The English football leagues are systematically organized in a manner where teams can be relegated or promoted based on the standards of play, ensuring leagues showcase teams consistently committed to winning. The topic came up Tuesday on Paul Allen's show on KFAN. He talked about Everton FC, who was on the verge of finishing in the bottom three of the Premier League, meaning the team would be relegated to the English Football League Championship. Yet it avoided relegation with a 1-0 win on Saturday over West Ham.
"Everton is one of maybe three [or] four teams that have never been relegated," the Minneapolis host said. "They've never been good enough to win the whole damn thing, [but] they've never been bad enough to be relegated. It's kind of Minnesota Vikings-like in a way."
With competitive integrity is an issue in various major American pro leagues. It takes many forms including teams "tanking" for draft picks or not investing the necessary funds. Allen believes it might be time to consider a system of this nature in the United States.
"I think it would be amazing if we had that in one of our core four leagues," Allen said. "I'm not asking for an entirely new philosophical change, and it's important to note that the way that ownership structure is set up. the way that TV deals exist; [and] the pure amount of money involved."
According to Allen, there are teams in the National Football League that have consistently struggled and would be worthy of demotion to the United States Football League (USFL), an entity in which FOX Corporation holds a minority ownership stake. He hypothesized that the Birmingham Stallions could be promoted to the NFL for one year and be given a check worth a reported $321 million from national media rights.
"The Houston Texans or Chicago Bears going down to the USFL would not get that money," Allen said. "Now what you have is you do not want to be relegated because you are losing out, in the NFL's case, [on] that cool check that every owner in the NFL just received…. It's not entirely pure profit, but keeping the lights on."
Allen then pointed to another, more recent example in the Oakland Athletics, a team destined for relocation to Las Vegas, Nev. and on pace for 30 wins over the 162-game season. Moreover, the team is last in attendance and garners the lowest payroll in the game, leading baseball fans and media members to question whether they are trying to compete for a championship.
"The Oakland A's have relegated themselves – they've been awful for so long and we are all enamored and we glom on to Moneyball," Allen said. "That franchise has been absolutely hideous almost nonstop since Moneyball days. As a matter of fact for the most part, they've been a feeder system for other teams.
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