WITHOUT GETTING RID OF MLS CUP, how can MLS make the reg. season more important?

Wow, which Bigsoccer do you read?

“The bigsoccer (and FSW) consensus is that MLS sucks until it adopts a more Eurorrific format.”

?????

Are you kidding? The closest thing to a Bigsoccer consensus is that anyone who makes such claims is an ignorant “Eurosnob”, the dirtiest word on these boards!

Anyway, you pose a worthwhile question nonetheless, though without any obvious good answers.

 

I've said this before and I don't think its going to ever happen, but allowing 4 teams instead of 8 into the playoffs would make the regular season a lot more meaningfull and make the playoffs more prestigious. Right now there is no need for team to play out the last 4 or 5 games when they know they've already clinched. And technically, if a team loses a game, the main feeling is 'who care, we still have an 80% chance of advancing'.

 

The Supporters Shield is great and should receive more recognition than even the MLS Cup. But I do have one gripe with it. That is due to the schedules not being balanced. Why not "Supporters Shield East" and "Supporters Shield West"? Then a home and home between the two, perhaps after MLS Cup.

 

This is a solid solution.

Another solution is to have 6 teams into the playoff with the top seeds in each conference getting a bye. That would be their reward for doing so well in the regular season. And as the league expands and we get more teams, keep it at 6 teams, to lower the percentage of teams who get into the playoffs.

 

Some kind of "real" reward is necessary to make the regular season "seem" more important. I think suggestions #5 and 6 have the most potential. The other one's are nice, but at the end of the day aren't going to make much difference.

Giving a cash bonus would definatly make the players more focused on winning the supportors shield, but how much would it take? $20K, that's over $400K for the winning team, and does MLS have that kind of money lying around? Giving the top regular season team more of an advantage in the playoffs would be a good idea too.

Another option is for all the fans who believe that the regular season champions are the "real" champions to become missionaries and spread the word to all the non-believing fans. If the majority of the fans feel that the SS is of equal importance, then MLS and the players will act accordingly. I don't that this will happen b/c most fans (in total, not most fans on BS) will always look to MLS Cup as the "real" champion.

 

Good idea.

Too confusing to the casual fan and takes away from the "Big Event" aspect of MLS Cup.

These guys aren't exactly eager to play in these international events because there's no money in it for them. I don't see how this would provide any added motivation.

Can't hurt, not sure it helps any though.

Who's going to put the money up? Of course if they want to call it the "Philips Electronics MLS Cup", maybe whoring your name might be worth it. Then again, I think MLS at this point is still building its brand and MLS Cup is its signature event. I don't think I would mess with that name until it's ingrained in the the sports culture -- much like the Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl etc were until the NCAA decided to whore those names for the almighty $$$.

This is the one that could most easily be implemented. I would suggest 3 teams make the playoffs in each division, with 1 getting a bye. 2 & 3 play home and home, then the winner gets 1 home and home.

1 gets the advantage because all cards carry over, plus they'll be fresh where their first round opponent comes in after having played two tension packed games.

Big advantage for the team with the best record, but not impossible for whoever has to play them.

This to me preserves the playoff format and MLS Cup yet places significant weight on winning your division.

The NFL has something like this in place right now where the teams that get byes in week one of the playoffs have a huge advantage because they get to rest the extra week and have the home game.

 

I agree that going to 3 teams from each division would be the best way to go, although you might have to play a game on a Wednesday.

 

Who came up with the name Supporter's Shield anyway? It sounds like some kind of fan award. A good name would be a good place to start.

 

That's because it is a fan award.

 

I mean one that the fans won, like some kind of "spirit competition" back from high school football.

 

Part of the problem is that you're spelling it wrong.

It's not "Supporter's Shield" it's "Supporters' Shield"

Indicating that the shield comes from the many supporters of MLS and it's teams, both groups and individuals.

 

As I've posted on the MLS board:

I hate to break it to some of you, but the Supporters' Shield ranks right up there with the conference championships and defender of the year award in terms of importance.

As for Superdave's question - use the MFL playoff format.

 

Ridiculous hairsplitting aside, it is still an incredibly stupid name.

 

When these discussions come up, I always point out the same points.

1) MLS is trying to get to a playoff format that is consistant from year to year. They realize that changing the format 4 times in 8 years is not a good plan, and they are hoping that the current format can be used for a very long time. They have made this statement numerous times when announcing and defending the current format.

2) MLS plans on expanding. As the league expands, the number of teams in the playoffs will remain at 8. Therefore as the league goes to 12, 14, 16 teams, the percentage of playoff teams goes to 66%, 57% and 50%. I know this might be a few years off, but look back to my #1 as to why they choose 8 and stuck with it. The regular season will become much more meaningful as the league gets bigger and the percentage of playoff teams decreases.

3) At no point will all the MLS fans agree that any one format is the best. Therefore MLS must do what they can to create a format that will not change from year to year. They know that everyone won't agree on a format, but they're assuming that all the fans can agree that the format needs to be consistant from year to year instead of changing every year.

4) The Supporters' Shield (and subsequently the regular season) will when MLS publicizes/celebrates the SS winner more, bonuses are given to the SS winning team and there are more teams in the league. Also, a single table (another thread in and of itself) with a balanced schedule (16 teams, 30 games per team) would help the SS credibility.

 

Do one of 2 things...

1) Get rid of East and West and make it one straight table and assign playoffs according to numbers (like 2002 season), except cut down to 4 teams in the playoffs. (1 v 4, 2 v 3)

or

2) Make the winner of the regular season East play the Winner of the West in the MLS Cup. So this season's MLS cup would be Shitcago vs San Ho (which it'll probably be anyways)

just my 2 cents.

 

On the issue of the Supporters' Shield, it's really not that complicated. It's either the SS or MLS Cup - you can't have two major championships for one competition. Since we can't axe the playoffs just yet (no relegation), MLS Cup is the obvious choice.

Once again, as posted elsewhere:

 

This is what I believe would be the best solution for the playoff format. The conference winner gets a bye and the 2nd and 3rd place teams duke it out home and home for the right to play the higher seeded #1 in their home ground. Winners go to MLS Cup and everyone's happy. We can have eight teams in the playoffs when MLS is at least a 16 team league.

 

Let's see.
Saturday 1- Last game of the season
Saturday 2- first game of playoffs
Saturday 3- second game of playoffs
Saturday 4- 1st game of Conference finals

What's the conference winner supposed to do for 3 weeks? I'm not sure a 3 week vacation would be particularly helpful.

Now - if you reversed it, and had a one off game between 2 and 3 for the right to play 1 in a home and home, I'd like it a lot better.

 

Nope. Can't do that. Absolutely no way

 

I'm no NHL fan, but I don't think the the Prince of Wales Trophy comes anywhere near the Stanley Cup in terms of prestige:

The rest of my post writes itself...

 

1. Make all the playoff stages en route to MLS Cup single game knockouts hosted by the higher placed teams. No home and away. Supposedly the playoffs don't draw anyway, and this would favor the better regular season teams.

2. Cash incentives for teams hosting those first round playoff games.

3. Cash prize for winning the Supporters Shield.

4. Expansion - the silver bullet, so long as the gun isn't pointed at the foot.

5. I haven't ruled out promotion/relegation yet - with MLS invested in the "B" tier. THAT would heat up games at the bottom of the tables.

Count me among the fans who believe MLS's regular season/playoffs/Cup Final format is far superior to the traditional Euro league model. And far more sensible for the survival of the league.