Regular season or playoffs. Which is more important to having a successful season?

Re: Regular season or playoffs. Which is more important to having a successful season

define 'successful'

i've sometimes written that the revs are coming off their 3 most successful seasons ever (b/c of playoff performance). while others have contended that people stay away from watching the team b/c they've done relatively poorly over the past 3 years (b/c of reg season record and only 'finishing strong')

 

Well, in my opinion, the regular season is more important. However, Columbus is the worst shield winner ever. It's not even close. They're among the most uninspiring over .500 teams I've ever watched.

Even putting them in the same league as the 2001 Fusion is an insult to MLS fans everywhere.

New England's record in the playoffs last year was better than the regular season record that Columbus accrued for itself.

Based on attractiveness of play, the playoff Revs were far better than the regular season Columbus team. However, if you were to balance out the teams with the value of the regular season versus the playoffs, then I'd say they were equally crappy in a year filled with crappy MLS teams. Thankfully, that doesn't seem to be repeating itself this year.

 

I thought I could answer this question pretty easily, but I am finding it pretty complicated.

A regular season like Columbus had last year could bring an increase in attendance, a greater media profile and the Supporter's Shield. Even though, I think most Columbus fans are pretty disappointed and I think most of us would be too. The Supporter's Shield is a bit of a consolation prize if you get booted out of the playoffs early.

The 2002 Revs had a pretty rocky regular season and strong playoffs but still short of the prize. The end of season and playoff run were exciting, but, being the runner up for MLS Cup isn't much of a legacy.

If this has to be an either/or question, then I guess I have to go with a strong playoff run. Watching the team be successful for 30 games would be lots of fun, but hoisting the MLS Cup is the ultimate prize. A strong playoff performance is necessary for winning that trophy. Also, consider that this year 4 teams will not make the playoffs and in another year or 2 there will be 6 teams that will not make the playoffs. Poor and mediocre regular seasons will no longer be rewarded as long as the playoffs continue to include no more that 8 teams. So making the playoffs will require better performances throughout the regular season.

 

I would rather have had the best record each year of MLS, except for the show the Crew put on last year, then to be the lowest possible seeded team in the playoffs and go on to win it all. For now the regular season gets my nod. Once MLS makes it to 18 teams then I may start to go the other way.

great team losing in playoffs > sad team getting lucky in playoffs.
good team winning in playoffs >= great team losing in playoffs?
undefeated top seeded team losing in playoffs > all but same team winning it all.

I will go with other, KC. Equal points but looked better then the Crew.

 

Re: Regular season or playoffs. Which is more important to having a successful season

In MLS the goal is to win the Cup.

It's a bit unfair to ask for an either-or re the regular season. Of course we want BOTH and usually teams that do well in the regular season do well in the playoffs.

As long as Soccer in the US follows the US tradition of a second season with a playoff Champ being considered--The Champ, winning the Cup will be the Holy Grail for MLS teams

 

To me, the regular season is more important. I want to enjoy ALL of the season. Not suffer through 6 months of crappy play only to see the team scrape into the playoffs. Sure the last month of the last few years has been exciting-no question about that. But there were plenty of times I wished I hadn't wasted the two hours in front of the TV or the four hours for a home game watching dismal play and frustrating collapses week after week through the first 4/5 of the season. Hardware is nice, but I don't follow soccer to watch a team lift a cup, I watch because I want to see the killer "through ball" that splits the defense, the bomb of a shot from 35 yards away, the cheeky backheel, the open field tackle, you get the idea. The cup will come when all of these things are executed properly every game.

 

Right. Their much-vaunted 'undefeated streak' was really 8 wins and 10 ties. That's not gonna impress anyone who's actually watching it.

So notwithstanding Columbus, I say the regular season because:

1 - that's what fans pay their tickets to see.
2 - despite what was said on and on, history shows that teams that sneak in at No. 4 have a much worse shot at the championship than teams who breeze through the regular season at No. 1

[In fact, no team has ever won the Championship as a 4 seed. The only time a 3 seed ever did was the SJ earthquakes, in a 12 team league when due to having 3 divisions, they did not have to play their own conference champion until the finals.]

 

Re: Regular season or playoffs. Which is more important to having a successful season

Are you happier with the team now than you were before the Eastern Conference final last year? I think that is the meaningful and operative question, and I think that pretty much everyone would have to say yes.

 

Re: Regular season or playoffs. Which is more important to having a successful season

I guess I reject the initial question---
I want to run the table and win the Cup.
I don't want to indulge in mental autogratification of meaningless poppycock

 

Eh? Don't forget the unfortunately abbreviated end of the 2001 season. If memory serves, we were smokin' hot and looking forward to the last two games of the season home and away against the Gals...then came 9/11. The seeding you consider so significant was in flux and the better team didn't get the chance to affect it with those last two regular season games canceled. The Galaxy's 2001 Conference "Championship" carries an asterisk in San Jose, and the fans enjoyed the hell out of taking it to them for the Cup, showing who the real champions were that year.

DougO

 

A successful season is to me, is only when you win MLS Cup.

 

Re: Regular season or playoffs. Which is more important to having a successful season

I'm selfish. I don't care what is good for attendance or the league. I care what is good for me.

In my opinion we saw pretty pathetic play until late August of last year. In fact, I'd venture to say we've already seen more good play this season than all of last, playoffs included.

So, keeping in mind that they could lose the rest of their games and it is a little too early to speculate. They are positioned to make this season much better by providing many more weeks of entertaining soccer. The playoffs are too short to satisfy the hunger. Let's see good play week in and week out for 32+ weeks!

 

If they continue to play great ball this season and bail in the first round of the playoffs, that would be more successful than last season was to me.

Dan

 

I think a successful season is told through numbers. If we win only four games but those four games are playoff games, then I think that is a very unsuccessful season, even though we would have won the cup. Right now we are 6-0-1, which is very successful for the beginning of the season. If we keep this up and loose in the playoffs, then I say that we must have had some poor luck during that playoff match.

You also need to avoid the question “which is more successful?” because both cases are successful in there own right. Although when you look at it, to have a great regular season is a bit harder then having a great post season. Sure you need to win in the post season but as the revs showed us its possible to have a good post season with out winning. In the regular season you need to stay consistent over 32 games to claim success. Its also more fun to win a lot in the regular season then just win in the post, and if fun translates into success (which is what all sports really are) the regular season is better to be successful in.

I may still be starry eyed from our post season last year, but I’ve enjoyed these first 7 match much much more!

RRRREV IT UP

 

Re: Regular season or playoffs. Which is more important to having a successful season

Depends which side you are looking at. If its economics, its definately the first option, only because there are more games during the season then the playoffs. If its the sport side, the second option is more important. Winning the championship is the only goal in MLS. Of course ideally you'd like to see a team have a great season and extend that into the playoffs, and the majority of teams do that.

I like this thread, because it deals with the many sides of professional sport. Which is good for a team, and which is bad.

Personally I voted for the second option because right now I'm a fan first. Hopefully in 5 years or so my instinct would be voting for the first option since I want to enter this sport management field.

 

For WAAAY too many years, the question was moot, because we never made the postseason, so....

 

Actually, you're right, that was the one I was referring to, and even the 'exception' comes with some qualifiers.

At any rate, no team has ever won the final unless they were first or second in their divison/conference, no team has won it without a winning record since the first season in '96, and no team has ever appeared in the final without doing that except Colorado in '97.

A lot of fans think you can squeak in to the playoffs as the 3 or 4 seed with a mediocre regular season and you still have a shot. MLS history shows you'd be deluding yourself to think that.

 

Just give me a few years where we finish with with more freakin' wins than losses. One out of nine so far...not good. People from the rest of the league just look at you sideways when the topic of the Revs in the playoffs comes up. I'd like to be able to prove to all that we belong in them when we get there. Yes, it's nice to win when we're there, and we have had a knack recently to up our caliber of play, but the playoffs should only include those teams that deserve to be there.

But, then again, if you're going to have playoffs, it should only be between the conference champions. The rest didn't play well enough to deserve to go.

If you believe that you must have some, end-of-the-year-everybody-who-plays-gets-a-medal competition, give them the "Also-Rans Cup."

 

it's the american mind set versus the world mind set. In the US, we reward playoff success while the rest of the world rewards success or lack there of over a period of time. I truly believe the best team wins the league throughout the regular season. They prove themselves to be most consistent. This weekends Premier League excitement proves that every game does matter down to the last minute. The playoffs are exciting to an extent but they are money-makers and little more. I find it disheartening that you could go undefeated(knock on wood, my head) and the fourth place team could be under .500 and all you get is one more home game in the playoffs(a mini game at that). If anything come up with some percentage that rewards you for winning more and gives you more home games during the playoffs. If you finish so many points ahead of the team you're playing, you deserve more home games. That way every game down the stretch would mean something. Instead we have teams that will finish in a certain position no matter the result of a particular game

 

Re: Regular season or playoffs. Which is more important to having a successful season

Aside from MLS Cup, I'd be pretty surprised if playoff games made money. If they did, they wouldn't have cut down on the number of playoff games.