On the argument that the NFL plays in the winter... so what? First of all, the NFL season is only 16 games. Which means even if cold weather teams hold home games during the crappy weather period, we're usually only talking about two, and at most three lousy weather games. If MLS plays through the winter, there could be teams that have to deal with five or six. Unless you DO have a winter break (in which case, the "switch" isn't changing all that much in the first place, so what's the point), or you overload the cold-weather cities with road games, and that problem's already been pointed out. Plus, football isn't as technical of a game as soccer. Football is mountains of flesh lining up on the other side of other mountains of flesh, and they try to beat the snot out of each other. Snow and ice hamper the ability to throw the ball, but the game can still be reasonably played. A technical game like soccer is a completely different sport when trying to play on a snow-covered pitch. Anyone remember the USA/Costa Rica game? It was cool to watch, but the game was crap.
Since the ball in gridiron football doesn't spend much time rolling or skidding on the ground, it specifically isn't as affected by snow, ice, and water. (Not unaffected, but far less so.) But I wouldn't argue that football is less technical. It's a ridiculously complicated game compared with other sports, generally because the discrete plays allow for an unparalleled level of planning. I really enjoy watching positional breakdowns for line play, where what is done looks very simple, but isn't.
And oh, by the way, the NFL is only the most financially successful sports league in the world. They can afford to lose some fans to the weather as there will always be more to take their place (at least in the cold weather cities, sorry Jacksonville).
TFC usually plays 3 away games to start the season, before they start into the home games. They did have some early-March home games at the Rogers Centre in previous years, but they've moved away from that. In most NA locations, by the time April rolls around, there might be some snow on the ground, but it's not usually cold during the day anymore. I assumed that the Atlantic Ocean moderates temperatures in those cities so they aren't as cold as the Northern Interior cities. Toronto and Chicago both sit on a great lake, so that also mitigates the weather effect somewhat. Regardless, there are now enough warm-weather cities in MLS that those Northern Cities that are affected by the cold can push off their home dates by 2-3 weeks from the start of the season to give time for their stadium grass to warm up and recover from the winter.
Regardless of how many fans a club has, the weather should matter to MLS unless the club will sell out every game. If you care about MLS and not just your club, you shouldn't want any club's attendance to be hurt by playing in bad weather that was avoidable. Your argument not to feel sorry for cold weather clubs if they are also not as popular as other clubs is like a student saying "because I can't get an A no matter how hard I work in this class, why should I study?," with not being able to get A analogous to having fewer fans and not studying analogous to not trying to avoid bad weather. Water moderates temperatures, but New York City has still gotten snow in late April. Northern Utah got snow in May this year.
One thing that s under discussed is the time of day games are played. England traditionally played day games through the winter, Colorado winter hasmany nice days, nights are always cold. Football traditionally is a Sunday day game. If MLS changed calendars, northern teams would need to day games.
The Premier League uses the same start times all year. The weekend games never start after 5:30 P.M. local (with all but 2 games started 3:00 P.M. local or earlier) except for 1 game on December 23. Most MLS weekend games start later. I think the winter weather would keep fans away from going to northern games regardless of the time of day, but day games would help. Furthermore, I think the Premier League clubs could afford to pay employees to move snow or otherwise help at the stadium more than MLS clubs can afford that.
Sky would love to schedule matches later on a Saturday evening but it's considered unfair to travelling supporters. That's not a problem in the U.S. The big clubs' heated pitches handle the snow but it's rare to get more than a couple of inches. It's common for the Premier League to play a full schedule while dozens of games in the lower leagues are postponed.
Scotland has been investigating the feasibility of moving to a summer schedule because of the number of postponements at every level of the pyramid they have to deal with. At minimum I expect them to add a long winter break in the near future.
Europe is 20-30 teams or 4-6 leagues. Once upon a time, that could've included a couple Scottish teams, now it doesn't. Any variation from how they operate should be seen as a mistake. Scotland even considering a switch in their calendar is a sign that they've given up on ever mattering again. /s
Two tables (West & east) 14 teams each Bottom two of each table relegated to d2. Third from bottom in playoff with d2 third place finisher. Post season- group play with four teams from each table.
Okay, I'm new to the boards and naturally new to this thread but here's my crazy idea 2 conferences 6 4-5 team divisions Western Conference Pacific Divsion: San Jose, LA Galaxy, LAFC, Sac, Phoenix Western Division: PDX, Seattle, Van, Colorado Central: Salt Lake, KC, Houston, Dallas, Auston Eastern Conference Southeast Division: Orlando, Atlanta, Nashville, Miami, DC Atlantic or Midwest (for lack of better names) Division: Minnesota Chicago, Cincinnati, Toronto, Montreal Metro Division: NYCFC, NYRB, New England, Philly 40 Game season 2 games vs in conference (26) 1 game vs out of conference (14) Playoff format 16 teams Top 2 teams in each division qualify 2 wild card teams qualify all playoff rounds decided via aggregate series
Colorado in the West and Salt Lake in the Central? That's backwards, and you should put them in the same division to preserve the rivalry game.
I pay no attention to the NFL but I'm not sure how you compare a league that plays 16 games to one that (would) play 40
Yeah, I tried to do that but couldn't work it out. Still considering you would play all in conference teams twice in this system it dosen't rally matter. The divisions are mainly to sort out playoff positioning
correction: I just looked at it and feel dumb, yeah, you could switch RSL to the west just in case there are later adjustments to include extra in-division games (which I think is a good idea but I'm not sure how you would work it out under this format unless you had two more teams to make all divisions 5 teams)
You’re wanting to have multiple five team regional divisions with a winner and wild cards go through to playoffs. That is almost identical to the NFL setup. Really think soccer fans would go for that? Divisions within conferences was already tried once in MLS and it was hated. And the soccer fan today is much more global minded than the 90s soccer fan.
Yeah, I've no clue as to what the NFL does or does not do. IMO Divisions offer a clear path to more increased rivalry games. As far as the model, I'm a big hockey fan and I've liked the way they have built rivalries through divisional play. If indeed, division is an unpopular idea, fine, maybe more conferences... If divisions wont work 4 Conferences West LA Galaxy LAFC San Jose Sacto PDX Seattle Van Central Colorado KC RSL Phoenix Cincinatti Chicago Minnesota Southeast Miami Orlando Atlanta Nashville Huston Dallas Austin Atlantic NYCFC NYRB New England Philly Toronto Montreal DC 34 games total 22 games out of conference 11 away, 11 home (1 extra game vs an alternating out of conference opponent 12 games v conference rivals This is all with the stated goal of 32 teams, at that point it would be 38 24 games out of confence 14 games in conference 16 playoff teams First two rounds in conference Last two between conference champions