Should MLS follow a Winter or Summer Schedule?

Gridiron players also spend most of the game on the sidelines wearing heavy coats and standing in front of heaters… so…..

 

And more importantly, the really sub-freezing games amount to 1-2 regular season games per team on average, even in places like Buffalo and KC. Asking fans to come out 1-2 times a year is one thing, asking to come out all winter is another. The NFL doesn't play an outdoor cold weather game in February, and they only play them in January for playoff games and 1 regular season game. Its March and we've already had two games that were around freezing or lower by the end of the game in Colorado.

 

I've been to three Union home games and each one was colder (or at least felt colder) than the previous one!!!

In Buffalo, High Mark stadium has outdoor heating in the club level (in the overhangs). That was on for a game I attended in November,

 

Another part of our "weather problem" is our season seems to get longer and longer as we have more teams now , USOC Cup, Leagues Cup ,Nations League ,expanded MLS CUP, Gold Cups, WCQ, Allstar Games , preseason and other friendlies. No wonder we have bad weather at both ends of the season. I would say spring is the worst as it can be a mix of rain, snow, cold etc.
Fall weather I would say, in most markets is still better for the game- cooling weather after the heat of summer, but before the snow/winter.
I know its unfair to the northern teams, but yes, they may just have to start with 2 or 3 games on the road to start the season. Use the domes and all the warm weather cities.
But in the end, we have to stay with our summer season. Wish we could cut some of the games, but that is a problem all over it seems with too many games and tournaments. Yea, it keeps happening- look at FIFA expanding the World Cup and now a crazy. enlarged World Club Cup.

 

Split the MLS season into two (fall/spring). Play leagues cup in January during the winter break (when both leagues are in form) at 12 warm weather locations. No Copa, CWC and WC26 conflict. Align with Fifa calendar and euro transfer windows.

 

There is no FIFA calendar but now you have the Leagues Cup you could have an Aug to November apertura, a February to June clausura and play the Leagues Cup in July. But why bother?

 

New forum, who dis?

 

TBF, if the Leagues Cup is going to be an annual thing, going to a Apertura/Clausura format would be a decent idea, at which point going to a Fall to Spring calendar would be largely moot.

 

I guess the problem there is that teams that don't qualify for the playoffs, have a long break, then if they don't qualify for the knockout stage there's another huge break.

 

There's already a long break. Realistically, Apertura/Clausura format is not a new format and they all deal with these issues.

 

I think, as of now, the guiding principle would be to ask Messi and see what he wants.

 

IMO the leagues cup was a great addition to the calendar, but it has the potential to cannibalize a lot of the tournaments that MLS is involved in.

MLS has argued strongly in favor of playoffs in the past decades, but now teams are going to have two competitions each year where they sit out for extended periods of time if they don't advance.

If the league was forced to choose between LC and the MLS Cup playoffs, which one would they let go?

 

So, this meat is back on the menu.
It's being talked about for post World Cup, and the primary plus is said to be taking part in a full summer transfer window, so access to talent.
Not sure i buy that.
The level of talent that MLS is competing for is outside MLS spending power in the summer. And the MLS sweet spot, guys in top leagues but not top players, but sometimes starters or even squadies, seems open in the winter, as well.
But it is again being discussed.

 

It's not just acquisition, but the sale of players as well. I think MLS has reached the level where it should be a solid feeder league for the upper echelon of teams in Europe, but because the Summer transfer window is midseason for MLS, they just aren't in a good position to sell players that are an important part of their current season.

 

I favor the switch in a warming world

 

A counterpoint to this:

Some (most?) MLS teams still haven't built out a proper functioning scouting department. A built out scouting department helps teams succession plan. Many MLS teams still approach roster construction in the same vein as the teams in the other American Sports Leagues.....

Teams aren't making proactive signings, and also hold out for the highest fee possible when trying to sell a player on. IMO, changing the schedule to Fall (late Summer) - Spring isn't going to fix the issues teams are having during the transfer windows. Foreign teams know that MLS teams aren't hurting for cash and will still squeeze every last dollar out of player sales. Teams need to focus more resources on their scouting departments, and have a more targeted approach to player signings.

 

How do you know this?

 

Just look at the interviews with newly hired GM's and CSO's. Nearly every one states that they need to build out the scouting network/department of the team because they don't have one, or barely have one. Outside of Red Bull NY and NYCFC which MLS team has an actual scouting department?

 

Charlotte (includes ex Leicester chief scout Steve Walsh)
LAFC (under ex Man City scout Andreas Altamar)
Minnesota
San Diego
FC Dallas

They were just the ones I looked up.

I don't see how MLS rosters look like anything else in American sports as they include home grown players scouted through tryouts and other means, "second tier" league European players, a lot of Eastern European players recently, young Latin Americans, obscure players from all over the world you've never heard of until they show up at your club, some household names, college draftees and MLS lifers. Someone has to be doing research on these players, right?

Based on my knowledge of how Notts County recruit... they use analytics to identify potential signings, send out an agency scout to write a report, review the report, watch a few videos, approach the player's agent and negotiate a deal.

That's the model. There are also many emergency last minute signings to fill out the squad when they fail to acquire their targets but not as many as there used to be under previous owners.

 

I'm not sure how what you're saying is a counterpoint..

1. There is nothing about MLS teams that are similar to other American sport leagues. MLS teams don't rely on the draft to get their top players. There are definitely a few that come in via the draft, but at this point, most players coming into MLS teams are homegrown and international signings.

2. It's much, much easier to sell and acquire players in the summer window than the winter window. There are more players available both as free agents and as transfers as teams shuffle their rosters in preparation for the upcoming season. Not only that, but the summer transfer window is longer than winter in fall/spring leagues. Means there is more time for teams to replace a player they sell to a MLS team and vice versa. Additionally, most MLS teams have used almost all of their salary cap, so they can't really take advantage of the summer window in the same way that other teams.

 

Like other American sports teams MLS teams typically wait until the end of the season to make any moves. They also in general lack succession planning, ala teams in other American Sports Leagues.

MLS isn't the only league that plays a calendar year schedule. Clubs in those leagues don't seem to have many issues selling players to other leagues. Case in point: Philadelphia planned on selling Julian Carranza in either Summer 2023 or January 2024. They went out and signed a striker in the Summer of 2023. That's succession planning..... not many MLS teams approach things this way.

One of the reasons quoted in The Athletic's article about this possible switch stated that teams are losing out on players because they're holding out for bigger teams, and then also can't take advantage of last minute moves in Aug/Sept. European teams are still going to inflate their selling prices. IMO this is just the wealthier teams in MLS trying to buy titles without having an axrual roster building strategy outside of spend more $$$,

 

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YOU are correct. It's like baseball use to build up through the farm system, now the rich guys just want to buy a winning team. In MLS case, there are some rich teams that will do that, but some of the rich guys don't spend and do it on a budget anyway. And we have other teams that academy actually produces some players. So we have a very weird mix on how we build teams.
I am ok moving away from the NCAA/draft at least as MLS is concerned. I would think though that USL-C & USL-1 find it important though. And for NWSl & USL-SL.
I may be weird, but I like out salary cap (although it should be reviewed every so often) and I also like playing our season when we do (No Split). The problem is the greed of more games- Leagues Cup, MLS Cup, Nations League, Expaned WCC, Gold Cup- that hurts the quality of our league as the players get worn out as our rosters are still not 2 and 3 deep at every position. At some too much is too much
Just give me the Shield & USOC, cut the length of the season a bit and continue to work on getting butts in seats in our weaker markets.

 

That's not unique to the US. Bayern are more inclined to buy talent, Dortmund are more inclined to produce their own. UEFA qualification though is a huge distorting factor. Teams are given huge wads of cash that they're then inclined to spend. MLS doesn't have that so we invented Leagues Cup.

So is MLS. It's just a convenient way of filling the lower end of the roster.

I think a lot of European fans would like a salary cap. For instance the vast majority of English fans don't support Man City, Man United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea or Tottenham and would love to find a way of leveling the playing field, without requiring the intervention of a wealthy foreign backer. Nobody wants the same teams winning year in, year out. FFP it turns out is just cementing the positions is the already high spending teams.

The MLS salary budget is just a bit er... complicated and the league should really listen to it's GMs. On the other hand, thanks to the budget and playoffs MLS is the most competitive soccer league I know of, so be careful what you wish for. Do you want Miami winning every year by spending (let's say) 5 times as much as the next team, or do you want a league that at the start of the season any team theoretically can win?

Greed? The Leagues makes money and appears to be an important component of the Apple deal. The Open Cup costs the teams money. If MLS is to compete in global soccer markets it has to generate revenue. The money generated from Leagues Cup will go on transfer fees and salaries. No-one is sticking in their back pocket as far as I know (in MLS anyway).

Now you can argue that MLS owners are making a fortune on the back end through ever increasing club valuations and revenue generated from non-soccer related activities, like renting our stadiums, but that's going to happen, and has been happening anyway. If Leagues Cup goes there's less money to sign and pay players and the league takes a big step backwards.

The Gold Cup has been around since 1991 and is how CONCACAF generates most of its revenue, a lot of which is (supposed to be) redistributed to the 38 federations that aren't in North America. Montagliani's salary is way too high imho but that's a different argument. There are kids playing soccer in places like Guatemala, Grenada and Saskatoon that benefit from Gold Cup revenue.

I don't really get the point of an expanded CWC other than an ego booster for Infantino.

 

On the college draft, I'm not sure what the downside to eliminating it would be. The players who have MLS level talent will simply find the club they want to play for, and sign on an open market.
That said, the level of talent in the college system isn't enough to create much of a salary boon to those players. they'd still be signing for minimum wages, and, just like now, only a few would make make a difference to their clubs.
And US sports clubs have always been more mass audience friendly. Very smart but small clubs in all US sports leagues do quite well, win trophies, etc. When I was living in the US and watching NFL games, Denver was dominant, and smart, and Kansas City flipped back and forth between good and meh. Denver started making a lot of management mistakes, and KC now is so good they're tiresome. And there are a lot of similar cases, but in every case the difference was making good decisions.
In the Prem, ManCity got bought by unlimited bags o'cash, so made a similar transition, but the difference was the money (though they made smart decisions with it).
But big agree on the final point: while I think MLS budgeting makes for a more competitive product, it could do with a lot of simplifying.

 

If the winter break is going to be in December and January MLS should do Leagues Cup (if it's still around) the entire month of January. Play in Mexico and Southern part of US. That would eliminate the "but games aren't played in Mexico". It also shortens the time players would be inactive at mid season point.

Or do an MLS Is Back style tournament in January in Southern US to cut that inactivity time down. This would help greatly in CCC. MLS goes into CCC in preseason mode coming back after 2-3 months being inactive under current schedule. With the new schedule they are planning and by having some type of tournament in January it would help MLS participants in CCC go in from the start with the same rhythm and intensity as every other league in the area.