Almost all soccer leagues in the world operate on a system of promotion and relegation.
All of the world’s strongest leagues work in this way and only a small handful of outliers have chosen a closed system model. MLS is the biggest league in the world using a closed league system, with others such as the A-League in Australia and New Zealand, the Canadian Premier League, and Liga MX in Mexico among them.
Not many people would recognize the rest. There are just 19 leagues in the world, including women’s and lower-tier leagues, that don’t have relegation or promotion.
So why is this, and is there an argument for introducing it to MLS?
I think there is, but the case is far from straightforward.
The Closed System Model
Culturally, this is the norm in North America.
The US is a big sporting country with football, basketball, ice hockey and baseball all being incredibly popular alongside soccer – and none of them feature promotion and relegation. It’s just not something that exists over there.
It’s partly because of how commercial everything has always been in the US. MLS clubs are franchises of the organisation rather than stand alone companies all mutually agreeing to work together to create a league. They quite literally to to be a part of it and are given the rights to run a team. In places like England the sport existed in the heart of the nation long before it was commercialised, so when the system was designed money wasn’t a factor, and teams operate independently for the most part.
The closed system model protects the interests of those with money in the game, because a once great team can’t disappear into the bowels of the league system. They can still fail as a business, but that’s a different matter.
It also makes things easier when a league is discussing advertising deals and other commercial arrangements, such as TV broadcasting rights deals. A league that is more stable is much more attractive to sponsors and easier to market.
Then, because all teams are actually investors in the league itself via their buy in fee or expansion fee in the case of MLS, they all benefit when profits are divvied up.
The whole system is closed to protect the money, and then they come up with ways to keep the competition interesting afterwards, such as the salary cap, the draft system, homegrown player rules etc.
The Argument For
Could MLS be the first major sports league in the US to introduce relegation and promotion? I’m not saying it’s likely, but here’s why I think it could happen.
Firstly, it’s soccer. It’s the most popular sport in the world and MLS want their league to be one of the biggest in the world. The pressure to fit in with everybody else in order to gain a global following might go some way to tipping the balance.
That in itself isn’t a great reason to introduce the relegation system though, so let’s look at the size of the league.
As of 2025 it will be 30 teams strong. That’s more than any other single league anywhere else in the world, with Argentina’s Primera División in second place contested by 28 teams. How many more can MLS add before it becomes too big?
Granted they are split into the East and West Conferences, but still, it’s a lot of teams. America is a big place and there is plenty of room for cities not yet affiliated with a club to show interest. This might force a rethink.
Another reason would be to introduce more excitement at the bottom of the table. As it stands, you either qualify for the playoffs or you don’t, so there’s not much emotional investment if your team isn’t competing for a playoff place. What’s the point in watching when you know the best they can achieve is 10th place?
Imagine if New England, Nashville, Orlando were already combating relegation whispers. For the fans, absolutely brilliant storylines. I think it’s hilarious that MLS fans make business arguments for owners and the ‘cost’ of relegation. Then they go buy a replica MLS kit for… pic.twitter.com/5d84X6ljVL
— Christopher Corey (@ChrisBCorey) April 15, 2024
Imagine the drama if there was the battle to win the conference at the top of the table, the battle for a playoff spot mid table, and the battle to avoid relegation at the bottom of the table. Almost every single team would have something to play for until the very last minute of the very last game. Thrills a plenty. It might cause issues with investors, but thinking long term, they could work around it with smaller or staggered expansion fees.
It also opens the door for more commercialisation if you think about it from a different angle. More matches across 2 divisions, more broadcasting deals and advertising spend. This is how it works in other countries. Small businesses pay less to sponsor teams in lower leagues, but it’s all money that comes in.
A second lower league would also create the potential for a bi-league cup competition, not dissimilar to the League Cup in the UK, creating more interest and more potential for financial growth. It could also offer additional exposure for youth players who often get their first senior appearances in these sorts of competitions in other countries.
Integrate the USL?
The USL Championship is already split into an Eastern and Western Conference just like MLS, so integrating USL into MLS could be one way of creating this second league.
It’s unlikely that any USL teams would take issue with being the second tier of MSL, since that is effectively how they are seen anyway. Giving them the chance for promotion to the biggest league in America is sure to be greeted positively.
Some sort of financial deal would need to be arranged, perhaps a smaller buy in fee for each team, but it’s doable. The bigger issue would be the MLS teams who have paid hundreds of millions now threatened with the possibility of relegation.
This would actually be very easy to plan ahead for though. If MLS decided to take no more expansion teams for say, 10 years, it would give plenty of time to plan the merger, as well as for the newest expansion clubs to make their investment back. Then, after the agreed time, the USL becomes MLS 2 and the relegation/promotion system begins.
One issue here is that not all MLS clubs are profitable, so a 10 year period is perhaps not enough time, but in the future it could work. Especially since the USL is already talking about implementing an open league system between their own leagues, USL 1 and USL 2. If they go ahead and it proves popular, not only will it threaten MLS’ dominance, but it will show them that an open system can work in America.
The Argument Against
The argument against isn’t so much about entertainment or the sport itself, but about money.
Unlike in other countries with a richer soccer heritage, the MLS didn’t naturally develop out of a pre-existing love of the game. It was specifically created to provide America with a top-tier soccer league that could make money for anyone invested in it. Whether those stakeholders ran the league itself or owned the clubs.
Expansion clubs have to buy their way in at huge expense. Gone are the days of 2005, when Toronto FC bought into MLS for a mere $10 million. San Diego are reportedly paying $500 million for their team to join the league in 2025, but would they do that if they might get relegated in their first season? Or if they had to start in a lower league with less exposure? This would create financial instability and make any investment much less attractive.
Think about it. If a soccer club is an asset with a fluctuating value, what will happen to that value if the team is relegated? Yep. It will plummet.
The absence of relegation protects the investment of the owners of each club. Some may grow more quickly than others, but barring disasters, the asset is relatively stable. Without relegation, there can be no promotion, so MLS has a different structure that seeks to maintain some degree of parity in order to protect investors interests.
The other thing is that people are wary of open league systems because of the failure of previous US soccer leagues. MLS has done better than any soccer league before it, and this is partly because of the closed system they use. It would be a risk to meddle with that, at least for a while.
Once the league is 10 or 20 years down the road though, ingrained in society with millions more fans, who knows?
A Good Idea But Maybe for the Future
So it’s highly unlikely that any sort of relegation system will be introduced in the near future.
MLS will eventually have enough teams though, and that could be quite soon at the rate expansion teams are being added. And if soccer continues to grow in popularity at the rate it has been doing in recent years, they will have to think of something.
If there is money to be made there will be new teams created by business men and women interested in getting involved. MLS won’t want to turn down the expansion money and the potential for greater growth via sponsorship and broadcasting deals, so they may reconsider relegation and promotion between an MLS 1 and an MLS 2, for example.
I imagine there would be huge amounts of backlash if they tried to rush it through, so it’s an idea that would have to be tabled, rejected, brought up again and discussed at length before anything was agreed. Basically, people would need time to get used to the idea, and the league would need to make sure all investors had been treated fairly (i.e got their money’s worth) before relegation became a possibility.
MLS has been around for 30+ years now, but only in the 2020s has it really reached a level where they can begin to feel safe about their long term survival. It takes decades not years to build a loyal generational fan base, and that is what brings security to a club. It has started to happen, but it might take another 20 years before MLS are ready to make such a drastic change as opening up their closed league system.
I think it would be great for the game if they did though.