The Brotherly Game Staff Airs Its Grievances In Honor Of Festivus

From kchrstine:

1. The draft – (tried to get more info through mlssoccer.com but that was useless) The setup of the draft (how it's broken into so many parts) may have made sense in the first years of the league when a few different options for teams was effective. There's no reason at this point with the size of the league that they shouldn't consolidate the draft system.

2.The schedule – A month before the MLB season is completely over, the schedule is set. Months before the NFL season is over, the schedule is set. On February 3, 2010 the MLS released its 2010 schedule, 7 weeks before first kick. Perhaps in the time that they waste on multiple pieces of the draft, they could be setting the schedule for the convienence of their fans.

3. Player contracts – If MLS would like to be considered on the same level as other leagues across the world, perhaps treating their players as such would be a good place to start. The league shouldn't own the rights to all players, each team should have the full power and discretion over their own players.

From soundofphilly:

4. Relegation / Promotion – I love relegation and promotion systems and I think MLS could benefit a lot from this. It would force bottom-feeding sides to get their houses in order, and it would entice clubs at lower levels to compete – not simply with money, but with scouting and player development. Most importantly, as soccer grows as a viable sports in North America, markets that are new to MLS via promotion have a chance to become active players on a whole new level.

5. Club names – As much as I love European football (um, soccer), MLS should stick to North American naming conventions. This is our league, so it would be cool it the names reflected who we are as people. Philadelphia Union, Los Angeles Galaxy, and New England Revolution are great fits. FC Dallas, not so much. Spelled out, it’s “Football Club Dallas” and we don’t even call it football here.

6. Philadelphia Union kit sponsor – I know these companies aren't big enough, but come on, let's get local and have Wawa, Tastykake, or Yunegling be the sponsor! Talk about a marketing bonanza. These would be flying off of the racks.

From Justin F.:

7. A possible winter World Cup in 2022: If the World Cup was meant to be played in the winter, it would be played in the winter. Before we have this brilliant idea of air conditioned stadiums, now we are thinking about scratching that in favor of playing the World Cup at a time it has never been played before so we inconvenience every European soccer league, whereas before, it was just an inconvenience to those crazy Americans who play hold their soccer season in the summer months.

8. Philadelphia Union all gold kits: I love the Union, and I like their colors, but the gold on gold was the ugliest soccer kit I've seen since Chelsea, my EPL team, thought wearing neon green was a good idea. To echo soundofphilly's sentiment, can we please get a Wawa or TastyKakes kit sponsor? Consider this my number 1 with to Santa Claus this year.

Do you have any grievances to air? List yours below in the comments section.