Winter World Cup -- Scheduling Thread

Discussion in 'MLS: Commissioner - You be The Don' started by KCbus, Jul 14, 2018.

  1. KCbus

    KCbus Moderator
    Staff Member

    United States
    Nov 26, 2000
    Reynoldsburg, OH
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Now that FIFA has officially announced that the 2022 World Cup will be held in the winter from November 21st to December 18th, we can start figuring out how to work around the scheduling issues.

    I'll cross-post my ideas from the N&A thread to get it going.

    The good news is that there are plenty of options.

    You can start the season sooner. We've gotten into all the reasons why that's problematic before, but for a one-time winter World Cup, I think we could swallow that pill. You can shorten the season by a couple of games. Even from 34 to 32 -- each team only loses one home game, and you pick up a couple of weeks. One or two extra midweek matches per team. No All-Star Game that year (please). As suggested earlier, you could have single-elimination playoffs for one season, or maybe eliminate the play-in game and have one less round.

    My guess is that the owners, commissioner and a few reps from the players' union will all get together and compare and contrast notes and come up with some mixture of all that.

    Plus, if absolutely necessary, there's one other thing they could do. Play all of the playoffs except MLS Cup before the World Cup starts. And then, even though there would be a significant gap, play the title game AFTER the World Cup ends, and go back to the warm-weather neutral site game for one year.

    Some of these will probably sound better than others, but we can debate them all. And we have four years.
     
  2. mschofield

    mschofield Member+

    May 16, 2000
    Berlin
    Club:
    Union Berlin
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    You know, if you made series saturday wednesday, sunday Thursday Saturday, instead of Weekend, weekend, weekend, weekend, weekend you'd save two weeks. toss in two more midweeks per team and eliminate the all star game (probably not needed, but I agree, please) so the playoffs can begin three weeks early and you're set. The players will leave for camp two weeks before the tourney? three?
    OTOH, maybe play it by ear. MLS will know whether the US and/or Canada has qualified a year out. If they haven't, is the roster drain that severe?
     
  3. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I don't want the quality of the playoffs to be worse because clubs who reach MLS Cup have to play two games a week for three weeks. I also don't want the playoffs to be before and after the World Cup. One thing that fans of sports other than soccer are not used to are WCQs and other competitions spread out over months or years. For soccer, national teams have games spread out. Concacaf Champions League games aren't spread out other than the break between the Group Stage and Quarterfinals when there was a Group Stage. People complain that when MLB playoff series are decided in the minimum amount of games, teams have too many days off.
     
  4. jaykoz3

    jaykoz3 Member+

    Dec 25, 2010
    Conshohocken, PA
    Club:
    Philadelphia Union
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    CONCACAF CL no longer has a group stage.
     
  5. KCbus

    KCbus Moderator
    Staff Member

    United States
    Nov 26, 2000
    Reynoldsburg, OH
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    This is one of those rare situations where I couldn't give a damn what fans of other sports are or aren't used to.

    The NHL doesn't have to worry about the Olympics taking place in May. Baseball doesn't have to work around an October World Baseball Classic. The World Cup is going to be taking place right at the normal time that MLS Cup would be happening. That's something that's going to need creative scheduling.

    If we avoid at all costs splitting up the playoffs into before/after the World Cup break, that would mean that in order to have players released in time for their national teams to prepare for the tournament, MLS would have to play the regular season, plus Open Cup, plus CONCACAF, plus playoffs, and finish all of it by Halloween. If we're going to do that, you almost have no choice but to compress the playoffs. I mean, this year's REGULAR SEASON doesn't end until October 28th. Even if you start the season two weeks earlier, and even if you trim a couple games off the schedule, and even if you add some midweek matches -- there's only so much wiggle room.

    Unless we're going to trim the playoff field to four teams, it may be necessary to have an accelerated playoff format. I don't think it would be the end of the world to have two teams play two matches in five days.
     
    jaykoz3 and JasonMa repped this.
  6. mschofield

    mschofield Member+

    May 16, 2000
    Berlin
    Club:
    Union Berlin
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    There's some other tourney where that's just about the schedule they keep. It seemed to work well enough there this summer.
     
  7. Gamecock14

    Gamecock14 Member+

    May 27, 2010
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    If they played the entire season and playoffs pre-WC, MLS Cup would likely have to be played October 29, 2022 at the latest with a condensed playoff schedule (ie no break between conference finals and MLS Cup) which would be bad for the sponsors.

    The other problem is that MLS players not on playoff teams advancing would have significant (4-7 week) breaks prior to a WC camp which would not be ideal, although WC camp might start during the conference finals.

    I don't think there is a feasible way to appease players, WC, MLS teams, and sponsors to the point that even 3 of the 4 groups mentioned above get what they want.
     
  8. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I know. I said "Concacaf Champions League games aren't spread out other than the break between the Group Stage and Quarterfinals when there was a Group Stage"
     

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