Relegation in Major League Soccer is a hot topic right now, and for no real reason other than it will garner hits on a website. But I write this article not to take advantage of the media cycle, but to calm everyone down, and argue that relegation doesn’t have to be the answer in MLS. The truth is another major league here in North America already has a successful alternative in place.
Taylor Twellman, in his coverage of the USMNT friendly against Honduras, brought up the idea that having the threat of moving down to a lower league helped to motivate the team he was on in Germany. Now, there’s no denying that if I was a professional player, I would be extra motivated to try and prevent my team from dropping down a league. My pay would most likely be cut by a large amount, and I might even possibly be sold to another, sometimes lesser, team. But is that the only way to motivate players on a team that sits at the bottom of the table?
Many American leagues try to help those teams get better in different ways. The NBA has a draft lottery where the teams that didn’t qualify have a higher chance of getting a number one pick. But this system has its own issues, such as a season of purposefully losing in order to get that number one pick (see Riggin’ for Wiggins). The NFL awards the 1st draft pick to the team that did the worst, then 2nd to the second worst team, and so on. Similar draft processes exist in MLB and the NHL. Now this process doesn’t really motivate current players on those teams to play better, but there’s one thing that will.
Playing time is something that every professional athlete wants. More specifically, they want first-team, top-league playing time. And unlike the macro issue of league-wide draft, the issue of playing time is on a team-by-team basis. If you aren’t performing well in relation to your teammates, your playing time will suffer, unless you are a league-wide superstar like Lebron James. There’s always players waiting to get their shot, and in the case of Major League Baseball, they’re waiting in the minor leagues.
Baseball capitalized on the immense popularity of the sport in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s by establishing teams in most major cities across the country. In its current format, there are three divisions, single-A, double-A and triple-A, and every team in the major league has affiliations with minor league teams in each division. Through this affiliation they can develop players at a controlled pace, and can easily monitor their progression and move them up as they see fit. The result is amazing quality at the top level, having been honed through the years by playing and competing in important games. Rarely do you get players sent down from the top level, but the threat is real. If you can’t hack it in the big leagues, you’ve got a one-way ticket back to AAA, depending on your contract.
With the affiliations and creation of USL-Pro teams by many MLS teams, you are slowly starting to see a migration towards this model. The league already has academy teams at different age levels, sort of like A and AA teams. USL-Pro, with their affiliation with MLS, is setting itself up to be the AAA league in the development ladder. And when these teams are owned and operated by MLS teams they can work to impose a set playing style all the way up their ranks. A byproduct of having a solid league below MLS is the threat that if you can’t hack it in the pros, there’s a ticket waiting for you to be sent down to the minors. That sounds like enough motivation for me to keep playing at a high level, and a lot easier than convincing owners of expensive MLS franchises that if they don’t perform their product will take a massive financial hit. Promotion/Relegation works, but so does the minor league developmental system. And one is a lot cheaper to put in place.
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