Do you follow MLS?

[MrCoffee]

6. LOL, you nailed two of the "many faults" I was referring to

but have learned to live with.

I have to justify the franchise model and pro/rel to myself in the same breath, because I think MLS needed the franchise model in order to survive as long as it has, especially after the contraction out of Florida in 2001. Unfortunately, franchising utterly destroyed any possibility of pro/rel in the foreseeable future, since the franchise owners bought an MLS club, MLS can't kick them out of MLS.

I have no head for business, but I can't see any other way a viable league could have been created within the structure US Soccer had at the time MLS was founded other than through franchise.

What I really, really hate more than the lack of pro/rel is the MLS Cup and its co-evil, the conference structure. I think the league tried too hard to copy the NFL/MLB model by instituting a playoff format to determine the league champion, which in turn (in my mind, anyway) does less to attract casual fans to a playoff win-or-die match than promoting a season-long competition for the Supporter's Shield would have done.

Don't even get me started on next year's unbalanced schedule. I'm still too deranged and livid about it to think coherently on the subject.