NY Post: Beckham and LeBron have had several "secret meetings" about Miami Club

[NYCFCFan10]

http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/...ooking-to-add-lebron-to-miami-expansion-team/

Apparently Beckham was listening, because according to Johnson’s source, the two have had “several secret meetings” to discuss the expansion team.

The source likened James to what Jay Z did for the Brooklyn Nets, saying he doesn’t need LeBron’s money, but could make great use of his draw and popularity.
....

Getting LeBron on board would certainly be an enormous boost to the new Miami franchise. His pull is astronomical, and he would bring an appeal to a different fan base than Beckham.

Last month, Beckham mentioned the basketball icon was a “friend” telling reporters “we speak as friends about what we’re doing, but we’re also speaking as great businessmen.”'

With most of the Eastern Conference being pretty crappy, I really am excited about Miami and I hope it comes together nicely.

Consider this, when Orlando and NYCFC join, Sporting KC and Houston will move to the West! Those are consistently two of the best clubs in the East! The West is already stacked as hell. So, I'm glad we'll have a rejuvenated Toronto and hopefully a loaded Miami to square off against because you know the Cows won't put up much of a fight.

 

[Andy]

Unless they make it three divisions.. always a possibility

 

[ysmr522]

Unless they make it three divisions.. always a possibility

Just curious, how would the playoffs/cup work?

 

[MikeDatTiger]

24 teams makes for an easy division.

The easiest thing to do would be 4 divisions of 8. The geography here is actually kind of easy.

Pacific: Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Jose, LA Galaxy, LA2 (Have fun in that one)
West: RSL, Colorado, Dallas, Houston, SKC, and potential Minneapolis
Central: Chicago, Columbus, Atlanta, Toronto, Miami, Orlando
East: RBNY, NYCFC, DC, Philadelphia, New England, Montreal

I'll assume they want twelve teams in the playoffs, up from the current 10. That could look like this:

Round 1: Division winners have a BYE
Pac2 v. Pac3
West2 v. West3
Cent2 v. Cent3
East2 v. East3

Round 2:
Pac1 v. Winner of Pac2v3 (etc, etc)

Round 3:
Pac Champ v. West Champ
Central Champ v. East Champ

Round 4: MLS Cup
2 remaining teams.

Now, 3 divisions are also doable. That'd look like this.

West: Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, La Galaxy, LA2, San Jose, RSL, Colorado
Central: Atlanta, Chicago, Columbus, Toronto, (Potential Minneapolis), SKC, Houston, FC Dallas
East: NYCFC, RBNY, Philadelphia, DC, NER, Montreal, Orlando, Miami

I think that generally makes sense. I had to split up the new Southeast teams. As for playoffs, again assuming we want 12 teams, it's a little messier. The real question in my mind is how you arrange that in the inevitable round of 4, one division leader faces off against another division leader while another gets a wild card. Basically, divisional positions have to be scrapped. So do this:

Round 1:
Division winners get bye, as does Top point getting non-division winner.
From there teams are seeded by points, 5 v. 12, 6, v. 11, 7 v. 10, 8 v. 9.

Round 2:
Best Div winner 1 v. highest seed winning from Round 2
2nd best Div winner v. 2nd highest seed winning from Round 2. ...etc.

Round 3:
Highest seed left v. lowest seed left
The other two teams

Round 4: MLS Cup

I think that makes the most sense.

Of course, I've only handled issues of playoffs. The other issue is scheduling. Currently, MLS teams play 34 games. In the four-division set up, you'd have to do a home & away against the other division foes, taking up 10 games. Leaves you 24 games to play. The easiest thing to do there is set the divisions against each other, so Pacific v. West home & homes. However, that basically divides MLS into two 12 team leagues. I think there's some virtues in that, but MLS isn't letting Donovan & Dempsey not come to NY so there's not much use talking about that.