What does “growth” actually mean? Revenue, audience, valuation, infrastructure, and participation measure commercial growth. Promotion measures sporting merit. They are related, but they are not interchangeable. A club can grow commercially without being the best team on the field, just as a promoted club can face higher costs, greater risk, and a worse P&L. Promotion is not a financial award. It is the mechanism to answer to a simple question: who has earned the right to compete at the next level? Or more simply put: "Who is the best?" That is what makes the closed-league argument fall apart. You cannot market yourself as the home of the most elite level of competition while using centralized wealth and purchasing power to insulate yourself from the most fundamental form of competition: the possibility that someone else can outperform you.

This is classic central-planning thinking. “Just have MLS build more stuff.” Meanwhile every successful soccer nation relies on thousands of independent clubs competing for players, fans, sponsors, and promotion, not one organization trying to engineer the entire talent pipeline.