Just tossing this out for discussion, does the USL voting to adopt pro-rel starting in 2028 put the MLS on blast and cast even the smallest of doubt into the future of MLS' cemented status as the top league in the nation?

If we end up with some big money owners in USL and there is a talent shift, is the long term result some sort of merger and a unified system like England?

If you paid MLS $600MM in franchise fees to join MLS, would you be ok being relegated after 1 season?

I just can't see that ever happening.

I don't disagree, what I was getting at was do you ever see USL, without the stupid salary restrictions that MLS has, having an owner or owners who lure talent away and then MLS product becomes second fiddle or on the same playing field.

Just interesting to think about.

We're more likely to see European league's ditch promotion relegation

Sadly you're probably right

Mathguy64 said:

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If you paid MLS $600MM in franchise fees to join MLS, would you be ok being relegated after 1 season?

I just can't see that ever happening.

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They technically own part of MLS, not a specific club, so if pro/rel made more money for MLS, they'd happily give their club the bird and do it.

Single-entity is the real rub. They're not going to accept an MLS-owned club dropping to a non-MLS league. If pro/rel ever happens in MLS, it'll only happen within the league (and they've basically expanded to a point to make that a possibility, but I still kinda doubt they'll do it).

Pro/Rel is NEVER going to happen in MLS. It's probably never going to happen in the USA either. I'm not sure how USL thinks they can pull it off. This screams desperation to me. USL is trying everything in its power to get to the big leagues and jump up from a "minor league" status. But adopting pro/rel isn't the way to force it.

I can't, for the life of me, figure out how USL doesn't see that their own clubs aren't even ready for pro/rel within it's own league. There are minimum requirements for a team to be eligible for D1 status. Only a few of the current USL teams meet those standards. Stadium-size, Ownership's net worth, population of the home location, minimum number of office staff, etc. I think only 4-5 of the current USL teams fit the standard of what it takes to be a Division 1 professional team. There's no way they can pull this off.

I think long term that COULD work. But I think there needs to be some more ground work done. I do not think that Soccer in general has the cultural capital to sustain teams going up and down, we're not well adjusted to supporting second or third tier teams in this country. I think if we do the pro rel thing too quickly, we're going to see teams fold very fast.

Honestly a great point