Compelling sports drama played out across Europe the past few weeks as professional soccer leagues ended their regular seasons. But the drama wasn’t just in title races. For many teams it was a fight for survival at the bottom of a system called “relegation” – a polite way of saying you’re demoted to the minor leagues. Not just individuals. They kick out entire teams and their communities. And it might be just what major-league baseball needs.
The relegation system could boost interest in major-league baseball, and not just by bringing more teams into the playoff race. It brings a “Hunger Games” mentality as the pressure mounts on at-risk teams, players, managers, owners, and even entire communities – facing the potential of seeing only minor-league teams the following year.
In European club soccer, a late-season game among the bottom four teams can draw as high a TV audience as the top four. Best-case scenario is when one of the endangered teams knocks somebody out of the title race.
Here is how relegation works, with England’s Premier League as an example:
The Premier League has 20 teams. At the end of the regular season, the top four teams qualify for the best European playoffs – the UEFA Champions League. (The Champions League title game on May 43 will draw a higher global TV audience than the Super Bowl.) Where it gets interesting is the other end of the standings, or “fixture.” In the EPL, the final teams are “relegated” to the next level down of professional “football.” In major-league baseball (MLB) terms, that would be Triple-A ball.
Consider the possibilities If Major League Baseball had implemented a similar last season, relegating the final four:
That means MLB would have lost teams in Chicago, Miami and Houston and replaced them with teams from the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina, a small resort town called the “Pearl” of Mexico’s Yucatan’s gulf coast, the capital of Mexico’s major coastal state (Oaxaca), and the family sin capital of the United States. It actually would make sense if the final four teams also qualified for a regional professional baseball tournament of champions – with teams from Cuba, Puerto Rica, Mexico, Panama and other countries.
Obviously that won’t happen. Why? You don’t earn your way into the MLB. You buy your way in. (OK, some may say Manchester City bought its way to the title this year, but that’s another blog.) Baseball still sees itself as the American game, ruled by tradition on and off the diamond. That means changes like this take generations. Just the facts.
While a lack of accountability on a club level does offer fans security by guaranteeing their team will be in the league (if not in that city) next year, it also reduces the drama and new opportunities that could be generated.
On the other hand, as a lifelong St. Louis Cardinals fan I understand a relegation system in the MLB would almost assure we would lose the Chicago Cubs to the International League for long stretches. Who else would I love to hate after so long? I guess the status quo has advantages.
byStanley is written by Stan Johnston. He started his career as an award-winning newspaper writer and editor. Currently he is on the global marketing team of NetApp, a Fortune 500 technology company based in the Silicon Valley.
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