By now, most pro sports in America are done growing besides the MLS, which is growing at a very fast pace right now. It's time for the fun stuff. Expansion, relocation, and contraction. No pro team sport in America is perfect in team placement and team number. Some are too big. Some are too small. Taking the 5 major leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS), I will do a rundown of what the commishes should do with franchises.
NFL
Expansion & Relocation
The NFL needs to expand. I see no reason why not. I don't consider the talent pool watered down. It's just some GMs are idiots and can't draft. That's why seventh rounders become stars. GMs can't draft, and the league becomes top heavy. The NFL needs to do a drawn out expansion so there are 8 new teams, one for each division. Before that, there is one relocation. Bills to Toronto. The Wilson family after Ralph Wilson passes will not want to keep the team. They can sell it now and have the team move to Toronto, where there is already a stadium set up. It would be the easiest move the NFL would have to make in a long time, and it would explore a whole new market.
The Expansion would work like this. Two teams every five years. This would make it so the league wouldn't become anymore top heavy. The first wave of expansion would put teams in Los Angeles & Portland. Both of those teams would join the AFC and NFC West divisions. Next would be Orlando & San Antonio. They would be in the South divisions. Columbus & Louisville would be in the AFC and NFC North. Memphis & Norfolk would get East division teams. If there is no salary cap like expected, scrap this idea because contraction would be rampant. I think this idea puts teams in new markets (Louisville, Portland) and gives some teams close rivals (Memphis v. Tennessee, Columbus v. Cleveland & Cinci).
MLB
Relocation
Pretty quick one here. Some cities just don't support their team. I'd move the Marlins to San Antonio. They haven't started on their new stadium. No matter where the Marlins play, they won't get fan attendance. San Antonio would give them an opportunity to play in front of fans. Also, move the Rays to Indianapolis & the the Royals to Portland. Baseball in Florida was a dream and a dumb one at that. The fans get worn out after a month of spring training. The non-Devil Rays and Marlins were 29th and 30th in attendance last year. The Royals were 28th. Fans in San Antonio, Indianapolis, and Portland would all support their teams, unlike the fans in Florida and Kansas City.
NBA
Contraction & Relocation
The NBA is the king of dilluted talent. Flip Murray was cut by the Pistons. He's now a starter for the Pacers. The NBA needs to get rid of their deadweight teams. Stern, cut the Indiana Pacers, Memphis Grizzlies, New Orleans Hornets, and Atlanta Hawks. The Pacers are already on relocation/contraction watch by David Stern. They draw about 6,000 fans to each game. The attendance they give out is bogus. For the Nets game last week, they had a deal. Buy one club seat, get one free. All of those are season ticket seats. Not anymore though. This team is despised here. It's run horribly and the players are thugs. The Grizzlies have terrible attendance. The Hornets win, but it doesn't bring people to the games. The Hawks are the Hawks. They never get people to come to their games. The relocation is Seattle to Oklahoma City. That's already a done deal.
NHL
Relocation
I've preached about something I like to call the Mason-Dixie rule. Get all NHL teams besides the Lightning out of the Southeastern United States. That's football country, not hockey. They don't care. Canada barely has any teams. Move the Panthers, Predators, Hurricanes, and Thrashers to Winnepeg, Hartford, Hamilton, and Halifax. No one goes to the Southeastern team's games. Winnepeg and Hartford had their teams stolen. Hamilton and Halifax are two big cities in Canada. Halifax is in Nova Scotia, which may be risky because of how isolated it is, but it would work. Also, move the Blues, Coyotes, and Kings to Indianapolis, Calgary, and Hershey. Indianapolis would need a tenant in Conseco, and it would be a good experiment with pro hockey in Indiana. The amatuer hockey team here has broken the league attendance numerous times. Alberta needs another team. The Flames and Oilers have amazing attendance. Hershey has a new stadium, and their minor league hockey team has good attendance.
MLS
Expansion
The MLS already has two expansion teams ready-One in Seattle for 2009 and one in Philly for 2010. They obviously will expand more. St. Louis is going to get the team for 2011. That's almost a given. That makes it 17 teams. The goals of the MLS should be to get rich enough to someday get rid of the salary cap and hopefully promotion and relegation. The first step would be to buy the USL. That would make the transition much easier. To do this, the MLS should expand to 26 teams. Add teams in St. Louis, Atlanta, Miami, Portland, Montreal, Rochester, Indianapolis, Vancouver, Detroit, and Las Vegas for each year so this would end in 2021. Play 3 years with the 26 team league. After the third year, average out the records and demote the bottom 13 teams to the USL 1 and all of the USL 1 teams to USL 2. That would be the start of promotion & relegation in American sports. With this, the new teams would have time to build fanbases. With the salary cap, attendance in small markets would keep up. This would be a slow but steady transition for the MLS to compete with the EPL, Serie A, and La Liga.
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Comments (22)
Your MLS plan is perfect.
thehemogoblin | 03/31/08, 01:51 PM
Report Offensive CommentI'm not sure if completely getting rid of the Western Conference's #1 team is a good idea. At least get them moved to a city that gives a crap. New Orleans likes football, but for some reason not basketball. lol
Your Loss Becomes Mac's Gain | 03/31/08, 01:57 PM
Report Offensive CommentOh, and outstanding post...
Your Loss Becomes Mac's Gain | 03/31/08, 01:58 PM
Report Offensive Commentgreat post
agree with you heavily on the NBA moves
irishmafia | 03/31/08, 02:10 PM
Report Offensive CommentI think Hartford would LOVE to have another hockey team.
Lady Says Happy 4th | 03/31/08, 02:21 PM
Report Offensive CommentThe Indianapolis Rays. Awesome.
Unfortunately, any team in Indy would absolutely have to be called
"The Indianapolis 500s"
So unless and until the Rays can demonstrate an ability to have a non-losing season, it wouldn't work.
Porkins | 03/31/08, 02:36 PM
Report Offensive CommentI would really have to disagree on almost all points. Bills in Toronto won't work, stadium is too small for the NFL, and Canadiens really don't care about the NFL, on top of that, there's no tailgating in Canada, which is the biggest draw for football in America. Columbus and Louisville are college towns, college towns don't fare well when pro sports come by. The NFL would be competing with Ohio State? Never gonna happen. They'll handily lose that battle. Louisville and Portland? You said you wanted the Bills to relocate to Toronto... seems counter-intuitive to move teams into equally sized markets, Portland being dirt-poor to boot. LA? They had 2 teams, noone cared, they both moved, nobody cares still. This is another college saturated market. USC and UCLA are too big and too popular.
MLB? Try retraction. Florida baseball flopped. Just pull the plug. Don't move them anywhere. The sport is on a decline, the season is too long, and tickets cost too much. Bring up the level of play by increasing the talent pool by eliminating teams. At the same time you'll bring salaries down, which should result in lower ticket costs.
NBA - retraction isn't the answer for the sport growing so fast it now threatens the MLBs TV popularity, has single-handedly erased the NHL from many TV fans minds and is easily accessible by all fans in that all you need to play is a ball. Grizzlies and Hornets, easily moved to Seattle and Kansas City respectively. Seattle will want a team after OKC takes the Sonics, KC will kill for a team. No sports teams have really ever succeeded in Atlanta, and the Pacers are just on a run of bad years.
The NHL is almost right on... but you can't move the LA Kings, that team has too much history, and Indy doesn't need a team, nor does Calgary need a second team. Portland and/or Seattle would be more appropriate there.
MLS, all I gotta say is strike out Atlanta and Miami. Both are worthless sports cities. Rochester is having trouble this year financially and had to sell to another owner, the team must remain solvent with no debt year-to-year or they lose their stadium. Kansas City should be the team that gets moved or is retracted...
BuffaloTF | 03/31/08, 03:22 PM
Report Offensive CommentGood blog. I like the MLS idea with the exception of Atlanta. Atlanta isn't the greatest sport city. Miami isn't either but at least MLS can hope to fall back on the support of Hispanic fans.
J. HOVA: CATCH A FIRE | 03/31/08, 03:27 PM
Report Offensive CommentSo unless and until the Rays can demonstrate an ability to have a non-losing season, it wouldn't work.
Porkins *BS/CB | 03/31/08, 02:36 PM
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My guess is ownership would change to someone like Emmis, Mark Cuban, or the Simons, which would hopefully bring in more payroll money.
IrishR#1 | 03/31/08, 03:28 PM
Report Offensive CommentAtlanta's TV market is too big to pass up. I'm pretty sure it is second in the nation. I was skeptical because the Atlanta Silverback's attendance is horrific. Of course, those teams wouldn't come into play for at least 3 more years, so things may change like ROchester. Kansas City needs to build an SSS or get the hell out of Kansas City.
IrishR#1 | 03/31/08, 03:29 PM
Report Offensive CommentGood blog but I'd hate to see baseball leave KC.
A Man for America today | 03/31/08, 03:45 PM
Report Offensive CommentI don't see the MLS expanding past 20 teams until the league as a whole and most of the clubs are on sound financial footing. They're on the way, but there's still a long way to go. I agree with the promotion/relegation idea, but there is already some instability in the USL (some teams are "taking years off", etc.). It's best to start the promotion/relegation once the MLS has reached its "final" size (18 or 20) and then establish a promotion/relegation process working with the USL (and the USSF most likely).
The last thing most soccer fans want to see is a repeat of the NASL, which expanded irresponsibly in the late 1970s to as many as 24 teams and ended up going bust because so many teams were financially weak.
The USL1 currently has 11 teams (12 in 2009) and the USL2 has 10 (two teams, Cincinnati and New Hampshire, "voluntarily relegated" themselves to the USL PDL (an amateur league).
As most countries have capped their league sizes at 20, that seems a reasonable for MLS until (or if ever) it becomes as financially stable as the bigger/richer American sports. Teams that underperform will be relegated instead of having to relocate... that's what I'd recommend for American baseball, for instance (the Royals wouldn't have moved, they'd just be bouncing between MLB and AAA... ;-)...)
The USL could either merge 1 and 2 to have its own 20-team league, or go with a regionalized structure (West and East, most likely) to minimize travel costs--and perhaps hold a playoff to determine which team gets promoted (assuming MLS lets only one team get relegated). Otherwise, promote the two regional champions and relegate one team from each MSL division.
IrishR, the plans are for the Wizards to be in a SSS starting in the 2010 season. Community America Park is an interim solution (similar to the Chicago Fire using North Central College in Naperville in 2002-03).
KansasToonami | 03/31/08, 04:33 PM
Report Offensive CommentThe MLS would only have 24 teams for 3 years, and since the teams would know relegation was on the line, attendance wouldn't suffer. Hopefully by 2020 the MLS will be at the same level as the SPL or Portugese Premier League.
IrishR#1 | 03/31/08, 05:15 PM
Report Offensive CommentAlso, with teams put in Miami, Vancouver, Portland, Rochester, Atlanta, and Seattle, the USL1 will be very small in the first place. I'm glad to here that the Wizards are getting an SSS. Hopefully they can develop a stronger fanbase like what Toronto and DC have.
IrishR#1 | 03/31/08, 05:18 PM
Report Offensive CommentBuffaloTF-The Grizz have already moved once in their 13 year lifespan. I've given up on them. The Pacers will not be in Indianapolis in 5 years. I guarantee it. NBA officials are keeping a track on profit and attendance, and if they can't bring it up, they will be contracted/relocated. I couldn't say I would be too torn up about it either. I'd rather have an NHL team than an NBA team.
IrishR#1 | 03/31/08, 05:21 PM
Report Offensive CommentBuffaloTF, Portland's not dirt poor, do your homework. It consistently has insane real estate costs, among other things.
thehemogoblin | 03/31/08, 05:25 PM
Report Offensive CommentNice ideas, but Hershey would never work for the NHL. It's great for the AHL, but the Giant Center holds something like 12,000 for hockey. That kind of attendance wouldn't support an NHL franchise. Also, Miami already failed the MLS for a reason.
killadelphia | 03/31/08, 05:32 PM
Report Offensive CommentThe reason why Miami failed was because the Fusion played in Fort Lauderdale. If Miami FC could play their games at the new FIU stadium, which was made for the chance an MLS team would play there, they could actually have good attedance.
I looked at the Giant Center's dimensions, and I think they could easily expand the stadium to 18,000 with some expansion that wouldn't completely ruin it.
IrishR#1 | 03/31/08, 07:42 PM
Report Offensive CommentGood blog. I enjoyed reading it.
dyhard has 200 wins!!!!!!! | 03/31/08, 09:58 PM
Report Offensive CommentMLS is gonna be on the map man
jeevs BS | 04/01/08, 12:55 PM
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