What Would a Fall to Spring Schedule w/ a winter Break Look Like?

Well, its mid-February and its -6 in New York. Not supposed to crack like 10 degrees all week. Seems like that's been the case for weeks on end...

How long was that winter break going to be when we switch to Fall-Spring? lol

 

Are all the MLS teams going to play their game at the same stadium at the same time? No? Ok, false equivalent is false.

 

Munich(South Germany) forecast for the week:
Mon
44° / 28°
Tue
44° / 28°
Wed
40° / 30°
Thu
46° / 28°
Fri
46° / 31°

Berlin (North Germany)
Mon
40° / 33°
Tue
45° / 36°
Wed
46° / 35°
Thu
47° / 28°
Fri
46° / 38°

Compared to....

Montreal
Mon
6° / -7°
Tue
7° / -6°
Wed
11° / -4°
Thur
16° / 10°
Fri
18° / -6°

Boston
Mon
16° / 7°
Tue
25° / 14°
Wed
26° / 17°
Thu
23° / 7°

New York
Mon
23° / -1°
Tue
28° / 18°
Wed
35° / 16°
Thu
23° / 8°

Minneapolis
Mon
20° / 2°
Tue
14° / -7°
Wed
4° / -6°
Thu
14° / -1°

Columbus
Sun
13° / 1°
Mon
26° / 17°
Tue
38° / 20°
Wed
27° / 14°
Thu
23° / 10°



These aren't flukes either. This is how it is, our highs are usually a good bit below their lows and it snows way more here than in Europe.

 

Someone is going to counter with "but you just play the games in warm weather cities", which is fair enough. The problem is that everything you have listed is still important because teams need to practice. So teams in the north are going to need to have facilities that they can use year round first. Then of course you have the issue where teams are going to miss out on practices because the players can't get to the training facility, so they'll be at a competitive disadvantage. You also have the issue that you run the risk of blizzards shutting down airports so teams can't fly out when they were scheduled. What happens when Montreal tries to fly out on a Thursday to Orlando but their flight is cancelled due to snow. They then have to re-book and try to fly out on a Friday with no guarantee that they'll get a morning flight, so they get into Orlando late Friday for a Saturday afternoon game. There are a number of things that winter weather in the north disrupts outside of hosting a game.

 

Just easier said than done. Giving warm-weather teams that advantage (for indeterminate lengths of time) isn't that fair, and you're not going to send teams away from home for two months.

 

Oh, I know. Trying to convince someone that believes the fall to spring schedule is the only way to go about that is pointless though. So I want to know how they propose to fix all the other competitive disadvantages a team from the north would have to deal with. Because even if you could find data that says there is no disadvantage of playing lengthy home or away games, I'd like to know how the issues of travel and practice during the winter months are going to be fixed.

 

Well actually we'd have cities in the North not seeing their team play live for months (a month break + being away) then, since teams in the South would have to have a bunch of home games in a row, they'd go long stretches at other points in the season without seeing their teams at home....

It'd be weird and who knows how the fanbases would feel/react to it.

 

Disagree with this. The idea that teams would have to travel away for even a month is not true.

At the end of the fall portion of a fall to spring version, which would end around December 21st, you're looking at only the final two weekends primarily being played in southern tier cities. MLS's final is already played on/around December 7th.

The re-start of the season, in February, would take place two weeks earlier than the current season starts, say February 16th-ish. This requires two weeks of southern tier play, not a big deal. This leaves a seven/eight week winter break, which could be used for all kinds of fun, alternative, training/competitions.

So...in the middle of the year, your looking at a maximum of four games primarily in southern locales. I say "primarily" because there are some domed stadiums in play. Balancing the schedule would take place in August and then randomly in the spring. The final seven weeks of the spring would be balanced and mostly divisional play, as now.

The resulting travel and practice around the four weeks in question (two fall/two spring) would be easy to deal with. The fact that MLS would no longer be spending every summer trying to remain relevant, as Gold Cup, World Cups, Traveling European teams, etc. overshadow anything MLS can hope to achieve, is priceless.

 

You do realize MLS, the majority of the teams (unless you considered this year's new--If You Can Breathe, You're in the Playoffs, structure a wonderful upgrade), are off for FOUR months, November-February?

 

I set no false equivalency. I pointed out that the Individual Sports are year-round excursions and, therefore, any time that MLS put on games it would have to compete. Demonstrating that it is not a major concern for this discussion.

Reading comprehension? No? Okay, failure is failure.

 

NBA teams fly in and out of cold/northern cities all winter long and get on with it just fine.

If the Raptors in Toronto or Celtics in Boston or Bulls in Chicago can handle it, why can't MLS teams?

Of all the concerns with changing the schedule, this one doesn't even register on the radar.

 

NBA teams and probably NHL teams (not sure) also have their own private planes to shuttle their teams wherever and whenever they want. MLS teams fly commercial so they are at the mercy of the airlines.

 

I believe you are correct except the teams may have two road games that are not commercial.

 

Private Charter flight or not, if the airport is closed, the airport is closed

 

Define fun & alternative...

 

Define, Puffdoodlelydoodoo...

 

I can see that you're not really serious about this and just want to shine the nuts of the mythical "Yurpeeen Skedul"

 

Ahhh! Not serious enough...Any original thoughts?

 

The Original Thoughts need to come from the side wanting the switch

 

A wintertime SuperLiga and MLS All-Star game in warm regions would be nice option for non-competitive break events. MLS all-stars vs US January campers H/A.

That, and/or a quick futsal tournament with modified MLS teams during the NFL post-season.

 

My apologies.

I know you regularly stand on the wrong side of this issue so you can't blame me.

 

7"-15" in the Denver metro area this weekend.

 

Let's just move all teams to California and Florida.