Playoffs that aren't up against NFL and college football, aren't pushing into December with the weather getting worse, and aren't interrupted by an international window.
If MLS leadership didn’t want the playoffs to be up against competition from NFL and college football, pushing into December, and facing worsening winter weather, than they shouldn’t have elected to postpone a significant portion of their regular season schedule from dates in August in order to accommodate the Leagues Cup competition. Ditto for adding a wild-card round to the playoffs and contesting the first round in a best-of-three format. Sure, it adds inventory that one hopes will boost revenue both at the gate and via broadcasts, but it also delays the end of the regular season and the start of the post-season. As for facing competition from the NFL and college football with the current schedule, if a fall-to-spring season is adopted, the tail-end of the Major League Soccer season is going to be playing concurrent with U.S. domestic sports competition including NCAA conference basketball tournaments, March Madness, Opening Day and the early weeks of Major League Baseball, the Masters and PGA Championship tournaments in golf, the NFL Draft, the stretch-drive for playoff positioning and earlier rounds of the NBA and NHL playoffs. Sounds like a “six of one, half-dozen of another” swap to me… at best. Frankly, the argument can be made that there will be a more varied offering of sports competition for eyeballs in the spring. Only time will tell what’s going to happen. Fingers crossed that, if MLS leadership opts to go through with such a change, it proves to be a net positive for the league. I have my doubts.
Leagues Cup shifts what? 3-4 regular season games? If FIFA didn't have so many freaking international windows it wouldn't be that big of a deal. Plus a lot of teams would just be playing club friendlies during that time window anyways to grab more cash. I get it, many don't like the Leagues Cup. It is what it is at this point in time. As for the playoffs, I get the disdain for the best of 3 format. I kind of understand the owners wanting a home playoff game, though to that I say: "play better and finish higher up the standings during the regular season!" A better idea would be for the league to not stretch out the first round over 3 f'n weeks!! Just play it Sat-Wed-Sat and be done with it. Again, if you son't want a midweek home game for the playoffs...... put more into the regular season!!!! MLS already faces competition from those events NOW as is. All of those events take place during the first half of the regular season.
The pushing into December is the league's own doing and could be avoided with some choices that are not so drastic. The NFL/college football stuff and the three fall international windows can't be avoided outside of a radical change. In US sports nothing is comparable to football consuming attention and being there in every possible weekend timeslot in the fall. In Canada it may be different with the NHL's importance there. I suspect that one thing they're looking at is if the American football competition is a major factor in why MLS struggles to keep its fans' attention on the playoffs once their team is eliminated.
Yes, but FIFA does have the number of international windows it has and MLS has to deal with them. Which is why adding Leagues Cup to the mix - which shifts 3 weeks of regular season MLS match inventory into having to be played during later weeks on the calendar - exacerbates an existing fixture congestion problem. That means the MLS regular season ends later, which pushes back the start of the playoffs, which pushes back the date on which MLS Cup is played. Exactly. Understood. However, I feel MLS is better off facing competition from that slate of events earlier in its season, rather than later. Ideally, the league should be shooting to have the playoffs - particularly the Conference Finals and MLS Cup - going up against the least competition possible. Which is why shooting to put together a regular season and playoff schedule that would see the MLS Cup Final take place on one of the first couple of weekends in November would be ideal. The World Series would likely be over, the NFL and NCAA football wouldn’t have entered their playoff drives quite yet, the NBA and NHL seasons would still be in their early days. Major events in golf and tennis aren’t a factor. MLS has managed this in the past - 2004, 2005, 2006, 2019, 2022. It obviously becomes more difficult with more teams in the league necessitating more regular season matches be played, as well as figuring out the sweet-spot on the number of playoff teams and games, but it should be possible. As I said, I’m hoping for the best. Only time will tell.
Regarding FIFA international breaks in the fall, the number of windows is changing from three to two in 2026. But one of them will be for four matches. The idea behind it is to cut down on player travel. 21 Sep to 6 Oct - Four Matches 9 Nov to 17 Nov - Two Matches Here is the calendar: https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/3123d...International-Match-Calendar-2023-2030_EN.pdf
Except that they don't have to shift those matches to later in the season......... They already start in late February. They have from Feb-July to fit in those matches...... The playoffs have been impacted by the November FIFA Dates for over a decade now. The exception being 2022 due to the WC being held in Nov-Dec.
Here’s the answer: more midweek games. Owners don’t want it, fans don’t want it, but it’s the only way a Aug-May schedule works with a winter break. Its the only way the current schedule works with more Int’l window adherence. Either that, or eliminating the playoffs entirely. Also, does the CBA address fixture congestion? Like are players allowed four games in eleven days? W,Sa,W,Sa? Thx, Jay!
Or reduce the number of regular season games to 30 like it used to be (but that means less money, so not going to happen).