Canada also will have top allocatd players in the WWC and have already stated that they will not be reporting early on to train. Followed by the WC in Canada is the Pan AM games. Where the top US players will not participate in the Pan AM games and will be back in the NWSL. Will the Canadian National team also have its top players playing in the Pan Am games since it is on home soil and will do wonders for attendance as well as a fav for winning a Gold in the Pan AM
You mean the FAWSL? Maybe we can set up some tournament with those teams. Yeah I know, who's gonna pay but humor me
Again, Id expand the season. Id start in March and end the playoffs in August or the first week in Sept. Id have the March games played in the warmer weather cities. Everyone but Chicago, WNY and Boston should be able to host games in March, especially afternoon games on weekends. It's also possible we add another team next year that could also offer a warm weather site like LA for example. I play a normal schedule into May and then when the US players leave (likely the last to go) I cut the schedule back. From the middle of May until July I intersperse NWSL games with exhibition games. They can certainly get games against regional semi pro teams and maybe they can arrange some matches against other clubs on hiatus for the WC. Maybe for those six weeks the team only play one league game every two weeks but r still playing regularly because of the exhibition games. Even if attendance drops, u still maintain the core. Plus if the US does well in WC u can expect a rise in attendance afterward. Stadiums equipped with big screens can try and schedule games with WC viewing parties.
Makes sense the colder area teams can start the first two weeks of the season on the road. W-League teams can fill in as non league opponents for a couple of weeks if they can coordinate it. Following the World Cup will be the Pan Am games. Now the USA will not be sending their top players and have them return to the domestic NWSL host Canada may indeed want to have their best team on the pitch since they are hosting. So the Canadian players may not play at all in 2015. But I agree the league must go on with a short break coming to the knock out round stages. Viewing parties after the games would be great if they can schedule it with USA games. Anyway you do it with the league will continue on with success with the USSF in charge of the NWSL unlike the WPS. Tons of players are coming out of the NCAA that will keep some name recognition in place
Cheryl Bailey was asked about this at half time of the Houston opener and she said they were working on the scheduling problem but gave no details.
I don't think the league should be playing matches from mid May to mid July. If they get an expansion team next year, they could play and 18 game schedule (2 games against each team). They could play in 6 week stretches. 9 games from April 4-May 10. Players return after World Cup for another 9 games from July 11-August 16. Still 4 playoff teams with games on August 22 and 29. Teams could play exhibition games or something similar to a US Open Cup during World Cup break.
So here is my master plan for the 2015 season. @NWSL execs: Feel free to contact me via PM for my compensation . The below scenario assumes the current 9 teams Reduce the amount from 108 to 72 by having teams play twice instead of thrice. If we assume the same schedule start and end, we can assume that the season will run from 4/11 - 8/29 Split the season into two halves to account for the world cup. First half runs from 4/11 - 5/9 for 5 weeks with each team playing 7 games. This first half can be extend by a week by starting early on 4/4 or ending late on 5/16 depending on when Ellis decides to start camp. The second half of the season runs from 7/4 to 8/15 for 6 weeks. Teams will play 9 games in 6 weeks. This second half can be extended by starting the week after the world cup quarters. This start really will only effect the USWNT players. Realistically, the only other country that currently is represented in the NWSL that could go past this stage is Japan and they only have 1 player so it's not a big deal. The other possibility is England or Australia, but that is less likely. Because of the reduce schedule and missing/tired stars, change the format of the playoffs to be a home/away series in the semis to be played on 8/22 and 8/29. That way all four teams in the playoffs get a home game. Host the championship in a neutral town on 9/5. As for issues about what the teams will be doing during the break, they can keep busy by playing exhibitions in cities that choose to host them. If there is expansion and there is a 10th team, it may be imperative to start on 4/4 and end on 9/12.
I still think having 1 or 2 games per week during the WC would be okay - as long as it's not 4 or more. For everything messed up about WPS, they handled the 2011WWC well, I think.