MLS: Joint Liga MX super league has enticing upside
There is growing talk of a joint MLS-Liga MX super league. While the idea may sound crazy, there is enticing upside to the proposition which should be explored.
Major League Soccer has grown enormously in recent years. Commissioner Don Garber has accelerated the expansion process, the league has secured bigger TV deals than ever before, and the standard of player is higher than it has been throughout the league’s 25-year existence.
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And yet, while Garber and others may eulogise and protest about the great ambitions of the league, projecting its growth into one of the elite leagues in world football in 10, 20, 50 years time, predictions that are almost entirely ill-advised and unfounded, there is a ceiling that the league will hit in the very near future — if not already.
This ceiling has been crashed against to by leagues the world over. Europe is the pinnacle of the sport, and the Champions League to be more precise. Any team or league that is not a part of it will never grow to rival the elite in the world. MLS, as its South American and CONCACAF counterparts have experienced, will hit this ceiling.
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As the league grows and evolves, then, being inventive with the future and structure of the league is necessary. MLS has always prided itself on its ingenuity, its willingness to take risks and to rewrite the rules. And now, there is increasing talk of an opportunity that could reshape the entire football world: a regional Super League.
With the coronavirus having postponed play indefinitely, Liga MX has taken the extremely controversial decision to suspend promotion and relegation for the next five years. Some support the move, pointing to the success of MLS as an example of how the new system can work and succeed. Others believe it is owners protecting their pockets amid this financially uncertain times. In reality, it is a bit of both.
But the foundational change to the league structure has inspired other discussions about how the competition can change in the future. And one idea, from Santos Laguna and Atlas owner Alejandro Irarragorri, involves MLS and the growing relationship between the two leagues.
In a statement on social media, which has been translated here by ESPN, Irarragorri says that the two leagues should consider combining into a regional Super League, stating that it would be beneficial for both leagues:
"“It’s probable that the possible creation of a North American super league is best for MLS in the short term and for Liga MX in the medium term, but over the long term it is best for both and the potential to add value and create jobs is immense. Without doubt, it is an alternative that should be explored and analyzed.”"
He does not offer much in the way of logistics and details, but a speculatory piece by Henry Bushnell of Yahoo Sports helps add some flavour to the potential structure.
Bushnell proposes a closed promotion-relegation system with MLS and Liga MX feeding the best teams into a regional Super League, which he names Super Liga Norteamericana, or SLN. He says that SLN can be an 18-team league with ten teams from MLS and eight from Liga MX. At the end of every season, a winner is crowned, either via a league finish or a playoff structure, and the bottom two Liga MX sides and bottom two MLS teams play in a relegation playoff with the best teams from the leftover MLS and Liga MX campaigns, each acting as a second-tier alongside one another.
The attractiveness of this idea is the lack of relegation from MLS or Liga MX. MLS owners do not want promotion and relegation because they are scared of losing their money. But in this idea, that is not possible. As Bushnell writes, “By creating a league above MLS rather than below it, a limited pro/rel system can be sold to resistant MLS owners: Your floor is the status quo. We’re raising the ceiling. We’re giving you access to something better.”
The potential is huge. MLS is more commercially successful and offers a greater pathway for players to earn European moves, while Liga MX provides vast TV audiences — roughly double MLS in America, nevermind Mexico — and a higher standard of play, which would force MLS teams to improve their teams, something that the likes of Los Angeles FC, Atlanta, Seattle, Toronto and others have been eager to do but have been restrained by the salary cap.
There are logistical issues, of course. Travel is a problem, although MLS teams are well-versed with this difficulty. When to schedule the league is another point of friction. Playing games in Toronto in the winter is difficult, just as difficult as playing games in Mexico in August. But these are not hurdles that cannot be overcome, and for the potential such a league boasts, they would be worth ironing out.
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Whether a Super League emerges from MLS or Liga MX remains to be seen. It sounds like a wild idea that might be more fanciful than factual. But the potential is enormous, so much so that the prospects should at the very least be explored.