I agree totally...The "regular" season in most American sports is meaningless...it's only purpose being the determination of home-field advantage in the playoffs. The reason behind this is that every sport is trying to imitate the NFL. This system works for the NFL because their season runs September through December, 16 games one game per week. With that short of a season, having the best record is no big deal. The NFL season is in essence the first round of the playoffs in that it determines the 12 best teams who move forward toward the Superbowl. However, to have the best record in a 6 month season and have it mean nothing more than home-field advantage in the playoffs is ridiculous. As I stated earlier, MLS should have 1 league table and reward the Supporters Shield to the winner....It should be made out to be a big deal!! Then you can take the top 8 finishers and have them play for the MLS Cup which like the US Open Cup, would be a separate competition altogether. This would be win-win for MLS in that the regualr season would actually mean something while still maintaining the excitement of the playoff system in common with other American sports.
It isn't a bad idea, but the reality right now is that we don't have enough teams to play a balanced schedule. We need at least 14 teams to play a 26-game schedule which is too short imho, so 16 teams would be ideal to play a 30-game schedule. Realistically, though, MLS can't fit more than 30 games into its spring/summer/some-of-fall window. So expanding past 16 teams would mean a return to an unbalanced schedule. 18 teams and a 34-game schedule could work, but then you can pretty much screw your idea of MLS Cup altogether. Don't even bother with 20 teams and a 38-game schedule. Do you see how reality creates limitations on the possibilities? If MLS had promotion/relegation and 90 teams like the English League, well then maybe your idea could work. Single-table winner means balanced schedule. Do you really think this is ever going to happen in MLS, and remain the norm? Is MLS going to forever limit itself at 16 teams if it ever gets that big? - Paul
I have always thought that 6 of 10 was enough, but the suits in MLS will not. I know it's dumb to have so many teams in the playoffs, but there's just no way around the economic model. What I would PAY MLS to have a four team playoff, two games home and way, MLS CUP be a two game home and away! I would have truly seen heaven. But the money changers in the temple have no faith in it. The best we can hope for is a group round followed by a semifinal round. Which no matter how you cut it, is better than what we have.
I agree with Viking64 that a four team playoff has some attraction on all levels except the one that counts -- money. In one of these playoff threads someone posted some interesting data showing that even though attendance drops off slightly per game in the playoffs, it's not enough to reduce the number of games. For example, 3 games of 10,000 people beats 1 game of 20,000. WIth that reality, the challenge is to maximize games AND make the playoffs compelling. The round robin plus knockout from semifinals format is the best way to accomplish both objectives.
Good point. I would like to see that analysis. A couple factors that you are not bringing up, though, are the cost to put on the game (primarily rent) and the average ticket price. It may be possible to charge more for a ticket for a game in a one-off playoff than for a game that is part of a three-game series. Also, high rent may reduce the amount of profit that is made from each game, and in some cases of extremely high rent, the owner of the team may actually lose money to put on the match. Three matches just make this situation worse. In fact, I think that the Metrostars may be losing money for the league each time they play, and having them not make the playoffs is good economically. Here is an equation which illustrates the situation in very simple terms: Profit = Num_Games * (Revenue - Rent) where Revenue = Attendance * Avg_Ticket_Price (I left out ancillary revenues from the equation such as parking and concessions and merchandise. Most teams in MLS don't get this revenue. These numbers are affected by Attendance, though, and the prices can be adjusted up or down depending on if it is for one game or for a three-game series.) Also, I think that if a certain threshold of profit is not crossed by putting on so many games, it may be better for TV purposes to profit a little bit less at the gate and play less playoff games that (in my opinion) will be more dramatic and intense. (Similarly, even though the Metrostars probably lose money for the league when they host playoff games, the league probably wants them to make the playoffs for TV purposes.) - Paul