Powered by RedCircle
Joe Toscano joins Ken to discuss alternatives to (and practical methods of discouragement for) tanking including relegation to a lower league as occurs in European soccer.
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Fun podcast! I do think that the reason why relegation won’t happen for football or baseball: pro leagues in the US is that a relegated team’s value would plummet and there owners just wouldn’t want that. Your guest’s favorite soccer team, Leeds United is a poster child for this: not too long ago they were near the top of the EPL but they went bankrupt trying to keep up, dropped down a couple of divisions and are now in the 2nd division because they are a small market team.
That and the US is so much bigger than European countries. Take England. London has a solid 6 or so EPL teams in any given year plus a bunch teams in the lower divisions. Imagine the US being like that with say the NFL having 6 teams in NYC and a few more in the suburbs. LA would have a bunch more, Chicago, Houston etc. One effect of this is that if a London team gets relegated there’s still a bunch more London teams that are in the top league. Rome has a couple of teams in the top Spanish division, Milan has a couple, Madrid has a couple, etc. American leagues are just not set up the same way.
It sucks that so many pro leagues in the US have a bunch of bottom feeder teams, weather by market size or the ownership sucks or whatever but I don’t think relegation would solve the problem. If it was MLS would have it already.