The Debate For An MLS Club In Connecticut

If the MLS decided to just go with super expansion to 48 or something like that (4 divisions of 12, play your division twice and one other division) I think you'd end up with quite a few Hartford like markets included. At 36 teams you can keep that general format but play 2 of the 3 other divisions. In a 36 team league there probably is one Hartford like market.

MLS currently seems happy at 32 but I wonder how that schedule will work. 8 divisions of 4 and playing your division twice makes sense but will limit home and away regional current and potential rivalries. 4 divisions of 8 and playing your division twice protects those rivalries but expands the schedule to 38 games. If you played everyone once and had permanent rivals that played twice you'd likely want to go to a 36 game season to get in those rivalries as well. I could see an increase in fans played occurring to profit more off the upcoming rights deal but it seems like if games are to be added MLS would prefer more games against Liga MX sides.

Now that the league has expanded this much I think going along the path of super expansion makes sense. 1) It could mean more regional play which is better for traveling fans and players.
2) More MLS academies would benefit the national team (which I think to more casual fans the success of the national team would equal more interest in MLS).
3) It would allow for more underserved areas to get involved. The current top level professional sports landscape ignores tons of regions. That has created large college sports fanbases that couldn't care less about professional sports because they feel disenfranchised. Having MLS teams in cities like Louisville, Birmingham, Albuquerque, etc... (and cities like Hartford that are disenfranchised for other reasons) would make the MLS a top 4 pro sports league in the US. That is a good place to be as baseball appears (just my observation don't have the numbers) to be losing interest and people look for alternatives to football due to injuries.
4) I think it actually benefits USL. More ownership groups would want to grow interest in their franchises to compete for bids. Those that are unsuccessful would stay in USL and have added to creating a more robust second division (I think the current round of expansion has been very beneficial to USL).

Tldr; I typed a bunch of words because I don't feel like doing work this morning.

/r/MLS Thread