Every year during MLS All Star Week, Commissioner Don Garber does a “State of the League Address” as well as many other interviews with media. Garber comments on different issues the league faces, plans going forward, and other hot button topics. Maybe the hottest of buttons from year to year is expansion. With the announcement earlier this year of New York City FC as the 20th franchise, some may think the league is happy with a nice round number (the English Premier League also has 20 teams.) Others have debated the league needs 22, 24, or even upwards of 30 teams. It seems Garber has opened the door for further expansion with comments this week and the news of Orlando City submitting a formal expansion bid.
The realization that more expansion is on the horizon only raises further questions. How many teams will be added? How will the conferences/divisions be set up? How many regular season games will be played? How will the playoffs be set up? Now we know, all the soccer purists that want a single table with a champion and no playoffs, we hear you. Unfortunately for you that doesn’t seem likely. Playoffs aren’t going anywhere. Promotion/relegation, let’s not even go there right now.
Fans across MLS have different ideas about what the league should look like as a “finished product” with all expansion in place. We have an idea too. Imagine it’s the year 2020. Here is what we think Major League soccer will (should) look like.
The league will be divided into 4 divisions. These divisions are as follows:
West
- Vancouver Whitecaps
- Seattle Sounders
- Portland Timbers
- San Jose Earthquakes
- Los Angeles Galaxy
- San Diego
The Western division almost makes itself as the 6 teams along the Pacific Ocean are grouped together. In our scenario Chivas USA has been moved to San Diego and re-branded. There are many possibilities on what could happen to Chivas. In our opinion they will stay somewhere in California, whether it be San Diego or staying in LA.
Central
- Real Salt Lake
- Colorado Rapids
- Sporting Kansas City
- Chicago Fire
- Columbus Crew
- St. Louis
St. Louis joins MLS as one of the expansion franchises in our scenario. St. Louis has a great soccer fan base but need an owner to step up to get a team there. The St. Louis team fits in nicely with the other Midwest teams as well as the two Rocky Mountain rivals.
East
- Montreal Impact
- Toronto FC
- New England Revolution
- New York Red Bulls
- New York City FC
- Philadelphia Union
The East division keeps Canadian rivals Toronto and Montreal together while bringing in the teams in the northeast of the United States. With an overflow of teams in the northeast, one of the teams had to be moved, and lose some of their natural rivalries. This brings us to the last division.
South
- FC Dallas
- Houston Dynamo
- San Antonio
- Orlando
- Miami
- DC United
DC United is the “odd man out” and are moved to the South. The final 3 expansion teams also find themselves in this division, creating some great natural rivalries. San Antonio creates a Texas triangle while the league returns to Florida with the additions of Orlando and Miami.
With 24 teams in the league, we would propose keeping two conferences (West and Central, East and South). Each team would play their conference opponents twice and the teams in the other conference once (similar to what is done now). This would make for a 34 game regular season schedule. The top 2 teams in each division would advance to the playoffs. This means 8 teams make the playoffs and 16 don’t. This makes for a much more competitive regular season. The 8 team playoff would feature a 2 leg series in each playoff matchup. The MLS Cup champion would end up playing 6 games in the playoffs.
Thoughts on our plan? Have any ideas of your own? Send us a tweet @TotalMLS
(image courtesy of Alex Schierholtz)
