If you were MLS commissioner for a day

Good morning folks. It is a slow news cycle in the soccer world so I started wondering about random issues pertaining to Major League Soccer. A reader asked what I considered a league issue that MLS needs to address and I thought about the reserve division and how it needs to be revamped.

That got me to wondering about what I would do if I could be MLS commissioner for a day and could actually implement some rules or changes that would be adopted by the league permanently. I really don't have an answer for that yet but I want to ask you, the SBI readers, what one change would you make to the league if you had that magical power to change things? Increase the cap? Increase the number of foreigners? Fire most of the refereres? Put a team in Philly? Put a team in St. Louis?

Fire away. I want to hear from you. Remember, you can only make one change to the league as commish for a day. What would it be?

Comments

[JDO]

Free beer.

[Byron]

Promotion/Relegation with the USL.

[James]

If I had more than a day, I would slowly phase out the MLS Superdraft. Cut it to maybe just 2 rounds, then one, then eliminate it altogether. But I would settle for cutting the MLS Superdraft to just 2 rounds.

The hallmark of a good soccer club is a good scouting department. Whether the scoutees are foreigners or collegiate. Signing young domestic talent shouldn't be determined by a lottery.

That said, I understand the need for the draft right now. But I'd still like it to be phased out ASAP.

[Tony in Quakeland (Tony M)]

Encourage more attractive soccer by putting tighter controls on defensive fouling.

[quakes fan]

Easy. I'd convince these guys that raising the salary cap is better money spent then hiring Jimmy Eat World for a lame half time show. No offense, I like the band, but who really cares.
Raising the salary cap (by at least 25%) makes every game better.

[Ed Ho]

Increase the minimum salary. I think the lack of depth is killing the league and increasing the minimum would hopefully do 2 things: 1) Increase more high quality young Central and South American players to come to MLS and 2) Keep a few more US born players in MLS for the first 2-3 years of their career.

[Brett]

I am with you Ives in that I would place more focus on the reserves. Have a better reserve league and also focus on the younger players in the local areas. Having a youth academy is sorely needed. That would truly help the league to develop young players and make each franchise more of a club than just a team.

[SpikeFC]

Raise the developmental salaries. Encourage each of the teams to field their reserve team in the A league. Write the rules in ink as opposed to pencil. Change the playoff format to make the regular season more meaningful. I liked the idea that the higher seed would win a tied series.

[ruscien]

Demote Alexi Lalas to serving hot dogs at HDC.

[smokarz]

If I were the commissioner for a day, I would hired IVES as the next commissioner. Hehe

[Roblar]

Like a number of other commenters here, the first thing I would address would be the salary structure of the league; the minimum salaries and the cap have to be raised.

The minimum salaries -- especially the Dev-salaries -- are a joke that *scream* "minor league".

If I could sneak back into office for another day, I think I'd follow Tony's lead and come down harder on the cynical, defensive fouling (and flopping).

[Fuego Fanatico]

If we could only change/adjust one rule I'd increase the salary cap to $5M per team.

[Jeremy]

I would do two things right away. First I would do what several people have already mentioned and increase the minimum salary. It is crazy that you have players in this league only making $15,000 a year. Second I would ban games from being played on fields with football lines on them. If your team plays on a field with football lines, then you need to find a new place to play.

[Matt D.]

I'd make the Galaxy follow the same rules as everyone else.

[Jeff]

Rules are now set in stone and apply to ALL temas evenly, including a new rule that a game may NOT be played on a field that has football yardlines on it.

[Laurie]

Require all MLS financial documents to be made public. (Wouldn't that be painful? And fun?)

[JH6]

Nice that a lot of you are more than willing to spend someone else's money. Raising the minimum salary would do nothing to enhance the quality in the league - raise the developmental salary to $25k and you would get next to no improvement in play.

I would do two things that would cost no money and enhance the game:

1) Implement the rule FIFA experimented with at a U-20(?) tournament where players are carded for kicking the ball once it is out of bounds or whistled for a foul. Right now it slows the game down and cuts down on the number of quick starts.

2) Tell the refs to get aggressive on dissent. It annoys me to no end to see players berating the ref. I can't even begin to count the number I saw Blanco gesturing, pointing, and yelling at the ref. Same thing for Etch and Olsen - it simply gets old after a while.

[PanchoMiguelMoralesdeConejo]

I'm struggling to understand how a better reserve system or a higher minimum salary level helps the MLS? The MLS is driven by ticket sales, television rights and promotional item licensing, how are better reserves going to help ticket sales?
If one believes that better soccer will drive attendance, then a better solution is to do away with the salary cap altogether. This would spur bidding wars for talent and of course lead to disparity in other leagues (see the EPL).

I think Tony had a better solution above in improving the officiating so as to improve the quality of play. As well, I would ensure that outreach programs are in place at all Clubs for the junior high, high school students to capture young minds as a fan base. I'd have a minimum of one club date with bigger clubs from around the world in a 'friendly'.

[Mickey]

Ideally - I'd like to see the salary cap raised but the Commish doesn't have the authority to unilaterally do it.

Practically - implement a tighter program on officiating with a pool (not just 4) of salaried ref's subject to training and oversight similar to the FA system.

[Ossington Mental Youth]

Raise the cap to 4 million, disregard the Donovan/Johnson/Ruiz bit, regard all canadians as americans and vice versa (we are hardly overrunning your league with talent) and i would put a cap on the International players (everyone thats not american or canadian) at 8 until its really stable (a decade from now? whenever its deemed stable enough to make further changes).
Also Id allow Montreal/Vancouver/Philly into the league starting from 2010. Maybe St Louis if they can prove that there is really truly support there. Tempting to get a team like KC to move as they really have no support and still play on a football field. Thank you Lamar Hunt but its time to move on as its evident that KC is not now, not then and not ever going to be a soccer hotspot.

[Ossington Mental Youth]

Oooh and like someone said REVIEW THE REFFING AS ITS EMBARASSING AND ATTROCIOUS (not unlike my spelling)

[Jamie]

I agree with much of what's already been said re: salary caps, development salaries, and reserve matches, and making the regular season more meaningful. But, the one thing that I'd like to see changed--and though its a small thing, I think it is a simple change with some bigger-than-MLS implications: Observe FIFA blackout dates.

[Matt]

1. Institute a single table. The top three regular season finishers plus US Open cup winner get Superliga places the following season. No league playoffs. League winner is current Supporters Shield winner. If you want to have a post-season league cup type competition as well, then have at it.

2. Move heaven and earth to get SSSs built in Boston, DC, KC and Houston. If they can't do it in KC, move the club to somewhere that will.

3. Raise the minimum salary, and the salary cap, and add an additional DP slot.

4. Phase out artificial turf - insist on natural grass in all stadia by 2011-2012.

5. Begin laying groundwork for relegation/promotion system with USL.

[Tom]

Ban those #$%^$! horns from all matches.

[Ossington Mental Youth]

I overlooked so much. Definitely put a minimum demands on clubs for development and raise the development payments for players (30 000 seems reasonable). Also allow for trials to take place during hte regular season.