Option 1: Crew vs Miami/Chicago/Cincinnati on a random Wednesday in March with Crew vs KC on a Saturday in late April. Option 2: Flip those dates. If you're a casual, there's nothing appealing about Wednesday March 18th vs KC. Putting that game on Saturday April 29th makes more sense IMO.
Sure but even when we sold those tickets it wasn't full, and that was when we had a wait list. This year? It definitely wasn't full nor were those extra tickets sold. It's only going to get worse. I agree with you about the rest. I think I'd be better off buying tickets day of to every single game since I can't sell my tickets for any more than half their cost when I can't go. I'm not saying this is going to kill us, but I don't think it'll be in our (columbus crew specifically) best interest. For the league? Probably.
There's gotta be some benefit of knowing "home week" or "away week" vs the old schedule format which was far more random than the major league schedule. "Home Tuesday and Wednesday, away/off for six days, home for seven days, away for three days..." I remember those Dispatch ads: "Clippers home all week" or "Clippers home for the weekend". The same teams? I'm with you. It'd be nice if they got more playoff teams too.
There is such a "flipping schedules is good fir MLS" bias among some here. Likely coincides with going to SMGF less than some others here. There may have to be more weekday games than with the old schedule. That's either mostly school nights and/or raw early spring weather. No one but diehards are going to want to see Generic MLS Opponent (which is 2/3rds of the league) at SMGF under those conditions. If the Northern teams did not get some carve outs/priorities with scheduling ... they are even stupider than I think.
The Northern market panic/collapse has already started. In Montreal. Garber shilling for investment. Saputo has the funds to walk from the stadium with his name on it and move the games to Olympic Stadium. Out of "necessity" with new schedule. It does not reflect well on Garber and MLS, who encouraged open, airy soccer specific stadiums over the last decade. Vancouver isn't secure. They will be head-to-head with Canucks season more. Minnesota feels like it will be on cold, shaky ground soon enough. Toronto fans on social media are majority against the change. Good luck sitting outside there. Colorado... lol. NFW. I guess it's good the Crew will have a dome as a backup/secondary home in 2029, right? (/s)
We should not forget the large NFL bias of ownership. I think the thought is "they come for NFL games in this weather, so they'll come for MLS games". Simple as that.
Maybe so. Still, most owners voted for the change, and you’d think that the percentage supporting it had to be high and not NFL types. I don’t hold MLS owners in high regard, necessarily. But I do think they’re serious about owning these clubs; it’s not just a casual hobby or vanity project for them. This process has taken, what, two years or so to develop? The owners might end up being wrong in the end, but I get the sense they’ve studied this from many angles. Also, as far I’ve heard, players and coaches support it, as well. Which might not matter in terms of the fan perspective and watching games in colder weather. But it does imply that players and coaches aren’t concerned about playing in those conditions or attracting talent from abroad under this schedule.
Aren't like 50% of Mls owners at least partial owners of an NFL team? Off top of my head I can think of these teams as owned at least in part by nfl owners: New England Us Atlanta Rapids Orlando Charlotte FC Dallas Cincy (minority owner) Rsl Sounders (for now) And many of these are long term owners who have considerable sway in the league
Sure, but 50% aren’t. What do you mean by “sway”? I assume each team got to vote on the schedule change and I doubt the league would have flipped the calendar of the move hadn’t been broadly supported. Then again, I wasn’t on the room when they voted.
There's committees that proposal new rules and competition items. Like the nfl there are some owners with much more sway than others. Owners ofter vote in blocks.