmore, Indy’s senior vice-president of marketing and operations. “We want to have the best standard on and off the pitch. We’re obviously part of a system where you can’t earn that through merit on the field so we’re working to grow the NASL. That’s our focus.” |
| A place in MLS is not won through sporting success but is a strategic outcome based on lobbying, location and spending power; the result of a cold-eyed business plan, rather than prowess in the penalty area. When New York added a second team to join the Red Bulls it was not the Cosmos, NASL champions in three of the past four years - but New York City FC, a new entity built by the billionaire backers of Manchester City. | A place in MLS is not won through sporting success but is a strategic outcome based on lobbying, location and spending power; the result of a cold-eyed business plan, rather than prowess in the penalty area. When New York added a second team to join the Red Bulls it was not the Cosmos, NASL champions in three of the past four years - but New York City FC, a new entity built by the billionaire backers of Manchester City. |
| Whether soccer in the US wants or needs promotion and relegation is a debate that pulses as one of the pressure points of operating a global sport in North America, where some fans envy the dramas elsewhere but major leagues have heavily centralised structures, clubs are franchises and professional soccer’s rulers have an aversion to risk informed by memories of the old NASL’s rise and fall in the 1970s and 80s. | Whether soccer in the US wants or needs promotion and relegation is a debate that pulses as one of the pressure points of operating a global sport in North America, where some fans envy the dramas elsewhere but major leagues have heavily centralised structures, clubs are franchises and professional soccer’s rulers have an aversion to risk informed by memories of the old NASL’s rise and fall in the 1970s and 80s. |
| The topic was given fresh impetus by Monday’s release of a report from Deloitte which contends that reworking the US soccer pyramid to introduce promotion and relegation could stimulate changes that would benefit the sport from top to bottom. | The topic was given fresh impetus by Monday’s release of a report from Deloitte which contends that reworking the US soccer pyramid to introduce promotion and relegation could stimulate changes that would benefit the sport from top to bottom. |
| The report argues that it would increase attention, translating to higher attendance and broadcast viewing figures; force owners to work harder to improve their teams and infrastructure; battle-harden players in a way that would aid development all the way to national team level; bring the US in line with overseas leagues and lead to stronger structures and more investment from the grassroots up. | The report argues that it would increase attention, translating to higher attendance and broadcast viewing figures; force owners to work harder to improve their teams and infrastructure; battle-harden players in a way that would aid development all the way to national team level; bring the US in line with overseas leagues and lead to stronger structures and more investment from the grassroots up. |
| The study – commissioned by Silva International Investments, whose head, Riccardo Silva, co-owns the NASL’s Miami FC – includes a survey of US fans which found that 88% believe that “pro-rel” would boost American club soccer. | The study – commissioned by Silva International Investments, whose head, Riccardo Silva, co-owns the NASL’s Miami FC – includes a survey of US fans which found that 88% believe that “pro-rel” would boost American club soccer. |
| “I do think that for the game to realise its full potential in the US, promotion and relegation feels like part of the solution,” said Dan Jones of Deloitte’s Sports Business Group. “We very deliberately haven’t put a timeline on it because there’s a lot of practical detail to be worked out as to how you would actually go about implementing it.” | “I do think that for the game to realise its full potential in the US, promotion and relegation feels like part of the solution,” said Dan Jones of Deloitte’s Sports Business Group. “We very deliberately haven’t put a timeline on it because there’s a lot of practical detail to be worked out as to how you would actually go about implementing it.” |
| That would include stabilising and organising the lower leagues and creating a compensation package palatable to MLS clubs who endure relegation, as well as figuring out how to handle the increasing number of lower-league teams affiliated to MLS sides. | That would include stabilising and organising the lower leagues and creating a compensation package palatable to MLS clubs who endure relegation, as well as figuring out how to handle the increasing number of lower-league teams affiliated to MLS sides. |
| But with expansion fees now in excess of $100m, providing a key revenue generator for a league that last year claimed to be losing money, it is hard to imagine MLS would give away spaces for free. And the commissioner, Don Garber, dismissed the concept as recently as this month. | But with expansion fees now in excess of $100m, providing a key revenue generator for a league that last year claimed to be losing money, it is hard to imagine MLS would give away spaces for free. And the commissioner, Don Garber, dismissed the concept as recently as this month. |
| “Charleston Battery has won four USL championships so I suppose in one way if you look at it we could have been promoted four times,” said Andrew Bell, whose own career trajectory is a testament to American social mobility: he started off as a taxi driver after emigrating to South Carolina from England, joined the team in 1999 as a play-by-play announcer and was named president in 2008. | “Charleston Battery has won four USL championships so I suppose in one way if you look at it we could have been promoted four times,” said Andrew Bell, whose own career trajectory is a testament to American social mobility: he started off as a taxi driver after emigrating to South Carolina from England, joined the team in 1999 as a play-by-play announcer and was named president in 2008. |
| The Battery, of the third-level United Soccer League, have one of the best stadiums in the lower echelons and last year beat Houston Dynamo of MLS in a pre-season friendly. Bell knows the pain of relegation and the joy of promotion: he is a boyhood fan of Reading FC. But he does not think the US is ready for it. | The Battery, of the third-level United Soccer League, have one of the best stadiums in the lower echelons and last year beat Houston Dynamo of MLS in a pre-season friendly. Bell knows the pain of relegation and the joy of promotion: he is a boyhood fan of Reading FC. But he does not think the US is ready for it. |
| “I think there’s a realism that it’s really not going to happen any time soon, in my opinion. Maybe I’m wrong but I just can’t see how we could change the system where that could be possible,” he said. “We’ve been playing since 1993, MLS has been playing since 1996, it’s really not that long. So maybe in the future – it’s going to be the long-term future – there’s a chance that it could change and we could see that. But I don’t think we’re really at that mature level yet.” | “I think there’s a realism that it’s really not going to happen any time soon, in my opinion. Maybe I’m wrong but I just can’t see how we could change the system where that could be possible,” he said. “We’ve been playing since 1993, MLS has been playing since 1996, it’s really not that long. So maybe in the future – it’s going to be the long-term future – there’s a chance that it could change and we could see that. But I don’t think we’re really at that mature level yet.” |
| With MLS on a solid footing and out of its teenage years, though, some believe that continued progress requires dramatic change, rather than a cautious ethos that has fostered incremental growth. | With MLS on a solid footing and out of its teenage years, though, some believe that continued progress requires dramatic change, rather than a cautious ethos that has fostered incremental growth. |
| “There is an incredible market for pro soccer in the US. It is presently reined in by an uncompromising major league system that served its purpose well during the initial phase but 20 years later needs to evolve as it is now holding the growth back,” said Jerome de Bontin, the former general manager of the Red Bulls, by email. “Soccer fans like the European-style pure merit system. US TV audiences of European leagues are there to demonstrate that the US fans like the competitiveness of those leagues. The US soccer fan is not different from the European one. He or she aspires to the same quality and competitiveness of games. The MLS playoff attendance and TV ratings demonstrate that currently there is very little interest in the playoff system that’s in place, which by the way, MLS has changed many times over the past twenty years, without ever finding a formula that works.” | “There is an incredible market for pro soccer in the US. It is presently reined in by an uncompromising major league system that served its purpose well during the initial phase but 20 years later needs to evolve as it is now holding the growth back,” said Jerome de Bontin, the former general manager of the Red Bulls, by email. “Soccer fans like the European-style pure merit system. US TV audiences of European leagues are there to demonstrate that the US fans like the competitiveness of those leagues. The US soccer fan is not different from the European one. He or she aspires to the same quality and competitiveness of games. The MLS playoff attendance and TV ratings demonstrate that currently there is very little interest in the playoff system that’s in place, which by the way, MLS has changed many times over the past twenty years, without ever finding a formula that works.” |
| If MLS does ever adopt pro-rel, it would likely only happen once the concept has proven successful in the lower echelons. A test case is the United Premier Soccer League, an amateur competition in California, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and Idaho with about 50 teams. It will debut pro-rel internally in 2017. | If MLS does ever adopt pro-rel, it would likely only happen once the concept has proven successful in the lower echelons. A test case is the United Premier Soccer League, an amateur competition in California, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and Idaho with about 50 teams. It will debut pro-rel internally in 2017. |
| “We have some very good teams that have potential to be higher-level teams in the future,” said the UPSL commissioner, Yan Skwara. Promotion will be based on a combination of on-field performance and off-field minimum standards, such as venue size. | “We have some very good teams that have potential to be higher-level teams in the future,” said the UPSL commissioner, Yan Skwara. Promotion will be based on a combination of on-field performance and off-field minimum standards, such as venue size. |
| If it is popular, teams might one day transit between tiers, Skwara said, with a goal “to connect the dots not only with just the clubs but with the leagues. The system here is very fragmented and there are a handful of leagues and now it’s to the point where it’s a little bit confusing … Maybe it can help bring it all together in the future and maybe not, maybe everybody kind of stays their own course.” | If it is popular, teams might one day transit between tiers, Skwara said, with a goal “to connect the dots not only with just the clubs but with the leagues. The system here is very fragmented and there are a handful of leagues and now it’s to the point where it’s a little bit confusing … Maybe it can help bring it all together in the future and maybe not, maybe everybody kind of stays their own course.” |
| Had the governing body, the United States Soccer Federation, taken a firmer grip of the structure long ago, Skwara said, a more clearly-defined structure that would have better facilitated pro-rel might exist. “You have the wild wild west as far as leagues go. You have a bunch of businesses that are set up to own and operate soccer leagues,” he said. | Had the governing body, the United States Soccer Federation, taken a firmer grip of the structure long ago, Skwara said, a more clearly-defined structure that would have better facilitated pro-rel might exist. “You have the wild wild west as far as leagues go. You have a bunch of businesses that are set up to own and operate soccer leagues,” he said. |
| “There’s nothing wrong with that but that’s just the reality, that you have business opportunities to own and operate a league. If you want to go and set up a league tomorrow you can do that, it’s not that difficult. That’s not the case in England or Germany or Poland, where the federation pretty much controls everything.” | “There’s nothing wrong with that but that’s just the reality, that you have business opportunities to own and operate a league. If you want to go and set up a league tomorrow you can do that, it’s not that difficult. That’s not the case in England or Germany or Poland, where the federation pretty much controls everything.” |
| Ultimately, of course, money will talk. Jones, of Deloitte, questions the notion that American dealmakers fear volatility. “One of the points that some people have made to me is, ‘well, US investors would not go for a system with the risk of relegation’. You look at it, and the fact that US investors invested in Derby County, Bologna, and Swansea, and Crystal Palace. So that doesn’t say to me that US investors are unwilling to invest in a soccer system that carries the risk of relegation,” he said. | Ultimately, of course, money will talk. Jones, of Deloitte, questions the notion that American dealmakers fear volatility. “One of the points that some people have made to me is, ‘well, US investors would not go for a system with the risk of relegation’. You look at it, and the fact that US investors invested in Derby County, Bologna, and Swansea, and Crystal Palace. So that doesn’t say to me that US investors are unwilling to invest in a soccer system that carries the risk of relegation,” he said. |
| “It somehow just feels very in line with the American way of doing things that there would be that opportunity: that if you’re willing to commit time and money and talent and ambition into doing something, you could push that on as far as those factors will take you rather than hitting a false sort of glass ceiling quite early.” | “It somehow just feels very in line with the American way of doing things that there would be that opportunity: that if you’re willing to commit time and money and talent and ambition into doing something, you could push that on as far as those factors will take you rather than hitting a false sort of glass ceiling quite early.” |