Indeed, oversized playoffs - I see MLS is still over 50% - pretty much guarantee a larger set of teams is going to be champion.
Or the Detroit Lions. Must be nice to be abject failures season after season and still feed on the teat of your league's structure.
I had a really long comment in draft that I was struggling to find the time and mental space to make coherent that you’ve succinctly summarized here. Because of MLS budgets the gap between the top and bottom is more of a game of inches. Yes, some teams spend heavily on DPs, make good use of TAM/GAM/Homegrowns/etc. but a sizable chunk of the 25 man roster (or whatever) is pretty similar, talent-wise, across the league. So that means that (relatively) small good choices can make the difference between top of the table and wooden spoon: injuries, managers, smart allocation of the advantages MLS provides to those that are savvy enough to exploit it or luck out with it (e.g. homegrowns, etc.). Especially with regards to any single season. So while I stick with my dissent towards any team being able to be champion every year, I will concede that any team can be the wooden spoon winner every year, for these very reasons. MLS roster budgets will eventually outgrow this: even if they keep the single entity, salary “budget” approach, spending more money means that there will be far more variety in how teams spend it and who they invest in. At that point, you’ll probably begin to see far more stratification of teams. But that’s a ways off yet.
MLS, NFL and NBA have 14 teams in the playoffs and NHL 16 right? I think there were meant to be 29 teams in MLS this season but Covid and Sacramento wrecked that.
and that is why not serious league. or coaching is bad or players are bad or just combination of both
because it is just do to not quality not because other teams are better. it is just how american sports are i really can not get into american football or basketball or baseball. what is it about parity that is good i mean people cared more when yankees were in world series and beating other teams by hearth break then they care now that many teams are winning why because that auro about yankees was the reason why they were winning now everybody is like ok great. nfl patriots going everywhere and expecting to win was also a aura and now it is like just like every other team that can play boring but they can play on same level as other teams basketball no lakers spurs or celtics just other teams who are building history for that team. same with mlsit is like just another team that can play with everybody else that is just not appealing it is for building fans and making them pay for tickets but does not really move the needle with average sport fan in usa
Parity is a big reason why I view MLS as highly competitive and fascinating to follow. I can barely watch Euro league soccer these days as it just bores me so much.
facinating lol watching because everybody can beat everybody because it is designed like that but facinating to watch all play the same and with same plan lol
teams like atalanta or would be like any other team there would be no facination with them at all if they played in america because it would be like any other team doing what league was designed to do just look at texas teams dallas and houston they are just there to play and have a team but no effort because they are happy doing what other teams are doing
FC Dallas is not like any other team. They have a standout academy and are currently featuring an extremely hot striker who made an instant impact with the national team. They’re still fighting for a playoff spot. I’d rather watch them this weekend than any number of European clubs.
Ummm......I think SKC would like to challenge this claim....... SKC beat the Red Bulls in the 2017 USOC final.
exacly you making my point fighting for play off spot YOU KNOW THE LAST ONE lol where all the teams are just worst then the last play off team lol
Yeah for over half the league qualifying for the playoffs! Meanwhile, after a stuttering covid-related start to their first season since promotion to the Football League, I see Sutton United have won their last two League Two games. There's a good chance they'll keep up the record of no team being relegated back down to the National League in their first season since promotion to the Football League. In a similar vein, the top two in League Two are Forest Green and Harrogate, two of the most improbable Football League teams ever.
Wow, you’re telling me a fourth division team won two games? One of the best sports stories I’ve heard.
Everyone has a right to watch and enjoy what ever they want of course. But what you said here is actually factually wrong. 4 of the "Big 5" European leagues had new champions. Lille in France won for the first time in forever, and beat moneybags PSG in the process. Inter the first time in 10 years, Athletico the first time in four I think. And yes Man City have been there but they didn't win it in 2019-20 and there are four sides with genuine title ambitions in England this year. In Italy the title is wide open, Spain will probably be between the Madrid sides but top four spots are available with Barca in crisis. Doesn't seem boring to me. Of course you can still choose not to watch the Euro leagues, that's fine, but saying they are "Boring" because they aren't competitive is about as silly as someone saying "I can't watch MLS because (fill in excuse that you hate because it's not true here)".
I made no claims about title winners, so I'm not sure what you're trying to correct. And I didn't say those leagues aren't competitive. I praised MLS's brand of competitiveness and stated that by comparison European play bores me more often than not. I'd suggest a more careful reading next time.
Now that Chris Hughton has been fired the two Nottingham clubs have gone through 71 managers since Jan 1, 1993 when Brian Clough and Neal Warnock were on either side of the River Trent. And you can see what good it's done them. Most of it is down to impatience. For instance, Craig Short was fired by Notts County in October 2010 because they were outside the playoff spots in League One.
What you're missing is that most people watch a sport because they enjoy the sport itself, not the league format. Once you get used to however leagues establish champions and whatnot, you might--very often do--get invested in that format, whether it's single-table or playoffs, but that's not what drew you to being a fan in the first place. Yankees fans care about the Yankees winning the World Series even though they are competing for it against the same 29 teams every year because they grew up enjoying baseball and cheering for the Yankees. Nebraskans like me care(d)* about the Huskers winning a national championship because we grew up in Nebraska where college football is king, not because we were in love with the weird hybrid system of collating two different polls and sending different teams to different post-season exhibition games based on rankings. Etc. *We're not very good anymore.
As a DC United fan, if there's a team I'd like to see win the MLS Cup in a year where we're not going to, FC Dallas would probably be it.