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Anonymous
One thing I like about Soccer...

The promotion/relegation system. It punishes teams that keep sucking ass for multiple decades (or centuries).
>> Anonymous
MLS has no promotion / relegation system. That's why it sucks ass and will never catch on in America. (Well, also the fact that the clubs are franchises and don't own their players, but I already explained that here>>41769)

The main appeal of promotion / relegation is not just punishing shit clubs (who even tank for better draft spots). It's the fact that you and buddies could form your own club for Shithole, USA and if you perform well enough you can (after many years) even have your club make it to the big leagues. The same applies for existing small clubs from small cities.
>> Anonymous
>>41799
I like that point. For that, though, we'd need more soccer clubs in the U.S. And places to play.

Currently the closest thing America has is the baseball (minor/major leagues) setup, but MLB has effectively quashed any uprising by buying all of them to be used as training clubs.

Basically, sports in America are run by billionaires, and they won't let us play. :(
>> Anonymous
The playoffs for the last promotion place are awesome too, especially the Championship playoff that decides who gets to go into the premiership.
>> Anonymous
>>41799

Yea I like that too. The kid down the street could make a club and in a couple of decades it could be the next Chelsea. Or you can watch a team rot away and be relegated way down. Makes the sport more interesting.
>> Anonymous
>>41802
There are all sorts of small minor league soccer clubs in America. No one just ever hears about them.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Soccer_Pyramid

You could totally implement promotion/relegation in MLS now if Alexi Lalas and those faggots would be willing to expand the league and give power back to the clubs.
>> Anonymous
I like the idea, but just looking at English football in the past few years, it seems to just be the "big four" who compete for The Premiership title, those teams who were promoted have either been relegated again or are mediocre at best. (With the exception of Portsmouth who seem to be doing nicely.)

So wouldn't you think the historically sucessful teams in American sports would still be the ones contending while the historically cellar teams would go through a constant process of promotion/demotion?
>> Anonymous
>>41845
While it is hard to compete after being promoted to the top league, it's not impossible. Chelsea were playing in the second division as recently as 1989. Villareal were promoted to the top division in Spain in 2000 and finished 3rd in 2005. Fiorentina were in Serie C2 in Italy just a four or five years ago. Now they're 4th in Serie A.

It's also fun to see former European heavyweights like Leeds United and Nottingham Forest drop to depths of the third tier in England.

Also, movement is a lot more fluid in the lower divisions. It's not that uncommon to see teams promoted three years in a row.