I was watching a MLS game a few weeks ago and it was mentioned how MLS needs to do something to avoid losing players almost every year because of the Confederations Cup, World Cup, Gold Cup, and World Cup Qualifying. Is there any possible way MLS can avoid having its rosters drained for a large part of the season because of international competitions? The US national team spends about a week training before a game. They did this last week and now are in a tournament that is lasting almost all of July. This is then followed by a WCQ on August 17th and then a WCQ on September 3rd. That means some of the top players in MLS will be gone for a good part of the season. My opinion is the league should have an off week during international competitions and play as many games as possible when these competitions are going on. Do they already do this? Playing a fall to spring schedule is not possible if the league wants to survive. No one would go to games when college football, college basketball, NFL football, NBA basketball, MLB, and NHL hockey are all going on at the same time.
Well, they do in October/November. In any event, there are some things they can do. * Reduce the playoffs to 4 teams (keeping it single elimination) - this frees up two weekends. * Start the season earlier and/or finish later. * Put the regular season back to 30 games like it was last year (it's 32 now) * Talk to FIFA and get all summer international tournaments/qualifiers played in June, and not allow any in July or August. This way MLS could go dark in June (say between Memorial and Independence Day if they so chose) and have no worries for July and August. * Play a couple more Wednesday games. * Double up on holiday weekends (Saturday/Monday), obviously avoiding cross country trips for the second game
I always thought that would be a good idea since it would make the regular season count, but it could hurt attendance when a team is elimiated from the playoffs earlier in the season. I could be wrong though. THis might not be the best idea to solve the problem. MLS also needs to be played mostly in the summer to earn more tv time.
With parity its very hard to be completly out until the last 1/3 of the season. The only way you can truly be out is if you just plain suck, and that could happen wether you let in 10 or 4 teams.
Of course, if you have too many teams in the playoffs, then aren't teams who are already in playing meaningless games as well? There's no real difference between 2nd and 3rd for example.
Aside fromt he obvious mid-season break and starting earlier (both of which I like).....here's an idea for all the euro-bashers.... CONCACAF plays pretty much the most international games annually of all the confederations. Europeans might play 5-6 games a year (USA can be up to 22 in recent years) in non-tournament years. Also, given that the good CONCACAF players (excluding Mexico and USA) in MLS are actually not that great, an equivalent European player would not likely be in contention for their respective home nation....thus freeing them up for more dates in the year that CONCACAF players miss. Conclusion: Don't fill MLS up with the 'cream' of CONCACAF, use similarly talented europeans who are not in the international reckoning with their country (Terry Cooke, for example). It would save losing those players for countless games every year. Of course, Europeans tend to be more expensive, but compare that with paying a player less but them missing 5-8 games a year on international duty. It's something to think about.....
One of the problems often cited for players in MLS by outsiders (Euro club coaches, Juergen Klinsmann, others) and many here, is that they don't get enough matches each season.. Then again, some in Europe and elsewhere perhaps get too many but I don't think MLS will want to reduce the season.
Only way to really do it is to do what Garber has plans for in the future. That is: switch to the international calendar, which kinda lines up with the NBA calendar. I still think that is many years away but it's in Garber's mind, as well as one day merging with the Mexican league. The latter is probably just a pipe dream for him right now but he has said that in the media before.
I hope that never happens. Honestly though, what time slot will MLS get on ESPN in November when they could be showing ACC basketball, or SEC football?
Here's what Peter Wilt had to say about it. If MLS wants to retain a 32 game schedule in the current window (April through October), it can not go dark for international games. There are simply not enough dates unless teams play games with only one off day in between games. I believe playing two games in three days would hurt the quality of play more than playing occassionally without international call ups. There is actually an important benefit to playing games during international windows. Playing games during these periods force teams to use more of their players from the expanded 28-man rosters. Last night's game was a great opportunity to see Leonard, Scott and Lubos from the start of a game. Long term, two things can change this. First, which we are seeing, is the development of team controlled stadium leases and second is the possibility of changing the schedule to match the international calendar. The first situation will provide many more date options. This year for example, the Fire can not play a home game for a 53 day stretch from mid August to early October due to scheduling conflicts at Soldier Field. The second situation is purely speculative and not likely to happen in the near future. There may be opportunities for some (maybe not all) MLS teams to switch one to three of their Saturday night games during international windows to Wednesdays in April and May. This would cause teams to play three games a week for most of the season (with the exception of the international windows) and would hurt the quality of play as well as the revenue. Unfortunately, there is not an easy answer to this. If there were, it would have already been enacted.