“He doesn’t give it much thought”?

Ridiculous.

If you are a team owner would YOU want to give up all rights to the name/image/copyrights/trademarks? Especially a team that has at least some semblance of an international presence?

Russia and India both have pro/rel, but I guess us dumb Americans will never be able to figure it out because our country’s just too dang big.

Why is pro/rel “silly talk to our Uber rich owners”? A large number of MLS owners also own teams in P/R leagues (and generally paid way more for those teams), they understand the risk.

Isn’t it possible that the lack of pro/rel is what prevents the US from having hundreds of fully professional clubs? If you’re a soccer fanatic with $10M to play with why would you start a 3rd division club? You don’t have enough money to but your way into MLS so you know there is a cap on your success before you ever…

I’m amazed that people still think we need to “grow the game” when it has the 2nd highest participation rate of any sport, a soccer game had a higher rating than any NBA/MLB/NHL game in 2015 (Women’s World Cup Final), and we have 100s of clubs in D1-D4. But...yaknow....fringe sport I guess.

But shouldn’t you be asking if the lower-levels are underfunded BECAUSE there’s no promotion and relegation? Pretend you own a USL team. How much money are you going to the team if you can’t move up, you can’t make it to the CONCACAF Champions League, and you’re perceived as playing in the minor leagues.

I feel like the Northern Guard (and all DCFC fans) should have been fighting for pro/rel from the get go. Your community should be rewarded for its hard work and success instead of punished. YOU worked to prove soccer was viable in Detroit, now a couple of billionaires are going to reap the rewards of that hard work.…

Russia has Pro/Rel, I think we can manage. The 1st & 2nd divisions are already national, starting at the 3rd it could switch to 2 (or more) regional leagues to cut down on travel costs.