younothat
PREMIER
MLS owns everything; Non-MLS teams cannot be promoted into the top tier league (aka MLS)...: MLS is closed to outsiders.
In contrast the UPSL http://www.upslsoccer.com/ has Promotion & Relegation
The UPSL tiers represent five different levels — Tier one is Pro Premier. Tier two is the Championship division. Tier three is UPSL’s third division, we call it League One. Tier four is the UPSL Youth Academy and tier five is the UPSL Masters Division for players over 30, over 40, over 50, and over 60.
The majority of our UPSL teams are in the Pro Premier and Champion divisions.
" UPSL BELIEVES IT SHOULDN’T COST A LOT TO PLAY SOCCER IN AMERICA"
Diane Scavuzzo: How does promotion and relegation work in the UPSL?
Yan Skwara: It’s just like the English soccer league — When teams do well in UPSL’s League One, they are promoted to the Championship division. When they do well in the Championship division, they get promoted to Pro Premier. In England, you’ve got the Premiership and then you have the Championship division. In England you have professional soccer teams dropping, and you have teams rising. It simple works.
Diane Scavuzzo: How do you define doing well?
Yan Skwara: Promotion and relegation impact the top two teams and the bottom two teams. It’s the same as the English Premier League (EPL). In the EPL, the bottom two teams drop and the top two teams go up.
Diane Scavuzzo: Have you met with any resistance from league owners when they’re forced to drop?
Yan Skwara: No, not at all. I think it’s really a wake-up call for league owners that they need to step it up.
It is a very healthy process in both directions. If competitively you’re not doing well enough to remain in the top tier maybe if you change things around— invest a little bit more capital or invest a little bit more time, build a better staff on and off the field, identify and recruit better players — then you could have a chance to climb back up.
PROMOTION AND RELEGATION IS NOT ABOUT LIMITATIONS, IT IS PROGRESSIVE.
All clubs have the ability to rise. Unlike in the MLS where everybody’s at one table and whether you have a great season or a poor season.
https://www.soccertoday.com/upsls-yan-skwara-on-bringing-pro-rel-to-the-american-game/
Word is that UPSL will be growing locally this spring and some clubs will be joining up in spring and may start playing year round after that if it takes off. Most of the other leagues including DA & all the Cal South ones start to dead-end around U17. US club might be on to something for the U16+ age groups.