I wonder if MLS has compared a completely automated system against this hybrid approach and looked at the end of the season if there was a measurable difference? It would also be interesting to know if the which software he used, and does it run simulations using historical data and iterating or is it “simply” looking for puzzle pieces. The thought of coming to terms with such a vast quantity of disparate data is daunting to say the least … the fact he gets a schedule out at all I’m inclined to believe he’s either either a bonafide genius or a complete fraud.
We don't know that a committee would produce a better schedule - in fact it could be even more of a mess. Sounds like the process could use a little more club input, however.
Totally disagree about the committee idea being better. In over 40 years in business, I have seen very few committee's that excel at detail work. They may be good (usually not) in including diverse opinions and agreeing on common priorities but that's about it. For a problem where the parameters are known, I would much rather have an individual or a small team work out a draft like MLS does and then revise it to the extent possible based upon probably conflicting team change requests. We also don't know if MLS (perhaps in conjunction) with its marketing arm or sponsors doesn't place certain burdens or priorities on the scheduler. For example, and I may be wrong, but it would seem that the plethora of Sunday games for Chivas USA is at the request of the UNMAS network. As a sideline note, the NCAA basketball tournament is a vastly more simple process. First there are only 68 teams, the dates and locations are prescheduled a year or more in advance and neither weather nor TV ratings are a factor. The committee only ranks the teams (a highly political and contentious process that requires a large number of participants to provide a veneer of objectivity) and then slots those teams into the 4 regional (by picking between teams with similar rankings) to avoid both early interconference games and to fit the geographics of the tournament sites.
Good points. They definitely are taking into account tv times, date/time impact on attendance, and other special requests, such as avoiding dates when there are stadium conflicts. There are also issues relating to travel distance and/or coordinated road trips, especially for the occasional midweek games. I'd be curious to know how much the unbalanced schedule has complicated things. If they just played every team twice, then it would be more natural to split those games between the first half of the season and the second. My guess is the third game against conference opponents contributed to the back-to-back issues we are seeing this year, although fact remains that specific issue could have been easily fixed by just switching a couple of the games in question had they focused on it. Still, you'd think that there would be a basic template for the season with teams drawn into slots (e1, e2, e3, w1, w2, etc.), and then only a handful of swaps needed to adjust for conflicts and blackouts. Feels like there is much more discretion than that.
Well we can agree to disagree on this point. I'm well aware of the many ways in which committees can be dysfunctional, paralytic, and sometimes create something that has been compromised in so many ways that its almost useless. But in the specific task of scheduling I think having other people involved as the schedule is being created could be really helpful. It's not that the committee is creating the schedule - the guy in charge is doing that. Its more that the committee is part of the process, throwing out different ideas on how to resolve the inevitable clashes in interests and resolving conflicts and pointing out issues that might have been missed. Sort of "hey, what if we move RSL to that March 17th date - that will solve the problem of Vancouver needing an early game in warmer weather" and then someone else chimes in "no, can't do that - Salt Lake has their annual Lava Run that week and that is going to kill parking" and then a third guy goes "ok, move RSL to the 11th, and flip their game with NYRB to June 12th, problem solved!" and the guy in charge of scheduling says "wow - that just might work" and makes the changes. If there is only one person in the room the Lava Run may have completely slipped his mind and if he did remember it the creative solution of flipping the NYRB game may never have occurred to him. So again to be clear - one guy in charge, directing the whole process, but with a think tank helping him, preferably of guys/gals that are intimately aware of club/TV/etc. issues, providing input and flagging issues that the guy in charge might miss. And my final argument why this should not just be a one guy thing is the abomination that is the 2014 MLS schedule. I know full well that there are waaay more constraints than we can as outsiders can be aware of any no schedule is going to please everyone but I'm also certain that the optimal solution to all these problems is not us playing RSL twice in succession, then VAN twice in succession, then later STL twice in succession, while having several 2 and 3 week gaps between games and so on (and yes I'm aware that one of the games was moved after the schedule was created.) Overall the current schedule can't be defended as anything close to the best we could have done, IMO.
The organization that does MLB is comprised of 3 PhDs and a former baseball exec running the show. They were hired in large part because their methodology reduced the number of home-home games from the group formerly handling the scheduling. I have absolutely zero idea how people feel about the MLB schedule so it could be a disaster. From what I can tell Pursel is a business guy not an engineer and went straight from school to MLS. The upside is he’s very familiar with the nuances of MLS, the downsides are pure speculation on my part; suffice to say if I was dealing with all the data claimed to be going in to the schedule I’d want a business guy on the team, but I’d want a scientist and/or engineer actually doing the work.
There are scheduling solutions for soccer and other leagues, that appear well thought out. Its possible that MLS has bought such a package and possibly had it modified to include factors unique to MLS (or built its own). http://leagueusa.com/league-scheduler.html
i have no explanation for the home and aways but I'm willing to believe that the Galaxy are at fault for the numerous bye weeks to start the season. Clearly it was wishful thinking that we'd be involved deep into the CCL and the weeks off would allow us to better compete for that title. Hard to blame MLS for that.
The home and homes are egregious, but it may have been someone's bright idea from above that the scheduler just did as told. Maybe they thought they were upping the excitement level for the regular season, or they tried it as an experiment.
Interesting thoughts from Husidic on his role in the midfield: http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...y-baggio-husidic-midfield-hes-good-thinker-fi
The one guy thing is fascinating. It makes sense why the schedule is always so awful if that's really the case. Just completing that big of a task alone must feel like an accomplishment. It does seem (look at last year's playoffs...there's a fun thread with me ranting about it in here somewhere) that there's nobody that really looks it over with the big picture in mind. Forget the home and homes for a second, and think about the byes we have this year. They knew the CONCACAF dates (within a day) we had for a long time. But for some reason, they gave us a game between the 2 legs that they had to move, but scheduled us for a bye 2 weeks later...perhaps on the assumption we might need it. Why wouldn't you just schedule the bye for when you KNOW we need it, and if we win and you have to move the next game, you have the wiggle room to move the next game. It makes ZERO sense to schedule a game for us the first week you know you're going to move. It's even symptomatic of a bigger problem I wonder about. Sometimes I really do wonder how much this league thinks things out or just wings it. A lot of times, from both the league and sometimes even our FO, I feel like they're winging it.
I think it's a league management issue. I don't care where it is a group of ten superminds or one drunk monkey putting it together, when you submit a schedule with a bunch of back to backs, someone at the review level has to say "You can't do that, go try again and bring it back without and back-to-backs."
I'm sort of on the other side. Doing this would require such immersion that the 10 superminds would just get in each other's way and the drunk money might be the better way to go. Probably two different issues, creating the schedule and then proofreading it. My guess is that the powers that be just didn't think back-to-back games would be a big deal.
I don't mind the back-to-backs nearly as much as the cramming of games in July and August especially when we already started slow and have an open weekend next week.
Good guess, I think. I wonder if the "powers that be" consulted with the clubs involved in the back-to-back games to see if they thought it was a big deal. I have not looked at the over-all MLS schedule. Do all clubs face the back-to-back issue at some point or is this peculiar to us? Didn't look to see, for example, if RSL faces a second instance with another team, or if Whitecaps do.
The 2013 playoff schedule was a farce. MLS has made some big strides over the last 3-4 years, but they’re still incredibly susceptible to minor league thinking
That's the impression I get; looks like things were set-up to minimize traveling for LA in the CCL weeks; a home game, away to Utah, a bye, "away" to Chivas etc. Away to Vancouver will be the furthest the team has traveled so far.
Don't forget the first back to back happened only because they moved the dc united game to later in the year so we would have prep time for the TJ CCL 2nd game. A game they knew we were going to have, but they scheduled us a game before it, knowing they were going to have to move it. It's crazy. Almost as crazy as putting a team on turf in a football stadium in a city that only cares about college football and nascar.
So, same lineup as our last game? Against the same team? Anyone know if any of the injured (like Dunivant?) will be ready to go?
Reo-Coker and Matias Laba will be in the mix for Vancouver this time 'round; meaningful upgrades to the team from last week.
We have another bye next week!?!?! This is beyond stupid. Right as we start to gather steam, another bye. Not to mention, that's a grand total of 3 games for Landon and Omar to play in before national team camp. Sigh.
Yeah. Just came in here to post national team camp starts 5/12, so we've seen Landon & Omar's last home game until probably 4th of July. We'll probably play 6 games without them. @ Houston Dallas Philly @ Chicago Chivas @ San Jose I think the best case scenario is to stay in the middle of the pack through WC, and then really get on a roll in all the July/August games. I mean our 3 before they leave is Vancouver who we split with on the road last year, Colorado, where we lost 2-0, and Portland, where we lost twice. So we have that, and then we lose 2 of our best players for 2 months. Awesome. Honestly, if you said we could have the 3rd seed in the west and fast forward to October, I'd take it.