There are 30 MLS teams spread across the U.S. and Canada, 15 apiece in the Eastern and Western Conferences. There are so many clubs that many MLS fans likely cannot name every one, nor can they feel fully encouraged to engage in league play on the whole. MLS Commissioner Don Garber has recently addressed the idea of doing something about it.
Due to the sheer volume of the U.S.’s top flight, the notion of implementing a relegation and promotion system—a merit-based model widely implemented across European soccer, currently used in the English Premier League, the Spanish La Liga and the German Bundesliga, among others—has been raised several times over.
