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Originally Posted by !@#$%!
i don't know or care about other sports, but i thought these "conferences" had to do with the size of the country and the time and expense it took to travel before airline deregulation.
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Yes, that is the historiographical version, however after the Conference format stuck around, Americans got used to it, and its the expected format now. As you say, its not logistically needed..
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these days air travel is a non-issue, but there is an established tradition in those other sports which is harder to break. borrowing those limitations from other sports to make it "palatable for americans" seems silly
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That is true, but silliness is very much a part of American sport.
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right now the mls format is an incomprehensible clusterfuck where after pointless "conference" rivalry come the playoffs which negate all the hard work of a season.
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In the Conference system, all that hard work in the season is what carried you into the playoffs and also determine tournament seeding, so its not entirely wasted.
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other countries have this "cup" format parallel to the regular season , and are more open in that they allow other teams (FA cup, dfb pokal, copa del rey, etc).
maybe what they should do here is 2 tournaments: one with a single table that's won by points, another with a cup format that would allow other teams (e.g. 2nd division, us pro or whatever the fuck they call it) to get a chance to "kill giants".
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Now see that is actually more complicated. I don't like Euro league football because its a bit more complicated to keep up with current standings, future match-ups, and inter-team histories. The advantage of the Conference system is all that is self-contained, and that is in part why American sports has kept that system in place, post-technology advances. It, at least to me, seems simpler to keep up with things like standings and rivalries, especially across past seasons to monitor development or decline issues.
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and what would *really* spice things up instead of artificial "conference" rivalries is having actual promotion and relegation from and to a lesser league--
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But that is the thing, Conference rivalries aren't artificial, they're built on the reality of the experience of teams playing against each other routinely during season-play. Granted, its not as spicy a rivalry as play-off and championship rivalries, but for example, in the NFL the Ravens and Steelers have one of the biggest rivalries of any teams in the world. It has evolved into a heated play-off rivalry, yes, but its origins are in those two slugfests a year they call season games.
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but hey, one step at a time, rome wasn't built in a day, so i'm willing to give it a couple of decades to get things right. it's definitely harder to build a following from the top-down instead of promoting from the grassroots.
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I agree, but lets remember that elite spectator sports are an entertainment market first and foremost. We fans of sport may talk of talent and player skill, but lets be honest, if there isn't a marketable audience its a tree falling in the woods you know? The NBA before the 80s was a shit-kicking league, now its world-class and celebrity with an annual audience of 250,000,000 people. That is quite the evolution in 30 years. The sport has thrived and advanced in accompany with the increase in marketability and audience share. So essentially MLS will have to become more watched and supported before it can become more talented from the bottom-up. Keep bringing in top talent and increase the market-share, then as more fans come in THAT process will begin to build a farm system through colleges and amateur leagues (which are quite prevalent here in the US, albeit completely under the radar). What made the NBA so fucking great? It was kids on the black top in the streets playing ball dreaming of being the next Dr J or the next Magic Johnson, or the next MJ, or the next Kobe, or the next Lebron. As the elite talent becomes more marketed to a wider audience, it inspires kids and athletes to up their game. Now in the 2000s the NBA is better than ever in regards to talent and sport, and that is because the best players in the current league grew up their entire lives playing basketball aiming for that elite status. Give the MLS time, but with the USMNT becoming so much more popular and noticed by Americans, kids will start to want to be Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan or Tim Howard as much as they want to Kevin Durant or Adrian Peterson
