If you sat down and wrote a list of commonly parroted refrains about Major League Soccer, “you’d have to be crazy to bet on MLS” may well be at the top of the heap.



MLS, after all, is a league known for its parity. Its teams exist within a fairly strict salary cap that, for the most part, maintains a consistent competitive balance within the league. Offseason roster mechanisms — high draft picks, re-entry draft spots and the like — make things easier for bottom-dwelling clubs, and more than a handful of lower-table teams have righted the ship and qualified for the playoffs the following year. There would seem to be very few safe bets in Major League Soccer.



Yet those who bet on the league regularly — and even the linemakers themselves — paint a different picture. They’ll tell you that Major League Soccer, with its myriad roster mechanisms, scheduling issues and other complexities, is ripe territory for an educated...