MLS took a break this year for international play and now the athletes and season ticket holders are paying for it. Two games a week in the summer leads to poor quality play from the exhausted players. And an increased frequency of games leads to unoccupied seats from STHs who just can't fit it all in. Starting the season earlier or ending it later is not an option. No other fanbase outside MLS predominately drives to games. So inclement weather can be dangerous to travel in. Those of you ot there who want to hear and see good atmosphere at games: make the schedule with the season ticket holders in mind.
Sheesh. MLS can't buy a break.. They get yelled at for playing through international breaks, now getting slapped around for take them off.
The schedule this year really did not work out well, at least for DC United. Seven games in May, then 7 games in all of June and July (with no home games at all in July). Then, six games in August, 4 at home. The team plays 4(!) games during August 19-29. Just ignore the international dates in the future, I think. Losing a player here or there to an international game is less disruptive than having mostly empty months followed by months with congested schedules. With a season that runs approximately 7 months, the schedule should spread the 34 games out as evenly as possible (5 a month or so)
The Rapids aren't much better. Going back to May: 3 games in 8 days 10 days off 3 games in 10 days 21 days off 2 games in 4 days 10 days off 3 games in 8 days 7 days off 3 games in 8 days 7 games off (for ASG and a friendly) 3 games in 8 days Between May and July the Rapids will only play the "traditional" game on weekend/7 days off/game on weekend format 3 times, despite playing 17 games. And one of those is over the ASG when they self-inflicted a friendly in between the weekend games. Meanwhile they had 3 different periods of at least 10 days off. I realize 19 teams and a World Cup Qualification year makes scheduling difficult but if this is the kind fo stop-start season we're going to have I think I'd rather lose players.
I think I did, but if I was getting the point of that sentence, "No other fanbase outside MLS predominately drives to games," then I think it is wrong. Football teams, if no one else, have tons of fans who drive to games--some of whom drive long distances and in college football distances that would break me over a full season. How else would tailgating have evolved if people didn't drive to games. I can't speak for all teams everywhere, but it clearly seems to me that among my local teams, Mets fans, Islanders fans (all four of them), Jets and Giants fans, and even a fair amount of Yankee fans all drive to games. Maybe not the majority, but considering the size of the parking lots at Shea (I refuse to call the new stadium by its sponsored designation, the Nassau Coliseum (which is often described as a parking lot), and the Meadowlands it has to be a big number. If New York has large numbers driving, I can't imagine how many people MUST drive to games in other cities, especially for teams with very spread out fanbases. Don't the Cubs, Cardinals, and even the Royals if the All Star Game commentators were correct, all draw from across the Midwest? If people aren't driving then I must have missed the construction of Great Plains Subway System.
Not to get too political all-of-a-sudden, but increasing Subway systems in traditionally driving cities would do a lot to help our economy
KC has played 2 games a week since the international break ended. Starting on June 16th and they'll keep having 2 games a week until August 11th. Granted that's part of their own doing by advancing to the Open Cup final and 2 friendlies.
No other soccer fanbase outside MLS... Just anticipating the "Europe plays through the winter" crowd.
Oh, well that might actually make sense. Along with the fact that Europe's winters are like pleasant fall days in some parts of the U.S. And moving twenty miles for the next league match or flying twenty minutes for the next UEFA match is far easier than flying almost four hours between almost every single match.
UEFA distances are very comparable to MLS. but i suppose it's not relevant to the overall thread point.
What about reducing the number of games(best option: lengthen the season but that's not happening anytime soon)? We already have an unbalanced schedule, so I don't think it could hurt.
I'm not sure that fan travel is the key constraint there. NHL and NBA fans put their lives in danger to get to games, otherwise. We don't play in winter here because winter on this continent is much harsher. Fans would not enjoy themselves, ergo they would not show up. The quality of the game would suffer. They don't play though a Chicago winter, or a Toronto winter, or a etc...
Ok, I'll be the lone dissenter. I'm against MLS playing through FIFA dates. Every major league deals with fixture congestion at some point. Fixture congestion can actually be seen as an opportunity to get some mileage out of youth without dictating to your season ticket holders that there are several league games that you know in advance (non-injury or performance-related) that you'll have to deal without your star or DP or 2 because they're off with USMNT and/or Panama or Costa Rica or Jamaica or whomever. Now, of course, about that homegrown youth to give a chance to...
Sorry, maybe I'm just not thinking clearly because it's the end of the day... Do you mean you'd rather us respect the FIFA schedule and have a fall-spring season like most of the world? Because I'm not opposed to it.
The fall-to-spring season like much of the rest of the world (not all the world, certainly) is I think a bridge or two too far, much like pro/rel. Scheduling breaks around FIFA dates and tournaments is not. It's a minor matter that simply results in some slightly more congested schedules, rather than major, serious impacts on TV ratings and thus revenue, scheduling issues with several major clubs still over shared NFL stadia, and so forth that a fall-to-spring switch would entail. Those are MAJOR obstacles, not the comparatively minor ones involved in international breaks. In the distant future when this league and this sport in general are extremely successful and can dictate their own terms, then we can talk about it.
Well there is a FIFA Schedule, well technically is called the "FIFA Match Calendar." http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/wor...-2014-updateMay2011-EN_11-01240_101_EN_EN.pdf But is not what people think it means in relation to Fall to Spring. Is just the FIFA International dates.
what about scheduling the teams from cooler climates home games in the summer and teams from warmer weather home games in the winter?
how? take a team like Chicago that has to worry about cold weather.... schedule the bulk of their home games during the middle of the season and more away games during the early/late part of the season. And fwiw, i'm not trying to say that Chicago should not play a single home game during the early/late portion of the season. For instance, let's take this as a rough sketch (in other words, tinker with it if you like) of the season if you add a southeastern team as team20, and if you start the season in February and end by mid November for a total of 38 league games . Chicago Fire: February 1-@ Houston 2-@ Los Angeles 1-v Montreal Impact 3-@ Sporting Kansas City March 4-@ SJ Earthquakes 5-@ New York Red Bulls 2-v Toronto FC 6-@ New England Revolution April 7-@ Philadelphia Union 8-@ Columbus Crew 3-v Colorado Rapids 9-@ Montreal Impact May 10-@ Real Salt Lake 11-@ Toronto FC 4-v Houston 5-v Los Angeles June 6-v Sporting KC 7-v SJ Earthquakes 12-@ Portland Timbers 8-v Portland Timbers July 9-v Columbus Crew 13-@ Seattle Sounders 10-v Vancouver Whitecaps 11-v Seattle Sounders August 12-v CD Chivas 14-@ Vancouver Whitecaps 13-v FC Dallas 14-v Southeast Expansion Team September 15-v New York Red Bulls 15-@ Colorado Rapids 16-v New England Revolution 16-@ DC United October 17-v Philadelphia Union 18-v Real Salt Lake 17-@ CD Chivas 19-v DC United November 18-@ FC Dallas 19-@ Southeast Expansion That took me 10 minutes to do... there's no reason why it should be so complicated. The only thing you need to do is to take into consideration of the fact that you will schedule more home games during the summertime for colder climates and more home games during the spring/fall for the warmer climates. Now, you can tweak things here or there such as keeping the season going from March-October, or maybe add a break here or there, or add more games for a team during a certain part of the season, but even though it'll never be exactly perfect, it shouldn't kick our ass to figure out away to make this work.