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

Concerts. The Park District (who operates Soldier Field) makes a shitload of money from them - on consecutive weekends in that period they had Beyonce, AC/DC, The Weeknd, and Kendrick Lamar.

 

Maybe the Rapids would be better off moving to the new USL division 1 league.

 

Our MLS schedule is not ideal anyway with home and away every other week, so as Galaxy fan I have no problem playing example 4 home games in February, against Rapids, Fire, Revolution and Toronto and playing away game in August against those teams

 

I'd rather have games to go to in June and July when the weather is nice and I have time to drive down to Chicago or up to St. Paul.

It doesn't work for everyone. That is fine. But I think a lot of people are assuming just because playoff games (and not every team gets to host these) will work in the cold that regular season games will do just as well. There definitely will be some losers in this new arrangement.

 

Yeah, I'm sure Stan Kroenke would leap at the chance to significantly devalue one of his assets like that.

 

And this right here will probably be the tiebreaking factor.

Just think how much money NYCFC can make by hosting concerts all summer without pesky soccer matches taking up half the weekend dates. I'm sure many clubs have factored this into their decision.

 

This is certainly the most thought out version of changing the season schedule I’ve ever seen. The Athletic article is well worth the read if you have access to it.

it will take some getting used to and I’m one of the lucky ones with no real weather concerns.

 

Why not August is the beginning of the soccer season, Late April and May are playoffs and MLS Cup on spring, with the best possible weather for every MLS team with no FIFA dates in the Climax of the MLS season, not extreme hot or cold weather.

 

If the format the playoffs like Australia's AFL/NRL do that would be good change, and bring more meaning to the regular season games.

I do wonder how US Open Cup fits into all of this........ seeing as those games are often played in May/June/July...... Maybe the non-playoff teams get entered into the USOC then? How does the Canadian Championship[ fit into this too? Weather concerns aside, the transfer windows for the Canadian teams are going to be a concern. The CSA is NOT going to alter the windows to placate the three MLS teams over the CPL (which will not be changing to a Fall-SPring format).

Bringing it back to the USA, how will the UFL teams playing in MLS stadia be impacted by this??? That will certainly put a wrench in the playoff scheduling of Orlando and DC should they make the playoffs.

Of course the owners still have to vote on these things..... and the schedule change may not pass that vote either.

 

MLS already plays late-July to May, with an offseason break from December to mid-February and (in World Cup years) an international break from June to early July. This would just be a re-ordering of the season phases, moving 3-4 guaranteed regular season home games from April/May to Nov/Dec. Games that are too cold or snow-covered can be rescheduled, especially with such a large mid season winter break to work with. Extreme cold and snow are more likely in Feb-March than Nov-Dec anyway.

If it was still 1996 and the season ran April to October, this would be a different conversation. This is only a marginal change in the schedule that has a positive impact on player transfers, visibility for the playoffs, and alignment with international breaks.

 

Not true. The plan is to take one next year but that’ll be the first extended World Cup break the league has taken in 12 years.

 

I’m quoting the 2nd post here, so apologies if it’s been covered….

You actually live there, so I’m interested in your opinions. How much of a difference, if any, would it make if they moved matches (at least in cold months) from 7:30 to 1:30?

 

For the Rapids, day games verse night games in winter make a big difference. Hope we can get day games. Also, missing all the summer lightening delays would be nice. I’m not saying I’m for or against this, but just thought those factors were worth throwing into the mix.

 

Let’s pretend that MLS already changed from fall to spring calendar, how can we make the schedule the best possible, only positive ideas to be doable, if you come in destroying, negativism, fatalism mode, ignore it and don’t reply.

 

Is it possible that the winter break is longer than the summer offseason, and that winter break would fulfill the contract?

So, so many important details are going to have to be nailed down for this.

Im sure the posters here will wait for those detailed before coming to rigid ride or die opinions about the change.

 

That’s a fair point. But they absolutely should’ve been respecting all international breaks and I expect they will in the future, no matter what their schedule looks like. It’s amateurish to play through international breaks and major tournaments, especially for a league with ambitions to be respected globally.

 

It’s going to be a hybrid.

The NHL has two conferences and 4 divisions. The top 3 from each division make the playoffs, and the next best two teams in each conference fill out the bracket.

They’re saying that the playoffs are going to be the top X teams (presumably 18), but division winners are guaranteed a place.

In the NFL, once every 4-5 years a team wins its division with a thoroughly mediocre record, and makes the playoffs over a team with a better record.

If they stick with 18 teams making the playoffs, just mathematically it’s extremely unlikely that a team could win its division and have the 19th best record.

 

Long stretches of all home and all road matches are bad for attendance.

 

Start the season as close to the middle of July as possible. Maybe the end of the week after the MLB All Star break. It’s the quietest time of year in US sports, and casual soccer fans will have just followed major international tournaments in June-July and are in a soccer mindset. European leagues haven’t started yet. Make it a blowout Opening Weekend to ride that momentum. Take advantage of the summer break for students and parents.

Play weekly from August to mid-December except for international breaks. Don’t be afraid of scheduling some mid week games, especially in the summer.

Winter break from mid-December to mid-February. Play Leagues Cup in warm weather cities as a preseason tournament.

Games that were postponed in the fall due to cold, snow, or any other circumstance are rescheduled for the spring half of the season. Don’t make any special accommodations for the cold weather cities beyond what’s done now (maybe 1-2 road games to start the second half of the season).

Regular season wraps up in mid-April. Playoff format can vary but will be concluded in a timely manner with no long breaks for any team. MLS Cup is either on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend every year or the day after the UEFA CL final (Sunday). Offseason is June to mid-late July (depending on the year). But the season always starts no later than last weekend of July.

 

I'm not sure I have the vocabulary to fully explain how much I hate this.

 

It depends on what they schedule the players to do during the breaks. The teams will need to reconvene at some point during the winter to have what will look like a second preseason. The winter break certainly won't be longer than summer for the non-playoff teams. Will there be any other competitions during either break? I would expect that they will need to negotiate with the union to define how vacation time will work under this new paradigm.

After the owners vote for this, the real thing to watch will be the negotiations with the union which will determine many of the details, including what year this actually happens.

Something that's going to be awkward is that some players and coaches already have contracts which will expire in December 2027 or 2028, so we're likely to see mid-season free agency.

 

All teams in the league can play home games through November, barring a very occasional early snowstorm like we saw this past weekend in Ottawa (and, to be clear, they still played that game). And the MLS season currently starts in the third week of February. So why would an August to May schedule with a December to mid-Feb break require any different scheduling considerations for northern cities than what’s done for the current calendar?