Any news on what 2015 looks like? I'm sure that they will still do the split seasons, but will they be more balanced? Say double round robin each time or single round robin for each half? Are the expansion teams finalized, just the two? What about the play-offs? Keeping it the same as this year? Their play-offs have the right amount for now, 4. I hate it when leagues allow more than 50% of the teams in the play-offs. What's the point of the regular season in that case.
It would be nice if they got rid of the split season, but yeah probably won't happen. From my understanding the reason it was so lopsided this season was because of the World Cup so it should be more even next season. I do think if you have a split season it needs to be 50-50 on each side. I agree about having the right amount of teams in the playoffs. I don't think they should even consider changing that until they have 16+ teams.
So we have a spring season (1 game vs everyone) and a fall season (2 games vs everyone) with 4 free weekends between the seasons... How about a third "summer" season? In each season, everyone plays everyone else once, with say a 1-2 weekend gap between the seasons. The 3 season winners plus the best overall team make the playoffs.
I hope you're right. I don't mind the split-season as they have it, but I would like to move away from it. At least this is better than last year, where the season 1 winners moved straight to the finals and could tank the 2nd half of the season.
I am not sure if it would be possible but I would love to see the schedule be set with fixtures for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th round of the US open. I dont know if it would be possible to have it as part of the break or not without having another severe unbalanced first and second split season schedule. Pushing my luck a flex schedule situation should a club get to the semis or even final. For Ottawa and EDM as well depending on how the Voyagers cup format would be but to have fixture in place for the two Canadian clubs. Ottawa and FCE could then make up at least one of the missed NASL scheduled weeks vs each other during the US clubs fixtures during the US Open. It would require a very organized planning of the schedule but would be worth it to have them at full strength and overloaded with games to give a better avoid an upset of a lower divison club in round 3 and shot at pulling off upsets of MLS clubs in round 4. The Cosmos had it as part of their big plan to make some noise in the Open. After their dominate 2nd half in their first season in 2013. Other clubs have also really stepped it up to another level in 2014 from the beginning. Those clubs that got off to slower starts in the shortened 1st half season, really retooled during the break and have almost all have made runs. I would love to see a league wide focus on promoting their open matches as well a the broadcast's of games. In really just the 3rd season there have been tremendous strides off the field with marketing and Media/Network outlets. Venue situations continue to improve as well. Expansion Ottawa and Indy really have good situations with their home pitch. Both FCE and Tampa improved greatly from what they even had from the first half to the second half.
If its 11 teams (with only Jax added) it'll most likely either be Spring Season 10 games, Fall 20, or Spring 15, Fall 15, with a shorter break between the seasons. 30 games total. It its 12 teams with OKC then similar, just 33 games total instead. As for "The Championship", should still be 4, which I agree is the right amount.
Split season is ridiculous. It serves no purpose whatsoever. The only kind of semi-reason they ever gave for it was the "advantage" of having 3 - 4 months of extra time to sell tickets for the championship game. Well, now that's gone too as the expanded format came into existence this season. It's only still here for two reasons, neither of which matters at this point. Reason 1, the REAL reason it was adopted was to allow the Cosmos to enter in the fall of last year. The other reason, as ignorant as it sounds, is simply to be different than MLS. If you think that sounds unbelievable, I don't blame you. It is an insane reason to be messing with something as critical as your schedule format. Don't underestimate the egos at NASL HQ. Dropping it too quickly would make Reason 1 even more clear to observers, so they'll continue cramming it down our throats, despite the fact that fans, players, coaches, and even FO's are not in favor of it. Although, with Traffic now just having one vote at the BOG, perhaps there is hope for a change. But I wouldn't count on it until we get to 16 teams and they can just use the excuse of needing to change because there are too many teams to accommodate it fairly anymore.
I agree that it seemed to be only done for those reasons. One thing it does do is to put more emphasis on the early part of the season as a playoff spot can be secured therefore creating a playoff race. A second and regular playoff race would still be in place for season part 2. As well as adding an overall wildcard type race for the final two spots. Now if you take all of the 4 clubs that qualify through one of the 3 ways for the 4 team playoff and seed them from 1 to 4 with the best overall record. With the top two getting home field it would still give the first half winner a lot to play for to gain the top seed.
That is why the first part was lopsided due to the World Cup. It also served to fit in with the break coming during the US Open as well. Which could serve NASL clubs well not having an overloaded schedule during the beginning rounds that NASL clubs enter. So with it looking like an 11 team league next season so far a possible short first season with a round robin play of each team once. Creating a big pool play tournament type set up with one of the 4 playoff spots as the reward. Then a focus on the open, followed by the larger 2/3 of the schedule played with first place and two overall wildcard slots to fill in the 4 team Championship round. The break between season also gives clubs a window to obtain players that will help and have time for them to train with the club before the season resumes. A well an open date near the end of the break to schedule international or cross league friendlies with USLPro regional rivals. Even PDL or NPSL. Especially if they have affiliated or Academy Super 20 clubs. If the split season break can be used to benefit the clubs then it may not be such a bad idea.
I don't see a point to a lighter schedule. As far as I am concerned one game a week for professional soccer is a light schedule. This isn't gridiron football where you really do need that full week of rest. These players should be capable of playing 2 games a week. I'm not a fan of roster changes in the middle of the season. Teams should be building during the offseason. The only exception to this is injuries. The ability to add and drop players willy nilly just cheapens the whole experience anyways. So I don't care about having the ability to add new players and integrate them. You can still do those friendlies prior to the season starting, and if any major injuries occur you still have plenty of time to find an adequate replacement. If it happens midway through the season though you might not have that opportunity. There are two major advantages to not having the split season. The first and most important, especially for a young league, is continuity. The fans and cities know that once the season starts there will always be a game every Saturday. This keeps the teams and league in people's minds more consistently helping to build the brand and fan base. If you have a long period of time with no games people tend to forget about the team/league, and don't tend to remember when it starts up again. The second is a shorter calendar year. Part of what drives people to the NFL is that it is a sprint. There is not a lot of mundane events during the NFL season mostly due to it being only 5ish months long. On the flip side a large segment of the population gets bored of the MLB and even NBA because of the length of their seasons and frequency of the games. The more you make each game an event the more likely you are to get fans to come to the game and be excited about it. You have to remember, if you want to have a successful league you don't appeal to the hardcore fans. You appeal to the average Joe.
Handing a home semifinal playoff game to a team for having the best record over 9 games to start the season is craptastically moronic. Really no other way to describe it. It's a frakkin joke. Resetting the points halfway through the season is almost as dumb. There's simply no logical reason to do so. Full season points, top four make the playoffs, with top two hosting. Done. Easy. Simple. Fair. It's not completely Euro style, but it rewards the top few teams while still adding the American splash of playoffs without letting too many teams in.
Really? You're going to talk about NASL teams and taking advantage of the transfer window in the same sentence? This is American D2 soccer. The transfer window is completely irrelevant to the teams in this league. The USOC. It's great. I love it. Wish it got more respect. But why do NASL teams need something every other professional league on the planet don't seem to need or get - namely, a break to participate in their domestic Cup competition? Why? Look, I get it. You're trying desperately to make a reason for the break. My main objection with the break is that the clubs in our league rely heavily on local ties and word of mouth for awareness. Budgets suck and large, dedicated sales staffs are a luxury most can't afford. By dropping off the radar in your community completely for a month in the middle of your season, are you really doing yourself any favors? Does it enable you to dodge a little bit of the rainy season? Maybe. But I said from the start that it's almost as rainy in Sept. as it is July, and look what we've seen this year with regard to games affected by weather. And the more teams you add to the league, you run into a new problem of dates. Do you start earlier and end later hampering the colder weather teams? Do you hurt everyone by forcing multiple mid-week, low attendance games? I've said right from the start that this split schedule not only doesn't fix anything or make anything better, it actually causes new problems you didn't have before. And the only thing keeping it in place are a few high placed egos. It's beyond ridiculous at this point. It needs to go.
Apologies if this has been discussed before, but how does the NASL deal with the imbalanced home-away schedule, with some teams having 14 home games and some only 13? I assume that home attendance is a principal source of revenue for NASL teams; the imbalance therefore would seem to give some teams an advantage in revenue (as well as, potentially, on the field).
You are right that is the flip side Con argument to the short 1st half season. The pro is that everyone has the same cahnce playing each club just once. Then the second half playing each team twice. A straight 15 - 15 split possible but the con there is that the break would not fall within the timing of the USOC. Ultimetely likely doing away with split season will be the answer with a possible fixture break for USOC
Well focusing in on USOC matches and not aquezzing them into the regular schedule does not lighten the schedule overall. As for the regular schedule weeknight games do not draw as much attendance. Does not mean that they can't schedule some cross over matches with regional rival USL Pro or fill matches with international clubs doing their summer training tour in US and Canada.
It just is what it is. They agreed to it. Perhaps grudgingly. But the higher-revenue/glamour teams got the edge on the extra game, as it turned out. They don't share revenue, that I'm aware of. Competitively, you have an extra home game, but not in the second half when everything is even. The first half (or third-ish) is over and done with. If combined records come into play, I suppose somebody could kvetch. But that's what they wanted.
If they do spilt-season with uneven "seasons" I'd rather the second half be shorter. Let's say that Minnesota had bombed the fall portion of this year, they'd be in the play-offs as a very struggling team, one that dominated for 9 games and struggled for 18. I'd much rather have even seasons, but if you're going to have unbalanced ones I'd rather the team struggle for the first section and dominate the end make the playoffs. If a team this year had struggled for games 1-18 but won 19-27 they likely wouldn´t make the playoffs despite being one of the better teams at the END of the season. Still better to get rid of this system all together, but at least make this tweak please.
The split season needs to go away. Having a break is one thing, but act like the first half and second half of the season are two different seasons.
I would like to see it go too, unless you treated each as a stand-alone season. I just propose my ideas, like this one because NASL seems intent on sticking with it. The suggestions would just make it suck a little less.
Nothing can make it suck less. Not even Deacon (the only true advocate for it) kissing Clown Peterson's feet. There is ZERO benefit that comes from it. And it causes a myriad of problems you wouldn't have if you just got rid of it. There is nothing but pride and ego from a few high placed Traffic clowns holding it in place.
With 11 teams for the 2015 Spring Season (Jacksonville Armada FC added to the existing 10) and 12 for the fall possible if NASL Los Angelas comes to fruition I would expect maybe a 10 game Spring Season and 22 game Fall Season, 32 games total.
I think that short spring season scheduled turned out to be a pretty good thing. It was like a round robin tournament type schedule with the winner getting a bid to the Soccer cup finals playoff. The one thing that they should consider changing is having the winner of the Spring season get an automatic home game for the playoff. having the fall winner and overall next best records all be seeded from 1-4 with overall records determining place and who gets the two home playoff games. It worked out that way this past season anyway but may not always be the case. The month off also gave clubs the time to focus on the USOC. Also time for clubs to host a Friendly with a touring international clubs pre season training. As well as a cross league rival city from the USL Pro or even a Mexican club team for San Antone or Caribean club for the Florida teams. For the Canadian Clubs matches vs the MLS Canadian Club USLpro entry. could host or be part an opening match at an away MLS club match. Even matches vs Canadian National team players available u23 and/or main National team. Whichever would be best fit for each particular club.
Your likely right it will eventually be eliminated. For now though making good use of it while it is still part of the schedule set up is happening. As for not playing a match each week and forgetting about the club during the break. All clubs play matches in the USOC or other during that break so I dont think anyone is forgetting about the league. JMO. If/when the league expands would likely see two division set up with too many matches to play every team for the break to fall into the time of the USOC. When that happens then a change will be needed accordingly.