I think its kinda dumb. But I kinda just don't care anymore. I cancelled my season tickets for next season. I will buy MLS Season pass next season and likely every season moving forward. But its whatever. Not worth my emotional investment to get worked up about scheduling etc. I will enjoy the games whenever they are.
Perhaps a useful case study might be to wait and see how the switch in scheduling impacts the J. League over in Japan. While the Asia Football Confederation has already moved the AFC Champions League to an autumn-to-spring schedule, the J. League is set to make this same adjustment by the 2026-27 season. On the one hand, with summer temperatures reaching record levels across much of Japan in recent years, a move away from this would perhaps benefit those clubs in more southerly parts of the country. Yet, on the other hand, I have more than a few concerns about how this change would affect teams further north - not least of which being Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo. ----- Actually, the next few years might be a challenge for Consa regardless. In the immediate future, they are at serious risk this season of getting themselves relegated down to the J2 League. Also, now that NPB's Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters have moved out of the Sapporo Dome (or rather, the Daiwa House Premist Dome, as it is presently known), there are questions being raised as to the Dome's long-term financial viability - especially if Consa find themselves stuck in the J2 League for an extended period of time. And if that wasn't enough, the backup stadium in Sapporo which the team used to have available is reportedly under a multi-year renovation. And, even if the team were to be able to stay in the Dome going forward, the problem there is that the grass playing surface is intended to be rolled in and out as and when required. Which is fine when the weather is good during the summer - by and large, summers in Hokkaido are less hot and less humid than in other parts of Japan - but which might be an issue in the depths of a snowy Hokkaido winter. In the long run, I might wonder if the team would need its own retractable roof stadium, akin to the Fighters' new ballpark over in Kitahiroshima. That is, if anyone can be convinced to pay for it...
One thing to also consider: renovations/upgrades to existing Stadiums. A late Summer-Spring schedule would allow a better window for construction projects (May-July).
I agree; it's certainly the ballpark I'd want to visit the most! In terms of actually getting there, plans are in place to open a new JR rail station just across from it, supposedly by 2027. (Right now, the nearest station is elsewhere in Kitahiroshima, and is about 20 minutes' walk from the stadium.) ----- As for the Dome back in Sapporo, the nearest metro station is about 10 minutes' walk to the building. I don't know if there was ever any thought put in towards extending the line closer to the Dome - or perhaps even underneath it? - even when the Fighters were still there; it might be a tougher sell in their absence. Although, I wonder if an outside-the-box option could be to convert the area where the retractable grass field sits outside of the Dome into a smaller soccer-only stadium, akin to how Stade Saputo was placed over the former practice track by the Big O(we) in Montréal? Then, the Dome could be permanently set into whichever role would best suit its continued use going forward.
It snows in Texas in April. North Texas that is. Depends on fronts from Canada that pass down off the Rockies. Does the PNW have these same issues with fronts from Canada in April?
One con is that it would involve MLS changing rather than forcing the rest of the overwhelmingly busted and puny soccer universe to bend the knee.
According to Google: Dallas's average high & low temps and rain in Winter months is: December 61/41 degrees, 5 days of rain January 58/36 degrees, 5 days of rain February 62/41 degrees, 6 days of rain March 72/50 degrees, 7 days of rain Seattle's average high & low temps and rain in Winter months is: December 46/39degrees , 13 days of rain January 47/39 degrees, 13 days of rain February 49/40 degrees, 12 days of rain March 52/42 degrees, 13 days of rain Seattle is about 15 degrees on average colder with more than twice the days of rain compared to Dallas. To answer your specific question, we do sometimes get snow flurries in April - it's rare, but has happened (either this year or last year). Arctic fronts tend to stay on the other side of the Cascades. Our bigger issue is the never ending rain that can hit us but we can also get fairly cold. This past January we had 17 days of rain. On Saturday, January 13 the high was 23 and the low was 12. Despite that, this was actually a very mild Winter for us, with the end of January consistently hitting 50 degrees.
I went up for a college visit to UW with my daughter and it was crisp, rainy, and misty near UW last winter. She loved it. Coming from SoCal she wanted weather but UW didn’t help with tuition enough. She went with Cal and Berkeley has wet winters as well so she should be okay. Go Bears!
She chose the worse rowing school (For those of you unaware there's an 100+ year rivalry in rowing between Cal and Washington, some of that shows up in last year's Boys In The Boat movie)
She’s a gymnast (not quite D1 level but going to try and be a manager). Her brother rows. He also likes UW.
Has she said anything about Olivia Dunne specifically, or college gymnasts generally, how they are making money based on sex appeal rather than sporting interest?
It's a bit surprising to me that such a big piece seems to be missing in this discussion, and that's the transition in the first year. If youre looking to start a new season in August 2026, then what do you do for the first half of the year? Are we going to get an "MLS is back"-style short tournament for the first few months?
Have two shorter 6-months plus knock-out playoffs seasons with about two months off in between. Of course, the players would have to agree to it. But if they did, it is one option. February 2025 - mid August 2025 November 2025 - late May 2025 (with a two-week break for Christmas)
More importantly and impactfully, there are players under contract. They still need to get paid. With little to no revenue coming in for the first 8ish months of 2026..... that'll be an expensive pill for the owners to swallow. Something tells me that Fox, ESPN, CBS, etc. aren't going to pony up a substantial amount of money for a non-exclusive partial TV package......
Personally, other than aligning the transfer windows a bit better, I cannot think of a "pro" for this concept.
I would assume if they do this change they will do a spring mini-season of some sort to bridge the the transition. It will be weird and nobody will like it, but it would be unavoidable. Contracts would be a troublesome matter for a while. There are already contracts that expire in December 2026, 2027, etc., and those don't automatically change just because the schedule format switches.