It may have just been a quick comment to a group of AP reporters but Major League Soccer President Mark Abbott once again decided to sir the pot that is the promotion/relegation debate that some MLS fans don’t want to see go away.
MLS: Front Office Reiterates No Desire For Promotion/Relegation
Abbott told the AP that the league still has no desire for going to a promotion/relegation system, one that is common in most leagues around the world.
"...promotion-relegation is not something we're looking at.''
"I don't see that in the future, certainly in any reasonable future for us,'' Abbott said.
The league is also said not to be interested in switching their March-to-November season calendar to the soccer’s international calendar, which runs August-to-May/June calendar. Switching to the August-to-May/June calendar makes little sense for many markets in MLS as well. If you haven’t seen a couple weeks of this current season to know that playing games in the winter in some parts of the country and up in Canada just won’t cut it.
In addition to that nugget of news, the league has no plans to go to a single table next year either when Montreal joins the league has the 19th club. MLS would rather promote regional rivalries than have a single table.
None of this news should really be all that shocking to the average MLS fan though. A promotion/relegation system in America wouldn’t work for a variety of reasons. It works in other parts of the world because there are more established clubs and owners are willing to risk having their club drop down to a lower division. In MLS right now you can’t find a single owner that would even take on the risk of having their club drop down a division.
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