There are 30 MLS teams spread across the U.S. and Canada, 15 apiece in the Eastern and Western Conferences. There are so many clubs that many MLS fans likely cannot name every one, nor can they feel fully encouraged to engage in league play on the whole. MLS Commissioner Don Garber has recently addressed the idea of doing something about it.

Due to the sheer volume of the U.S.’s top flight, the notion of implementing a relegation and promotion system—a merit-based model widely implemented across European soccer, currently used in the English Premier League, the Spanish La Liga and the German Bundesliga, among others—has been raised several times over.

The model not only raises the stakes for the entire season by condemning the lowest-ranked teams at the season’s end to a lower-tiered league of play—and conversely, rewards the highest-performing teams with a promotion to a higher-tiered league—but it also manages and caps how many teams compete in a given league, creating a clear and organized pyramid…