An open letter to Don Garber…a solution to the competitions.

You suggest to leave the CONCACAF Champs alone because it is run by CONCACAF, but then suggest some pretty striking changes for the Open Cup…which is run by US Soccer, not MLS. Gotta question the logic on that one.

And one more point……………RELEGATION/PROMOTION WON’T EVER HAPPEN…PLEASE STOP BRINGING IT UP AS SOME KIND OF REALISTIC OPTION.

Thank you…goodnight.

I may be wrong but it would seem to me that US Soccer & MLS ablility to come to an agreement would be much easier than MLS & Concacaf – maybe I assume too much.

So perhaps moving the US Open to the beginning of the year is too “striking”. Leaving it in its current late summer/fall time slot of June to October would work. Play the Supporters Shield Competition in the Spring – see there, easily solved.

Mr. texg8r – I don’t recall ever having a conversation about promotion/relegation – seems obvious that you’re against it.

One thing I would suggest, is to “never say never.” I’m not sure your reasoning for “R/P won’t ever happen” but I’m sure you have some valid points. I would like to see the League continue to grow & it’d be nice if the good people of Clevleand, San Diego, St Louis, and even perhaps 3 cities in the Southeast could obtain Franchises in MLS. What if MLS grew to 35 or even 40 teams (would be great, wouldn’t it)?

If we were 35 teams strong, I think two Leagues, one with 20 & one with 15 and a promotion/relegation system would make things very interesting.

DTID – Let’s beat Alianza!!!

Swap the MLS Cup and Supporters’ Shield names, then you have a winner. The Supporters’ Shield is already awarded to the round-robin winner, so it makes no sense to change that. Then, of course, the 4th CONCACAF slot should go the Shield runner-up. That wouldn’t have been good for FC Dallas this year, but it would be more in line with how things work elsewhere.

Also, if MLS expects to expand beyond 20 teams, they’ll either have to split the league or get a special dispensation from FIFA. Bear in mind that soccer is the only professional sport in North America where the pro league is subsidiary to a national and an international body, and has to operate within their strictures. To this end, not having promotion and relegation restricts the growth of the sport. If MLS eventually expanded to 30+ teams, there would have to be an MLS 1 and an MLS 2. Japan, mind you, had no history of vertical divisions in their pro sports, but the J.League eventually came to split into J1 and J2, and they seem to be doing all right so far. (Another concept we might borrow from the J.League: pre-selection of expansion clubs from existing outfits at lower levels — most, if not all, of the J2 clubs came from being pre-selected, then accepted when they finished in the top 4 of the JFL, which is a semi-pro league at Division 3 level. We sort of have done this with Seattle, Portland, Vancouver and Montreal next year, but those clubs’ acceptance was not conditioned on their placement in their respective leagues, and they’ve been partially reconstituted on their joining MLS.)