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Major League Soccer’s push for expansion knows no bounds — and with the league collecting an expansion fee of $150 million – and rising – from each new team, it’s pretty obvious why.
The 2019 season will feature 24 clubs, and that number will reach 27 by 2021 after Nashville, Miami and Austin begin play.
It’s been confirmed that a 28th city will join by 2022, and then it’s rumored that the league will attempt to expand to 32 teams by the start of the 2026 World Cup on home soil.
How will they schedule matches with this many teams? Will they subdivide conferences into divisions? How many sides will make the playoffs? What’s the point of it all without promotion and relegation?!
America’s second division, the USL Championship, will begin the 2019 season with 36 teams, and that number will grow to 38 by 2021.
Teams like Sacramento, Indianapolis and Louisville average around 10,000 fans per game — these are incredibly stable and lucrative times for the USL, so the timing seems perfect to aim for promotion and relegation by 2026, not a never-ending expansion of the top division.
Imagine the scenes of a relegation six-pointer between Cincinnati and Columbus, or a promotion playoff between Reno and Las Vegas — that’s what we want to see! Not more ways for Anthony Precourt to make money.
