If all the MLS clubs had SS stadiums....

Umm... No. Winter.

 

The winters in most of Europe are worse than ours and they play then. We could adjust the schedule accoriding to climate but eventually teams would complain about it not being fair. Would you rather play in New England in February or Dallas in August?

 

I think you're mistaken.

Winters in England, Spain, Italy, France, and Germany are milder than the winter in much of the northern U.S.

And countries with more severe winters than us -- Sweden, Norway, Russia, etc -- have summer leagues like we do, I believe.

 

I'm not sure having SSS has anything to do with playing a winter calendar. In the summer, MLS is only competing with baseball. In the winter, MLS would compete with basketball, hockey, football, and a whole slew of college sports.

 

if you are talking about Dallas or LA or SJ, the point is well taken. But if you are talking about Colorado, Chicago, New England, NY/NJ or even Kansas City or DC, then your point suffers. England enjoys mild winters thanks to the ever present Gulf Stream warmth. Spain is far enough south to have mild winters. Yes, parts of France and Germany can be quite cold.

 

Also Belarus, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Armenia, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. (Ireland does too, but that's not because of their winters.) Poland, Germany, Holland, Denmark, and the Czech Republic, among others, take long midwinter breaks.

Scotland is the only relatively cold-weather country which plays winter soccer, and even they are mild compared to the northern US. Aberdeen, the northernmost major city in Scotland, has an average January temperature about six degrees Celsius higher than Chicago's.

If we could take a long winter break along with a summer break, that could potentially work, but would there be enough dates to play a full season?

 

spring and fall seasons! woo! just like the ecua championship.

 

How about going to an Apertura/Clausura model??

 

I would rather play in dallas in august but make sure that game is a night game. The problem comes in when we have to be slaves to espn 2 and schedule afternoon games in hot weather cities in the summer, that should stop. You would not draw many fans in chicago playing soccer in december-feb.

 

We could split the season, a'la Mexico. We could play from March to July 4th, break through July-August, then resume Labor Day weekend to conclude around Thankgiving.

At least we'd avoid the worst of the southern summer and the northern winter; if we had our own stadia across the board it could be done. I think we've reached the stage where we aren't going to lose fans over a summer break.

We'd probably use the break to schedule OC matches and internationals, though, so what's the use!

 

We should have a similar calendar to the one in the English Premier league and La Liga of Spain. In the summer people like me go on vacation. I'm leaving in a couple weeks and will come back sometime in August. MLS needs SSS in order to change the current schedule.

 

I would like to see more of a European time frame as well. I understand the idea of not competing against NBA, NFL and NCAA, but we are hurting the quality of MLS play in the long run. Most international competitions are scheduled to coincide with the European league breaks, Confed Cup, World Cup qualifying and of course the WC itself. Remember last summer many MLS teams had to go without their stars because of the WC. This league needs their star players to drive attendance. Taking them away from their teams for weeks on end is only hurting the league in the long run.

 

This was mentioned earlier: Chicago, New England, , and New York/NJ, DC, Colorado, and KC would have to have an indoor SSS if we change it to a winter schedule. Soccer can't be played in subzero temperatures which is common in the north and midwest. It would just be awkward to watch or play full field soccer in an indoor facility

 

You get two months vacation. What are you a teacher?

 

Here in New England, we did not see even the dormant grass due to snow coverage from just before Thanxgiving to about the middle of March.

Andy