On Wednesday (March 25th) Major League Soccer (MLS) awarded a place to the owners of Minnesota United. They are expected to remain in Minnesota and make their MLS bow in the 2018 season.
This week's announcement by MLS combined with the addition of Atlanta and a second Los Angeles team, the league will have 23 teams by the start of the 2018 season. It could be 24 providing David Beckham's Miami franchise can secure a stadium which remains in the balance at the moment.
MLS has been expanding at a fast pace in the past couple of years, this year alone two new sides made their debuts in New York City and Orlando City. In the long run how many teams will MLS feel is enough?
Will 24 be enough? 26? 30? (1) It really does remain to be seen but across the world there aren't many leagues that feature more than 24 teams, apart from Argentina this year which decided to go with a monstrous 30 teams. With the 2015 MLS campaign under way we currently have 20 sides competing with 10 in each conference, does MLS want 14 in each conference which would take the overall number to 28. With more sides means more fixtures and MLS sides play a lot of fixtures when you factor in league, cup and CONCACAF champions league games into the 9 month season.
Relegation-Promotion?
MLS fans generally are quiet divided when it come to the relegation-promotion debate, with the cost of the franchise being a big factor against relegation. However as the MLS growing in size it does raise the possibility of creating a 2nd tier of MLS sides especially if they go beyond 24 teams. If they expand to 28 there is enough teams to create a 2nd tier which would open up the relegation-promotion path. It has to be stated though that relegation-promotion is a concept that would be alien to the U.S. None of the major sports have it. We take promotion-relegation for granted here in Europe and even in Ireland with suggestions of a 16 team premier division with no relegation gets shot down on the basis of "what about relegation" "you got to have relegation". However that debate is for another post but it is merely an idea being thrown out there as the MLS continues to grow.
Where next?
Then you have the question of where. If MLS decides to go beyond 24 teams, where will they expand to? St Louis is a popular choice among many but did managed to secure a United soccer league expansion berth.
You have other big city options like Las Vegas, San Antonio, Sacramento, Ottawa if they wanted to go for another Canadian expansion. Miami have a stadium location issue to solve before they can be fully approved of their bid.
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