This problem is simply because people only use Pro as a stepping stone to get into Elite, so that they can participate against top teams.
Can we change the format to
- Junior Series
- Main Series
What should we do with existing Pro Teams? promote/demote between the Tiers. Bottom Y in the Pro get pushed to the Y slots Rookie, and Top X get pushed into the X slots available for Elite Tier at the start of the next season.
What if we have too many teams and cannot fill both Tiers? Firstly the system should detect Teams that are accessed from the same IP (B Teams), and remove the lesser.
What if we still have too many teams? We'll need to come to the point that teams need to be dropped altogether from the League.
Alternatively
All Pro teams become rookie teams, and if there are more than 16 Pro+Rookie teams, then they split even into two Junior Series. Only the winners of Both teams can move up to the Main Series and the Bottom two of the Main Series will drop to each Junior Series.
All in all, there is a vacuum in the middle series which is hurting the game.