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

. . . no one else in 2009.

 

I would have to think that the scheduling will be more nuanced than just taking the 2025 schedule and moving the non-overlapping dates to the new sections of the calendar. For example, Toronto played 10 out of 12 at home from April 26 to July 12. A starting point would be not doing something like that.

 

How many games from April-July had to be rescheduled in the past due to inclement weather? In the past two seasons the Union have had home games ppd during the good weather months due to Torrential rain/Thunderstorms.

How many games have the Rapids, Dallas, Sporting KC, etc. had rescheduled during the good weather months due to bad weather?

 

After all this spilt milk and looking into the calendar for the 27-28 season, it looks like they have about 32-33 weeks for the season to be played in excluding May for the playoffs. I believe the only adjustment for CCC is possibly moving the championship game to the first week in June. CCC starts February 3rd, so starting the regular season at the same time will be needed unless CONCACAF changes when CCC is played.
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This probably means Leagues Cup might start a couple of weeks before the new season right after the fourth of July as it takes about ten days to play the first round. They could play the final on labor day weekend Sunday September 5th. Oddly Liga MX would be in the first week of their season if they don't change and MLS a week or two from opening. So you have a lot of wiggle room if you go for the final on September 5th. I don't see Leagues Cup disappearing as both leagues like the revenue it's producing. The biggest change might be teams playing in all three countries depending on order of finish. Much like Liga MX, MLS will already have teams qualified for CCC because of the mini season. If they are flipping the season to expand revenue with selling players and moving off of MLS Season Pass and now a part of Apple TV, there is no chance LC is coming to an end.

 

I'll be interested in seeing how the league schedules pan out with the 'no more than 3 consecutive home or away days' construct. I like the concept, so long as Mother Nature co-operates. Montreal should have the luxury of using Olympic Stadium, if necessary, which certainly beats what the team went through this season. Its first 8 games were on the road, and CFM were entrenched in last place in the East by the time they played their home opener.

 

Matt Baker posted his thoughts on the five-division alignment. I think many people are gravitating toward the same (or a similar) alignment. Here's what he posted:



No hot takes here, and I'm not advocating for these thoughts. I'm just tossing them out here because they may be Area 51 discussions inside the MLS, and nobody knows what weird things they are thinking.

First, several of the cities already being kicked around for MLS expansion would fit this alignment: Pittsburgh to the East, Detroit to the Midwest, Sacramento to the Northwest, Phoenix to the Southwest, and Baltimore to the South.

Second, Adding one more team after the first round of expansion (Las Vegas?) could allow for division realignment to six divisions, and open the door for an MLS-Liga MX merger to bring the league to eight divisions, if that is something the MLS is angling toward.

Again, I'm not proposing these things, so don't read my post as advocating for any of this. It's just a stab at trying to guess a place where the MLS owners may eventually look in their never-ending quest for expansion cash.

 

I've considered that as one of the possibilities as well, given geographically it makes a lot of sense - more than most other solutions. I think it really comes down to whether or not they will be willing to split up the California teams and move DC from the Northeast to the South, if you will.

 

Sucks for HOU/DAL to play in the AL West [MLB] and it would suck for HOU/DAL/AUS to get stuck in another west coast division.

Missouri is much closer.

 

How does that math work out? I'm not following how many MX teams would be a part of the 8 divisions.

This is getting way too far ahead of the curve for me, seeing as we don't even know how the 5 new MLS divisions are going to function.

 

Meh on this. It could be high risk, high payoff, but I don't think MLS FO and the owners thought this through enough. Correct me if I'm wrong, and I realize I'm a bit late to the party and some stuff I'm saying is a repetition.

The big assumption being by aligning with (most of) European season and transfer windows, MLS can sell players to Europe for higher price, also gain better access to Europe based players. Which eventually leads to better quality of the league which leads to better revenues through transfer fees, commercial sponsorship, TV money, etc. Which leads to MLS being able to be one of top leagues in the world. Big assumption

I have so many questions
-For leagues that have switched from spring/summer/fall to fall/winter/spring, has there been an improvement in those leagues in quality of play? Increase in transfer revenue? (IE, Danish, Russian before their despicable invasion of Ukraine and rightly being sanctioned soccer wise)

-Are there indications from European leagues that they are more willing to buy from MLS, if the seasons are aligned? I see generally poor youth academy system that develops players worth selling to Europe as the major factor in lack of transfers to Europe.

-Is there going to be more investment by owners (probably losing enough money already) to try to take advantage of player transfers in fees and salary, through increase in salary cap, transfer mechanism, etc? For some owners, even if they are billionaires, asking them to keep losing money with maybe something of a RoI way down in the future might be a hard sell from purely business POV, even if they signed off on the season switch.

-Is MLS relying on bumper interest in MLS to somehow translate to more support for MLS after WC26? I'm negative on this overall. WC94, there was no MLS, so the ground was ripe for support for domestic football to grow, and that took what, 15 yrs to stabilize. We are now in 2025 where soccer is saturated to certain point, and casual fans may need more than WC (one off interest) to sustain interest in MLS.

Speaking more Toronto specific, where we had years of poor management by MLSE. We are at the point where fan support is almost on life support. BMO Field rarely sells out, and season ticket wait list is long gone (yet the season ticket prices keep going up).

You ask for fans to show up Nov/Dec/Feb/Mar/Apr, when the temperatures are not comfortable esp with the winds from Lake Ontario... even hardcore supporters will be questioning their sanity to suffer through bad weather conditions. One off event, sure. But it's hard to ask families to bring their kids and older folks to support the game at least couple of times a week. Whether we like it or not, casual fans are needed to sustain regular attendance.

Otherwise you will see atmosphere like MLS Cup 2010 held at Toronto. Cold, miserable, it's not fun anymore. But the game is about fans and without the fans, there is no soccer. You can't sell a league without fans in the stands creating the emotions that inspire others, the love of the game. MLS will not have a product to sell without enough fans in the stands, and those fans looking miserable as heck.

Now MLS may have decided that this risk is worth it, even if northern teams suffer. In that case, I need to question, why would I support a league that does not value me as a fan? What benefit do I really get from this season switch? I'm all for leagues making changes that will get me good football. But I need to be convinced that this is really good for the league, and I've yet to be convinced.

Maybe there is something I'm not seeing yet. But considering how MLS FO really sucks at messaging and communicating, I doubt it.

 

Speaking about the MLS decision-makers, my perma-heroes at despair.com want to have a word:

 

Why should southern fans the last 30 years have supported a league that doesn't prioritize them in terms of time of year played?

The schedule shift benefits southern fans. Less games in May/June/July and more games in November/December/February.

You think it's fun for fans in Orlando/Houston/Miami/Dallas/Austin to suffer through late May/June or early July games where the temperature is 95 with 85% humidity?

In contrast the weather in those ^ cities in November/December/February is usually cool and pleasant.

Southern fans got the "miserable time of year" end of the stick for the last 30 years.

 

The only one of these clubs that have existed close to 30 years is Dallas.

 

Alright amend it to 30/20/15/10 years. Not really the point.

 

Maybe not but you can't claim long time suffering that doesn't exist for denigrating the fact that fans are going to suffer in northern climates.
For the record I'd rather watch games in the cold of DC rather than in the heat but I'm not convinced that this preference is shared by many or that their will be any financial benefit to MLS.

 

You can just deal with the overall point of the post instead of choosing to nit pick.

 

My own personal reality - the ebb and flow of work and personal time - means summer is flexible in a way the winter is not. I would not be able to shift my season tickets if I had them. This is before the weather is taken into consideration.

Similarly, when I had kids at home we had times of the year we could plan on attending games, and times we did not. The new schedule would permit fewer games as well.

I don't mind the shift for the reasons they have stated but it wouldn't suddenly my ability to attend better.

 

Your only point seems to be that northern fans deserve to suffer because southern fans have suffered so long.

 

I didn't say anyone "deserved" to suffer.

This person is complaining about the negative effect on northern fans while not recognizing fans in southern cities have had to deal with those negative effects themselves for decades.

They are demanding consideration for northern fans. Where was that consideration for southern fans?

 

So since it was alright that southern fans didn't get consideration that it is alright for northern fans not to get consideration? Is that the point you are trying to make?

 

I think it's important when discussing the schedule change that northern fans recognize they were privileged for decades with an ideal schedule for their weather while southern fans got the short end of the stick.

I don't recall many northern fans expressing sympathy for the fact that southern fans got the short end of the stick.

 

For most of the decades there were no southern fans and when MLS started expanding in those areas its not like they were given a sort of bait and switch with the climate. They knew what they were getting when they became fans. It is also irrelevant as to whether or not the change is a good idea.

 

This is objectively untrue and the claim makes no sense.

MLS has always had southern fans.

And fans should know schedules are subject to change. Nobody promised anyone the schedule they got when they entered the league would be the schedule until the end of time.

I didn't offer an opinion about whether the calendar change was a good idea or not.

 

We are talking about fans attending games. The Bundesliga has American fans but they are not really to be considered when speaking of league attendance. Why should acknowledgement of any fans past climate suffering be a thing at all? The only real issue for the owners of MLS clubs should be whether this change will help them on the net revenue/expense side and I'm not convinced it will.