An alternative to franchising

This is intended to be extremely hypothetical.

I often hear/read arguments between fans "debating" (though it often quickly descends into insults that wouldn't be out of place in a second grade gym class) the merits of the American "franchise" system and the European "club" system.

Major League Soccer (and to a lesser extent, the United Soccer Leagues) has elected to go with the American model, and for the most part it has served them well. There is, however, one alarming feature of the modified franchise model that MLS has selected, the lack of autonomy for teams. I do understand why MLS went down this road, it's main goal has been simply to survive in a brutal environment for the sport, and it has done that.

But there is another option, and it comes from a country in a position similar to the United States both in terms of economics and acceptance of soccer. That country being Japan.

Soccer is generally better accepted in Japan than it is in the United States, but it isn't without "traditionalists" expressing displeasure about it's growing popularity. Baseball is still Japan's number one sport, though depending on who you listen to soccer may be threatening that position with real fight. A large reason behind the growth of soccer in Japan is the amazing success of the J. League, Japan's national league.

The J. League was founded in 1992 to address the problems facing Japanese football. Among those problems was a floundering national team, the Blue Samurai had never qualified to a World Cup at that point, an amateur national league playing in sub-par stadiums, and a general lack of interest from the Japanese public. The J. League was formed by clubs that had played in the amateur Japan Soccer League (which upon the foundation of the J. League became the Japan Football League, or JFL) with the important requirement that the clubs remove all corporate references in the names in an effort to better identify with the local community, or "hometown" (for example, Yomiuri FC became Verdy Kawasaki -- and later Tokyo Verdy).

While MLS has adopted a team allocation in line with those of other American sports leagues, e.g. charging a franchise fee to enter (currently at $40,000,000), the J. League picked a different route. The J. League expands through the roots of Japanese soccer, allowing already existing amateur clubs a chance to become a professional team. This is done under the guise of J. League associate membership. In order to obtain J. League associate member status clubs must meet a number of requirements including but not limited to:

• Being devoted to football (as oppose to being a billboard for a company)
• Getting the approval of the "hometown" government in writing
• Having an acceptable stadium within said "hometown"
• Must be an existing club playing in either the JFL, Regional Divisions, or Prefectural Divisions.

This, at least in my eyes, presents a fine compromise to the American and European methods. A major problem with American soccer is a lack of stability for clubs, indeed we've seen many clubs fall by the wayside due to the lack of a solid foundation. While Japan, too, has lost a club, the storied Yokohama Flügels were merged with bitter rivals Yokohama Marinos, (Ever wondered what the "F." in "F. Marinos" means? Now you know) due to financial problems. (This fusion resulted in one of the best stories of world football, Yokohama FC, but that's for another time.) I think that the "associate member" model presents a better chance for teams to gain presences within their community, and to gain a foothold in a potentially hostile environment.

Will it ever happen? More than likely not. But it's fun to think about what could happen if we had this model in the US.

Eek, sorry for the wordiness. :)