Perhaps one of the most unique aspects of
Major League Soccer is the single entity structure. In essence, no team can be promoted or relegated
from MLS in the traditional sense. Rather, new teams buy into the league, just
as Minnesota and Atlanta United did earlier this year. While single entity is very in-keeping with
American sports -- baseball, basketball, and NFL
all operate in this way -- it remains a contentious issue when it comes to soccer. As a nation, the US currently has three major
professional soccer leagues: MLS, NASL, and USL Pro. They are not linked in the traditional sense,
but they are classified as differing divisions. MLS is considered the first division, while
NASL and USL Pro share second division status, granted to them by the soccer
governing body. USL had previously been
considered division III, but this was changed in 2017 following a petition by the league. Although the US does not have promotion/relegation,
discourse on the matter remains intense. A study last year – commissioned by Silva
International Investments, whose head, Riccardo Silva, co-owns Miami FC in NASL – found
that 88% believe that “pro-rel” would boost American club soccer. Advocates for the introduction of pro-rel
suggest that not only would it aid sporting integrity,
but it would generate billions for the US soccer economy. A report from Deloitte released
around the same time as Silva International’s study claimed that reworking the soccer
pyramid to introduce promotion and relegation could stimulate changes that would benefit
the sport from top to bottom. “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. However, any change requires the agreement
of MLS, who currently accept new teams after a lengthy process of lobbying which includes
a detailed business plan. Although the
approach seems alien, it was a direct consequence of the landscape in the early 90s. MLS
was the by-product of the US’s 1994 World Cup bid, in which they committed to starting
a professional domestic league. The organisers of MLS, both in alignment with
domestic tradition and in order to generate financing, adopted the American closed-league
model, with a twist: rather than buying specific teams, investors would take a stake
in the league as a whole, which in turn controlled all the teams. Those same owners have subsidised the top
division in America for years on the understanding they were buying into a closed
system. Was this to change, their investments
would be unstable. Furthermore, few lower-division clubs have
the infrastructure to suddenly support top-level football, or even something
resembling that. NASL has attempted to rival MLS, but the league’s
financial instability has made that difficult to achieve, with Minnesota leaving to join
MLS and Ottawa and Tampa joining USL Pro. A report as recent as late July claimed MLS
spurned a $4billion media rights deal offered by
Silva which demanded the instillation of promotion-relegation. "As was stated to [MP & Silva Group's founding
partner Riccardo] Silva both in person and in
a subsequent letter, Major League Soccer is prohibited contractually from engaging in
discussions about our media rights with other distributors," said Dan Courtemanche, MLS
executive vice president of communications."We are not in a position, nor are we interested,
in engaging with Mr. Silva on his proposal." That was followed by a joint proposal by Miami
FC and Kingston Stockade, a club based in northern New York, in which they filed a claim
with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to
require the US Soccer Federation (USSF) to adopt promotion and relegation across all
divisions in US soccer. The outcome of which is still to be decided. Although promotion relegation is not impossible
to implement in the US, it looks unlikely at
being adopted at the top level in the near future. The consequence of cultural and financial
situations, it will no doubt continue to cause discussion in soccer circles across the nation.
