Photo: Al Pacino as Michael Corleone. From the movie trilogy The Godfather.
Finish This Sentence: Keep
your friends close…
You know the rest. Often
associated with ruthless business endeavors, movies about organized crime and
shady government fat-cats smiling over thousand dollar plates of pasta and
truffles (while under the table calmly slitting the throat of the quixotic
commoner), “and your enemies closer” carries much wisdom within its simple yet
dark lesson.
How might those few wicked
words relate to the sport of soccer, and more specifically, Major League
Soccer?
Perhaps “and your enemies
closer” teases the thrill of sporting competition. Or, maybe, the intimate
touch of our sporting enemies, when brushing dangerously close to our physical
and spiritual vulnerabilities, arouses pure ecstasy, heartbreaking misery and
engages all our senses in an unavoidable cauldron of escapist dreamscape.
Does Major League Soccer dare
venture into the cauldron? Are the people guiding North America’s top league
and professional soccer in the larger sense capable of grasping the meaning in
the dreamscape of ecstasy and misery at the heart of our sport?
Evidence suggests the guiding
minds have, to date, only stumbled unknowingly and occasionally into the deep
racing river of soccer’s blood-red arteries.
The collection of rivals,
sporting enemies, in the Northwest: Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, give a
glimpse into what “and your enemies closer” might stir within the core of our
sport. The intimate proximity of these clubs engages all our senses.
More often, our soccer
senses, our souls, are only fleetingly teased by those running Major League
Soccer. In a part of the world where millions of children and adults play, the
signing of a handful of formerly brilliant players brings with it a hollow and
temporary dip into the coppery smelling river of blood. These “business” moves
wreak of condescension. Their long-term effect is a net negative. The soccer
soul knows the difference between the charlatan’s loud bark and the true call
of the ball as it rolls under foot.
Often, new cities and owners
are chosen based on demographics, wealth and metrics which have little to do
with what our sport is about. Worse, the devil’s plastic is given tacit
approval despite the numbing effect it injects into the beautiful game. Those
evil plastic fibers are one enemy to be shunned at all costs.
Which enemies should North
American soccer embrace? Which enemies enhance and grow our sport? Which
enemies stir the senses?
Start by embracing the
regionalization of the top tiers of our sport. Expand the number of intimate
rivalries. Professional soccer in North America would be better served by
abandoning the East and West model. Create smaller regions, much like the
Portland’s, Seattle’s and Vancouver’s existing in the Northwest.
Arouse the beating heart by
creating six distinct zones for professional soccer in North America.
Example: The Mid-North: State
a goal of eight teams in the top division. Cities like Columbus, Chicago,
Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, etc. Play each
team in your region home and away. Play each team in the Mid-South region
(Texas, etc.) home and away. This accounts for thirty games. Play each team in
one other region once for eight more games. The eight game region would rotate
each year to add an element of competitive balance and fan curiosity over time.
State a goal of having
Promotion and Relegation within each region. Relegation will only begin after
ten to fifteen years, in deference to the owners who started and built Major
League Soccer into a sustainable top tier. Only those games played within a
club’s region determine which teams go up and down. Cap the league structure at
two divisions per region. Once relegation begins, three teams per region go
down each year. The resulting turnover will guarantee incredible competition
throughout the season.
Continue to have playoffs and
championship for best in the first division. Top two of each region, plus four
best third place teams, make the playoffs. Playoffs are single elimination,
quick and dirty, Sunday, Wednesday, Sunday, Sunday.
Lastly, embrace the North
American born player, regardless of heritage, and encourage in-depth, critical
reporting on everything professional soccer in North America. Stop with the
insular fear.
“And your enemies closer.”
There is much wisdom within this simple yet dark lesson. In soccer it arouses
pure ecstasy, heartbreaking misery and engages all our senses in an unavoidable
cauldron of escapist dreamscape.
And, you never know, those businessmen, the ones
who started the professional soccer ball rolling again in 1996, might just find
monetary return beyond their wildest dreams if they let the heart of the game
guide them.
