A colleague recently posted an article outlining the flaws that MLS still has after all this time. You should check it out. It's really good. He highlights the most egregious faults this league we all love still has to work out in order to reach the hights that ownership, and their Comissioner, have said they wish to reach.
After reading that article, this writer felt that he, like so many fans, are missing the point. They aren't seeing the forest for the trees. There's no denying that Major League Soccer has some serious hurdles to overcome before they can be considered "one of the best leagues in the world by 2022." No doubt about it. It just seems that I see the hurdles so often mentioned as really tiny, insignificant ones and have a much harder time with other hurdles that aren't mentioned nearly enough.
Let's take a look at these hurdles and why they aren't as problematic as it seems and what hurdles are the real struggle.
1) Roster Rules
It all can be summed up as a transparency issue. There seem to be an endless amount of rules that no one really knows about until the situation comes up. There are two reasons for that: no rule existed and MLS handled it on the fly or it was sitting in some dusty, unused page of that huge book and took a while to find because there's no index. In either case, fans want the rules to make some sense and be clear.
I actually agree with that. The rules should be clear to fans and, more importantly, the teams. As for the fans part, it would be nice if MLS had a rulebook for fans to download and read at their leisure. For a league that is established and unlikely to change much, if at all, in the foreseeable future that is a good idea. For a league that is changing incredibly rapidly and coming upon situations they didn't figure they'd have to deal with? Not so much.
Some of the more asinine rules could and should be swept away. With the few Free (ish) Movement under the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, that will happen. Rules will become irrelevant as the players continue to push towards Free Agency.
But what about changing those rules now? Or making them clear to the public? Shouldn't MLS do that? Well, no, not really. If MLS was a grown-up league like all the others, they wouldn't need to release them per se as they'd have a huge media crew digging up those details to write stories and hold MLS accountable for any shenanigans. The media is growing around MLS (no matter how hard they fight back) but it's not there yet.
Ultimately, while I agree 100%, I don't think this is a major issue so long as clubs no what's going on. The rest will be solved by time and continued growth. A very small hurdle indeed.
2) Officiating and the DisCo
No one likes the refs. Especially when they're pulling cards out on your players that cause them to be ejected from a match or suspended due to too many yellow cards. Or when a call is completely blown, such as an offside call. Etc, etc.
No one likes the Disciplinary Committee (DisCo) because the only rule they seem to be consistent on is the lack of consistency. One tackle is worth an extra game suspension while a very similar one is worth nothing.
So what's to be done about this? It's not very hard at all and I'm amazed more fans, and media, don't put a greater amount of pressure on MLS and the USSF and CSA to fix it.
How do players get better?
Become full time and train every day, physically and mentally.
No different with the refs.
Instead of complaining about it endlessly, fans should keep the screws tightened on the afore-mentioned entities to constantly hire more full-time refs. The creation of PRO, and a Referees Union, are both positive. The fact that MLS is pushing upwards to 10 full-time refs is another good step. Increase in pay for those refs, so they can focus solely on the beautiful game and how they can be better at it, should be a no-brainer.
Fans should be demanding that the refs get everything they need to become better. To keep pace with the players.
While that is happening, everyone needs to calm down. A quality pool can't be created overnight and young refs will have to be blooded. It's unlikely that a referee crew will cost a team their season. So sit back, cheer your team on, boo the opposition and remind the refs they're "blind". Just know that it's up to the USSF, CSA and MLS to give those refs "glasses".
3) Expansion Rules
Different strokes for different folks. That's all there really is to it.
Ok, so it's not just that simple. People really harp on the idea that Atlanta will join MLS with the unnamed team playing in a NFL building with the Falcons while Miami and Minnesota United must have soccer primary stadiums. Well, yeah.
The reason NYCFC was pushed quickly into the league had nothing to do with the expansion fee or the money their ownership adds to the overall pie. That was due to the TV contract. It's not hard to imagine that MLS' new TV deal is what it is partly because they now have a presence in New York City. , hence why Yankee Stadium is fine for now.
Each city has their own peculiarities, especially with sports franchises. What works in Minnesota may not work in, say, San Antonio. What's important is that the team is in a building where they can make money. They can't be a financial drain on the league (a la Chivas USA). Arthur Blank's new stadium is designed with all the needs an MLS team will need now (well, in 2017) and well into the future. If the team can enjoy the same success as Seattle, which isn't impossible, the move will look great. With the kind of passion Blank is bringing to the team, that's a good bet.
For this league to get where it wants (and needs) to get, they need to expand to the best markets possible as fast as safely possible while ensuring that their teams remain in place for decades to come. In most cases, that requires a home being built for those teams, ASAP. Beyond the feeling of permanence (which frankly the league didn't have back in the days, circa 2002-2003), it's a huge boon to the bottom line and the scheduling. For those few markets that enter the league without one, rest assured it's because they add something great to the league to compensate.
For NYC and Atlanta, it's the markets themselves and what they add to the TV revenue and sponsors.
Doesn't mean they won't have a stadium all to themselves, or that MLS won't insist upon it eventually.
4) Promotion and Relegation
I have never once heard a reason why this should be implemented beyond "Well, everyone else does it!!" There are only two ways this gets done: FIFA forces it upon US Soccer (seriously doubt it) or there becomes a great business reason to do so. By opening up the pyramid, suddenly MLS and whomever is D2 at this point have access to tons of money.
Until D2 can even remotely challenge MLS, this whole point is moot.
Doesn't help that USL is seeking D2 status starting in 2017 since they've settled comfortably into an AAA league (to borrow a baseball expression). IF USL is granted D2 status by USSF and CSA, it's possible they could push the NASL out and render this whole question moot for a long, long time.
5) FIFA Calendar and International Breaks
Until Global Warming takes its full effect on North America, this is likely something we'll have to keep the current way of things going. That said if fans really want to push MLS to not play through the dates, they can do one very simple thing to make that happen.
Watch all the games on TV. Get their friends, families, dogs, cats and even hamsters to watch the games. The more people watching the better.
Get those TV ratings so high that MLS can renegotiate their deal early and get a true windfall of money (not the pittance they earned this time around).
I know what you're thinking: Say what?
Let me explain.
Right now MLS and its owners rely on game-day revenue to fund their businesses. That's tickets, hot dogs, beer, popcorn, merchandise, ads in the stadium, and so on and so forth. The majority of the money is made there, and there's no real evidence that says fans don't show up when the stars are away playing for their country (side note: convince FIFA to cut back on the number of dates, too. This is starting to get crazy).
If the TV money becomes a larger piece of the revenue pie, though, then MLS can move away from their current model and take chances on when they schedule games and when not to. Until then, or when Global Warming takes its toll, MLS will have to continue to treat the International Calendar like it does. Cherry picking which weekends are worth playing through and which ones to skip.
And hey, if you think making a MLS schedule is easy, give it a try and let us know how it goes for you.
The Real Hurdles
The real challenges for MLS are below. Solve them and everything else will take care of itself.
1) TV money
2) That's it. If MLS really wants to compete, they need to find a way to get some real TV money. The day MLS moves away from a game-day revenue model to a TV based revenue will be the best day in league history. For all the money MLS has earned from their TV deals domestically, it basically ends up amounting to the Investor/Operators not having to send out cash calls to run the league. Natural revenue s just about cover all of the bills, while helping to pay down the huge debt the league has hanging around its neck. The recent announcements about TV deals across the world are the work of SUM minority owner IMG. Is this likely to amount to a huge windfall for the league? No, probably not. It's a foot in the door deal worth keeping an eye on.
As the English Premier League can tell you, foreign TV money can swell a league's purse very, very quickly.
Something all MLS fans should hope for so all their issues will be solved.