Season Start Date...

Discussion in 'MLS: General' started by MLS3, Sep 7, 2002.

  1. MLS3

    MLS3 Member

    Feb 7, 2000
    Pac NW
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I've been thinking about this for a while, and was finally posting on the issue to see what others think...

    I think MLS should kick off its season starting mid to late February and end the regular season at the very beginning of August. And have the MLS Cup playoffs and final in August and have the USOC final also at the end of august. That only pushes us back two months really, same length of season...I think this would be great, plus that means less problems with NFL stadiums for the time being (hopefully soon all MLS teams have their own SSS) and then MLS wouldn't be going head to head with NFL and MLB World Series, etc...I think thats the perfect time span to run our league, nothing really changes except earlier start and earlier finish...

    Let me know what you guys think, also I'm not one of those people or am I thinking that this is going to make MLS the most popular thing in the world or change anything really. Its not a big deal at all, just think that its a better time frame for the season...but I also don't know weather conditions in cities very well, so thats why I posted...
     
  2. Rocket

    Rocket Member

    Aug 29, 1999
    Chicago
    Club:
    Everton FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    My preference would be for MLS' regular season to end in the first week of September. I'd like to see only the top 4 teams make the postseason, thereby allowing MLS Cup to be played in mid-to-late September.

    Starting the season in mid-to-late February as you suggest might be pushing things a bit as it's still quite cold in most parts of the country that time of the year. I think starting the season in, say, the 2nd week of March would be a good compromise.
     
  3. detter7

    detter7 New Member

    Jun 14, 2000
    PA
    I wouldn't want to start in February. Do you know how freaking cold it can be in Boston at that time? No thank you. The season starting in mid-March is fine by me. MLS could always end a week or two early if it was only the top four teams go onto playoffs. I think only eliminating two teams after the regular season is pretty dumb, but it does keep it kinda exciting.
     
  4. Fanaddict

    Fanaddict Member+

    Mar 9, 2000
    streamwood IL USA
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    It would be someone in Phoenix suggesting play should start in Feb. We in Chicago would find in hard to dribble on a foot of snow.
     
  5. MLS3

    MLS3 Member

    Feb 7, 2000
    Pac NW
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    haha, i've only been in phoenix for a month or so...use to live in washington so I know bad weather...haha...guess the february idea wasn't a good why, but thats why i asked, didn't know what other citites had for weather...so you think a early-mid march start would be good...
     
  6. bright

    bright Member

    Dec 28, 2000
    Central District
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Why sacrifice September and October, two months with great weather for soccer so that we can sit in the snow watching MLS players kick the ball around in the snow?

    Are you THAT paranoid about the NFL?

    I think it is better to just keep on keepin' on rather than play in the snow because we are scared of the NFL taking away some of the limelight.

    The fact is we can't realistically kick off the MLS season until late March due to weather reasons. We are an outdoor league after all. We could, however, play a little bit into November, because the weather is still good enough for soccer.

    - Paul
     
  7. HalaMadrid

    HalaMadrid Member

    Apr 9, 1999
    So would all the visiting teams, though...which might be quite interesting.
     
  8. DigitalTron

    DigitalTron New Member

    Apr 4, 2001
    Arlington, VA
    I think this is a horrible idea. When MLS moved the season a little earlier this year to accomodate the World Cup stuff, it had a very large negative impact on attendance. Home openers were way down at many places as people just don't want to go to stadia when it's cold.

    The guys in charge of MLS know what they're doing, despite rarely explaining it to us. They have a narrow window of good weather before the start of the NFL and the collegiate football season. That's when people want to go to stadia and watch games. Once MLS becomes extremely popular, then we can talk about breaking out of the confines of that window, but that day is a ways off yet.

    As a result, MLS' expansion policy, ideally, is geared to few southern cities because of the July/August heat. They'd prefer to have Philadelphia, Detroit and Seattle to Houston, Phoenix and Miami. People in those parts of the country avoid the heat, and that hurts attendance.

    -Tron
     
  9. Rocket

    Rocket Member

    Aug 29, 1999
    Chicago
    Club:
    Everton FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I think you've exagerated the negative impact of starting the season earlier in the year, Tron.

    Here's a comparison of attendance at home openers for 2001 (April 7th opening date) vs. 2002 (March 23rd opening date):

    ...................Attendance at home opener
    Team................2001.........2002

    Los Angeles.....17,386......20,602
    NY/NJ..............30,753......13,234
    DC...................22,216......15,033
    Columbus.........17,947.......18,450
    Dallas..............15,124.......15,214
    San Jose..........13,919.......10,104
    Kansas City......13,042.......11,769
    Colorado............18,495......25,010

    The only cities where attendance seemed to suffer a "very negative" impact by starting the season earlier were NY/NJ, and to a lesser extent DC and San Jose.

    And keep in mind that if MLS starts its season in April instead of March, it must schedule more weekday games to compensate.

    So any positive benefit gained by having your home opener in April rather than March may well be negated by the adverse impact of playing the extra weekday games.
     

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