Thinking about it, and how the semi-pro/Regional leagues have to qualify for the tournament in the early part of the year, when it is cold. How about making the US Open Cup a 2 year tournament for lower divisions (not full professionals) Say Most Regional leagues play their elimination games through the year and then narrow those down to 32 or 64; then the following year start them up against the pro teams (USL/NASL/MLS) in may-June. That way we avoid the cold weather. One big problem that I see already (other than it breaks away from tradition) is that some of the 32/64 teams that may qualify say in 2011 for the 2012 Open Cup may go out of business during the offseason I also would think that there is a huge roster turnover in regional league teams.
Does anybody know of a club tournament anywhere in the world that is held less often than once a year?
what about having the round of 32 after the MLS season and make it soccer's version of march madness?
Then you lose all the PDL teams, and all the USL and NASL seasons have been over for longer than most MLS teams.
USL and NASL play into late October. only the last 32 would be after the mls season. PDL clubs would still play through august sept oct if they were still in the tournament.
And MLS Cup isn't until November. Not with the team that got them there, PDL teams are mainly made up of college kids on summer vacation who would be in the middle of their college season at that point of the season.
US Soccer needs to find a sponsor for the tournament. Make the grand prize bigger and the US Open Cup better. Getting rid of the MLS Qualifying is #1. Moving it after the MLS season is not the right thing to do.
did a little research and it would be very easy to move the leagues around to have an end of season us open cup final (16 teams)
And the sub-10K number that Colorado got in April due to a surprise snowstorm? You don't think that's going to be an issue in February in most of the markets?
not really. It's just one game. right now MLS starts March 15. A bad time to start a new season considering March Madness is taking place. you could just move the start of the season up a couple of weeks
Hey Dundee9, good to see where you are coming with this. But I think starting in February or February 15th is not going to happen when you have three Canadian teams in MLS in 2012, Seattle and Portland now, not enough teams in the southern end of the USA. FC Dallas, Houston, LA, SJ. Don't forget that Chivas-USA shares the Home Depot Center with the Galaxy, unless they will build a stadium of their own in the same town, or a different one. My opinion MLS is going to be fighting for time all over the place regardless of which sport it is. Not only are they fightning against March Madness, but the different College Basketball conference tournaments as well. The end of the NBA & NHL regular seasons. If anything, MLS should start at the beginning of March so they can fit in everything, but the US Open Cup games will still be mid week. At least they should be on Wednesdays. I understand what you are trying to do, but Middle of February I believe won't happen.
beginning of March would work. do u think having the final 16 teams from the US Open cup play after the end of the MLS season would work? could be called the US Open Cup Finals and marketed like the NCAA tournament.
Sadly no. Because then you have an off-season where the players need to rest up after a long and tough year. You also have to remember that there is the FIFA Club World Cup and if RSL wins the CONCACAF Champions League this year, they won't participate in the US Open Cup. Here is the thing you need to remember. College athletics doesn't have long seasons. Only a few months. They don't have home and away games against the same team twice when they play within their own conferences in the College Football seasons and neither does the College Basketball seasons. That's why the schedules are different. Why is it the FA Cup in England is played during the season? Because that's how it's been since the sport was created. I know it's not an educated response and not trying to sound Euro Snobbish, but if you take this tournament away from being a apart of the regular season then it makes no sense to have a quick one and done after the regular season is over. It's a good try to think like that, but it's not going to work. These are paid athletes that are creatures of habit. Just like the NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB, where they all know when the pre-season is, the start of the regular season and hoping to qualify for the playoffs. Good try though. Thinking outside of the box.
The US Cup should end before the MLS Playoffs start (arguably before the USL/NASL playoff start). So that is late September-Early October. PDL Clubs can not play that long. So really the Open Cup should end Mid August. Or have 2 US Open Cups (one for Amateur teams and one for Pro and Semi-pro teams) NPSL-USL-NASL-MLS But that would take away from the history of the "Open" cup.
The USSF for several years held a tournament for amateur teams. At the time, though, there was not much difference between the amateurs and the professionals. Maybe it's time to bring back such a competition.
It still exists, in fact all the states end up having two tournaments, an "open" and an "amateur", then they have regional play followed by a final four. IIRC, the state amateur tournaments get a lot more teams than the state open cups.