What is truly exciting about Atlanta United entering MLS (aside from being a proud Georgian's local team) at the time that it does is that the league is still so young, and will have several kinks to work out. As has been discussed on DSS before, Atlanta United and the Minnesota Crybabies (our new collective rivals) enter the league simultaneously, taking the total number of teams to 22. Minnesota will likely join the Western Conference, and Atlanta will join the East, but there are still a number of teams in discussion to come in, which could potentially take the total to a nice, even, 27? Joking aside, this is a bit of an issue in making sure conferences will have an equal number of teams. Granted, the Supporter's Shield is unfortunately not respected because of the American obsession with playoffs, but this could bring in a restructuring of the league. Should conference titles be determined during the regular season, like the state championships in Brazil? Will the league want to give the SS some importance by creating a full league where every team is played an equal number of times? It is highly possible that Atlanta's first few years in MLS will be drastically different than later on in the team's history.

In terms of strengthening the value of the Supporter's Shield, many have brought up the difficulty of flying teams across our vast nation to play an even number of games would create for the player's fitness levels. It doesn't seem too ridiculous to suggest that the league could take a page from the NBA's book and schedule games so that teams will have long road trips to cut down on the issue of jet lag. That said, teams in Europe frequently have to fly to different countries to play in continental competition, as do teams in South America.

Monetarily, and probably practically speaking, it seems much more likely MLS cup may remain the main prize at the end of the season, because of playoff popularity. But with nearly 50% more teams in the league in the not too distant future, should the playoffs be expanded to include more teams and more fanbases? The potential expansion teams, not including Atlanta and Minnesota, are LA, Miami, Sacramento, San Antonio, Detroit and one of the Carolinas. Should all of those teams come to fruition and join the league, in the MLS cup's current format, 13 teams would miss out on the playoffs. The league has shown before its willingness to expand the playoffs, but that many teams would require a good bit of restructuring. Would the #1 seeded team play in the first round, and if so, would that mean that two legs would be required?

One thing that is pretty much assuredly not going to happen for quite some time is promotion and relegation. MLS would have to see a massive jump in both earnings and attendance to justify such a decision, and both of those things happening are very much not guaranteed. Making such a decision too early could very easily ruin teams that go down because of a lack of history to make fans continue supporting their team.

I'd love to hear the good people of DSS's opinions on what would be the most ideal scenario for MLS going forward, and what scenario would draw in more casual fans of the sport.

Feel free to follow me on Twitter @Trauppin, I tweet a fair bit about Arsenal so no hard feelings if that puts you off.