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Entry #3

Relegation Would Make American Sports More Interesting

Posted August 11, 2011, 7:55pm by Aaron Brown

 

As a fan of the English Premier League and other European football leagues (football...not soccer), I often find that a major part of the excitement in a season is seeing which teams will get relegated and have to drop down to a lesser league the following year. Assuming it's not my team (Aston Villa FC), the race at the bottom of the standings is just as important as the race at the top of the league all the way to the end of the season. The teams that finish in the bottom three of the league standings are forced to drop down a level, while the top three teams from the league below get to advance and play with the big boys in the following season.

 

What a concept! Compare that to the way things are done in the MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL here in the US, where the lowest finishing teams are actually rewarded with the best draft picks in the following offseason. Relegation would mean that teams like the Arizona Cardinals, Kansas City Royals, or the Minnesota Timberwolves couldn't tank their seasons while raking in television revenue and earning a chance to draft one of the best players coming out of college.

 

Look at the current sport in play here in America, Major League Baseball. As it stands, the Astros, Orioles, and Royals have the worst records in the league. The Cubs and Mariners are just a game or two away from the bottom three however, so teams and their fans would really be biting their nails as the season winds down to ensure they get to stay in the major leagues instead of dropping down to say, the AAA level. As a result, fan interest would increase compared to some of the empty stadiums they currently see, while these teams might have to make a move or two at the trade deadline to improve, instead of the current situation where they just dump anyone making a high salary, making the team even worse. And with most of the playoffs spots locked up several weeks ahead of the end of the season anyways, the battle to stay in the MLB would be one of the most dramatic things to watch in sports in August and September.

 

The English Premier League has this excitement in most seasons, including last year's final day where as many as five different teams could have fallen into the last three spots based on their final game result. With every game being played simultaneously, most of the drama came in games featuring teams at the bottom of the standings, with teams yo-yoing between going down to the lower level and living to fight for another year in the EPL.

 

If the major sports in America implemented relegation, their respective sports would immediately become more exciting for the majority of their fans. Make it happen!

 


 

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