Andrew Moran M Stoke (loan from Brighton) b.2003

[SkStu]

I don't know. If I was to put on my other sporting hat as a Connacht supporter...Connacht finished down near the bottom of the table last season. But, in 2016, they came from nowhere to win the whole thing.

Much as that's unlikely to happen again next season, if I was told that the league was being split into two tiers with promotion and relegation I'd likely be dead set against it. But, in football, where my team would be Hibs and that jeopardy already very much exists for them, I accept it. So I do think there's a historical element to it.

in isolation, a sport with a limited number of teams, you can get that it would make sense for there to be limits on how far you go and little attraction in promotion/relegation for the sake of it - so I understand there's a basis there. Accept that completely. The debate in LOI circles for a very long time was also whether there should be one division or two - now we are talking two or three interestingly.

But if you step back and look at NA sports as a whole system it is designed around maximizing revenue for rich owners rather than sport in the truest sense, no? P/R is one example, the concept of post-season is another, the number of breaks during a game, the "best of seven" idea (this is the only different concept that has actually produced some great sporting moments imho)...

[Razors left peg]

in isolation, a sport with a limited number of teams, you can get that it would make sense for there to be limits on how far you go and little attraction in promotion/relegation for the sake of it - so I understand there's a basis there. Accept that completely. The debate in LOI circles for a very long time was also whether there should be one division or two - now we are talking two or three interestingly.

But if you step back and look at NA sports as a whole system it is designed around maximizing revenue for rich owners rather than sport in the truest sense, no? P/R is one example, the concept of post-season is another, the number of breaks during a game, the "best of seven" idea (this is the only different concept that has actually produced some great sporting moments imho)...

I do like sports out here in general, theres no doubt that its 100% about entertainment and money rather than sport. The consistently make rule changes and even league structure changes based on TV revenue. Fans are more like customers. You go to a NBA game and theres a guy beside you eating popcorn like hes just at cinema.

I visited Old Trafford 3 weeks ago, and it really brought home the difference between the sporting cultures that I had honestly even forgotten about myself, even though Utd are such a commercial club themselves.

Moran going to the MLS would be a disaster. He'd be far better going to L1 for a year if it came down to that.

[Razors left peg]

Yeah, but with the greatest of respects, you were born there you poor mite! Auld Razor choose to move there. Left the land of saints and scholars(TM) to try and connive those poor Valley strippers into 2nd & 3rd mortgages and profit from their sexy stupidity to go live it up with Jack and Leo courtside at the Staples Centre (dramatization: may not have happened

Strippers are people too!!!