AMA 1 - Promotion/Relegation?

We're into the fifth season of Major League Rugby (MLR) and already too deep into the crazy, speculative questions about the MLR. Today's question was posted in The MLR Fanzone group on the tome of faces. 

The question of promo/releg and anything likened to a 2nd division seems to assume that the MLR is part of its home unions (USA Rugby & Rugby Canada) like in other rugby-prominent nations. Instead, the MLR is a stand-alone commercial sports entertainment enterprise with a joint "sanctioning agreement" between itself and the home unions that basically tells the home unions what their place is in the order of things. Part of that order of things means understanding that each MLR club is a commercial enterprise in and of itself and that each of those clubs enjoys an equal ownership in the League. This is very different from England where the RFU (England's home union) governs its pro/semipro competitions - the Gallagher Premiership and the Greene King Championship - in which promotion and relegation has been in place since 1987 (before the professional era started in 1995). Those promo/releg statutes were grandfathered in as clubs gradually became owned by individual owners or ownership teams with a few exceptions. That's an arrangement that evolved over the years. 

Now imagine US sports team owners like Jimmy & Dee Haslam (NFL - Cleveland Browns) or the Seattle Hockey Partners (NHL - the Kraken) being asked to relegate their teams to a lesser league that won't generate near as much revenue? Yeah, ain't gonna happen. 

Rugby in the MLR doesn't get a pass on this staple of North American business principles. No MLR owner or ownership group will allow their squad to be demoted to an amateur league (that IS the next level below the MLR in the USA) with no value proposition and no income or income potential. 

Even if an MLR senior academy league evolves, it'll be a development league that is honing the experience and skills of the next generation of MLR players that don't cost near as much as the visas required for expats (but I digress). It'll be more like the Espoires (French for hope) matches played between French Pro D2 teams. The Espoires' players are the players trying to make the starting 23 of a Pro D2 team. It's a place for them to hone their skills, gain experience and make the rookie mistakes. 

So to answer the question, will the MLR ever have promo/releg? The answer is probably not. 

Will it ever have a dedicated 2nd division competition? Likely, but that'll happen when the league is making a LOT more money then it is now.