Chivas USA leaves league, leads to Conference Realignment

Well Dynamo fans, the off-season news keeps coming. Chivas USA will cease operations and will not be featured in the 2015 or 2016 seasons. As part of the change, the conferences will also realign and the Houston Dynamo will be back in the Western Conference. The move is part of one that allows a balanced 10 clubs per conference and is part of a greater plan to reintroduce a new Los Angeles club in the 2017 season.

The conference realignment will also see Eastern Conference rival Sporting Kansas City make the move to the Western Conference which certainly turns up the heat in an already very competitive conference. These moves help balance the numbers out in each conference as the league continues to grow into itself, but one has to think that a now very crowded and competitive Western Conference raises new issues that the league will face regarding disparity between the two conferences. While the move certainly won't make things easier for our Houston Dynamo, especially considering our search for a new head coach and technical director, it will be good to face our geographic rival FC Dallas more than once a year.

For Chivas USA, it must be incredibly difficult. If you are a Chivas USA fan, and they do exist, our hearts go out. I can't imagine how tough it would be for the league to all of a sudden cease operations to my club, which would be devastating. The history and records will not carry over to the new franchise which is expected to be an expansion team in 2017. Regarding the players, a dispersal draft will be held this November. The league has not released specifics about the draft, but players like Erick Torres and Dan Kennedy are expected to be in high demand.

Conference Realignment: