Which would you prefer, Supporter's Shield or Open Cup? Let's assume an MLS Cup is out of the quesiton.
open cup because your playing more teams, such as rochester and seattle, so you can say you are THE best team in America.
Open Cup, because you get money. Chicks and money...heh...heh, heh...heh... Seriously, you get 100,000. With that much money, you'd be a millionaire. That's salary for four rookies for a year.
team gets $100,000? so each player may get a $1,000 bonus? team keeps the rest? if, i'm a player, i'd prefer the open cup, for the money and it's prestige.
Open Cup. No question. It's the tradition and history of the cup that does it for me. Also, until MLS is a single table I think the Supporters Shield will be a bit suspect. With the divisions and the fact that you play some teams more than others - well, it complicates what it means to have the best record. You can always ask if maybe what put you over the top was a somewhat easier schedule.
Supporters Shield cuz you prove your the best team that season... people talk prestige and tradition with the Open Cup, where are the crowds? during a 30 match season teams draw decent/good crowds (unless your San Jose but they got 12000 tonight!!) the open cup draws about 3000 a game, and its supposed to be a big event, ect... I know all about why the Open Cup isn't drawing huge crowds, that isn't even my arguement i just put it in because people were saying tradition and such... The reason i really prefer the SS is cuz since i started watching league soccer, EPL in 95 when i was 12, year after my first soccer experience, 94 World Cup, i really loved how each team played each twice, home and away, and the champion was the team that was best over the season... anyways, I like the USOC and MLS Cup also... when MLS has 14-20 teams, hopefully a single table is in and each season we can still have our three champions... Supporters Shield (Best Team during the calendar season) MLS Cup (Best of the Best) US Open Cup (Best team in America)
Open Cup but only because as Knave said there is a very small cloud that hangs over the Supporters Shield so long as the standings are the result of a schedule that's based on conferences rather than a single table/balanced schedule.
Right now with no single table and the playoff system where 1-8 has a shot at MLS Cup, I say take the Open Cup. With almost 90 years of tradition compared to 8 the Open Cup has alot more tradition than the Supporter Shield Winner. How often has a team winning the Supporter's Shield been a defining moment of the season. Besides the one year where the Galaxy just ran away with the league.
Assuming you want MLS teams to do well in the Concacaf Champions Cup. Who would you want representing MLS? The winner of the Supporter's Shield who was the best team over 30 games or the winner of the Open Cup who won 3-4 games. Personally, I would rather have the Shield winner in there. They would give us the best shot to do well. And therefore I'll take the Shield over the Open Cup any day.
When I think back on the 2001 season the first thing that pops in my mind is Ray Hudson's Miami Fusion FC and how much fun they were to watch and how they surprised everybody that year. The E'Quakes MLS Cup title, to me, is less memorable. And off the top of my head I couldn't name the Open Cup winner.
I can see your point about 2001 but even that season was more the beginning of the Quakes and emergence of Landon Donovan. Off the top of my head the winner of the Open Cup was the Los Angeles Galaxy with them beating the Fire with a late goal in the semifinals.