I like the idea of relegation. Pro soccer and rugby use it. Team that finishes last is relegated to the minor leagues. Best minor-league team is promoted to majors. Baseball could do it easily. It would motivate owners to do better or their franchise might lose a lot of its value. For it to work, football would have to have a viable minor league system, but it could be done.
It would also eliminate construction of huge, expensive sports palaces. The Rams wouldn’t be able to build a new multibillion dollar stadium if they might find themselves in the minors next year.
Relegation doesn’t actually accomplish very much. The sports are still divided into the haves and have nots, the only difference is it create as a group that has a little too much for the lower league and not enough for the upper and bounce back and forth between leagues. And it doesn’t eliminate the sports palaces either, the sheer quantity of teams, and subsequently smaller audience, does that... at least for some teams. Top echelon teams can still get some massive stadiums.
Have you paid any attention to the Premiere League?
It has stadiums to rival anything in the US now.
Some of them (Arsenal) have been privately financed, but Premier League teams have unique ways of generating income in a hurry - like selling their stars. Also, all the teams seem to owned by Arab billionaires, which I doubt is something that would be applauded here.
I also think that football should have a minor leagues. There are so many good football players, and some of them who are not ready at 22 might be superstars at 25. Happens in other sports all the time. But in football, the ones who don’t make a team at 22 are pretty much done. Some hang on, but without actually playing it’s hard to get better. Look at Kurt Warner and how easily he might never have actually played a down.