I agree. We don't need be trying to make MLS something like NFL or NBA that ONLY becomes exciting during a frickin playoff! That's not soccer, man. Come on.
What you missed is that pro sports are a business, and in business success is defined by profits. The NFL is by far the most lucrative sports league in the world for its owners. Just owning an franchise, even your team is dead last in the NFL, is practically a license to print money. Sure in the big euro leagues the superteams can generate large revenues, but the vast majority of professional soccer teams in Europe could never even dream of the profits NFL owners enjoy.
Yes, the NFL is the most lucrative league in the world, that's all well and good. Now back to the topic at hand. We've seen some decent numbers (for attendance) at MLS Cup, but TV ratings have been poor. Also, general ratings and general attendance for normal playoff games has poor as well. The NFL is a league built on the playoffs, built on the Superbowl. There are league games, and there are playoff games and that's it. There are no extra tournaments, do not pass go do not collect $200. MLS on-the-other-hand has; CCC (soon to be CCL?), SuperLiga, USOC, and playoffs. This list doesn't even include international tournaments (Gold Cup, Copa America, World Cup), and possible future tournaments such as Copa Libertadores. For leagues that are built around playoffs (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL) everything goes up during playoffs; ratings, attendance, ticket prices, revenue. But these numbers don't go up for MLS. Attendance goes down, and ratings remain stagnant. At some point, MLS owners must ask themselves, is it worth it? While there are other leagues which have playoffs and do well (Mexican league, some second division promotion playoffs), there is the mentality (either right or wrong) that "traditional" soccer doesn't involve playoffs. Personally, I don't buy the argument that MLS needs to get rid of the playoffs to be more like European leagues or what not. I think MLS should get rid of the playoffs in order to free up a month of time that can be taken off during the summer to make time for international tournaments. I think with the CCC, SuperLiga, USOC, various friendlies, that MLS rosters aren't deep enough, and I just don't think playoffs are worth it. You want to make the regular season meaningful? Give teams a lot of money for where they finish. Raise the purse of the SuperLiga and make it a true home and home. Attempt to raise the profile of the USOC and CCC. It's just going to come down to putting in the time and money to market the shit out of whatever they choose.
To anyone who has this mentality, I would like to point them towards this Cup of the World thing....I hear it might be a big deal in a few decades.
MLS can be creat with or without playoffs. The problem with the current structure is that it's too easy to make it into them. If only the top two teams from each conference made it in or something like that that would be great, but an 8-team playoff with 13 teams doesn't make sense to me. 8 teams are great when you have a league with 25+ teams, but the playoffs need to be something that are really difficult to qualify for in order for them to have meaning. I personally think the supporter's shield is something to be prouder of than the mls cup (but that's just me).
some people dont get it if mls has single table they will lose fan base very easily especially when there is no promotion relegation in the mix plus if you do have single table what if one team become more dominate by winning the league by half way through the season which explains my first point. plus you really cannot compare mls to other soccer leagues based on some table.
I think supporter's shield is something at least as proude as MLS cup. I think they are sticking to 8 teams considering the rapid expansions. we are going to have 16 teams in very near future. Top half making to playoffs is decent. so they are just leaving it that way, rather than changing back and forth in short periods.
see i don't think half of the teams should make it. the playoffs in baseball and football are always a treat to watch because it's only the elite teams in the league that actually make it there (although in the nfl you get some 8-8 teams sometimes when one of the conferences sucks). The season would be a lot more fun to watch in my opinion if only 2 teams came out of each conference. If the MLS expanded to say, 16 teams, that's the top 25%, which wouldn't be inconceivable for a team to aspire towards even if they finished dead last the year before.
4 teams is too little. Why not just home and away series between best in E. and best in W.? Or I personally like 6 teams for now, and first round bye to the 2 top teams(each team from each conference). etc etc etc we can have all sorts of opinions, but I think MLS wants to stick to 8 teams for playoff and keeps on expanding.
And people would be more interested in the NBA regular season if they abolished the playoffs and, before even the half-way mark, most teams have f*ck-all to play for... ...youz guyz are geniuses. By the way, the largest group of soccer fans in this nation are latino/Mexican. And guess what, gringo. They are used to playoffs. Here's a challenge for you: find me another country on earth where the distance between the two largest cities is almost 3000 miles. And where the combined population of those two metro areas is aproximately equal to the population of Spain and/or Argentina. And then we can run our league just like them. Hell, I'll even make it easier on you and ask you to find another country on earth where the two largest cities are separated by even half that distance. Piss off.
Wow I was just trying to say that I thought too many teams made the playoffs. It's fine to have them...a lot of successful leagues around the world do. When you can finish in the lower half of the league and still be crowned the champion at the end of the year, something is wrong.
Did you count Canada in? it's not just a country. It's USA + Canada. Wow. Anyway, that's why I'm for two tables. I'm envisioning that eventually, each conference will be it's own league, so it's like one table in each conference. Most points = Conference champion. And then we have inter-conference playoffs for the MLS Cup. This way, we have best of both worlds.
I think the US Soccer Federation should convince the MLS and USL to merge. Then we would have plenty of teams(around 50-60) to have promotion/relegation. In a country as advanced as this one, it shouldn't be to hard to travel from L.A. to NY or Seattle to Miami. As for the sponsors, shouldn't they be realizing that with the money in the US, they could have bigger teams than the Manchester Uniteds, Real Madrids ect... I think you doubters are underestimating the power of single-table promotion/relegation. There is way too much potential in this country to pass it up. Hopefully Beckham will talk some sense into these people.
Like I said we will have two single tables. One for East and one for West. It's going to be like EPL and LaLiga in one(actually two with Canada) country. And then inter-conference playoff will be like Champions Cup event. hopely promotion/relegation withing it's own conference. Especially with promotion/relegation, it makes more sense to make less cross country trips for the teams in lower division.