Random Card of the Day

Interestingly I made the exact same point that SaveDaKid made last week with Hockey, also describing to my friends, how the bottom 3 NHL Teams be relegated to the AHL, the top 3 AHL teams move up, etc.  Supply and demand and true economics would govern everything.  No need for salary caps, teams / markets would spend based on their revenues, cities such as Cleveland, Kansas City, Houston, Las Vegas. Hartford, Seattle and Atlanta would be knocking on the door to move up.  Ownership would need to spend to remain in the top 30 ( the NHL ).  AHL Teams could sign top level players, if they could afford it, attempting to move up.  New cities / teams would come and others would go,  It would make the 31 - 60 team grouping ( the AHL ) so much more interesting ( and profitable ).

 Hey!  SaveDaKid and gb24 I totally agree with you. How many times have you seen a club give up the season because they were mathimatically out of the running for the playoffs? If there was relegation they would have to try to keep winning. Players would also be more motivated because they know the following year there would be no chance to play for the Stanley Cup or the World Series.

Relegation would certainly make things interesting.  One problem I would see, though, is if a 2nd-tier team gets promoted to the majors, would their 2nd-rate venue be capable of hosting professional level events?  What if the team made the playoffs or World Series, can some podunk town handle the influx or would it just turn into a 2nd rate event? 

It would be even more interesting is if the players from the team that got demoted weren’t allowed to just jump ship to a team in the majors.  It’s already bad enough with the number of players that seem to swap teams every season.  It would be fun to see star players potentially put up astronomical numbers against the 2nd tier competition. 

Of course, none of this will ever happen.  There's too much vested interest in the current system, but it’s an interesting thought experiment.

This could only work if you had clubs that weren't already affiliated with the major league clubs. They'd each have to have their own scouting and personnel departments, and would all conceivably be going after largely the same prospects. Not to mention the venue complications.

The only thing that might make this work is if Independent leagues grew big enough to work on some sort of comparable level.

I agree it would be extremely difficult, but it should be done.  A team like the 76ers should be relegated, they don't deserve a chance next season.  I think that if the fans themselves start asking for this, demanding this, and it gets enough steam then these other details with work themselves out. 

As for the venue issue presented by MAS, I know that there have been European clubs denied promotion due to facilities not being suitable for the next level, but again I do think it would take time and not be successful over night, but it would totally change the way we all watch and support our clubs/sports.  

For instance, I'll admit this season I'm a fair weather Celtics fan...I haven't watched squat, haven't even attempted to attend a game to show support, still in denial that pierce and kg are gone, but if they were to get relegated, if it meant getting even worse, then i'd watch, I go to multiple games, I'd donate money for ownership to buy players.  But I don't have to worry about that for in 6 years all the assests of trades, draft picks and crap players will turn into 2 veteran studs to play along side rondo for another championship.  I can take these crap years for granted.

I think what would be neccessary to make it work and what we wouldn't really like to see, is that the uniforms/jerseys/etc. would be heavily advertised and no longer would you just own apparel with your team name, rather Red Sox replaced by Tampax.

I think there should be a solid movement towards this concept, especially in baseball with many tiers already in place.  And clubs like the Yankees could still own 80% of the league and just loan their players out to other squads for development.  It would work.

Also, if you haven't heard of Kronum, check it out, possible sport of the future with the right backing and rule/game play changes...

 sorry gave credit to mas instead of marc i know you care...

 It would never work. Every team here is a franchise. There is no owner that would give up their elete status of MLB, NBA, or NHL. The leagues here are closed to any outsiders. What owner you know would be willing to gamble away their TV contract on a yearly basis. If you get relegated, there's no big money from TV that year. Still it's nice to think of the posibillities.

yes, great idea but would never work.   You have minimum seating capacity for AAA teams.   But that capacity is nowhere near what you would need for a Major League team.  And if the Mets and Yanks finish at the bottom, no way would MLB go without a team in NY or any other big market for that matter.   As for hockey, KC, Houston, Hartford, Cleveland have already proved they cannot support a major league team.