I modded this mongoose Z350. Found this in the trash year ago but I didn’t bother w it. Was gonna throw it out but I modded it to 36v. This is running a 36v 800w motor, 36v 1000w speed controller, custom throttle, and welded 22t sprocket and chain.
Hey everyone,
Now that the 2026 World Cup has wrapped up, the conversation around the future of American soccer is at an all-time high. Like many of you, I am incredibly frustrated by the current fractured state of our domestic landscape.
To fix the system, I constructed a comprehensive 9-Tier custom soccer pyramid blueprint. My design explicitly avoids the standard "video game" trap of blindly copying Europe. Instead, it balances modern American financial realities with global inspirations—taking travel efficiency from Australia, sporting merit from England, and community identity from Japan.
Check out the attached image for the full tier layout! Here is the deep dive into the current problems with our system, how my custom pyramid systematically fixes them, and the specific international influences that shaped this blueprint:
Part 1: What is Broken in U.S. Soccer Right Now?
Our current system is paralyzed by three structural flaws that stifle growth:
The Franchise Dead-End: Major League Soccer operates on a closed corporate franchise model. This leaves independent lower-tier clubs permanently trapped in a financial glass ceiling with zero vertical mobility, killing investment interest from ambitious independent owners.
The Relegation Lawsuit Trap: Simply forcing a European-style promotion and relegation system onto current MLS owners who paid upwards of $500M in expansion fees is legally impossible. It would trigger multi-billion dollar corporate lawsuits that would paralyze the sport in court for decades.
The Financial and Travel Bleed: Lower-division clubs in leagues like USL and NISA are forced into grueling, nationwide travel schedules before their bank accounts are ready. This drives up overhead, jacks up ticket prices for working-class families, and frequently forces clubs into bankruptcy.
Part 2: How My 9-Tier Pyramid Cures the System
1. The Autonomous MLS Shield (Solving the Lawsuit Problem)
The Fix: MLS is kept entirely outside the open pyramid, retaining its separate Division 1 corporate status and a heavily raised salary cap.
The Reason: Leaving MLS in an insulated, closed box completely bypasses the legal threat of franchise devaluation. It keeps corporate investors happy while completely freeing the rest of the continent to run a massive, parallel, merit-based open system underneath.
2. The New Open Professional Pyramid (Tiers 1 to 4)
Tier 1 (USL Premier): A brand-new, parallel elite Division 1 sporting tier featuring 20 high-spending independent clubs (Louisville, Sacramento, New Mexico, Tampa Bay) fighting for a true merit-based national championship. It also resurrects the legendary New York Cosmos brand to challenge the NY market monopoly.
Tier 2 (USL Championship): 20 highly stable, professional clubs acting as a cutthroat hunting ground for top-flight promotion.
Tier 3 (USL League One - The 4-League Regional Filter): 40 clubs split into four strict, 10-team regional conferences (Western, Midwest, North East Atlantic, Southern). This features highly competitive promotions while slashing travel costs to near zero by ensuring tight regional schedules.
Tier 4 (NISA): A hyper-stable 20-team professional bedrock pairing current independent survivors (Maryland Bobcats, LA Force) with iconic, cult-classic independent revivals (Philadelphia Fury, Stumptown AC).
3. The Direct Regional Relegation Swap
To keep the Tier 3 regional conferences perfectly balanced at 10 teams each, relegation is geographically tethered.
If a California club wins the Tier 4 NISA promotion bracket to enter the USL Western League, the lowest-ranked team specifically within that Western League table drops down to NISA. This prevents the geographic lines of the conferences from ever bleeding into each other.
4. Isolating the Development Pathway Box
MLS NEXT Pro, USL League Two, and NCAA College Soccer are completely stripped of professional tier status and moved into an isolated Development Pathway farm box.
This permanently clears corporate reserve squads out of the pro pyramid tables, protects college amateur status, and forces the NCAA to adopt standard FIFA substitution rules [url=ncaa.com] to wipe out chaotic "track meet" styles, forcing academic programs to drill prospects in high-IQ, press-resistant domestic talent.
5. Real Estate Incubation & The Modular Escape Plan
Instead of forcing lower-tier clubs into bankrupting stadium construction debts on day one, my blueprint implements a realistic facility lifecycle:
The Collegiate Exemption: Clubs like Vermont Green and Capo FC utilize beautiful local campus venues, using a Student ID Free Ticket Model to fill the stands with screaming college student ultras while keeping startup overhead flat.
The Downtown Ballpark Incubator: Teams like Peoria City (Dozer Park) [url=wikipedia.org], Toledo Villa (Fifth Third Field), and Corpus Christi FC (Whataburger Field) move into downtown minor-league baseball stadiums. They bypass construction debt, inheriting pro-grade broadcast lights, luxury corporate boxes, and walkable nightlife foot traffic to build cash reserves.
The Offseason Upgrade Buffer: Once these clubs accumulate wealth through a 15% Top-Tier Revenue Levy siphoned from the top flight and automated 5% Training Solidarity Fees, they buy local land to drop their own steep, custom modular soccer-specific stadiums (e.g., a complete demolition and rebuild project on the old Oakland Coliseum site).
Part 3: The Global Influences Behind the Design
To make sure this ecosystem functions harmoniously, I explicitly wove structural and cultural traits from the world's most successful soccer nations into our domestic grid:
England 🏴 (Intensity, Merit, and Acoustic Tension): The strict promotion and relegation lines binding Tiers 1 through 5 recreate the high-stakes, ruthless pressure of English football. There are no meaningless late-season games. Stadium atmospheres will mirror the English game—packed with organic, situational chanting and intense supporter anxiety, because fans know their club’s entire financial destiny is on the line every 90 minutes.
Australia 🇦🇺** & Russia 🇷🇺 (Geometric Travel Efficiency**): Modeling our Tier 3 after Australia's localized efficiency and Russia's vast geographic handling, the 4-League Regional Filter ensures away fans can travel easily by bus or short car rides. This creates massive traveling supporter sections, hostile away ends, and explosive regional "Tifo wars."
Spain 🇪🇸** & France 🇫🇷 (The High-IQ Technical Pipeline**): By isolating the Development Pathway box, the style of play mirrors the smooth, press-resistant technical academies of France and Spain. Fans in Tiers 4 and 5 will appreciate tactical spacing and quick passing traps, cheering the match like a footballing masterclass rather than a physical track meet.
Japan 🇯🇵** (Community-First Civic Pillars): Following the J-League model, our grassroots levels (Tiers 7 to 9) function as highly disciplined, family-friendly civic engines heavily backed by local small businesses, youth academies, and neighborhood councils.
Brazil 🇧🇷 & Argentina 🇦🇷 (Raw Grassroots Flair & Samba Chaos**): By freeing the amateur ranks from sterile corporate oversight, the independent sections will channel raw South American street culture—vibrating with massive brass bands, non-stop pounding drums, flares, and relentless creative flair on the pitch.
The End Goal
By combining MLS's uncapped financial corporate spending with the ruthless competitive grit of an open independent ladder, American soccer will rapidly out-scale Liga MX. Our clubs will pass out of compact defensive traps with one-touch precision, consistently dominate the CONCACAF Champions Cup, and establish the United States as an absolute powerhouse of the global game.
Let me know your thoughts on the tier lists, the ballpark incubator rules, or how the regional relegation swaps function!