Who actually controls whether Promotion and Relegation exists in the US?

Some common misconceptions you hear when the Pro/Rel discussion comes up is that "We will never see Pro/Rel 'in the MLS'..." , "MLS owners would never want to start Pro/Rel" or some variant of those phrases.

Well I think it is pretty obvious that MLS owners would not want to implement Promotion and Relegation on their own. The one glaring flaw in the logic behind the earlier statements is that neither MLS owners nor Commissioner Garber are in control over whether or not Promotion and Relegation happens in the US or even if MLS retains its Division 1 status.

The USSF is at a crossroads right now as Jon Towsend pointed out in this great piece on >>> Far Post Footy <<< recently.

 "I’ve said it before, our soccer culture must decide to rule or be ruled."

The USSF can continue down this path that has led us to today or take a look at what is wrong with our nations soccer (as it is doing with hiring an outside firm) and totally revamp the system as Jurgen Klinsmann and many others have already called for.

"I'm a deep believer in promotion-relegation systems," said Klinsmann a day before the Americans face Ecuador in a friendly at Rentschler Field. "It's not up to me saying there should be MLS, and there should be second division (that) is NASL, and there should be promotion-relegation.

"It's not up to me now saying that MLS is higher level than NASL because I'm not every weekend around either of those stadiums," said Klinsmann. "What we're doing more is we look at the players individually, so we're looking at their path, how they come from their system and where they end up and how they impress then in their respective clubs."

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE


Steve Graff pointed out several of these big things that the USSF needs to address in his two part series on Vavel on Promotion and Relegation.

READ PART 1 HERE

AND PART 2 HERE

Right now the USSF needs to get its house in order. Its policies are stifling the game the US in direct contradiction to its stated goal of " to grow the game". As fans of soccer in this country do we want to continue to wait on MLS to maybe become world class using a pay to play development system that has never worked and currently is not working? Or do we want to open the pyramid up for the hundreds of existing clubs and thousands of potential clubs to competition at every level and reward those that do their jobs of developing great players, great systems and great teams with promotion to the top levels of the game?

Just remember that it is the USSF's call... no one eles's.