Don Garber's State of the League :: Tuesday, December 2 @ 2:00 pm ET

Yes, YBTD deserves better.

 

Was it really anything more than a pep rally?

The one thing I wished someone asked Don was if MLS was over-extending itself with all of its recent moves.

They have basically controlled two new MLS teams in the two biggest markets. Talked expansion in a bunch of cities. Plus expecting a new Orlando team and Atlanta down the road. In addition to the Beckham experiment in Miami. Then we have the financial status of the league with the CBA. This is a lot for MLS in 1 year

 

I recall a lot of legwork having been done. Nothing passing, but work had been done with the locality.

 

The first third of this thread was pbp. Most of the stuff after the SotL however...

 

No, I'm waiting patiently until MLS has 24 teams so they can have a proper 16-team post-season with 4 groups.

But if we all must stay on topic, I believe the boundaries were set at only discussing the Away Goals tie-breaking rule and the actual number of teams in the post-season, and this isn't the place for introducing new ideas or discussion (even if they are top-notch ideas like a group-stage post-season). Although, now that its in YBTD, I suppose posters could go down that road if they'd wish.

And honestly, I did assume this (original) thread was a proper location for discussing topics that were asked about and addressed during the SotL. For all the requests about "wait until news of a topic comes in before you go and pollute a N&A thread with off-topic discussion" -- I would have hoped that the "thin pretext" (of a Univision employee directly asking about something during a SotL address) was in fact a legit reason to have/continue that discussion here, in the thread about the 2014 SotL.

 

Given the length and breadth of the press conference on 12/2, this was a confusing request/directive on 12/3.

 

From the above:

(Emphasis mine.)

 

Can't Gulati or Abbott or somebody just lobby whomever to have all Canadians under contract to MLS (and playing for US teams) just be given green cards automatically. Because NAFTA!

(Or would that not help address this issue?)

If FIFA doesn't view Canadians (teams, in their case) as "foreigners" to MLS, then why should the US Government? Come on, Blatter, step in and tell the US Government to stop interfering with soccer here.

 

Well, Boloni86 had some truly excellent posts that were deleted for reasons unknown.

 

Assuming for a second you're actually serious here, the answer is because immigration is like bowling, not like Nam. You can't have Canadian soccer players count as Americans but not Canadian plumbers or doctors. (Actually, given our divergent medical systems, the latter really matters.)

 

Congress can pass whatever laws they want.

Not to say that they want to or would pass a law to specifically ease MLS's business success (or aid/assist the needs of the CSA).

But, on the other hand, look at the NFL's tax exempt status under section 501c(6).

 

Here's the thing though, it is not at all whining to reasonably question some moderating approaches and ham-handed execution. Whining is what a lot of other people were doing by focusing on a poster rather than on the content of the discussion. I was actually attempting to encourage on-topic discussion and analysis.

Those posts that were binned should be added back in to this thread. Boloni86's posts were exceptionally good. As there's no reason they should have been deleted, and now that the thread has been moved there's good reason and perfect opportunity to add them back into the thread.

Actually, Kenn brought it up in this thread while taking a friendly swipe at me, fwiw.

I've only appointed myself to add opinion and responses to the discussion.

Why do you hate the World Cup or the CCL?

For MLS, such a format holds a fascination with this fan because it offers self-contained games, and a way to truly reward higher seeds with more post-season guaranteed home games.

The regular season is the Qualifying "group stage." The first round of the post-season could be a group stage. And the second round could be a single elimination small bracket.

 

Stop whining.

 

Economics prof Dr Rishe is not alarmed with $100m in losses.

Why $100 Million In Combined Losses Should Not Deter Further Expansion Of Major League Soccer - Forbes.com

The article has a link to a very interesting article.

Exclusive: How An NBA Team Makes Money Disappear [UPDATE WITH CORRECTION]
deadspin.com

 

Dang.

 

Don't you want MLS 24/7/365? No one else does it, but MLS could

 

Huh, so in essence player salaries and transfers are counted twice in the loss column. For instance, the $100m that Toronto planned to spend in the next four years on three players will actually count as a $200m loss. I'm sure that Seattle can claim a similar size loss. That's about $20-40m in fake loss right there.

 

Fair points and distinction.

And "making sure everyone gets three games is a good idea" for the MLS post season as well, especially if it really rewards the top seeds by playing the group as:
(2 at 1, 4 at 3) then (3 at 1, 4 at 2) then (4 at 1, 3 at 2) -- or some such process that allocates home games in that fashion.

Teams do knock each other out in a group stage. I just takes slightly longer and keeps everyone playing a bit longer.

I'd suggest, relative to the H/A pairs currently used in the Conf semifinals, a group stage is a "fairer" system of getting to a Conf Final (or MLS Cup semifinal). I'd also advocate for the crossover (of E1 group winner vs. W2 runnerup from the group and the E1 group winner vs. W2 runner-up from the group) to avoid "group re-matches" until MLS Cup itself (rather than immediately after the group stage).

And yes, a group stage is much more "unworkable" with just 12 teams (but 3 groups of 4 team where the top 2 per group plus the two best 3rd place finishes advance to the QFs would be fashioned).

But going back to an earlier comment. A 24-team MLS with 4 groups of 4 teams to start the post-season would be an interesting and entertaining post-season format, imo. ymmv. (And it would avoid all of that crazy talk and concern about Away Goals tiebreakers and whatnot.)

The current MLS post-season format of 1 - 2 - 2 - 1 Matchdays per round would use the same number of post-season Matchdays as would a Group stage (3) followed by QF - Semi - Final where those knockout rounds are indeed single elimination (if a QF stage is needed).

 

Yes, and you have to "love" the reasoning.

I am pretty sure my company would love to do this with all of us.

 

Are you ********ing kidding me? You actually think it's worth discussing whether or not Congress would pass a law changing immigration and labor law for this narrow purpose?

 

I think dismissing the idea or possibility out of hand is potentially just as foolish. I'm not saying they "would pass a law" (go back and read the post you quoted) -- I'm saying they "could" -- right?

If FIFA said (not that they ever would) that the US can host WC2026 as long as Congress passed a law that aided MLS and the CSA, what do you think would happen?

Granted, probably nothing. But how much of an impact on "immigration and labor law" would "this narrow purpose/amendment" really have? Why would anyone actually care or notice if such a line item concerning Canadian soccer players signed by MLS worked its way into some broader bill, or whatever?

 

How many years remaining do you have on your contract?