Stefan Szymanski predicts the demise of the MLS...

...sort of. What he's actually saying is a lot more nuanced and subtle: that if the MLS is actually intent on becoming a world class league on the order of the EPL, La Liga, etc. it will have to spend an amount of money that will cause the owners to lose money and therefore exit the league.

Read the article here: http://www.soccernomics-agency.com/?p=692

Szymanski, author of the influential book Soccernomics (the Moneyball of soccer) is like the Yoda of soccer analysis, so when he says something like this it sends shockwaves (SHOCKWAVES I TELL YOU) through the soccer community and a lot of U.S. soccer pundits and fans are getting their feathers all ruffled because of this. But if you look closely, Szymanski is just making a really interesting point off of a number of different assumptions, which may or may not be true.

The assumptions are:

1.) That MLS owners will not operate at a loss for the sake of pride and winning championships, as do other soccer owners throughout the world (soccer team ownership, apparently, is not a very profitable enterprise)

2.) That MLS Commissioner Don Garber's "goal" that the MLS will be on par with the EPL, La Liga, Serie A, etc. by 2022 is something that actually matters, which it doesn't.