Current playoff: 15 games total 12 teams / single elimination playoff: 11 games total This would mean 4 less games but each game will be more intense due to the single elimination nature. Something similar to this, I would imagine. Using 2013 MLS Western Conference teams as an example: Portland (#1) and RSL (#2) get first round bye and home field advantage in the second round. LA (#3) will host SJ (#6) Seattle (#4) will host Colorado (#5) The earliest this could happen will be 2015 when the 20th club join the league. A more likely scenario is when MLS have 22 clubs.
I don't hate it. But the reason it works in the NFL but hasn't been used in any other sport is because gate receipts are still a rather substantial portion of a club's overall income. The benefit of the home-away is that 8 teams get home games. Single-elimination means as few as 4 do
You're definitely right, it will go to 12 teams at some point...probably before 2020.... but I doubt single elimination throughout the playoffs. Most likely they'll just have the bottom 4 teams play a single elimination game and then it will kick into home and away.
MLS will have 4 less playoff games (11 instead of 15). Will MLS take that big of a revenue hit from having 4 less games? You're off by 4. 8 clubs out of 12 clubs will have home games. Using Western Conference as example: First round: #3 and #4 will have home games (home field advantage) Second round: #1 and #2 will have home games (home field advantage) Only #5 and #6 in each conference will not have home games. The other 8 clubs will have at least 1 game at home.
I guess you're not interested in the best team winning the MLS title. With a playoff like this anything could happen. The 12th best team could go on a lucky run and then be crowned the champion of the league. Soccer is not the NFL. Soccer is a sport with much more randomness and luck in it. Man United loses cup matches to lower division clubs. That's why the best soccer leagues on the planet don't decide their league titles by cup tournaments.
For the record, the thing you've done with this argument is started with an unclear, and circular, definition of 'best' The reason the best soccer leagues on the planet (which I assume you're defining as "England", and completely ignoring Brazil and the most watched soccer league in America), is because the system was developed without the concerns of modern sports. The Football League has playoffs and they pack Wembley for that.
those are promotion playoffs. If you don't know the difference then I can't help you. the best soccer leagues are not "England". They are in no particular order EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga, and Serie A. the best team i.e the team that wins the title in these leagues is the team with the most points at the end of the season. Why is this way the best way to tell who the best team of a particular season is? Well for one, soccer is a sport with a lot of randomness and luck compared to other sports. It's also a sport with few opportunities within a game to make up for an unlucky or random event. That's why you see top teams occasionally lose a match to a lower division team in a cup match. So it is accepted amongst soccer fans who follow these leagues that the best team is the team with the most points at the end of the season. That team deserves the league title.
And, with the exception of an annoying loud minority of MLS fans, it is accepted amongst soccer fans who follow leagues with playoffs that the best team is the team who wins the playoffs.
They show that the randomness of a playoff isn't always thrown away by English fans Ok, so Brazil and Mexico aren't on your list. Good to know Like a said, a circular definition of 'best'. Essentially all your saying is "A playoff is not what I, personally, want". Which isn't a good enough argument. Is it, perhaps, because in the sentence that directly preceded this one, you have established a definition of 'best' that is circular? Please, continue your circular reasoning. The system by which we chose the winner by a double round robin determines the best team. Of course, 'best team' means 'the team that scores the most points in a double round robin'. So, all you're saying is "The system by which we chose the winner by a double round robin determines the team that scores the most points in a double round robin". Which, if you haven't noticed, isn't really saying anything at all.
So that would be Liga MX fans, Belgium league fans, Australian league fans, etc. etc. etc.? (Chalk him up as another poster who doesn't know that the vast majority of leagues in the Americas use some sort of playoffs)
LIgaMX playoffs are a gimic. The best teams don't win. The best team is the team that does it all year.
you're the troll. Why don't LigaMX fans watch MLS playoffs? Why don't American soccer fans watch MLS playoffs? You might have an argument if soccer fans were tuning in to watch these matches. But, they aren't. So, you don't.
Your argument is that "true" soccer fans don't like playoffs. Yet the most popular soccer league in this country has playoffs, as does almost every league in the Americas (of one for or another). Your response to that is that the most popular "English-speaking" league is the EPL which suggests that you don't see Spanish fans as counting (and that brings up a whole other argument that could get ugly). MLS has an issue with playoff ratings, but the problem isn't that the playoffs exist, as soccer playoffs are popular in the U.S., just not MLS playoffs. So, unless you can explain how leagues with playoffs can be so popular when you claim soccer fans don't like playoffs you're a troll.
no, that's not my argument. I said that people who understand the sport realize that soccer has more luck and randomness than other sports. And there are less opportunities during a match to make up for a turn of bad luck. It's not the NFL or the NBA where games have dozens of mistakes and dozens of opportunities to make up for mistakes. It's a game where one mistake could sink you. So accepting that reality it is not unreasonable to say that the best way to find out who the best team of a particular season is is to go by most points accumulated. I would never say that someone who enjoys a cup tournament is not a true soccer fan. I enjoy cup tournaments. I just don't want a regular season champion to be crowned through a cup tournament.
Oh really? (in regards to playoffs being accepted by fans of leagues with them, like Liga MX) Seems to me you're saying that people who accept playoffs don't understand soccer and aren't true fans...
That response doesn't even make sense. Just admit that you were clueless about how many leagues use playoffs to determine their champion and move on, quit digging your hole deeper.
I've been debating the playoff format with people for quite some time. I'm well aware which countries use playoffs and which don't. Agree to disagree.
Then explain why so many leagues have playoffs, including very popular leagues, if they don't actually mean anything. I mean the fans in those leagues accept the playoff winner as the champion, but according to you people who see it that way don't understand soccer. Or maybe it you who don't understand?
No, I'm just waiting for an explanation from you. You say the problem with MLS is that it has playoffs. You say that people who watch playoffs to determine the best team don't understand soccer. Yet the single most popular league in this country is one that uses playoffs to determine its champion. So, how does that fact fit into your world view? Or are you splitting the "best" vs. "champion" hair?
That is too much. Top 4 from each conference - 1v4 and 2v3. Eight is more than enough. More than that it makes the regular season not have enough weight.