Poll: Should US leagues use a European league system?

[Bremen]

The NFL serie thread prompted me to post this.

For those who don't know in Europe the bottom 2/3 clubs are kicked out of the league each year and same number are promoted from the league below. I feel this is better in two respects:

1. Clubs with devoted fanbases will prosper. Clubs with fairweather fans will eventually have a bad year/ get related and will then not be able to afford players to try and get back to the top.

2. It punishes apathetic owners. There are some owners who do not bother trying to win, instead they happily sell their better players and make a steady profit despite never winning (the clippers and royals come to mind)

[Triumph36]

the minor leagues in north american pro sports just aren't set up to accept relegation. the best minor league team would get absolutely annihiliated in the big leagues, and the worst major league team would destroy the minor leagues.

you can build a league with or without relegation - however, after a significant period of time, you can't switch to the other option.

[PokerFink]

I think the European system is better, but like Triumph said, you can't switch. Oh well.

[Bremen]

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the best minor league team would get absolutely annihiliated in the big leagues, and the worst major league team would destroy the minor leagues.

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Do you seriously think this would persist indefinitely? If minor league owners had a reason to spend more I'm sure quite a few would.

[Bremen]

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I think the European system is better, but like Triumph said, you can't switch. Oh well.

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I think there's no reason you can't switch (drafts/salary caps) might be issues though...

Although you are right in the sense that it won't happen since the people in charge (owners) would never do this.

[ThaSaltCracka]

The euro system is better, but it wouldn't happen here. The relegation issue is massive here. However, setting up the leagues to something resembling the Euro leagues would be nice. Such as added emphasis on the regular season, domestic competitions, and even intercontinental competitions.

[mason55]

Would be way harder to get done here. First you'd have to do away with salary caps. You'd have to totally restructure the draft. Travel would be a big issue (remember that England is the size of Virginia). You'd have to get rid of the minor league affiliations, otherwise you'd just have teams colluding to stay at the stop league.

Also, it would have an effect on college sports.

If you read about the history of sports, you'll understand a little why relegation and promotion caught on in Europe but not the US or Australia. Basically, when the National League for baseball was formed, they gave the owners exclusive control over a territory so that the owners would be sure to have enough fans and money to support the required amount of travel in the US.

So yeah, promotion and relegation would be neat, but I'm not sure it could ever work in North America.

[kyleb]

Yes, relegation is awesome, but baseball is so [censored] up with the minor leagues and how they are independently owned/operated that it could never become a reality.

[FatalError]

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the best minor league team would get absolutely annihiliated in the big leagues, and the worst major league team would destroy the minor leagues.

[/ QUOTE ]
Do you seriously think this would persist indefinitely? If minor league owners had a reason to spend more I'm sure quite a few would.

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minor league stadiums cannot accomidate the needs of pro teams, europe is simple with 1 major sport as there are acceptable footballing stadiums everywhere

[sixfour]

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1. Clubs with devoted fanbases will prosper.

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Yes, which is why we've seen Leeds, Man City, Forest, the pigs etc in the third tier of English football in the last ten seasons, and the likes of Wigan, Blackburn, Reading, Fulham etc who nobody cared about until the money came in get up to the top flight (and in Blackburn's case, win it). It seems you're coming from the assumption that most team's financing comes from gate receipts, which at the top flight really isn't the case.

Promotion and relegation simply wouldn't work in the US, although a two tier system with some of the pro leagues might be interesting. We could call the top division the AFC and relegate the Raiders/promote the Bears etc. Four up/four down per season, top eight of the top division make the playoffs along with the promoted sides from the second division. Obviously would never happen :-)