A large part of why I have grown to hate the split season format. Spring champion needs a reason to compete. Maybe for hosting rights, I dunno.
Well if they win and fold, that would also be a sad end right? Then again there would always be the defending champions BTW, hopefully they survive.
The fate of the Tampa Bay Mutiny was sealed in 2001 when San Jose won the MLS championship. MLS wasn't going to fold its defending champion, despite San Jose being at the bottom of the league in attendance and revenue. The Mutiny wasn't even in the bottom 2 (possibly not even in the bottom 3), but were too much of a headache for the league. As owners, MLS ran the Mutiny horribly, signed a terrible rent deal with the Glazers, and marketed the team worse than the current Rowdies ownership has marketed our current team. They created the Mutiny problem, and washed their hands of it rather than fighting to find an owner and save the franchise. Oh well, I guess the fans and the Tampa Bay area will forever be blamed for being a "bad soccer market". So maybe Atlanta winning will save them, too! But probably not.
The giant disconnect you seem to be having is you are taking the Spring Championship and Fall Championship as one season, instead of he two seasons they actually are. You dont get to play in the Soccer Bowl by excellign for half a season, you get their by WINNING one of the seasons. If they didn't try that is a failure on their professionalism. As players wining more titles and trophies should be important. I assure you if Cosmos win Spring next year they will also try to win the Fall, because they are a professional club and understand the importance of success.
The problem with your setup is the NASL wants more than two weeks to market Soccer Bowl which the split season allows them to do which really is a positive as opposed to two weeks. The bitching will continue no matter what format they use, people bitched the last two years when Minnesota barely made the playoffs but won in 2011 and made the finals last year. Some complained that the regular season didn't mean much then. I'd like to see a tweaking of the format, maybe add a third team - the NASL Woosnam Cup winner - into a round robin weekend Soccer Bowl tournament at the Spring Season winners stadium.
The best solution is doing something like Ecuador, but if you do that you may not have a title game. A twist that gives date certainty and has a champnship game would be to give the first game to the Spring winner in a home and away. If the same team wins the Spring and Fall, maybe you have the top two teams play just one game at the the Spring / Fall champions home instead of a me and away. This motivates the Spring champion to try in the Fall. It also means the only variable is if there will be a game two weeks after the season ends and where that will be. For next year this also addresses people hating the Spring season being shorter. I also like the idea of the third place game but not sure the league is ready.
Not sure if official but at least they did make a mention of it in their website. http://nasl.com/index.php?id=3&newsid=5826 Then there is this. "@DnJosephSuaiden: would you integrate a Scudetto-type annual-points trophy? Seems there is a #WoosnamCup movement for it. @Flight_19" maybe— Baseline (@Ben_Son_64) August 11, 2013
I really think all of us here at BS need a reality check. This league is NOT about us. What we think does not matter. This all about the money. The flunkies running this show are the same ilk as those in the World Cup. All that mattered to them at tonight's coronation game was walking around in their fancy suits and the empty VIP tent. As for the 10-20 format for next season, GET OVER IT, That is the way the suits want it to be and you will like it or you can GO WATCH ANOTHER LEAGUE.
To be fair, I still think most if not all NASL teams lose money (real loses unlike MLS that may be accounting loses with positive cash flow). So to make it about the money is important, obviously keeping the fans coming back and new fans coming in is very (the most) important part of the revenue equation.
Its a fledgling league and will go through growing pains and format edits over the years. Hell MLS is still doing it and back in the day MLS's league set up was every bit or more ridiculous. 8 of 10 teams making playoffs, neutral venue finals, meaningless regular seasons, etc. NASL will grow and refine thie process over time as legue expands, gets more stability, etc.
Can't wait for another cup to add to the Cosmos collection....just whatever name you pick, be sure its a CUP...i want to drink out of it.
Strange. I know the conference call among the supporters groups to vote on the name was held 2 weeks ago, but I don't know the result. That said, the plan is laid out and it should come together pretty well.
TSF had a meeting today, and from what we know they are wrapping up some loose ends to make sure they can protect the name, but a decision has been made. It should be released by the twitter account sooner rather than later.