NHL and NBA have teams that share the arenas, have to schedule teams on the road for other events in their buildings. NHL also has to deal with Canadian teams and their TV deal MLB has rules on length of road trips, how many games can be played straight with a day off. NFL doesn't have many road blocks. only have to deal with teams that request certain days with no home games. Also the biggest road block they have is the fights between FOX/CBS with NBC and ESPN.
Maybe MLS wants to be sure of the schedule to avoid it. ( the changes in RAPIDS schedule ) but is not like the RAPIDS fans are waiting for the schedule to buy the remaining of the season tickets available, thats why KUDOS to all the mls fans the bought their season tickets without knowing the schedule.
I have the feeling Superliga delayed the schedule this year. Whether or not they managed to retain the tournament is another question altogether.
you think every fan can afford to buy season tickets? What about the out of town fans trying to plan their 1-2 trips to see their team? What about local TV broadcasters trying to get their schedules set? What about the independent vendors at the stadium trying to plan their summer? (In my case may family is trying to plan a family reunion in Portland around the weekend the Rapids are playing the Timbers there. There's only 6 of us, and my parents live there, so the delay isn't that big a deal, but it would be nice to be able to tell them when to expect us already.)
Serie A releases late July for a late Aug start (1.0 months) Seems MLS is still in the range of soccer norms though I would prefer to see it released earlier so I can get excited for the season earlier.
And for the people that like to travel to away games, the earlier they release the schedule the better.
I'm more excited to see the tv schedule. Most of us here are die-hard fans and season ticket holders so we don't care who our team is playing we will be at the match. And we know by soccer standards the game will be every weekend unless it is an ESPN game.
absolutely. with, or course, the qualifier that they need to release an accurate (and assured) schedule -- or a full schedule that is as accurate as possible. it doesn't do anyone much good if MLS rushes to get out a schedule before it is "finalized." having to move around games (after the initial release) is also a huge headache and causes a bunch of complaints -- hey, I though the Rapids were at Portland in July, and now they've moved it to Sept, THANKS (you've f'ed up my planned family reunion in the PNW)! yes, it will never be a perfect operation (and no, not everyone will get to see the schedule as "early" as they would like). but there are a lot of reasons MLS is only able to execute this part of their business (setting the league schedule) only about 4-5 weeks out from the start of the season. could it be released earlier? yes. would that likely cause MLS to have to move/reschedule some (more) things as the season is played? very likely it would.
SUM summer friendlies (and the time lines on which those non-league matches can be arranged and agreed to) will seemingly always play havoc with the finalization and release of (and updates to) the MLS league schedule.
Absolutely but... I'm not sure you ever get around the problem of moving games. Because of the necessity of getting the schedule out in late-Jan/early-Feb. there's a good chance the European teams that will come over for friendlies haven't set their schedule yet, at least not all of them. The big problem this year, IMO, is that MLS decided to move up the start of the season a week and they ended up delaying the release of a schedule for a week. Combined that takes the annoying but understandable 6 week window prior to the start of the season and makes it barely a 4 week window, which becomes much harder to plan for early games.
Which proper football nations on the international schedule don't really worry about. Fixtures are changed all the time due to conflicts with Cup competitions and problems with the pitch related to winter weather. The schedule is more of a framework or a guideline in proper leagues. It's only those that grow up with gridball, boringball, hoopsball, and puckball in the colonies that get their knickers in a twist over the fixture list.
sure. the US "proper" perspective isn't the established framework in which MLS should be allowed to operate, as a professional soccer league. also, note the large geographic mass of the US/Canada requires "more planning" for travel to away games. ("proper" leagues elsewhere aren't affected as much by fixture changes, given the relative ease/shortness of most travel scenarios in smaller countries.)
agreed. and not to take this thread off the tracks, but would a way toward allowing for the variances and uncertainties of the summer (friendly) schedule be to eventually have MLS have a summer off-season? if MLS/SUM are going to regularly have summer friendlies vs visiting teams who are in their "pre-season," wouldn't it aid the league schedule setting for MLS if MLS teams weren't in the middle of their active season in those late June through early August dates? again, it is what it is, and MLS does the best it can (we assume) with setting their league schedule and getting it out there. (and, as was "properly" noted, they're fighting against a lot of, potentially unreasonable for a soccer league, expectations.)
Does anybody know how these schedules get made? Is it just a bunch of guys banging their heads against the wall or what?
Because this would certainly help with fixture congestion. Let's totally give MLS team two months off in the middle of the season in order for them to play a single friendly, maybe two. Brilliant.
a screw? yes, a screw-driver will do. multiple screws (and the same recurring situation each summer)? not so much the correct choice, imo. (especially, given the fact that MLS and SUM don't know much about the dates/location of these upcoming friendlies for many/all MLS clubs in late-June to early-August, at this point. they just know they're going to likely have to break out the screw-driver in a few months to schedule some or many lucrative and other friendlies and re-arrange the league schedule. not a big deal, in truth, but also perhaps not the best way to go about their scheduling task.) we should count up the number of mid-season friendlies (SL and otherwise) that all MLS clubs play in 2011 (not to mention those summer international competitions that cause players to be away from their clubs, such as the Gold Cup in 2011). I'd suggest that it might add up to an awful lot of screws in the summer wall. and a screw-driver (in the long term) might not be the best tool in fact for getting the scheduling job done (or re-done). in the long term, I do think MLS will opt for the one-time use of a sledgehammer to take out that entire section of the wall -- and create a permanent summer break (and then eventually an off-season, accompanied by a winter break of approximately equal size; perhaps around 50 days or so). but yes, for the time being (and for perhaps many more seasons to come), MLS will play through the summer -- save for that type of two-week break they had during the 2010WC group stage -- and deal with the scheduling complications and alterations to be made with a screw-driver on the go each season.