Morning Footy, the anchor show for CBS Sports Golazo Network, once again brought up the hot discussion of pro/rel in the US. The <a href="https://worldsoccertalk.com/golazo-network-first-impressions-including-morning-footy-show-20230411-WST-427854.html">first edition of the show</a> displayed the <a href="https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/ryan-reynolds-promotion-and-relegation-is-like-nothing-else-20230411-WST-427799.html">drama that is promotion and relegation</a>, using <a href="https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/wrexham-beats-notts-county-in-stunner-to-take-edge-in-league-20230410-WST-427635.html">Wrexham’s dramatic win over Notts County</a> in the fifth tier as a primary example. On Wednesday, the four-person crew of Morning Footy dove back into the debate, getting quite heated in the process.



The focus was not on the greatness of it, but rather on whether or not promotion and relegation could ever work in the United States. As of now, MLS is a closed league. The teams at the bottom do not suffer the punishment of going down in the pyramid. Likewise, teams in lower divisions, like the USL Championship, have no chance to rise up to be in the top division.



The general consensus across Nico Cantor, Alexis Guerreros and Charlie Davies was that if promotion and relegation is ever to work in American soccer, there must be major changes to both the infrastructure and the mindset.



<h5>The importance of a pyramid system</h5>



“Right now, you have teams that can be mediocre, and mediocre is okay for them,” Charlie Davies said. “There are no consequences, there is no drop, no financial implication, which is why you want to see players go to Europe.” 



Davies alludes to the fact that many top American players have made the switch to Europe. There, they have that pressure of relegation. For example, Leeds United is firmly in a relegation scrap. It has Weston McKennie, Tyler Adams and Brenden Aaronson as regular starters when fit.



Nico Cantor argued something similar to Davies. “Not having relegation begets mediocrity at the lower levels,” Cantor claimed. “You need to build some sort of competition for the teams that can’t just be stagnant if you’re losing out on a season.”



Cantor furthered his argument by saying relegation would eliminate passive investors.



“There is a whole infrastructure that you need to change, and there is a whole bunch of businessmen that you need to convince. Imagine the [LA] Galaxy if they were in relegation.”



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<div class="ck-twitter"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">Wrexham have been one of the feel good soccer stories of the season.<a href="https://twitter.com/susannahcollins?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@susannahcollins</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/CharlieDavies9?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CharlieDavies9</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/Nicocantor1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Nicocantor1</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/NotAlexis?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NotAlexis</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/jennyachiu?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jennyachiu</a> have high praise for <a href="https://twitter.com/VancityReynolds?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@VancityReynolds</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/RMcElhenney?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RMcElhenney</a>&apos;s non-league team. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 <a href="https://t.co/Q88X7ZqM5F">pic.twitter.com/Q88X7ZqM5F</a>— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) <a href="https://twitter.com/CBSSportsGolazo/status/1645754800905293825?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 11, 2023</a></blockquote></div><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Alexis Guerreros, who adamantly claimed that he does support promotion and relegation in the United States and North America, said relegation would create more competition and interest within the league. He compared MLS to Real Madrid. The draw of Real Madrid is the UEFA Champions League, not the FIFA Club World Cup. The Club World Cup, the best possible award an MLS team can win, does not move the needle. Relegation could do that and breed more excitement within the league.



<h2>Morning Footy lays out pros and cons of pro/rel in United States</h2>



In terms of excitement, part of the draw of MLS is that <a href="https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/how-the-premier-league-would-look-different-if-it-was-mls-20230312-WST-421912.html">any team could win the MLS Cup</a>. In fact, based solely on league titles <a href="https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/how-parity-in-mls-grows-the-game-but-delivers-limitations-20211209-CMS-361111.html">MLS has more parity than other top European leagues</a>. Guerreros brings up Real Madrid, which has not finished outside the top four in Spain since the 1999/2000 season.



Host Susannah Collins mentioned FC Cincinnati finished around the bottom in MLS in each of its first three seasons. Cincinnati qualified for the playoffs last season and is now top of MLS after seven games in 2023. Relegation in MLS would have sent Cincinnati down to the pits of a hypothetical lower league in its foundational years. Instead, players like Brandon Vazquez were allowed to blossom.



Guerreros brings up a con to relegation. MLS is making money off selling players to other leagues. Gaga Slonina, Brenden Aaronson, Ricardo Pepi and Alphonso Davies all developed in MLS academies. Each made the move to Europe within the last four years and is among the most <a href="https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/top-10-most-expensive-outbound-transfers-in-mls-history" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">expensive outgoing transfers in MLS history</a>.



“What happens to Weston McKennie if FC Dallas had gotten relegated,” Guerreros questions. “Maybe that academy doesn’t have the funding to continue.”



Cantor countered. “Maybe another academy in USL that gets promoted to MLS comes out with the next superstar.”



PHOTO: IMAGO / ZUMA Wire

Morning Footy, the studio show from CBS every morning, discussed the potential of pro/rel in MLS and what it would take to get there.

Morning Footy brings heated discussion to Pro/Rel in US debate

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In this week’s landmark announcement of the new 24/7 soccer streaming channel CBS Sports Golazo Network, one element stands out as a major obstacle. To be exact, CBS faces the impossible task of trying to keep viewers tuned in to its morning show, and keeping everyone happy at the same time.



Morning Footy is just one feature of many included in the CBS Sports Golazo Network that’ll launch on April 11 on <a href="https://paramountplus.qflm.net/c/330866/1007330/3065" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Paramount+</a>, among other places. However, since the two-hour weekday morning show (from 7-9 AM ET) starts out the day’s coverage, it’s an important piece of the puzzle. In fact, it’s the marquee show on the network.



Soccer fandom in the United States is so fractured. Depending on what team you support, you may fall into one of the many camps listed at the very bottom of this article. From personal experience, we often find there is quite a lot of hostility between the rival camps.



So, trying to keep the attention of viewers tuning in to Morning Footy is going to be almost impossible. How does a new show tackle that? It’ll be interesting to see if and how they pull it off. For instance, we already have the excellent daily soccer show, <a href="https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/watch-behind-the-scenes-at-espn-fc-espns-daily-soccer-show-video-20140128-CMS-94276.html">ESPN FC</a>. Will Morning Footy be able to come anywhere close to that?



<h2>How do you win over a fragmented audience?</h2>



In an exclusive interview with World Soccer Talk, Pete Radovich, vice president of production and senior creative director at CBS Sports, shared his thoughts about how to win over an audience with such diverse tastes.



“That is the toughest needle to thread. We’ve got 32+ leagues to cover from around the world. That is going to be a work in progress.”



Radovich explained that the production people behind the scenes at CBS Sports are hardcore fans, which should help.



“There is no perfect formula,” Radovich added. “Nobody’s handing me a guidebook or an instruction manual that says what you do. We’re going to find out pretty quickly if we’re hitting the right places, and if we’re not.



“Obviously, we’re going to focus as much as we can on storylines that matter to American fans. And if that’s American players playing in Europe, or MLS or NWSL, we’re going to do that. NWSL is our league, MLS isn’t, but we’re going to cover them nonetheless.”



He also gave the example of last weekend’s Liverpool-Man United game, mentioning that a story like that would undoubtedly lead off their Monday morning coverage, as an example.



<h2>CBS Morning Footy: Thoughts on talent hires</h2>



CBS Sports have selected a quartet to appear on Morning Footy. It features Susannah Collins, Charlie Davies, Nico Cantor and stand-up comedian Alexis Guerreros. Jenny Chiu will also provide updates. 



On first impression, the list of talent may not please a lot of fans of European soccer. The talent is qualified, but they’re mainly MLS people. 



“If you’re a MLS fan, this is without question a place for you to end when you think about how connected all four of them are to that league,” said Radovich. “Susannah Collins, for years, did podcasts and events for MLS. Alexis Guerreros, obviously, [has] close ties to MLS. Charlie Davies played in MLS and covered the league. And Nico, living in Miami, has been a fan of the league since he could walk.”



Despite this, Morning Footy plans to feature guest appearances from experts on European soccer from their other shows including Guillem Balague. But based on the MLS-heavy talent CBS Sports have selected for the show thus far, it’s a disappointing decision. In my opinion, CBS Sports is focusing too much attention on the American players in Europe. Most soccer fans support teams, not players. For example, there’s a reason why the Premier League has been getting the highest rated viewing numbers for soccer games in the United States in 2023. And it isn’t because of Americans playing there.



We love to see the Americans succeed in Europe, too, but we don’t make it the end all and be all of our being.



<h2>Social media is not a barometer of real life</h2>



Part of the issue is that CBS Sports are using Twitter as a barometer to drive their decisions, but Twitter is not an accurate representation of real life. If it was, Hillary Clinton would have become president in 2017, and Jeremy Corbyn would be British prime minister.



Going back to the subject of talent, CBS Sports could have easily picked more qualified talent that are much better analysts on world soccer particularly when CBS Sports’ bread and butter for soccer coverage is the UEFA Champions League and Serie A. Some of the Americans they could have hired even work for CBS Sports (Ian Joy and Mike Lahoud, just as two examples). CBS’ Nigel Reo-Coker, not an American, would have been a good fit too.



While their UEFA Champions League coverage has been good, the CBS Sports studio programming sometimes seems to be more focused on creating content for social media. It can be a bit much, at times. Hence, my concerns about Morning Footy, and whether they’ll follow a similar strategy where a lot of the content will end up on Twitter and Instagram.



Coverage wise, Morning Footy will certainly cover a wide variety of topics and discussion for leagues around the world, even those that CBS Sports don’t have the rights to.



<h2>Inspiration for Morning Footy?</h2>



As we saw with <a href="https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/how-to-listen-to-or-watch-soccer-morning-the-daily-online-soccer-show-20150407-CMS-132302.html">Soccer Morning</a>, hosted by Jason Davis, the concept of a morning show can work. However, a lot of the success for Soccer Morning was due to the interaction with the audience (i.e. live phone calls) as well as bringing on guests from a various publications.



The sense we get about CBS Sports is that their show will likely feel more corporate where they’ll bring in guests who are affiliated with CBS Sports instead of opening it up to new voices from outside their sports network.



If Morning Footy can figure out a way to keep all of the soccer groups listed below entertained and informed, it’ll be a huge achievement. 



•&nbsp;USMNT fans • Fans of women’s soccer •&nbsp;MLS fans •&nbsp;Liga MX fans •&nbsp;Fans of a Premier League team, or an English soccer club •&nbsp;Bundesliga fans •&nbsp;And others.

CBS Sports are launching a new, daily soccer show entitled Morning Footy, which will be available on Paramount+ and other streaming sites.

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