NASL adopts Spring/Fall seasons for 2013

It's December-February when the winter weather is at its worst.

Even with snow on teh ground in April or November. You can still go out in a light jacket. I actually didn't need most of my heavy stuff this past winter and was even able to bike to work.

 

nasl's decision to go split season with no playoffs for next year

 

I am so use to this bring on the APERTURA AND CLAUSURA..... and announce some thing about the ny team an actual team.... things are 2 damn quiet on the BOZO FRONT....er I mean cosmos.........

 

fyp

So you could argue that players in MLS should not be motivated with the playoffs


I am just being a dick, I get what you are saying and you are right, players in feeder and lower D leagues do have the extra moivation to move on to higher division teams, better teams or better leagues.

 

Not sure about champions, but teams in lower divisions can make the Europe League qualifying rounds if they win the domestic cups, same with Canada and well Puerto Rico is kind of different since they have the Caribbean cup that is like a mini champions league for the Caribbean countries to qualify to the CCL.

 

Oh good grief, how much bigger did Kenn's head grow after that drivel........

 

I am completely baffled by all the ridiculous attempts people are coming up with to put a positive spin on an assinine idea. Somewhere in this thread someone was actually talking about it being a good move for tv. TV? TV?!? Really? Have you been paying attention to D2 soccer for more than five minutes? The Cosmos are coming into the league (for a maximum of three years, mark it down now) and suddenly we're supposed to think the league can possibly be making changes based on some mythical future tv deal? You guys are killing me on that one. We can't get enough fan interest in most individual markets to keep teams from losing money at a clip of high six figures or even seven, and you think all of a sudden a NATIONAL tv audience is going to give a flying fig about D2 soccer?!? All tv will ever be for a lower division (in our lifetimes at the very least), would be another expense. And if one of the main drivers of this plan is cutting expenses, then you've automatically disqualified tv coverage as a consideration.

Next we have the transfer window bit. Just stop already. I take my team and league seriously. But I'm not delusional enough to believe that anyone is keeping a real close eye on NASL teams during the transfer window. Do some of our players occasionally make it on to MLS rosters? Sure, and good for them. But be realistic people. There is zero need for the NASL to align a mid-season break with the transfer window. That's gotta be one of the dumber things I've read in the last two days.

Shout out to El Yanqui as he is the first person I've seen leave a comment anywhere (and I've looked all over the place thanks to my very strong feelings about it) saying it is a change he likes because it is something he is familiar with. Again, average Joe American sports fan will look at you like you have ten heads when you explain to him that this league your team plays in and you want him to check out actually has two half season winners that then play in a final at the end. This isn't American. And for all the euro-snobs out there, people who believe we shouldn't "Americanize" the "beautiful game," no offense, really none at all, but you are just wrong. If we want soccer to continue growing in this country, it will in some ways ALWAYS have to be "Americanized." Call us ego-centric, or arrogant, or whatever you want, but we like things to be our way. We love being the country everyone envies. Only, in soccer, this isn't the case. Personally I think it's part of the general apathy the sport is met with by a large portion of casual sports fans in this country who will spend hours watching some guy knock a little round ball around some grass, sand, and water, or rush to their tv's to watch red necks driving in a circle for hours, but they won't give soccer even a brief glance. This format works fine in Honduras and El Salvador, because people there CARE about the game on a completely different level. How it's packaged to the general public there is less of a concern because everyone is already invested. We have a LONG way to go before we can say that.

My friends who love footbal but still resist going to a Strikers game will point at this as just another reason why it's not worth their time. "They do what? Play two mini seasons within a season? There's no playoffs? See, it's dumb, give it up and come watch the Dolphins. They might suck, but at least they do things normal in their league instead of all weird and shite." Maybe everyone else here on Big Soccer is surrounded by people who are completely immersed in the soccer culture that is growing in America. But a glance at the ratings for MLS (while decent considering it's American club soccer) show clearly that there is a LARGE portion of sports fans in this country who still aren't paying any attention.

 

Minor league baseball has done this for decades and you don't get much more "average Joe American" sports fan that minor league baseball. The only explanation I've had to give to people in my area is that it works like the Carolina League (high A minor league) and they all understood immediately. This is a very common setup throughout baseball until you get to the majors.

 

Along with the vast majority of potential ticket-buyers in this country. You can hide behind that bullshit, but it's still bullshit. Your "traditionalist" extends exactly as far as "whatever the NASL does." If they had best-of-seven series all of a sudden, you'd be right behind it.

Once again, just to sum up: one-game playoffs were stupid because a fluke goal or a penalty decision could decide it and two legs was much better. Until the NASL went to a one-game final, then one game finals were awesome.

And, again...playoffs were fine...until there were no playoffs.

Professional players play. This "fighting for every game" bullshit is a meme that people like to spout, but it's ethereal and impossible to quantify. What if BOTH teams are "fighting" for a game? What happens then? Losing doesn't mean you didn't fight. It means you lost.

So I guess very few teams are fighting in the NASL now, seeing as how six of the eight teams make the playoffs and the sixth-place team won the league last year. Like a 9-7 Giants team won the Super Bowl. And a Kings team that was fair-to-middling won the Stanley Cup. And on and on and on. This is sport in this country. Embrace it, bro.

God, you're an idiot.

 

And....again...nobody goes to minor league baseball games because of how the season is set up, or because their local team might be good or might not be good. That's not what minor league baseball is about.

Minor league baseball does the split season thing because it's a developmental tool, and it's believed that young players can use a renewed sense of purpose during the long baseball season (also, some leagues did it - sometimes even coming up with it during a season - because of one team's dominance of the league).

Baseball, especially summer nights at the ballpark where you're totally fine leaving after six innings because you had a nice night out, is in our DNA as Americans.

Again, this is not something that's going to be hard to grasp, and anyone who says, "This shit is foreign, I'm not buying into that" doesn't buy into it anyway. There are always going to be those who find a reason not to embrace the game or to belittle it. If it's not "that's foreign," it's "boring" or "those guys flop around like they've been shot" or "that's a stupid name."

A split season in and of itself is not radical, it's not going to result in The End Of The World, and it's not going to do a lot of things that people in this thread are sure it's going to do. Games are going to be played, somewhere between 9-12% of the players will be champions at the end and life will go on.

 

I think there is a mathematical formula to make soccer take off and finally make it. All it takes is the league offices to figure it out and put it in their bylaws.

 

Pretty sure it involves, "Making sure all the teams are successful and profitable." That's it, just that one line.

 

Dude, most people can't remember the teams that are labelled champions for a given year. Life is a series of little disappointments. 87.5% of the NASL players this year won't be champions. It really doesn't matter which 87.5%.

 

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful and know more than you.

 

Very true. I was just replying to WSW's request for how I would reward a team that won both mini-seasons. Even then I'm not going to throw a temper tantrum if they stick with the current system of still having the Soccer Bowl, just with the second place team.

 

One could honestly say that a dual-champion-no-final scenario could make the second half inconsequential in its latter stages. At least if there's a chance for someone to get that next-best-overall-record spot and get into the final, teams still have something to play for and fans still have hope.

In a scenario where one team can avoid the final altogether by winning both halves, once it becomes obvious the first-half winner is going to win the second half, too, everything becomes academic.

And while it's not terribly likely, it is possible (if the first-half winner has a terrible second half and the second-half winner has a terrible first half) for a team to have the best overall record over the course of the calendar and not make the final. Which would cause no small bit of consternation, I would imagine.

 

So 1 round robin during Mar13-Jun13 then another round robin during Jul13-Nov13.

I'm neutral about this approach. This would not affect my "NASL Soccer Consumption". One benefit is that I'll get a chance to see more US pro soccer in November, as the MLS season concludes in October.

 

Well hopefully they keep their version of the Regular season champion, like last year, the Rail hawks got the S.S. of the NASL. and they did not make the final.

 

To which everyone in Minnesota quoted Steve Mariucci: "Bummer."

 

Folks in the Rowdies front office were talking about the Spring round beginning on the first weekend of April, but I'm not sure the exact dates have been pinned down just yet. Preseason will certainly be beginning MUCH earlier, like early Feb. We are not going to have a very long off season.

 

Edmonton and Ottawa could have quite the home-field advantage during the first half.