re-reading this whole thread, can someone give me a good argument as to why the league just cant have four in the playoffs and why it remains at eight. I want good responses to justify this. I havent read one yet! Kenn said there are plusses and minuses to every format. Let's list some minuses for 4/10 in the playoffs? Please make me understand!!!!!! Keep in mind when you respond that this league is ladened with parity so not one team will realistically be out of it by the all-star game even if it's 4 out of 10 in the playoffs. Let me here it!
As I understand it, the idea is that once a team is eliminated from contention, fans quickly lose interest. By not eliminating anyone until the last minute, the league hopes to avoid that problem. I think most of us agree that it's a hokey set-up, but I suspect that the economics are sound.
Not a single person here genuinely thinks this is the best format, they just like to tune you up. Understanding that the playoff format is horrific is fairly easy; understanding the dynamic of BigSoccer is a bit more difficult.
Oh, boy. Welcome to BigSoccer. There ought to be a bigsoccer law that says that you must post x number of times before bringing up promotion and relegation.
Isn't this somewhat moot, now? I mean, why do we keep arguing over 8 of 10 in the playoffs, when next year we know that it will be 8 of 12, and the following year (God willing) it will be 8 of 14? (Watch, the competition committee at the end of the year will vote to raise the number of playoff spots to 10 of 12! --Ha!, just kidding)
I personally still favor the MFL format. (For those who dont know. The higher seed advances automatically after two legs if the agg. score is still tied. 180 minutes - no overtime...)
I also think that is a great way of tweaking the system slightly so that the regular season counts more in the playoffs.
With league parity being what it is that should limit the teams being eliminated early on! So that argument really doesn’t hold any water. Hokey isn’t the word. It's embarrassing. The Champion of this league can potentially be a team that only won 8 games during the season! They need to do something about this! I've never been adamant about league decisions as I am with this one.
8 of 12 is still too much. when the league reaches 16 then you can get away with it. In the meantime why not add more prestige and mystique to the MLS cup playoffs! As a Baseball fan part of the joy of making it to the playoffs is making it to the playoffs!
For the final time: When it happens, get back to me. Until then, let nature take its course. Then get all in a huff about it.
It took 6 years for this league to expand, 1998 being the last. You can honestly tell me that MLS will expand by four teams in the immediate future?! And even if when they do expand, couldnt we then change the format of teams back to 8. It seems we are sacrificing and diluting the league season now for something that we dont even know will happen in the future. Doesnt sound smart. And as I said in a previous post 8/12 is not as bad, but just as bad. Stocking the playoffs with mediocre teams is not doing anything to help this league at all. You know that! Not from a quality standpoint and certainly not from a selling standpoint. I don’t understand why something HAS to happen before we change it or acknowledge it being wrong. We know this set-up is flawed for many reasons, why wait to change it.
How can the economice be sound when no one bothers to turn up and watch the playoffs. IMO the MLS should follow the NFL's post season format. The top 3 of each division should qualify for the playoffs. Next season this would mean 50% of teams are deservedly eliminated during the regular season. The champion of each conference should advance straight to the conference final. 2nd & 3rd in each conference should play-off (current 2-leg format) for the right to face the conference champion in the conference final. The winner of each conference final should then face each other in the MLS cup final itself to determine the overall MLS champion. For this season in the East it would have meant The Crew advance straight to the Eastern Conference Final. DC United would then play-off versus Metrostars to determine who plays the Crew in the conference final. The Revs would have been (deservedly IMO) eliminated. For the West the Wizards would be straight into the conference final and the Galaxy play-off against the Rapids whilst the Earthquakes were eliminated during the regular season (they had a 9-10 losing record after all).
Whether it's actually true or not, it seems as though the powers that be believe two things: 1 - A team that is out of playoff contention late in the year will have a harder time selling tickets than one that has even an outside chance. I don't know whether this is true or not, only that I suspect they believe it's true. It may not hold up to close scrutiny. 2 - That it is better to not change the number of playoff participants every year and let the league "grow into" a scenario where 8 out of however many teams there are isn't so bad. I believe they even said "We want to keep the number of playoff teams consistent so that as the league grows, this won't be such a big issue" or words to that effect. I don't know (or much care) about whether or not their reasoning is sound. But you ask for rationales, I give them to you. And this continual hammering at this one point is getting tedious. They're not changing the number of teams in the playoffs, it doesn't look like. So get over it.
Tell you what, Sunshine - pony up $20 or $30 mill and get on the Board of Governors and make some positive change, okay?
And I always thought the Champion of the League got the Supporter's Shield. And the winner of the post-season tournament got the MLS Cup. Silly me.
Come again? I have news for you. All ten teams in this league are mediocre. Some more entertaining than others but all mediocre nonetheless. Need proof? Ne Revs 1 Columbus Crew 0
And chances are very good that the best of them (or whichever one plays the best for the next 2 1/2 weeks), not the one with 8 wins, will be the one that wins it all.
Glad to see that you agree my play-off system is superior to the one currently employed. The worrying thing for the long term success of MLS is that those currently in charge can't (wont) see it.
The long-term success of the league won't be predicated on picayune bullsh!t like how many teams get into the playoffs. It'll be largely predicated on Phil Anschutz's health and getting stadiums built. The rest of it is just minutiae that people get off on arguing about.
You call it picayune bullsh!t I call it being able to respect the team that earns the crown of champion which is supposedly what the entire show is all about.