So, I say, let's get on with the allocation and dispersal drafts ...

I see Colorado taking Mamadou Diallo and Pablo Mastroeni ... New England taking Diego Serna ... D.C. taking Alex Pineda Chacon ...

What's that? You think I'm being insensitive to the fans in Tampa Bay and Fort Lauderdale, err, Miami, err, Boca Raton ...

Puh-lease.

By announcing today that it was eliminating the Tampa Bay Mutiny and the Miami (Fort Lauderdale) Fusion, MLS is doing exactly what it has to do. The league is getting rid of one team, Tampa Bay, that was never, ever, ever going to succeed as long as it played in 200,000-seat Raymond James Stadium and another, Palm Beach/Broward County, that only had a chance to succeed if they found a new investor operator. Since the Mutiny weren't going to get a 12,000-seat stadium any time soon and there wasn't anyone wanting to take over operations of the Fusion, the league was left with no choice.

Mutiny (can we at least agree this was a horrible name to begin with?) and Fusion, it was nice knowing you. And don't worry, you'll have company in the dead teams department very soon.

That is, if I had my way, you'll have company.

Today's announcement should just be the start of a "New MLS." If cities like Denver and Kansas City and San Jose don't shape up in 2002, they should be gone too.

No, I'm not looking for a six-team circuit. But I am looking to find the best 10-16 soccer towns in America. My rough blueprint has my big market teams, New York/New Jersey, Chicago, D.C. and Los Angeles. And my small-market team, Columbus.

Actually, my goal is to find six to eight more cities like Columbus to round out the league. If McKinney, Texas, the proposed site of the Dallas Burn's new stadium, happens to be one of those places, great. My main criteria for each new city is that the MLS team immediately becomes its most important professional sports team. Rochester looks appealing. So does Winston-Salem. They have a nifty little soccer stadium down in Charleston. Birmingham has always done well for U.S. national team games. There's a group in Trenton that has a magnificent stadium plan.

Oh, I know my plan isn't the traditional American sports model. That's the idea. MLS needs to start thinking of how it can make soccer succeed. It needs to show that it's willing to depart from the normal "How to market sports in America" model.

Come to think of it, they may be thinking that way already. Their willingness to contract, to eliminate two teams with no future, shows the league has some guts.

Don't stop now. Keep moving on.

Jeff Bradley is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at jeff.bradley@espnmag.com.