What MLS would look like if it had relegation

What if MLS had relegation? For soccer fans, it would instantly make the league more interesting.

For example, imagine if the Premier League didn’t have promotion and relegation. There’d be zero chance of Leicester City, Nottingham Forest, Brighton, Brentford, or Bournemouth playing in Europe’s top league. Those clubs and many others have breathed new life into the Premier League since it was founded in 1992.

MLS, founded in 1993, has had the same teams playing in the league every year except for expansion teams that have been added, and for the three clubs that were contracted when Major League Soccer nearly went bust.

No matter how bad a team is in MLS, they’ll keep on playing every year unless they go out of business. As a result, the teams in MLS have no jeopardy. Have a horrible season? Here’s a pat on the back, and we’ll see you again next year.

So, what if MLS had relegation?

So what would MLS look like if the league had relegation? We went back in the history books to see who the worst-performing teams were.

Here are the seven worst teams in MLS history from dreadful to absolute worst. It’s based on their finishing place in the overall standings each year.

So, there you have it. Commiserations to fans of San Jose. Last season, they finished dead last with a goal difference of minus 37. The last time the team made the playoffs was in 2020 when the team was knocked out of the first round. DC United didn’t fare much better either.

If MLS had relegation, San Jose and DC United would be ideal candidates to get sent down a division.

Of course, all of this is hypothetical because US soccer doesn’t have a pyramid. Instead, Major League Soccer is a closed league, essentially a Super League of American teams where none of the teams are relegated. The Premier League, and almost every single other soccer league in the world, uses an open league format where teams can get relegated if they’re the worst in a season.

MLS fans will argue that teams would go out of business if they were relegated. But if US soccer had a pyramid, teams like San Jose and DC United could win their way back into the top league by proving themselves where it matters… by winning more points than the other teams.

Even the giants of soccer get relegated. Clubs such as Manchester United, AC Milan, Liverpool, Spurs, Atletico Madrid, Chelsea, Juventus, and many others have been out of their top divisions in their history.

Who would replace San Jose and other poor MLS teams?

So if San Jose was relegated, as a hypothetical example, who would move up from the second tier to MLS? The USL Championship is a D2 soccer league in the United States but its pathway isn’t connected with MLS.

But if it was, the team that finished in first place in the 2024 regular USL Championship season to replace San Jose is Louisville City FC.

If that happened, it would certainly make MLS more interesting, no offense to San Jose fans.