NASL adopts Spring/Fall seasons for 2013

This is really a terrible situation for the league and for the team. It shows that either the league was forcing the team to announce before they were ready or that the team were misleading the league as to when they could realistically start. Or, what might be the worst indication for the future, the team simply had no idea what was involved in scraping a team together in a single year.

And in any case, I don't really buy that the team can't start play with the rest of the league. Minnesota, Carolina, and Atlanta all scratched together teams in less time, and I would assume on much smaller budgets.

The absolute worst thing is that the split season format (and the unanimous vote that brought it to us) appear to have been in preparation for just this situation. So now we have a crappy competition format designed to coddle a team that didn't properly prepare for the season and shouldn't have been announced.

 

Because it appears that the only reason the league switched to this new format is to allow the cosmos to play in 2013.

Here's a question: how would you react if MLS announced this format, and then announced that a team will only play half the season?

 

Yes, it is better than playing one year and being gone, but that's a false dichotomy. It's not as though it's one or the other.

And if, given the current evidence, you can think that the split-season format was created for any reason except to allow the Cosmos to play just half a season, well then you're a lot more (blindly) optimistic than I am.

For my part, I don't believe there is any way a fan can now look at the split-season and believe that it was a thoughtfully made decision designed to promote competition.

 

WhiteStar Warriors, Dude if I ever make it to Tampa bay (maybe a USOC game vs Chicago) I will buy you a beer.

Keep the crazy coming.

 

Whether or not the new league format was tailored to fit the Cosmos, it is going to be perceived that way. However, there were whispers MONTHS ago that this might be the case. I don't believe for a moment that only recent events have delayed the Cosmos and if this has been the plan the entire time, I just don't understand why.

As has been pointed out, other teams have gotten their shit together in less time and with less (supposedly) money.

There was already the feeling that the Cosmos would only be around for a short time in the NASL. Either they'll become the 2nd MLS team in NYC or they'll fade away when someone else does. Their time in the NASL could be short and if this is the level of professionalism we can expect from them in the meantime, maybe it'll be a good riddance.

 

Just posted a similar comment over on BQ's new article, but according to the DII standards that he reported on 8/10/2010,

1 – ii. U.S.-based teams must participate in all representative CONCACAF competitions for which they are eligible.​

So how are the Cosmos even getting by without playing in the first half of the season? Is there a waiver? Are they somehow not considered an eligible team for the first half of the season? Or for the USOC?

What's more, their League Standards state that a

i. League must determine a champion each year based on seasonal play or by means of a post-season playoff tournament.​

So interestingly, the split-season format might even technically be against competition rules for the USSF. Again, waiver? And shouldn't any team that didn't participate in one half of the season be deemed ineligible to win the championship?

Edit: By the by, I realize that these problems might be grasping at straws, but I think it's worth pondering. If you guys don't think so, I'll accept that too.

 

Interesting points actually. Perhaps the new commissioner would be willing to host an online Q&A to respond to those and other questions . Hopefully for his sake, he has extensive spin doctoring experience in his background.

 

But the champion in the split season format will not be crowned by seasonal play. The winners of the respective halves will play each other, and that match will determine the champion. I guess you could call that a "playoff," but it's a stretch.

 

I guess they could play it as a "Campeon de Campeones" thing, The 2 seasonal champions play in the soccer bowl for another championship, so technically the NASL would have 3 champions, 2 regular season champions and 1 soccer bowl champion.

Argentina does something similar unless the same team wins the apertura and clausura.

I guess another way to think about it if they have to for legal reasons, the Soccer bowl is like the community shield that just happens at the end of the season and not at the beginning. (I am sure people could find all kinds of loopholes if need be).

 

Stop. Just stop.

 

Stop repeating yourself. It's been pointed out in this thread that it is a very real possibility that you will not have the two "best" teams in the league facing each other in the Soccer Bowl. If you love this format, fine. But it's really no better than the MLS Playoffs when it comes to crowning the "best" team in the league.

 

Split season fun:

1) Who had the best record in the National League in 1981?
2) How did they do in the playoffs?

 

That's true, Andy. Of course, the "first half" was gerrymandered after the fact (Cincinnati did not KNOW they were coming to the end of what would be the first half of a split season...no one did...that may have impacted things...and the number of games played wasn't even for all teams - as it often isn't at any given point in a baseball season).

It IS possible - not highly likely, but possible - that you can have the best overall record in a season and NOT win either half, but it's probably (some math whiz could probably tell us) not 50%. You'd have to be consistently very good and the teams that won each half would have to be worse in the other half (not terribly likely, but possible).

As with most things, it's probably overblown. It's very likely the team that wins the first half will be a good team and the team that wins the second half will be a good team, and they'll play one game to decide whatever and people will still bitch about D2 standards and the TOA war and pro/rel and all the other nonsense that gets in the way.

A bigger problem is that as they expand, it's going to be logistically impossible to play double round-robin in two halves. There won't be enough realistic dates on which you can sell tickets unless you want to start the season in February and end it in December.

 

In a one-game final. Which you said was ridiculous until the NASL adopted it.

 

Kenn,
Fun fact. Neither of the teams with the best season record in the NL West and the NL East finished first in either half season. Both St. Louis and Cincinnati were on the outside looking in. On the other side, the the 50-53 Royals did make the playoffs.

 

I'm aware of this. A better analogy might be the various minor-league baseball leagues that use the scheduled split season instead of one stitched together after the fact because of a work stoppage.

The 1981 MLB season was bizarre on every level. The 1892 National League had a split-season format (scheduled that way) and Boston won the first half by 2 1/2 games, while Cleveland won the second half by 3. Boston had the best overall record and beat Cleveland 5-0 (with one tie) in the playoff at the end.

It IS possible the "best record overall doesn't play for the title" scenario could happen. I don't think it's incredibly likely, but that won't stop it from being a kvetching point.

 

Once again, you miss the point.

STOP WITH THE PODCASTS.

Do you understand math? At all?

 

explain EXPLAIN! EXPLAIN!