That's what it used to be, really. A lot of the fundamentals seem to have taken a back seat in recent years. Hopefully they realize this and change course. Though I used to be a voting rep, I don't have a say in that stuff anyone. After January's summit I officially become one of the aforementioned retired OGs.
Anyways, I’m glad to see that they might reverse this decision. I agree with the (minority of) commenters here who say that the SS is worth far less than MLS Cup, but that doesn’t mean it should be forgone entirely. I like the comparison to the President’s Trophy in hockey. It’s a nice trophy to win, but shouldn’t be the ultimate goal in my opinion.
Winning the season is harder than a crap tournament at the end of a long slog. Supporters Shield should be the ultimate prize and everything else secondary.
Welp, the decision to not award the SS is the stupidest of timelines. Let’s talk about the board of the Supporters’ Shield Foundation. It’s appointed by the ISC, and operates independently of the ISC biard and the member groups who belong to the ISC. They are required to send monthly updates to the ISC board.— Morgan Hughes (@Morgan_Hughes) October 20, 2020 Basically, a group that may not have had the authority to actually make the decision did so without actually consulting with anyone until after the decision was made and MLS was informed it wouldn't be awarded this season.
Later in the responses to the thread I linked, they said that the "change" was that the SS group only agreed to allow the ISC members to vote on the decision, they did not actually agree to abide by that decision if it was different than the decision they already made.
Yup....within the next year or two the League will find a way to take ownership of the Shield and monetize & govern it properly.
The League won't take the Shield--it will create it own trophy with a corporate sponsor's name and avoid any mention of the Shield.
100% this. I'm guessing they've had something in the planning stages for years. They're probably sprinting to get it out, line up a sponsor, and have some sort of trophy made for the best team this year to celebrate with it at the end of the regular season. The SSF ********ed this up big time, and the clock is about to strike midnight. This needed to be reversed yesterday. If they wait a week, it probably won't matter.
Well, the good news is that the members of the board of the SSF have now effectively legislated themselves out of a job, and are no longer relevant to the conversation.
Exactly. The ISC and/or the SS " board" delivered the Supporters Shield to the league on a silver platter along with candy and some strippers. MLS wanted to get control of the shield but wisely bided their time until that bunch of halfqits screwed the pooch, so now instead of seeing a league takeover as an outrageous usurpation of power, people will see it as a necessary move by the grownups. Somehow, incredibly, these clowns managed to get outsmarted by MLS.
This was telegraphed when they scooped up (almost) all the trademarks on the rivalry trophies. Even the ones the fans started and not the teams, like the Brimstone Cup.
Look, I'm an American sports fan. I like that MLS has MLS Cup as the ultimate goal. I prefer a playoff system. I love that the season builds up to the win-or-go-home climax, rather than a long slog that could have the winner decided well before the competition is over. But both things can be true here. Traditionally, soccer rewards excellence over the course of the entire season. Just because we gear ourselves differently and declare the playoff winner to be the ultimate champion doesn't mean we can't also recognize the best overall year in a way that MLB, the NBA, the NFL and the NHL don't. This isn't an either/or situation. We can do both.
And if they don't fix this, and MLS does replace or usurp the Supporters Shield, let's all never forget where the blame lies. This is all the SSF/ISC's doing. This is when keeping it real goes wrong. MLS will not be the bad guys in this situation, they'll be taking care of their business. I won't blame them for walking through the open door. This is hubris personified. This is a small group of people thinking that somehow they were not caretakers, but anointed arbiters. The Shield was created to recognize the team with the highest post-season seed as determined by that given year's MLS rules - not whether it was a legitimate season or not. Let's never forget, nor let them forget this. November 8th is the final day of the regular season. Frankly, I'm guessing that within a week MLS might announce a new award - and have it on hand Philly, Columbus, or Harrison (for Toronto) if one of those three teams has separated from the pack. Regardless, I would expect one of those teams will have an award to show off at their first home playoff game (or for Toronto, whenever they're allowed to play in Canada again). To be honest, I still can't get over how colossally stupid this whole perfect storm of timing and idiocy has been.
Do we know who the members of this group are, and to which SG's they belong? And are those SG's (and the members therein) aware of the level to which one of their anointed leaders has fornicated them?
2020 Officers President – Steve Ferrezza Vice President - Drew Picard Treasurer - Drew Evans Secretary – Simon Carignan Director – Sam Ko http://supportersshield.org/officersandbylaws/
Ferrezza is a Red Bulls "superfan" Drew Picard is a Timbers fan Simon Carignan is in Montreal Sam Ko is an LAFC guy
Probably... https://nypost.com/2019/03/16/the-red-bulls-most-rabid-fan-has-a-ridiculous-attendance-streak/ Maybe he can pitch in a plan to get more fans into Red Bull Arena?
I just keep thinking of the old Chappelle Show skit "When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong". Sometimes people get an inflated sense of their own importance. Frankly it was all revealed with all the scattershot after-the-fact reasons from teams not playing the same number of games and the league probably using PPG as well as the "heavily unbalanced" schedule (whatever that means). I mean, have these people been following MLS? PPG determined the 2001 Supporters Shield winner after 4 teams played 28 games and 8 played 27 in the 9/11 shortened season. And what the hell is "too unbalanced" in MLS. You mean like 2005 when the Western Conference teams got to feast on two expansion teams while the Eastern Conference absorbed the West's best team from 2004? Frankly, MLS's schedule has mostly been very unbalanced in the traditional sense. It is what it is. That's why the founders of the Shield only specified that it would be awarded based on MLS's tiebreakers. There was no purity test. The SSF has failed in its only task. They had one job.
just give out a special asterisk-shaped shield this year? the idea that this is some grave offense is laughable. this is a bogus season, no team 'deserves' recognition from an outside body, Greg Vanney should worry about the trophies he loses on the field, i'm suspicious of anyone for whom this is in the top 1000 of their daily problems.