According to an article in The Athletic, MLS owners will vote in December on a proposal to change the schedule (or at least condense it) starting next year, with one major goal being to finish the playoffs before the November FIFA break. Lots of shifts, then: more midweek games, no two-legged playoff games, no frozen tundra at MLS Cup. Also: The Athletic, while it requires a subscription, is home to the best soccer coverage in the country. Plus lots of other excellent coverage of sports of all sorts. It's $50 per year, and they have dedicated coverage of Utah sports even (it's one of the feeds one can follow, though I only follow their RSL stuff).
I think most of the mid-week game attendance issues is about educating the public. Over time, they can come to see soccer as being similar to hockey and basketball with mid-week games being relatively common (though not as common as those sports). If they concentrate the mid-week games in the summer the impact on attendance can be lowered due to those not being 'school nights'. If the do family-friendly pricing packages, it could work really well for the teams.
This! Make the summer slate of games where you have the majority of midweek. If the league was really smart about it they would make it so everyone had equal amount of midweek games / rest periods, too. But that's a big ask with stadium conflicts and such
no, but Vancouver's stadium is notoriously busy TFC share with a CFL team LAG share with the Bolts from the NFL (this is one of my favorites) SEA with the Hawks ATL with the Falcons NER with Patriots MIN is scheduled to open their own stadium next year, but did share with University Not to mention that, even with teams in their own stadiums, scheduling midweek can complicate things if the team had plans to use the stadium for other events.
LAG also shares parking with the university, so they have restrictions on parking during midweek games.
Century Link is also in what Seattle calls the stadium district, where Safeco Field is located, too (Mariners). They are allowed to play the same day, but they have a rule about how far apart the games are to accommodate parking, which can complicate scheduling too.
I was going with your suggestion that MLS schedules be compressed in the Summer when families don’t have to worry about school and are more free to attend mid-week matches. That’s why I was looking at MLB conflicts. If the ones you listed Vancouver seems to be the one who would have to work around some things. Add NYCFC to the mix because of MLB. Everyone else should have few problems with mid-week Summer games. Edit: I should have read the other posts. LAG and Seattle would need to do some careful planning too.
Wouldn't a workable solution be to have those midweek games be on the road for them? Not always all the time, but it would alleviate some of the scheduling issues.
I'm not sure where to post this, but...... One of the good things about the polar vortex is that it kind of shoots a gaping, 747- sized hole in the whole "Let's change the MLS from a summer league to a winter league because Europe" argument.