New Playoff Idea

Discussion in 'MLS: General' started by bunge, Dec 25, 2005.

  1. bunge

    bunge BigSoccer Supporter

    Oct 24, 2000
    OK, everyone hates to love arguing about the playoff structure, and that's fine. But if we want to help, here's my idea from today.

    Give the top team in each conference the choice of who they play in the first round. By earning the choice you can pick the team you match-up against best, or give yoru biggest rival the most difficult team to fight.

    This would give incentive to win the conference, something that right now doesn't seem to motivate teams or fans.
     
  2. murtaugh

    murtaugh Member+

    Jul 19, 2004
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    My playoff idea is just hand the trophy to Chicago every year.
     
  3. bunge

    bunge BigSoccer Supporter

    Oct 24, 2000
    Shouldn't we at least be able to choose who we beat? That way we can choose to beat Dallass the one-in-ten times they make he playoffs.
     
  4. Michael CM1

    Michael CM1 New Member

    Jun 5, 2002
    Atlanta, Georgia: US
    Change that to "the team from LA" and we'd be just like college football!
     
  5. Zitor

    Zitor New Member

    Nov 21, 2004
    Chicago
    Home and away always even for the final game. No more one single game winner takes it all. Two games as in copa libertadores or CL. Give each team one chance to put the best they have at home with its own fan and not one freaken final game thousands of miles away.
    That is what I want. If they want to have paly off do it the rest of the world soccer way not the "american way". After all most americans have their own sports and don't come anyhow.
     
  6. ickenham

    ickenham New Member

    Jun 6, 2005
    Lisbon, Portugal
    Champions League final is a one game only...
     
  7. midwestsurfer

    midwestsurfer New Member

    Jun 7, 2005
    Honolulu~Tulsa
    And last year took place very far away for the final.

    What is the American way anyway? I thought it was the best of seven series like in basketball, baseball, and hockey?
     
  8. Zitor

    Zitor New Member

    Nov 21, 2004
    Chicago
    I know. My point is that while MLS is creating its fan base they shouldn't take away from their fan their joy of celebrating the top moments of the league. How I hated to see Chicago Fire not getting their revange after holding themselves to the NE Revolutions. I believe that it's a lose opportunity of marketing the team, the game and the league. Nothing can't create more drama than the playoffs in Soccer if given the right environment. What I am saying is do the playoffs just do them right.
     
  9. MasterShake29

    MasterShake29 Member+

    Oct 28, 2001
    Jersey City, NJ
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Or a best of 1 series like American Football.
     
  10. BassNFool

    BassNFool Member

    Jun 29, 2005
    Virginia
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Playoffs My Christmas wish:

    1. 6 teams, 3 per conference.

    2. Top seed in each conference gets a bye.

    3. Higher seeded team gets home field advantage. Even for the MLS cup.

    4. Home field advantage is a real advantage i.e. No home and home. One game, all the marbles, at the home field of the team with the higher seed.

    Regular season standings get real important given this scenario. I'd be loving it. :)
     
  11. leg_breaker

    leg_breaker Member

    Dec 23, 2005
    It should be the top team in each conference, and no-one else.

    If you have to have more teams in it, then the higher team gets home advantage, one off games. I've never been a fan of two-leg games. After the first game it feels like you've watched a match for nothing.
     
  12. crusio

    crusio New Member

    May 10, 2004
    Princeton
    If watching the first of 2 made you feel this way, I wonder how it felt for you watcing the rest of the 32 games :)
     
  13. metrofan89

    metrofan89 Member

    Jun 13, 2005
    Its fine the way it is, and its not changing anytime soon, and if it does change, I doubt it will be a big change. I dont understand everyones problem with the league setup. If you really LOVE soccer, youd enjoy watching every game your team plays, end of story.
     
  14. BBBulldog

    BBBulldog Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jun 25, 2004
    Dinamo Zagreb
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    Croatia
    2 games would be much preferable to playing in neutral venue.
     
  15. Soccer Doc

    Soccer Doc Member+

    Nov 30, 2001
    Keene, NH
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Welcome. Good first post. Please don't allow what you read here on BS swing you to the "Dark Side" ;)
     
  16. kenntomasch

    kenntomasch Member+

    Sep 2, 1999
    Out West
    Club:
    FC Tampa Bay Rowdies
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    In a "somewhat related only because it lends itself to a dig at people" story, Kansas City Chiefs president Carl Peterson wants two more teams in the NFL playoffs.

    Doesn't he know how that's going to devalue the regular season? ;)

    Otherwise known as the "we don't want you to feel badly about yourself, so you're promoted to fourth grade anyway" theory.

    But 14 of 32, or 44% is fine. 16 of 30 (53%, as in the NBA and NHL), now that's just crazy talk.

    But I'm sure the 1967 Baltimore Colts would agree with you. They were 11-0-2 going into the last game of the season, lost, finished 11-1-2 and didn't make the playoffs because the team they lost to, the Rams, also finished 11-1-2 and went to the playoffs on net points in the two games between the two teams.

    And yet....somehow they survived.

    And that, ladies and gentlemen, might be what gets it done. I don't know if it can be done under the just-signed TV contracts, but the last playoff expansion (from 10 teams to 12 in 1990) came with a new TV deal and brought more inventory for the networks and money for the league. That might be what gets it done.
     
  17. MasterShake29

    MasterShake29 Member+

    Oct 28, 2001
    Jersey City, NJ
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  18. Yankee_Devil

    Yankee_Devil Member

    Nov 13, 2005
    San Diego, CA
    Best Idea I have heard. Though I would like to add think that the lower seats on the first round should not get home games. The first round should be single elimination games.
     
  19. Matt in the Hat

    Matt in the Hat Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 21, 2002
    Brooklyn
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    This is impossible to sell as important to the American public. ABC would only show the second match, so whats the point?
     
  20. BassNFool

    BassNFool Member

    Jun 29, 2005
    Virginia
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Thats what I wanted... I did not state it clearly. Shold have said:

    Higher seeded team at each stage gets home field advantage. Even for the MLS cup.
     
  21. kenntomasch

    kenntomasch Member+

    Sep 2, 1999
    Out West
    Club:
    FC Tampa Bay Rowdies
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Fine with me, and I think it would conceivably be doable with 100% stadium control.

    Keep in mind the Galaxy's playoff dates were kinda messed up because the HDC wasn't available to them on one of the dates this year because of some event or another.

    Sponsors/bigwigs and all that be darned - a home-field MLS Cup can be done at some point in the future. And I'm in favor of one-off playoffs, but I think it'll be a while on that one, maybe.
     
  22. KCWiz

    KCWiz New Member

    May 8, 2003
    Manhattan, Kansas
    I honestly enjoy the current playoff system, but it could use some slight tweaking. I think that the first round ought to be a best-of-3, with the higher seed earning the homefield advantage. This way, any upsets in the first round would be pretty hard to pull off, and aggregate goals wouldn't make much of a difference. After this, MLS would have a better chance of seeing it's top 4 teams in the final four, and then a single game knockout would actually be preferable.
     
  23. Wizardscharter

    Wizardscharter New Member

    Jul 25, 2001
    Blue Springs, MO
    Return to the old

    If by "American Football" you mean every code of football played in the entire world except most non-Cup soccer and Aussie Rules, then yeah.

    (Aussie rules uses a "double-chance" system of 8 teams. The top 4 teams can lose their first game and still attain the Premiership. 4@1, 3@2, 7@6, and 8@5 in Round 1. The winners of the high seed R1 games get a week off. The losers are home to the low seed game winners in Week 2. The losers of the low seed R1 games are out. The winners of Week 2 travel to the winners of Week 1 in Week 3 Semi-finals. One-offs for the flag.)

    Rugby League
    Rugby Union
    Gailec Football
    American Football
    Canadian Football
    Much of International team sport play
    Others
    Etc.

    All of these have one-off playoff structures.


    MLS:
    Most would like to narrow the occurance of fluke Champions. Flukes are always lessened with a series of some sort. The longer the series the more often quality moves on. If you follow hockey you know that one the axioms of ice hockey is that the best team always wins a 7-game series. Always. The greatness of the Stanley Cup Playoffs is that if the 23rd man is weak on a 20-man gameday roster - your team will not earn 16 wins over 2 months of every other day play and succeed in realizing the glory of raising Lord Stanley's Cup on sweet summer days in the towns of their birth. I digress. By comparison, the World Cup Finals can be won by a team where 4-5 guys of 20 never leave the bench.

    My larger point is just that the nature of soccer is that a tie is not only an accepted and just result, but must be due to the nature of the game. If you accept that, only two things can ever treat ties inclusively as an accepted playoff result are a series (preferrably first-to-5) or pk's. Once you have a series of any kind, it's a truer test of a full team down to the last man. No other criteria should be wanted.

    In MLS, first-to-five worked very well in that regard for example. 3 games in a week gave an immediate reward for those dominant teams who perform well and properly penalized those that didn't. The format more fully tested the true best team down to the last man. The only valid argument against this is to eliminate the playoffs and use a full and balanced schedule to extract the same end determinant, ie. the supporter's shield winner. In MLS this can't happen as there will never be relegation (thank God) and a truly balanced schedule is a pipe dream for many reasons including geography. Secondary to that is the fact that a Final or a Game 7 is always inherently better than those same two teams playing mid-season.

    Unfortunately in practice time is limited and lesser opinons like, "Game 2's don't mean anything in a series" creep up. At the end of the day you deal and sometimes flukes happen. It's part of the great beauty of sport and utimately why we all post on threads like this.

    Finally, in the entirity of sport on our marble, a one-off is only a good idea under two circumstances.
    1) Where time for a proper series is limited or unavailable
    2) A neutral site

    That's it, that's the list.

    -WC
     
  24. kenntomasch

    kenntomasch Member+

    Sep 2, 1999
    Out West
    Club:
    FC Tampa Bay Rowdies
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Return to the old

    Whether or not you've already broken two or three resolutions by now, please, please, please, I beg of you - keep a New Year's resolution to not debate playoff formats for at least a few months. Please.
     
  25. KCbus

    KCbus Moderator
    Staff Member

    United States
    Nov 26, 2000
    Reynoldsburg, OH
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Return to the old

    That was probably my favorite MLS playoff format. For several reasons.

    The important figures were wins, losses, and draws, rather than goals. If the point in the regular season is to get points through results, it should be that way in the playoffs.

    The better team gained a significant advantage by getting an extra match at home, if necessary, while the other team still got the revenue of one home match in the series.

    The format was consistant through the first two rounds. I don't understand why MLS uses home/home/aggregate in the first round, and then goes to a one-off on somebody's home pitch in the second round. Why not use h/h/a for the conference final as well? Or use single elimination in both? There are arguments to be made either way, but why not make up your mind?
     

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