The MLS has way too many teams. The league probably had too many teams like four or five teams ago. However, the addition of Charlotte FC as the 28th franchise means things are only getting worse. Seriously, what are we doing here?
This is a situation that continues to devolve. St. Louis is slated to come onboard next season while team 30 will be announced in the near future. Countless other cities continue to angle for a chance to have a club. It’s all a bit much.
Look, I don’t fault Don Garber or the MLS for happily taking expansion money from owners. And the fact many of these franchises are building soccer-specific stadiums is admirable. The thing is, this has done nothing for the game in America or the league as a whole.
TV ratings for the MLS have been steady but aren’t matching the growth of the league. The MLS Cup hasn’t surpassed two million viewers since 1998. Attendance is fine. But what if I told you CFL games outdrew MLS games in 2019? That’s a hard one to process.
Despite that, TV ratings and attendance aren’t the real reasons why the MLS has way too many teams. Instead, we need to use some good old-fashioned common sense.
More MLS: 5 things you may not remember about the inaugural MLS season
This is why the MLS has way too many teams
MLS looks to other major American sports leagues as to why 30 or so teams is a good number. There is a huge flaw in that logic.
The NFL has 100 percent of the world’s best football players. The NBA and NHL probably have roughly 95 percent of their sport’s top players. That number is around 90 percent for MLB depending on how you rate Japan’s baseball league.
A whopping zero percent of the world’s leading soccer players ply their trade in the MLS. Okay, maybe that estimate is low. You wouldn’t go over five percent though. This isn’t to say the league is devoid of talent, but there isn’t enough to support 24 teams let alone 28 or 30.
One argument used to justify MLS expansion is that it would improve player development. There would be more youth programs along with more opportunities for players. It’s total crap. Nine teams were added between 2004 and 2012 in the league’s first round of aggressive expansion.
A decade later and you would be hard pressed to say the quality of player has improved dramatically or that the standard of soccer is significantly better. That is kind of a big deal.
It is impossible for the quality of play or player to improve with the MLS having way too many teams. This ain’t the NFL, NBA or MLB where you get to watch the best players go head-to-head. There are lots of other options when it comes to soccer and people will continue to choose those without some sort of change. And by some sort of change, I mean promotion and relegation. That would negate the issue of quality by adding stakes to the season. Of course, we know this isn’t going to happen.
Also Interesting: Underpants Gnomes, Gianni Infantino, the World Cup and Africa
