The MLS may never have a promotion/relegation system, as the owners would never allow it to happen. Some of these teams are too valuable and expensive in their minds to risk dropping down a division.
The MLS is so even that teams go from the top of the table to the bottom more often than you’d think.
The LA Galaxy went from the clear-cut champions to arguably the worst team in the MLS. Things can change quickly in the MLS, and a relegation system would make teams pay for a drop in form.
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Ordering the Tiers
For the sake of this hypothetical pro/reg system, we have to make the tiers for the USA Soccer pyramid. We won’t be diving into each league, but we will organize all the tiers to set the scene.
The MLS will operate as the top league, with the biggest trophies, teams, and players in the USA. It is a no-brainer that Major League Soccer is tier one. There will be a USL tier one in a few seasons in which could make this hypothetical more interesting.
Tier two will be the USL Championship, this league is the closest to the MLS competition-wise wise as they play the MLS teams tough in the US Open Cup.
Tier three and four will be USL League One and USL League Two. Tiers one through three are professional leagues, or to compare it to England, they would be in the football league like while tier four and below are semi-pro, developmental (MLS Next Pro), or College.
Rules of Promotion/Relegation
For this Hypothetical (we will revisit this after the season), we will act as if the table is set. The bottom three teams will be sent down, similar to other leagues across the world.
For the teams below the MLS that have a playoff system to determine a championship, we will have to organize and establish rules.
Three teams will be relegated, the bottom two of the three will be automatic, with no chance of staying up once the season is final. The third and fourth worst teams in the league will fight in a relegation playoff; the winner gets to stay up in their division while the other is sent down.
Promotion will work differently compared to other leagues across the pond. The top team in the regular season (Supporters’ Shield) will be automatically promoted to the next league.
They still have to compete in the playoffs to determine the winner of the league. The top teams in the playoffs will be promoted to the next tier. If the Supporter shield winner wins the league, then the second and third place teams will join them in the next tier.
If the Supporter shield winner is not in the finale, it would go to both teams in the championship. For the sake of this hypothetical, we will automatically promote the top three teams in each league.
Who would be sent up and down?
The bottom MLS teams currently have nothing to play for; in this hypothetical, it all changes.
The defending MLS Cup champion LA Galaxy are at the bottom of the table this season, making them and Montreal the two teams sent down. St Louis will face DC United in a playoff for a fight to determine who stays in America’s top soccer league.
LA Galaxy, St Louis, and Kansas City will be sent down this season. The question is who will be sent up from the USL.
Charleston Battery would be the top team promoted with FC Tulsa, who both have the top spots in the East and West Conferences in the USL Championship. The third team would be Louisville City FC, which has the second-best record in the league and trails Charleston by three points.
The three USL teams sent down would be the Tampa Bay Rowdies, who have been at the bottom of the table all season, followed by the Hartford Athletic.
The Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC would compete with the Las Vegas Lights FC to determine who stays and who goes. The other two leagues I will not be breaking down today, I will save that for the end of the season, when everything is final throughout all the leagues.
All we can do for now is imagine what it would be like if the MLS no longer isolated itself from the rest of the leagues in USA soccer to make a true pro soccer system. Maybe one day we will have this system, but for now it remains hypothetical.
Main Photo
Credit IMAGO / ZUMA Press Wire
Recording Date 29.07.2025