How Relegation Could Transform MLB and Attract New Fans (2024)

For many sports fans in the U.S., baseball is an old sport for old people. It’s slow, boring, and reminiscent of a time when Americans wore straw hats and went to town in a horse-drawn wagon.

The NFL is clearly the most popular sport in the United States. Even it’s schedule reveal is bigger news than what's happening in Major League Baseball that day. The NFL Draft is one of the ten most-watched sporting events each year.

The Super Bowl is the most watched, most bet-on sporting event in North America. Meanwhile, baseball has been struggling to find a new generation of fans.

How can baseball become relevant again?

Is there anything that could inject new life into MLB? How can the sport engender itself to younger fans, with shorter attention spans, and more entertainment options than ever?

Relegation, that’s how. It works in the world’s most popular sport, and it could work in MLB.

How MLB relegation could work

Relegation in soccer is like the ultimate "try again next year" notice, but with much higher stakes. It’s the system that ensures no team can rest on its laurels—unless they enjoy playing against weaker competition.

Here’s how it works:

At the end of each season, the teams at the bottom of the league standings are demoted to a lower division. Think of it as being sent to the kids' table at a family dinner because you couldn't keep up with the adults.
For instance, in the English Premier League, the three teams that finish at the very bottom are relegated to the EFL Championship, which is the tier just below.

Conversely, the top teams from the lower division get promoted, taking the places of those that flopped. This keeps the competition fierce and the stakes sky-high throughout the season. Every game counts—literally.

For fans, this means the thrill of seeing underdogs rise and the drama of watching established teams sweat bullets to avoid the drop.

In essence, relegation injects a thrilling blend of hope and fear into the season, ensuring that complacency is a dangerous luxury no team can afford. It’s survival of the fittest, soccer style.

Currently, MLB has 30 teams, with (reportedly) plans to add two more in coming years. But only one team can be a champion each season, and in many years, only a handful of teams have a realistic chance to contend for a title.

MLB sees way too many franchises “rebuilding” on their way to “hopefully” becoming contenders. Some franchises never seem to get their act together (we’re looking at you Pittsburgh and Detroit), which means fans in those cities are stuck watching baseball that doesn’t mean anything, summer after summer,

With relegation and promotion, the urgency to be competitive is baked into the sport.

Here’s what MLB could do:

Expansion to New Markets:

Add two teams, perhaps in Charlotte and Nashville.

Create Two Competitive Leagues:

Split the teams into two leagues: one with 22 teams; the other with 10. Name the 22-team league “MLB Premium” and the other “MLB Choice” or something like that. The names can be almost anything, that’s not the central point.

Designate Top Franchises:

The issue with the current status quo

Currently, many owners realize that they can put a mediocre product on the field and still make oodles of money from rev sharing and local broadcast contracts.

Fans would quickly be attracted to the urgent nature of the relegation/promotion system in MLB. Every season, four teams would lose their place in MLB Premium, and four teams would have an opportunity to jump up.

Many teams might be in danger during the finals weeks of the regular season, and it would make the season more important.

Speaking of the season: MLB needs to make a hard decision to stay relevant. The league cannot keep playing a 162-game season that stretches from late March to early November.

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