The Art of Relegation, the Hard Cap and Their Introduction into US Sports

Many sports fans in America are not familiar with the EPL: English Premier League or, now, Barclay's Premier League.  It is soccer after all.

In the EPL they have "relegation". Simply put, relegation is the demotion of the 3 teams with the worst records in the league at the end of the season. Once relegated, they will compete in a lower level league for the right to move back up. Consequently, the top 3 teams from the lower level league move up to take their chances in the highest level.

We must bring this to US sports. The MLB, NFL and NBA all must ratify their governing rules to include relegation and subsequently, a hard salary cap.  No luxury tax.  Hard cap.  Can't go over it.  If you do, you forfeit the season. 

A hard cap would help ticket sales and concessions.  By paying less to field the team, owners won’t have to charge as much for fans to see the game.  The average fan wouldn’t have to pay $7.50 for a warm beer and the privilege of sitting in a $65 seat in second deck.

How many owners have decided to field a bad team in an effort to save their millions? How many players with big contracts fail to play up to them? 

Many teams are cellar dwellers year after year. This isn't fair to the fans. It's not fair having an owner who refuses to pony up the cash to stay relevant, to field a competitive team. Teams need to be on a financial level playing field.  Each base on each baseball field is 90 feet apart.  There are standards;  its time to apply this to salary cap.

While relegation of the bottom 3 works for the Premiership, it wouldn't work for all of our sports as a simple standard. First we need to de-league our leagues in all sports. 

In football, get rid of the AFC East, West and Central. Simply make it the AFC. All rivalries will be kept intact.  In the NFC, do the same. How convenient that each league has 16 teams? We can stick with a 16 game schedule. No inter-league play.  It waters down the Super Bowl anyway - ditto the World Series.  We are seeing this play out in the BCS right now, with Alabama and LSU. No one outside of Alabama wants to see this game again. Everyone wants to know how the offensive juggernaut that is Oklahoma State would do against LSU and Tyrann Mathieu.

From the NFC and the AFC, the bottom two teams in each league would be relegated.  Last year Denver, Cincy and Buffalo all would have been up for relegation.  Buffalo would maintain their spot in the NFL by way of beating Cincy head to head Denver and Cincy would be relegated. While Carolina and Arizona would have been relegated from the NFC.

This year the Colts, Miami and Cleveland would be staring relegation in the face. From the NFC, Minnesota and St. Louis look to be the two who would be demoted to the lower league.

Here is where the added bonus of relegation comes into play - the second tier city phenomenon. How many cities are clamoring for a professional sports team? The costs are astronomical to start a team.  Is there a big enough of a fan base to keep it afloat?  For the NFL, cities like LA, Little Rock, Birmingham, Portland, Oklahoma City. In the NBA, wouldn't Seattle love to get a team back? What about Louisville?  Las Vegas? St. Louis? In baseball, Montreal would love to try and get a team back again. Salt Lake City and Albuquerque have great potential.  I know Pittsburgh would love to have a team...

All of these cities would have that chance by creating the "Lower League".  Making a League of 10-12, five to six in each league, this would allow for second tier cities to have their professional team - with the built in dream and real, tangible possibility of making it to the "show".

Also, with the hard cap, the teams in the Lower League would have more of a fighting chance to compete without having to go up against the frivolous, grotesque spending of some teams.

In baseball, we would have the NL and the AL.  That's it, no divisions within a division.  It's worthless anyway. We need to pare the schedule down from 162 games to 145 and finish the season in September, not October/November.  Baseball in the snow is not football in the snow.  No one enjoys this. By eliminating inter-league play, the reduction in games is easily done.  In the both the NL and AL, three teams could be relegated each year.  This year we would see Seattle, Minnesota and Baltimore from the AL and Houston San Diego and (*gulp*) the Cubs, from the NL. 

In the NHL, Florida, Ottawa and the Islanders from the Eastern Conference and Edmonton Colorado

In the NBA, Cleveland, Toronto and Washington would be relegated out of the East and Minnesota, Sacramento and the Clippers out of the West.

Imagine how vilified LeBron would be if he not only "took his talents to South Beach" but Cleveland was relegated due to his departure?  Wow.

I realize there are tons of questions and issues that will be raised. They will hopefully see the light of day through comments. The collective you, knows far me than the consolidated me.

One question is about the players on the teams that have been relegated. Bottom line, they take the demotion like an adult. Any athlete who thinks they can opt out of their contract with the relegated team, to sign with a team still in the high league, forfeits their right to play in either league for one year.    

To be honest, when I first started writing I wasn’t aware that the Cubs had one of the three worst records in the National League. When faced with relegation, as I have asked the players to do, I have to take this like an adult.