...what do you think MLS should do about the 2022WC being in November-December? The dates would roughly be Nov 15 - Dec 15 placing it right in the middle of the Conference Championships and MLS Cup. Teams wouldn't want to be missing their star players for such important game.
Well there will be no need for the 2 week summer WC break, so pack the games in the late spring, early fall and get it done by November 1st.
Cconcurrently, reduce the number of games from 34 down to 30 or even 28 (just for that season), effectively cutting another 1 month+ off the schedule.
I think it's downright shameful that FIFA won't be conforming its schedule to match the rest of the world.
Well, considering that MLS Cup was played in October in 6 of the first 7 years, it should not be a problem. Also, as ceezmad, pointed out, there will be summer World Cup break. The league and USSF may want to alter the US Open a bit that season, so there is not a logjam of games. The 2022 World Cup is WAY less of a problem for MLS than it is for England, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, etc.
I'm assuming the Fall to Spring leagues will start 2 to 3 weeks earlier and end 2 to 3 weeks later. There will be some short offseasons for players on many European clubs. A player on a good club and a national team that doesn't qualify could have a longer break from his club during the World Cup than during the club offseason. Zlatan Ibrahimovic won't be playing then, but maybe Gareth Bale of Wales would get a long World Cup break.
True, but it also screws up the teams in the league, as they will have an enforced break when they normally would not. For Germany, the opposite exists. They may have a break from November to late January. Also, it may be better for Gareth Barry, but not for the large, large percentage of players in the World Cup who play in the major European leagues.
I'd be angry if international football reduced the club season by 2 or 3 home games, but with no summer international soccer (Gold Cup, Confed cup, etc...) they could up a couple of weeks and get all the MLS games in.
Let the rich clubs play without their star players. Oh well. You buy the expensive players knowing they'll be gone some of the time. Live with it.
Well, that would be the price one pays for having the best players. Something here in Chicago we have not had to "worry about" for a number of years. That's pretty funny. MLS Playoffs would not be "overshadowed" by the World Cup, because MLS Playoffs are not a blip on the radar compared to the World Cup. Not in the sports world. Not in the soccer/football world. Not in the American sports scene.
There are not many things that I would choose over watching the Red Bulls in MLS Cup, but one of them is a USA World Cup game. The good news is that FIFA announces World Cup start times well in advance and I'm assuming the times in Qatar would be early enough that they could be done before MLS starts playing that day.
Exactly, Americans are used to unbalanced schedules and can change format to shorten the season, we in Europe aren't and we would mind changing the calendar or shortening the season.
MLS won't shorten the season. It would cost the league and the teams too much in revenue. They'll simply pack in more mid-week games and start the playoffs earlier to make it work. All the Qatar WC does is put the Europeans in the same position that we Americans are in during World Cup years. What they'll do is simply start their fall-winter-spring seasons earlier and end their seasons later. It'll be awkward, but they'll get by.
I wouldn't be so sure about that. MLS has changed the length of their season so many times already that it wouldn't be the end of the world if they had to remove a couple of matches from the schedule as a one time occurrence. I don't know if it's necessary, and it certainly wouldn't be the the ideal solution, but if they had to do a 32-match season instead of 34 ONE TIME, they'd make it work. It would literally be one fewer home match per club.
1 fewer home match = ~6% less revenue from attendance per team. That is a pretty significant financial hit. Not to mention the fact that local TV contracts will likely be paying rights fees by then and will probably be based on a 34 game season. It could certainly be done, but I think that playing more mid-week games would be more likely.
The US national team camp convened on May 14th, 2014. The World Cup started on June 12th, 2014. So I would presume the season would have to conclude one month prior to the World Cup. Since the 2022 World Cup is going to start on November 15th, 2022, that means we could see MLS Cup on, say, Sunday October 16th, 2022. I am worried about the playoff schedule though. Playoffs now take more than a month. Any national team players who aren't on playoff teams, or are on teams that were eliminated early, will have lots of time off before the World Cup camp. And we condense the playoffs, then players on the finalist teams could enter camp exhausted. I think I would prefer if MLS had smaller playoffs that year, say just the top 4 teams, that way the regular season can end closer to the start of the national team camp. Or each round could be one game instead of two legs. But I can't imagine MLS would go for that for financial reasons.