ARGUMENT:
The MLS should dump the playoffs and divisions and go to a single table.
ISSUE
Major League Soccer (MLS) is in a struggle every year to attract both "soccer purist" in the United States and new fans. It is a decent league, but commisioner, Don Garber, strives to make the league one of the best in the world by 2022. However, many people think that the MLS should be like the European leagues and get rid of the playoffs. They should go to a single-table, which means that each team would play everyone else twice (once home, once away), and the team with the best record wins the title. They would also argue that the MLS needs to do a promotion/relegation system, but I may tackle that issue later.
ARGUMENTS FOR A SINGLE-TABLE
The MLS has a problem establishing itself as a legitimate league in the world; one of the reasons being is that it is virtually the only league in the world that does not do a single-table. It is also a fair way of determining who is the best team of the year, because everyone plays each other twice, unlike the MLS which the teams play intra-conference opponents three times, and inter-conference opponents once each year.
Even if we can't get rid of the playoffs, the single-table can guarantee that the best 10 teams in the MLS will make the playoffs. Under this current format, when one conference is stronger than the other, some of the best teams will be left out of the playoffs, becuase each conference has to have five teams each. If we must have playoffs to try to bring in new fans, it should be a single-table, every team plays the other 18 (19 in 2015) twice, and the best 4,8, or however the amount make it, regardless of where they are geographically.
ARGUMENTS AGAINST A SINGLE-TABLE
A single table is great for Europe, but it would not work in the MLS. In most European countries, the teams are so close together, that the players can travel by a team bus to the games. In England, for example, most of the teams are within 70 miles of each other, with several being in London, and two in Manchester. The farthest they have to travel is when Swansea (Wales) is in the English Primier League. In the MLS, many teams do not have rivals that are within 70 miles. For example, the closest opponent for the San Jose Earthquakes is the Los Angeles Galaxy, and they are nearly 300 miles away. Many European players who have played in the MLS say that the travel is one of the most difficult things about the league.
European teams may have to travel to the other side of the continent for Champions League or Europa League play, but that travel is only once or twice every two or three months. This travel is on a weekly basis for some teams. Especially, since this league covers two vast countries. A single-table sounds good on the surface, but it is not logistically possible.
Finally, it is not in the American sports culture. Every other league in the United States has playoffs. The problem that the MLS has is that it is not just competing against other leagues in Europe for quality of players, but it is also competing with the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NASCAR, and the PGA for ratings in the United States. There are fans who will tune in to a sporting event if it is in the playoffs. Those are potential fans that the MLS will lose, and to non-soccer fans, the MLS is hard to follow to begin with. They will be in danger of contracting teams without the support of playoffs.
MY THOUGHTS
I understand both sides of the argument, and I personally tend to support playoffs. I would be in favor of a compromise. In this compromise, I propose that the conferences would play a single-table against each other, no inter-conference games. The conference champions would play each other for the MLS championship. There would probably have to be a few more teams in each conference before that can happen, though.
