MLS Cup Should Be The Day Following Thanksgiving

If you can't agree to the truth of a sentence like "It would suck to sit outside for 3 hours in February in Montreal", then what value is there to the rest of us even considering your opinions?

 

Don't play games at the "low" temp point of the day. Any day.

That would make those gamedays a bit more manageable for all involved.

 

Two hours wouldn't be as bad as three.

Being "sucky" for a few weeks doesn't make it "unmanageable" for the whole business across the season. ymmv.

Right now it is "sucky" (again, ymmv) going to games across the full hot summer, but MLS always manages.

The league may always manage and opt to play their season within a single calendar year. Or at some point they may opt to do something else. And potentially doing that something else certainly would put the post-season and MLS Cup in a better and more enjoyable time of year. ymmv, and you and MLS may indeed prefer the colder weather MLS Cup at the time of year when gridiron football is in season.

 

I'm not trying to use weather to support an idea. There are plenty of competitive reasons to move the post-season from Nov/Dec to May/June.

(Those in favor of the status quote are the ones citing weather concerns. The only time I mention weather is to suggest that a mild/warm post-season might be better for MLS than is a chilly/cold window for those playoffs.)

Also, summer is when kids are out of school and families and a lot of people are on vacation. There are reasons that MLS plays through the summer. And there are also reasons MLS might make a summer break a more permanent and bigger thing in the future, and maybe even have it be their off-season.

 

I bet there's not a single one that holds up to close scrutiny. I mean, it's possible that you, and only you, have found the single argument that does, but I doubt it.

Those in favor of the status quo understand that the impetus of argument lies on those attempting to alter the status quo.

Wait, so it's a bad idea to play a spectator sport whose average fanbase is half that of baseball's because the kids might be able to go see it?

 

It's a hell of a lot worse for those making the money (the players) than those paying the money (the fans). That's important.

 

The (additional) problem with playing through the summer is that MLS "losses" many/some of its best players to FIFA/global/regional events that regularly pop up in June/July and are periods that clubs must release players.

 

There are problems both ways, no question.

 

Yup. And across the years as MLS has grown up and evolved and worked to address or operate within those "problems" and conditions, the leagues certainly has been willing to use more of the "cold weather" portion of the calendar, and has also had efforts to avoid as many of those FIFA dates "as possible" -- regardless of those FIFA Dates being in the "cold" or "mild/pleasant" weather weeks.

 

If we're really being the Don here, allow me to opine:

How do you fit an entire MLS season in the warm weather months with minimal FIFA date interference?

Easy, stop entering teams in the CCL and US Open Cup.

 

The Don and his employers wouldn't or shouldn't limit themselves to the first weekend in March to the first weekend in Dec.

CCL is a significant portion, rightly so, of what is (or should be) a focus of the business of MLS.

And USSoccer having the USOC as a path to the CCL also gives that old tourney the respect it needs, imo.

 

May I ask why?

 

CCL is the only/best real avenue for MLS to show where it ranks among top leagues, if not globally, then certainly regionally.

 

Why does it need to play games against Honduran and Trinidadian opposition at awkward times of the year often totally un-televised in order to validate itself?

The Liga MX versus MLS "proving ground" of the CCL is far more theoretical than real, IMO. And when they tried to create that in more substance with the SuperLiga, it barely made a dent.

MLS' focus should be on MLS. Everything else is a distraction, IMO. And this isn't just idle bashing of the other competitions, as this thread indicates, there are real costs associated with those scheduling blocks. If you get to a place where an international competition of some sort can be a headline attention-grabber rather than this mysterious thing in the background that few know or care about, cross that bridge when you come to it. But the global trend in the sport is that the only competition that isn't a domestic league that isn't declining in interest, prestige, and relevance is the UEFA Champions League, and that's the exception that proves the rule.

 

Okay, so you think that Don Garber cares more about the CCL than how impossible a fall-to-spring calendar would be?

Don Garber spends more time every day deciding how he would like his eggs than worrying about the CCL.

 

"Impossible" is not the right word there, at all. "Difficult" or "undesirable at this point" would be the far more accurate phrasings.

I think a lot of considerations go into the operational decisions that MLS makes.

You're incredibly wrong about this.

https://www.google.com/#q=don garber importance of concacaf champions league&spell=1

 

Au contraire, you should see him agonize over a Waffle House menu.

 

I can imagine it, but would appreciate some supporting links or sources.

 

Now I actually do wonder if Don Garber has indeed ever eaten at a Waffle House in his life. I tend to doubt he has.

 

You don't think he put a franchise in Atlanta because the ownership's plan was convincing, do you?

 

No, he (and actually it was the BoG decision) put a team there because he/they needed more southern and/or domed venues to help with some new scheduling for the league in the seasons ahead.