Dallas - Colorado - 6,360 San Jose - Columbus - 8,069 Los Angeles - Kansas City - 14,585 Average - 9,671 So much for playoff fever. Discuss.
Soccer in the U.S. has always had a hard time selling tickets on short notice, especially for games during the week.
Not only were the first playoff games on short notice, but the first game of a "first to five" series more often than not doesn't mean as much to the home crowd what a match in a "home & away" series does. All 4 quarters could be back at the higher seeds for game 3, which is crunch time.
Reality What do you expect when 8 of the 10 teams qualify. Games are played last minuite and in the middle of the week. Not to mention the POOR television coverage. I say make all games single elimination or make only the top 4 teams make the playoffs and put most if not all on national television. The way its set up make this entire playoff system an entire farce and makes MLS lose credibility. Playoffs are supposed to add credibility and interest NOT the opposite. Garbar and Co. have to make some improvement here as well. This has been an MLS problem from year 1, yet they have not made any changes. Someone has got to wake up and smell the coffee.
I don't disagree, but do you have any figures to back this up. I recall years ago that hockey made a bundle off the playoffs, the reason why nearly every team made it in (I realize now it's a smaller %).
??? Americans, including many MLS fans, have no concept of "home and away" Why MLS calls it first to five is beyond me when best of 3 works just fine. See how Yahoo! is reporting and inform MLS!! "home and away" does not sufficiently reward higher seeds (though giving them PKs is going to far). I'd prefer just one playoff game. I'm too lazy to look it up, but does anyone know the % of teams that lost game 1 and won the series?
Re: Reality So if only four of ten made it, do you think the numbers would be any higher than the semi-final games will be this year?
Re: Re: Reality I think the key here is a one-game play-off (4, 6 or 8 teams is less important). You have to make playoffs into an event, mini-NFL-style. Increases interest in regular season b/c one game playoff gives much better chances to the home team. Also, can run all games on Satuday, instead 2 games on Wednesday out of 3-game series. Which one you think works better: Regular season ends - round 1 on sat - round 2 on sat - mls cup - only 3 weeks from the end of reg season; or reg season ends - wed-sat-wed - sat-wed-sat - mls cup - full 4 weeks and a bunch of matches midweek that few care about. Especially given that running a match at most of our stadiums costs MLS ~$80-100K a pop, you would think decreasing number of games (of course without decreasing interest, which i think 1-game playoff system would accomplish) would be the goal?
Home and away with the higher seeded team getting the tie break works fine. If the higher seeded team fails to advance it means that over the span of 4 halves, the lower seeded team scored more goals. Seem fair to me. The concept of the mini-game after game 3 to decide the winner is just plain silly. Funny how we seem to have the same argument every year. Seems to me the folks that like the first to five set-up will still attend playoff games if they were switched to be switched to home and away. These folks are the true MLS followers anyway. I just think a few more soccer folks would show up for a concept they are more familiar with. The problem now with MLS is that there are a lot more soccer fans in this country than MLS fans.
Just eliminate the playoffs. Fans don't seem to care. If anything play the MLS cup with the top two finisher on the table.
I think the best thing to do is have one game series. I'm not a big fan of home-away series. The one game series will make the regular season much more important. Also, it will give a week to promote the games, and all the games will be on a Friday or Saturday (have to remember some stadium issues won't allow all Saturdays).
Another part of the problem is the time frame in which the playoffs take place, competing for fan interest w/ MLB playoffs, NFL in high gear, Hockey Openers, and NCAA football, MLS takes a backseat in many people's minds. Why not end the season earlier and have the playoffs and cup wrapped up before NFL week 1? Sportscenter would have more air time to maybe show highlights of the game and your only competing with baseball for the viewing publics dollar and attention...
If you,re a ture fan of the game of soccer you will show up at the games. look at the pointy ball games,they show up in numbers even when is zero degrees out side,please don,t give no excuses for weather or day of the week.