Except the Crew are still fighting for playoff position. 1st in the East will get you the second worst remaining wild-card team. 2nd in the East will get you home field in the second leg, including overtime and PK's (not that it helped them last year ), 3rd in the East still gets you a bye in the Wild Card round. (Not to mention a top 6 finish gets you directly into the USOC next year, but that's the case regardless of the MLS playoff setup)
Our MLS Cup final had a .5 rating (lower than our Allstar game) and you don't think there is a 'problem'. We are not even drawing all of MLS fans to watch this game, because many fans just don't like the system. You have a weird market of fans, some dislike the idea of playoffs altogether and others grew up watching an MLS where every year the vast majority of teams get into the playoffs. Its not so 'special' when a league with absolute parity lets the majority of teams into the post season, the numbers show that american soccer fans are shrugging their shoulders at the whole thing. Our MLS Cup ratings are the lowest in over a decade, if we had a 1.5 rating and growing, then I would agree that there is no problem, but when the number of teams, fans, and league attendance keeps going up and our MLS cup ratings go way down...then yea something is wrong. I was suggesting that MLS could try to get their audience to value the cup more by making it more prestigious. Letting only the very best clubs get in. This may not be the answer, but there needs to be an answer, business as usual is going to stunt the growth of this league. MLS went to FSC asking for 20M and they ended up getting 7M and then 10M from NBC. MLS sees their possible TV earnings as 2-3X as much as they are getting now if they can just get their fans to start watching more games on TV, and if you can't see playoffs to your own fans then something is wrong. Maybe the answer is in the salary allocation. Maybe you give massive amounts of money, draft picks, DP slots...whatever to teams that make the playoffs or win it. Make the prize so large that every MLS fan or even non-MLS soccer fan would want to watch MLS cup playoffs because there is so much on the line. Winning it could get you another X million worth of salary and a bunch of picks/DP slots to trade around making you instantly a regional power. That might raise the eyebrows of soccer fans in the US enough to get them to watch the playoffs. Whatever it is, you need to get people watching these games because the numbers show that most MLS fans just don't care enough.
god this system is confusing Thank god they'll just change it again next year before casual fans have the chance of understanding it.
Not one that excluding most of the teams for most of the year from winning would make any better. I don't know what's more simple-minded: Your thinking that all MLS fans that don't watch MLS Cup have one reason why they don't, or your thinking that you can ascertain the motives of people as if you could read their minds. And some who are both. And some who are neither. And some who are a little more of one than the other. Sorry, but the real world isn't as easy to generalize about as you seem to think. And now, you have to exaggerate in order to make a point. If the parity were "absolute," every team would have the same number of points. Show your work. Let's see those numbers that demonstrate motivation. Even if that were true, and there were no other possible reasons why different MLS Cup games get varying amounts of viewers (as if the varying number of fans of the teams involved, varying dates and times, varying networks or any other possible reason simply didn't exist), there is no reason whatsoever to think that making most of the league season completely irrelevant would change anything. But making most of the league season useless would cause, what, a growth spurt? Fans of teams that were out of any title contention for 75% of the season will suddenly confer more "prestige" on MLS Cup because fewer teams that were not theirs made the playoffs? That makes no sense whatsoever. Wow! Your powerful psychic abilities extend to entire leagues now! Huh? There is no possible amount of money that would make this happen. They could make the salary cap Eleventy bajillion dollars, and there would be large numbers of Eurosnobs who would look for excuses to slag off MLS. It's a foolish thing to even think about, let alone try. Again with the numbers showing what people care about. Sorry, but the teams don't need any extra motivation for winning the league championship, and giving their rivals extra advantages will not create a groundswell of interest among fans of teams not in the playoffs. Seriously, if you're, say, a Revs fan whose team is out of playoff contention since June, why in the world would you be the slightest bit more likely to watch four teams in the playoffs whose presence there make your team even less likely to make the playoffs next year? Just face it, having four teams in the playoffs would make people less interested, in both the regular season and the playoffs, not more.
I saw the smiley face, but really? The MLS system is no more complicated than the NFL one, and nobody balks at that.
Thank you for being such a classy individual. Calling me simple minded was certainly in order, cheers to you for that one sir. Also I realized that you are correct about everything (sorry about suggesting otherwise). MLS playoffs are obviously perfect and suggesting that a change could increase interest would be silly. I happen to run a media production company that manages national TV commercial campaigns, but I am indeed too simple minded to ever be able to analyze such complicated data such as... http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2010/11/mls-cup-overnights-plunge-44/ http://pitchinvasion.net/blog/2010/...llion-aggregating-the-attendance-rise-in-mls/ See when overall customers almost double but interest in one product decreases by almost 50% then...well you should keep doing exactly what you are doing! Selling 1/2 the product to 2X the customers is business as usual. I mean come on, what are we PSYCHIC! Seriously, thanks for pointing out people's inability to agree with you. Obviously we were out of line on that one, again my apologies.
I agree with 4door on this one. The current system is faulty. And the name calling is totally uncalled for btw. It's just not necessary. If you don't agree, you don't agree, but to resort to name calling... completely unnecessary. Lets keep the name calling focused on our players and refs. But not each other.
I was describing your statements as simple-minded, not you personally. Not that your inability to make the distinction makes your objection ring hollow or anything... Don't think that nobody notices how you don't even try to actually refute anything that I posted, or anything. When you're done using lame sarcasm in the place of substantive debate, let me know. Yeah, that's what I said all right, which is exactly why I proposed a radical overhaul in the playoff system in this very thread, because I don't want to change it. I explained why a four-team playoff system would not increase interest using logic and reason. You must have missed that, because you didn't bother to address a single specific point that I made. Showing why your idea for change sucks is not the same as not advocating change. Your inability to understand that doesn't do your objection to the label "simple-minded" even a little bit of good. Of course, none of those numbers demonstrate, or even suggest, motives, which was the point that I made. In fact, there is not a single rational reason to think that they say what you claim that they say, and there is no way that you can even begin to determine why people watch the MLS Cup in such low numbers. I'm sorry, but to claim that there is just one reason, and that you know what it is, is the very definition of simple-minded. But you go right ahead and try to salvage some dignity by pretending otherwise. So, you take umbrage to what I posted, but can't refute a single point that I made. I asked several questions in my previous two posts, and you can't answer a single one. I showed why a four-team playoff is a bad idea, and you can't dispute what I posted. Stuff doesn't become true just by your saying it.
here's an idea for a playoff tournament MLS Championship series 4 teams qualify Group stage just like UEFA champions league. Home and away. going by the current standings. LA Galaxy Seattle Sounders FC Dallas Colorado Rapids top two out of the group play a one game final held at the ground of the team that wins the group.
On the surface, yes. But, try having this "be the don" challenge with a drinking buddy*. You have an 18 team league, and every team plays each other twice for 34 matches per year. Make a playoff format. If your Don comes up with anything near our current setup, then I'll buy you an internet beer. *Disclaimer* CoconutMonkey is fully aware that he wouldn't be on BigSoccer if he actually had drinking buddies who like chatting about league schedules, playoff formats, and other pointless topics he has zero control over.
Hmm... I kinda like this. I still would not want to lose the money generated by the other layoff games, but this is an interesting proposal that I hadn't thought or heard of before. Interesting....