News: MLS owners approve fall-spring calendar and season format changes: Sources

CCC/CCL starts early Feb and playoffs are Nov/Dec. But I guess you guys wouldn't know much about either, recently.

Mid Oct to Mid December will now be regular season instead of playoffs. Mid Oct thru mid-late Nov is fine. Kids can trick-or-treat butcit is too cold? Please.

Again, what are we talking about? Late Nov to early Dec + maybe a week or two more in Feb. A month. 5 weeks. 2-3 home matches. With smart scheduling 1-2.

Northern teams should play, at most, one game after Thanksgiving at home. And one of the first four after winter break. That takes you to mid-March.

2 games without breaking a sweat. Maybe a more aggressive schedule for Minny, NE, MTL, TFC, COL, RSL. No Feb and No December. Again, I can schedule that without breaking a sweat.

Molehills.

 

You're understating the magnitude of that change.

Again, it was 19 degrees in Minnesota last weekend. It's 30 in Montreal right now with forecasts of a half-inch of ice this weekend. This schedule calls for playing a fifth of the season in conditions like that or worse before the winter break and then, what, another month of it after play resumes?

So either you have northern teams playing semi-regularly in terrible conditions or they basically play the opening 12 weeks of the season and the closing 5 at home.

You also keep making the mistake of equating what's acceptable for playoffs with what's acceptable for the regular season. People will turn up for a conference final when it's snowing. No one's doing that for Chicago - Colorado on Matchday 19.

 

I know. But I've yet to see any pundit list Columbus as one of those northern tier cities that get cold. It clearly is.

 

It was 68 degrees today in the Twin Cities. November can be strange.

That being said, I really hope the league rubs two brain cells together and has any cold climate kickoff surrounding the Winter Break at 1:30 instead of 7:30.

 

The change will see the season kick off in mid-July and run through May, with a winter break from mid-December to February.

2 1/2 months without MLS, might as well start a whole new season. I predict a lot of frozen balls and lower attendance.

 

And the stadium was full

 

The League can fit a fair amount of games into the schedule between Mid-July through September. Remember, FIFA is changing the Fall International Windows. There's not going to be a September window going forward. That window is being combined with the October Window.

You all have also quickly forgotten that the past three seasons have had MINIMAL league games from late-July through August because of Leagues Cup..... So we'll be getting that prime GOOD weather time of year being completely dedicated to League Games. Plus they'll be adding ALL of September too, which last i checked tends to have very good weather (outside of hurricanes in the SE). So what are you all wringing your hands and getting your underwear in bunches over exactly???

Getting all worked up and claiming the league is dumb AF over 3 weeks of games in November-December and 3 weeks of games in February-March (which are already an issue currently). And crying over losing the month of June???? You all realize that FIFA and Concacaf hijack that month pretty much 3 out of every 4 years (guaranteed to be every year with the CWC being added)???

Sure, it's going to suck Elk Nuts in Montreal, and Colorado, and Salt Lake City, and Chicago, and St Paul and Foxboro. It's sucked in those places in Feb-March every season for the past.... since they all entered the league.

What do people honestly want the league to do? People bitch and moan about how MLS plays through international windows. They bitch and moan about MLS not taking the training wheels off. They bitch and moan about the playoff format. They bitch and moan about the roster rules and salary budget constraints. There's a ton of whining and crying coming from fans, yet not many or any solutions at all.

Spend more money on players!!! MLS and LigaMX create Leagues Cup in order to generate more money for both leagues. Since Leagues Cup, both leagues have been spending quite a bit more money on players. Yet their majority of fans are shouting, bitching, and moaning about League Cup and that they want it gone.

Fans for years have stated that MLS needs a better TV deal. MLS goes out and finds a far more lucrative TV deal. Fans bitch and moan because the deal isn't with the platform that they want. Newsflash, the platforms fans want either weren't interested at all (Paramount/CBS and NBC) or weren't willing to offer what they had previously (ESPN/Fox).

Again, what is the league supposed to do??? What's the solution? Do the same things that they've done the past 30 f'n years HOPING for better and different results???

IMO, MLS should go with a split season like Liga MX. Two 17 game sprints, with the playoff format used by the AFL/NRL. Solves most of the issues. Allows for the primary transfer window to moved to the late summer. Creates more playoff game inventory. Makes the regular season more meaningful.

 

I just had a random thought about Old MLS vs. New MLS.

Old MLS (for me this is every team founded in the 1990s) is mostly cities that developed around mass transit, pre WW II. I’d say everyone but San Jose, the Gals, and Kansas City. I can’t say for Columbus.

The teams founded since then are overwhelmingly cities that developed mostly with individual car ownership.

Just to clarify, the proposal is to take off half of December, as you write, and all of January. The restart is either going to be the first week or the third week of February, so either 1 1/2 or 2 months.

 

I’m still gobsmacked at how you, a Los Angeleno, feel so confident about what it’s like to go to a soccer match in cold weather in Minnesota, Columbus, etc. Maybe sit this one out? Or just give us the perspective of someone in a warm weather city?

If anyone is wondering what this will be like in Nashville and Charlotte, two cities whose weather I have a clue about, they should be fine, even if/when they’re designated as warm weather cities that will be hosting on the coldest dates.

 

Very good post, well argued.

I don’t want to hold the delete button for 2 minutes lol so let me focus on the 2nd to last paragraph, that begins with “Again.”

My reaction is, the league is doing pretty well, inching forward most years, with the occasional breakthrough year. So yeah, a lot of us, especially those who were fans during the years when the league’s survival was literally at stake, aren’t as amenable to “do something!” as fans even as old as your Union.

Colorado fans are legitimately worried that for them, the best case scenario is permanent afterthought status, a club with one of the league’s worst owners and also oft-miserable weather on the new, added dates. That’s still better than the worst case scenario of the team fading away and then being moved.

My opinion is that the league’s record on big, strategic decisions is spectacular, so I’m trusting that they’re making a smart move again. In this thread, I’m enjoying discussing the pros and the cons.

But to get back to your “Again” paragraph, if they miss on this decision, they’re fumbling away the opportunity to take a Great Leap Forward following us hosting the World Cup.

My point is, this is the biggest, most drastic strategic decision the league has made since at least Beckham and the DP rule, if not the biggest since they decided to shutter the Florida teams but not the league. The last 30 years…Ok, the last 25 years…have been wildly successful. Ain’t nothing wrong with the next 25 years being the same. We won’t be as good as the Big Five leagues, but it would make MLS the next best overall league in the world. And that’s pretty damn good.

This is the league saying nope, that’s not good enough, we’re coming for France and Italy. Ballsy.

 

How many European-based players transfer to Brazil vs the USA?

Thx,

Jay!

 

Shit, amend that last sentence to “not good enough.”

 

I thought Denver was an older developing city, but that’s mostly based on how it was depicted in the TV show The Wild, Wild West.

 

That was all a deception by Miguelito Loveless.

 

Not many but they have no problem selling to Europe despite not being on the euro calendar. Which is my point. And if Brazil had European money I am sure they’d have no problem buying them either

 

The calendar switch is on. Got it. Is there anything we want to talk about? Ha!

Seriously, MLS HQ ought to be wise to keep the Eastern and Western Conferences at some level as it is a solid tradition in MLS since Season 1.
I would suggest to the suits that they utilize the Fall portion of league play and have the Eastern and Western Conference teams play intra-conference matches that crown a Conference champion for both. What MLS HQ can install in this calendar switch is have a specific non MLS city host an annual Cup Final during the Winter Break. These two Eastern and Western Conference winners celebrate an "MLS Super Cup" over the Holiday Season. I recall Garber spoke a while back of eventually creating for MLS a Bowl Game a la what is so popular in our sports culture with college gridiron teams to earn a trophy over the Holiday Season. Many nations have a Super Cup a la Italy, Spain and others.
MLS league play returns in February like MLS HQ has now slated for the closing Spring leg with MLS Cup playoffs in May.

When it's actually nice out? The same thing can be stated about Houston amigo. This being late October to May for us in the Gulf Coast United States. Which late October is the last week of MLS regular season as MLS HQ has it scheduled for us fans now up to the first few home games in the following season. It is why all the other professional sports teams in our city have played in climate controlled stadiums since we landed on the Moon.

Understanding this reference hits home for us of a certain age! Well done Bluecat!

 

So people will show up for a playoff game in Denver in November but not a regular season game? Sounds like it’s possible to play the game and have people show up. True fans will be there.

It’s unfortunate that some people live in cold weather cities. But Broncos fans will fill the stadium in far worse conditions. What’s the excuse for Rapids fans?

 

If the owners don't care, why should the fans?

 

What kind of business doesn’t want casual customers? You’re not making any sense. Did you mean something else here? I can’t imagine what it might be, but hand waving away losing all but diehard fans, which is what it seems like you’re doing, is ludicrous.

There’s a faction of soccer fans in the US who are exactly the kind of people who rave about a new band until that band has a hit, then that band is dead to them. They can’t reconcile something being both good and popular, so they post things like this, arguing that’s it’s OK if MLS remains a niche product.

 

I can think of scenarios where it will be useful to have a more closely aligned calendar. In particular you see these situations where players want to go on loan for the remainder of the European or MLS season, and that causes timing issues.

 

Two additional thoughts. First, the relative bargaining power of Apple TV and the MLS likely will dictate kickoff times, rather than the weather. Second, air travel in late November and December is affected by holiday travel, ATC staffing levels, and weather. Teams are limited in the number of legs they can use charter flights by Section 11.1 of the CBA. That will need to be addressed.

 

The NFL is about 1000x more popular than MLS. Even making the comparison means you’re in a fantasy land.