The Equalizer: Shattering the glass ceiling in US soccer

FC Cincinnati’s fans have a right to feel like their team is spinning its wheels in the mud. Although it averages over 20,000 fans a game and consistently reaches the United Soccer League (USL) playoffs, it can never compete with the top professional teams in the U.S. What's the incentive to invest if there’s a glass ceiling stopping teams’ growth?

In the global soccer landscape, promotion/relegation promotes an open system that encourages innovation and competition. There are different tiered leagues, and at the end of the season, the bottom three teams from the top-tiered league are relegated to the league one tier below them, and the top three teams from that league are promoted to the league one tier above them.

Essentially, this open market allows for a soccer pyramid to prosper where the cream of the crop can rise to the top. Teams must compete to stay afloat; if they don’t, they will be relegated and face revenue losses. In the current setup, the Major League Soccer (MLS) favors mediocrity for the privileged few: franchises can play their worst season in history and won’t be punished for it.

Hold on a minute, some might say. Other U.S. sports leagues don’t have pro/rel systems, why does MLS need one? Because of soccer’s ludicrously competitive global market, MLS always plays catch up. Leagues in Europe started in the late 19th century. MLS’s first game was played in 1996. For MLS to compete on a global level, the system must change to allow for higher stakes and more competition.

But what franchise owner would be willing to fork over tens of millions of dollars for a season and not be guaranteed access to the same market in the next one? And that’s the problem. For pro/rel to be instituted, MLS must look past its long nose of monopolistic greed and see that better pastures await.

Implementing pro/rel would not be easy. The United States Soccer Federation (USSF) would have to restructure the division system, which currently is based on arbitrary factors such as population of the city the team belongs to. The North American Soccer League (NASL) recently filed a lawsuit against the USSF after it lost it’s Div. II status, arguing that these same arbitrary factors were only created to protect its business partner, MLS, from outside competition (i.e. the NASL).

The USL successfully held onto Div. II status, although many argue that USL’s affiliation with MLS through reserve or feeder teams forced MLS to protect them. Clearly, professional soccer in the U.S. is a chaotic landscape. It hasn’t helped that the USSF has had no comprehensive plan for the future.

A pro/rel system would also be good for the sport itself; every game matters, and MLS could finally differentiate itself from other American sports leagues. Until the USSF forges ahead and introduces plans for a merit-based system where hard work and innovation can rise to the top like the rest of the world, there’s little hope that MLS can become a top league.