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

[alex]

"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? "

Pretty simple, ticket sales (at least in part) have to do with the quality on the field. Having quality development teams creates better players. Right now MLS thinks it operates in some kind of vacuum where it doesn't have to compete against others for youth talent.

Higher salaries means more kids can afford to live away from home to pursue the dream of turning pro, it also means more talent comes to the MLS as opposed to falling to the USL or going elsewhere.

The top talent will still go to europe, but of what's left, you'll get higher quality players in the league.

[Matt]

Bugger, only one change? Then it has to be the single table. I need to learn to read better.

[KingSnake]

1) Fire Joe Machnik (solves the ref problem)

2) Fire Ivan Gazidis (solves most of the other problems)

3) Raise the minimum wage to 35/k year, regardless of player status.

[J1m]

I'd try to come up with an arrangement pairing USL teams with MLS teams similar to the minor leagues of hockey and baseball. This could help with player development, injury plagued rosters, infusing USL with talent and money, and increasing playing time of the MLS dev players.

[Andrew]

no brainer.
raise the minimum salary significantly.
most def.
get the rookies and the kids living a respectable lifestyle.
attract young foreigners with decent moolah.
make it financially possible and desirable to be grinding it out on the practice field and fighting for playing time.

but my number two would be to hire Ives as Supreme Allied Commander of FIFA.

[JP]

Have youth (say U17 or U18) academy games played just prior to the main event (whenever possible). If DC is playing KC, the kids should be the opening match.

This would attract a few more fans to the stadium (or a few would arrive earlier) and provide additional incentive and experience for youth in bigger stages.

[Ossington Mental Youth]

Too much to do, one choice is not enough.

[Alexher123]

Raise the salary cap, these guys should at the very least be making 35k a year which still isnt a hell of a lot for a professional but its enough to live on which the i think some of the wages now dont allow.

[Steve W]

#1: Promotion/relegation
#2: put a team in my home town (Louisville)
#3: football-only stadiums
#4: build the sport (as opposed to the MLS-only) from the ground up, or at least support US Soccer's attempts to do so.

[Steve W]

#5 kill the play-offs

[zilla]

I'd waste my one change by requiring some SBI readers to take a reading comprehension course.

ONE CHANGE, said the man.

[Steve W]

#6 Align the season with the European season (early summer - Spring) and align with FIFA on blackout dates.

[Steve W]

That's why I'm not a Commissioner. I can't read.

[Kyle]

Cut my puppet strings so that AEG can stop running the show.

[Braden]

It's funny, someone said they didn't understand how changing the salary cap would effect quality of play, but I can't understand why better refereeing would improve play. The game is physical and slow because of the talent available, not because of poor officiating. Craig Waibel is not going to become Roberto Carlos once referees start calling every little foul.

My vote goes to increasing the salary cap. A lot of good college players who could be sitting on the bench in MLS providing some much needed depth decide to become real estate agents or accountants rather than struggle through several years of making next to nothing.

MLS teams are just slick marketing campaigns. They pretend to care about soccer by buying a star-studded starting eleven, but then they betray their fans by financially exploiting their developmental and reserve players.

[Brian]

First thing I would do is raise the salary cap to $5.5 million per club. That should allow for better offers to the US talent and for better offers to the Latin American talent that the clubs are scouting.

I would then add Philly as the 16th club and have them start in 2009.

Following that, I woul grant each club a second Designated player Allocation (RBNY would effectively get a third as they traded for Chivas USA's). Each club could trade for a third, but have no more than three. The DPA's would have one extra sipulation: if all three are used, 1 must be filled by a player with an American passport (except Toronto, which would require a Canadian passport player) to try and ensure that US players get offers here.

[Brad]

This one is easy. I'd put Ives in the following positions: lone commentator for all games, lone writer for MLSnet, and Technical Director of the entire league. His judgment seems to be as good as anyone's. Plus, he could bust Lalas's balls consistently.

[Hincha Tim]

Put a team in Portland.

[George H.]

Really tough to limit it to just one, but if it's only one, I agree with James.

Phase out the draft (come on, it's not really "super") and have teams focus on their youth development programs. This will also encourage future increases in the salary cap as teams will want to protect the players that they have invested in and developed rather than see them go play in another country because they can make more money there.

Also, this gives leverage to players who decide to go to college and have no prior team affiliation with MLS. With no draft, they can cut a market rate deal with a club of their choice rather than waiting to see which MLS team will draft them (and offer them a lowball salary to play here).

While I agree that the salary cap should be raised, the way to do it is by having MLS play in the same free market that the rest of the world's club play in. This way, you'll have ownership groups pushing for the raising of the salary cap rather than just simply mandating it from on high.

I think that MLS will consider this strongly as they see more players (i.e. - Charlie Davies) not wanting to get tied into the terrible contracts that MLS currently offers and move to other countries to ply their trade.

[Michael F.]

///

I would implement a single table format for each division. And just one championship game between the two division champs. This way MLS gets closer to the single table format like the rest of the world. And still gives the american fan the "championship" game they need.

///

[Chris]

I would hire whoever the marketing gurus are over at NASCAR to promote MLS.

If they can get millions to pay to watch cars make left turns for three hours every week, imagine what they could do for MLS.

[Toothless]

yeah, but working on and watching cars waste gas is manly. soccer is fruity and kicky.

[3VIL L33T]

Playoffs
implement groups world cup style that way we keep Lamar Hunts wish of giving all fans at least one home playoff game. Team with highest points moves on to Championship Game.

[bill]

Scrap half time bands at the final and instead have (even on tape delay) - players from the two teams play on big-screen FIFA08 or FIFA Street.

[kpugs]

This was a tough choice for me between the officials and cheaters.

I went with the cheaters.

My rules is that all game tapes will be reviewed by independent officials. All cheaters will be banned for 5 games without appeal. So, when Taylor Twellman (or Carlos Ruiz) dives and wins a foul near the box and it is caught by the review team, that sucker is banned for five matches. Done and done.