An article from Yahoo! Sports about possible future changes to the MLS season and playoff format: http://sports.yahoo.com/mls/news/20020921/mlschanges.html In the article, the MLS communications director says the playoff change is the more likely of the two to occur---maybe move to a home & home series instead of the rather odd first-to-five. (Had a heck of a time trying to explain the playoffs to the guys from Manchester & Madrid who were sitting behind us last night!) The other change in they're considering is a spring/fall season like Mexico's, with two championships. Do these sound like good changes to you? What do you think is best for the league? Best for the fans?
I like the table format, that's the way it is done eveywhere else. Two championships seems a little wierd to me, but there are some benefits to having a gap in the middle of the summer (World Cup, Confed Cup, Copa America, etc.). I wonder how other leagues that play in the summer, like Scandanavian countries, deal with this problem.
Trecker couldn't even get the date of MLS Cup right. The big complaint I have with going to a single table is more of a question: Will the schedule be balanced somehow? If not, I don't see how a single table would be utlized correctly.
Changes Sorry but the two championships is lame and will kill the league. Although I LIKE the FIFA idea to make all leagues fall/spring with international and cup dates, we're years away from that with attendence. We ARE a summer league, and against football we'll die...spring is little better. but not much. Look at our TV schedule. We get games in the summer, but in the fall, we don't even get a game-of-the-week. Isn't that lame? We need to have a "Monday Night Football" night (maybe on wednesday?) to give us all a once a week generic (i.e. not the Rapids, or whomever) fix of soccer. We need a weekend game each week, too, not just when it's convenient for the networks. Lastly, maybe we need to try an get 60K each game at Mile High. Screw this 20,000 size idea..let's go after Man U with an 80K stadium (C'mon Phil, you can do it!!!). RLH
I believe the scandanavian countries play the same schedule as the rest of Europe. They just start earlier and take a longer winter break.
I don't think so. I went to a website for Swedish club Djurgardens and it looks like they started on 4/6 and end in early November, and took about a month and a half off for the World Cup. Anyway, I think Riccardo55 is right...trying to compete against college and pro football in the fall is suicide.
Definitely suicide. I hadn't even thought of that. From a logistical standpoint, most of the teams in MLS play would have nowhere to play.
For most any American -- including the majority of attendees at MLS games -- the home-and-home is arguably odder than the concept of first-to-five; the latter is at least fairly familiar as it's only a slight modification of the best-of-three format. And quite honestly, I could care less about explaining this system to the minority of MLS watchers who are rooted in another system. Short of the playoffs moving to a group stage format -- which the World Cup showed this year was easy enough for even the most bullheaded Americans to follow -- I don't have a real problem with the first-to-five format. As for the season, I agree that splitting it into two championships would be suicide.
Head-to-Head The two game head-to-head with road goals as the tiebreaker isn't good for a league as the seeding becomes meaningless.....winning the table (LA) should mean a smooth road to the finals, and #8 seed need to double prove that they are the better team. Actually, not hard, upset the overconfident #1, then hold serve at home (see 1997 Colorado Rapids). RLH p.s. Don't you think if they just let us run the league, we'd be fine??????