20 Years of Major League Soccer: MLS Re-Branded

We are in the midst of Major League Soccer’s 20^th season and to celebrate I will be writing a series of articles throughout the year that celebrate such a feat for the league.

In my first article, I thought it would be fun to “re-brand” MLS with a full slate of 32 markets (I ultimately envision the league reaching that many teams). The 32 markets include cities I feel have a strong possibility to be granted an expansion team in the future or markets that I deem should be taken into consideration by the league. Read more about such possible expansion markets in a recent article I posted.

A handful of the team names were modified as well to add more of a contemporary feel, and to reflect many of the markets unique personalities more accurately. And notice there are no “FC” team names. It’s Major League SOCCER and all. I have never understood the “FC” nonsense.

MLS East & MLS West
The re-branded league is divided into two tables- MLS East and MLS West- with each table having 16 teams. The regular season schedule will consists of a home-and-away series totaling in a 30 game regular season for each club.

MLS EAST	MLS West
Arch City SC (Saint Louis) Charlotte Eagles Chicago Fire Columbus Crew SC DC United Indy 11 Minneapolis Lakers Montreal Impact Nashville SC New England Revolution New York Empire New York Legends Orlando City SC Philadelphia Union Steel City SC (Pittsburgh) Toronto SC	Arizona SC Austin Capitals Colorado Highlanders Houston SC Kansas City SC Las Vegas Venom Los Angeles Galaxy Oklahoma City Cyclones Portland Timbers Salt Lake City Monarchs San Diego Sockers San Jose Earthquakes Sacramento Republic SC Seattle Sounders SC SC Dallas Vancouver Whitecaps

Playoff Structure
The top 4 teams from each table will qualify for the playoffs in their respective divisions. The qualifying teams will play each other one time in a World Cup style group format, with the highest seed being granted home field advantage in each match.

Example:
MLS East Playoff Teams Seed and Schedule
# 1 Arch City SC – vs. Charlotte, vs. Chicago, vs. Columbus
# 2 Charlotte Eagles – @ Arch City, vs. Chicago, vs. Columbus
# 3 Chicago Fire – @ Arch City, @ Charlotte, vs. Columbus
# 4 Columbus Crew SC – @ Arch City, @ Charlotte, @ Chicago

At the conclusion of group play the team with the highest point total from each division will square off (MLS East Champ vs MLS West Champ) in the MLS Cup Final for league supremacy.

How do you like my MLS Re-Brand? What are your thoughts on the new playoff structure? Where should we make some tweaks? Any ideas for team names or markets that I didn’t mention? Thanks for reading.

About Mike Crosky