Hello Magnus
I did know that the MLS was a franchise, this is because in the UK the press reported that Beckham was buying an MLS Franchise at the end of his career, and that CFG had bought NYCFC and the word Franchise was mentioned in many reports.
However until now I had not really thought about what the franchise entailed. I did not know how the league (and subsequently the franchise) worked, and am learning a lot about not just American "Soccer" but also American sport in general.
I am sure that everyone who has bought a franchise has done the due diligence and understand the "whole" far better than I.
I am still putting together the sum of the parts !!!
I understand how franchises work, in a previous life about 20 years ago part of my job involved selling franchises.
Most Franchises (at least the ones worth having, there is much dross out there) involve an initial purchase, a standard (upkeep of brand image) and licence fees. Many franchises have a territory, and often customers contracts are held by the franchising company not the franchisee.
Being a "Franchise" helped make sense of no relegation.
Being a Franchise I can see the league holding the sponsorship revenues and re investing those.
I can see how pro soccer is developing stateside, and can see why people would want a part of the action.
I have no axe to grind. Soccer has "stalled" several times in its growth in the States, the MLS has done its job in promoting pro soccer and bringing it to the forefront so so far it has worked.
But owning a franchise is not like owning a club, at the end of the day a some point the franchise is handed back to the league. (What hand back arrangements are I don't know does the league buy the rights back ?) or in the worst case scenario the Franchiser can repossess the franchise from the franchisee)
In the big world of global football and finance, is a franchise system going to be sustainable in years to come, or are owners (the current franchisees) going to want more.
Personally, based upon my current knowledge,I am (tries to find the right word here) unsure whether it will in the long term
Everything I have put above, is my understanding of the situation not necessarily fact, if I am correct it is pure fluke, if I am not then tell me where my understanding is "wooly"
Please do not take the next paragraph as being from someone with an axe to grind, this was over 20 years ago, the world has moved on, I have lost "touch" with the franchise industry, and even then not every franchise was terrible. The fact I worked in the industry, probably makes me question the detail a little more than most, and I naturally look at that from the point of view of a small franchisee. This high finance world is probably a completely different level to where I was dealing.
As I said, in a previous life I sold franchises as part of my franchise management role, this is one of the reasons I work for myself now and am not a franchisee. (Different world, maybe not the worlds greatest franchisor), but some of the "situations" I had to deal with (as a manager of franchisees ) has put me off putting my money into franchises of any kind.
