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

Next year's regular season is simple. First place: a new Cadillac. Second place: a set of steak knives. Third place: you're fired.

Murf

 

Well...we could do it like that then, I mean it's the same concept anyway. The top team in each conference gets a bye, while the #2 and #3 seeds have a single knockout game instead of an aggregate-goal series.

Same thing.

 

vaguely interesting fact:
4 out of 7 m.l.s. cup winners won the shield in the same season.

 

IMO, this is perfect. Good thinking.

 

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

Great contribution to the discussion without attacking the original poster's contribution. Allow me to follow on to this quoted portion of your post. You've hit on the same factors that make some a national league's clubs competitive internationally. Now, what is the magic element that keeps the smaller clubs' fans interested throughout the season? It stems from the fact that the league did not create the club, but rather vice-versa. The great-grandfathers of the fans founded the team to represent their community rather than an entire television market or even larger area. They are the club, the club is them (ex. Hellas Verona in Serie B: "Players, trainers, owners, they come and go, but we are forever, forever yellow-blue.") But I am not saying this kind of support cannot be created in MLS. Further, there are other factors. Even if the club is out of the championship race the fans still want to see the club: 1) beat a few traditional rivals, 2) win other trophies/honors like the Worthington Cup, the League Cup, make the final of the FA Cup (like Middlesbrough) entrance to the Champions League, UEFA Cup or eligibility for the Intertoto, 3) avoid relegation and/or help send a rival down. So over time as we expand the league and grow larger and more dedicated support, and as we build up the tradition and prestige of additional trophies and maybe even continengtal competition berths, fans of teams clearly out of winning the Supporters Shield or eliminated from the knock-out cups still have other honors to keep them interested. Personally it did bother me too much that the Galaxy were crap in the league because I knew that in the knock-out, they had just as good a chance as anyone of making the final, as the Quakes now will.

 

And if you're in a mid-major college basketball conference, you don't care about the regular season championship, you want to win the conference tournement to get the automatic bid to the big dance.

If your in a big conference, neither matter much, only the NCAA tourni matters.

 

Eliminate "allocations" and divide up the following year's transfer money based on final regular season position.
1 - 20 %
2- 18
3- 16
4- 14
5- 12
6- 8
7- 6
8- 4
9- 2
10- 0

This would not cost the same as giving the players bonuses as, presumably, the league already budgets some money for transfers. Obviously the downside of this would come if one team consistently finished near the bottom (though they would still get high draft picks) but the financial advantage would not be so great for the top clubs (as it is in Europe) that overthrowing the powers that be would be impossible. Of course, casual fans aren't likely to turn out for a late season game because 40,000 dollars in transfer money is on the line, but it would give us something to talk about on these boards.

 

That opinion.

I've lived my entire life in Big XII (or Big XIII) country and I'll guarantee you that the conference title and conference tourney matter to the basketball and football teams matter. Basketball is a perfect example of where a long season (approx what, 40 games?) has three champions although they are split into conferences. The conference title, the conference tourney and the NCAA tourney. And they all matter quite a lot to the teams, but there are rewards for winning each title. If MLS/USSF created rewards for each title in question, they would matter to the players a lot more and therefore matter to the fans more.

 

Guess I'll continue off topic a bit. I'll agree with you in College Football conference titles carry a lot of weight, but I'd argue that the reason for that is the lack of a real post season tournement, so the conference title is the top title for most schools (except for the championship game teams).

In college hoops, conference titles are nice, but not near important as the NCAA Tourni title.

Your rewards idea is a good one, but there aren't any to give out right now. No international club competitions worth participating exist for MLS teams now and there is no extra money sitting around for bonuses.

 

I think rivalries in MLS will develop over time with history, and will be fostered by the division setup of the league. For example, SJ vs. LA will be much more intense next year, because of the history.

I would like division records to have some meaning. Being 14-2 in the ACC is more important than a 24-4 overall record. While overall record should remain the most important in MLS, division standings should have some significance. Maybe be a tiebreaker of some sort.

The playoff "problem" right now is simply a numbers game. Mediocre seasons get rewarded with playoff berths. Expansion will solve the problem.

Players should get bonuses based on their playoff performance.

Perhaps the top 4 teams could get byes into a round of the Open Cup where there starts to be money involved.

 

No Dave. The traditional double is Championship & Cup. It has always been that way and always will be. The SS is just a "feel good trophy." Nothing more, nothing less...

 

Tell me, what did Grasshopper Zurich accomplish in their eight double winning seasons?

Last I checked, they won the domestic cup and earned more points in league play than any other team in the top domestic division.

 

I guess we can argue about the technicalities all day long. Where we differ is that I view the entire MLS season (and post-season) as one single competition, and the MLS Cup winner as the one true champion. Feel free to disagree, but celebrating the SS winner is like celebrating the leading 800m runner after 400 meters.

The league seems to agree with me, as they barely even mention the SS winner. Once again, just because some posters on bigsoccer feel that the SS is important, doesn't automatically make it so (especially with an unbalanced schedule).

As I said before, the SS is nice to have, just don't sell it to me as a major championship.

 

Attack? Getting a little sensible there Dave? Too many purse fights with numbskulls like Axis Alex and Fresh Tuna on the politics board?

 

I chalk that up to the bizarre way that Switzerland runs their league.

I understand it, but that doesn't mean that I have to like it.

Having a season in two distinct phases freaks me out, especially when one (the second phase) is regarded as distinctly more important than the first. I can deal with having a season with an in and an out, and I can deal with playoffs, if we have to, but don't tell me that the shield doesn't mean anything.

Damn those swiss, why couldn't they stick to providing a military force for the Vatican, and leave soccer alone!?

z

 

Actually, we've finally switched to a "normal" league system, and I'm glad we did. 10 teams, 36 games - no more qualifying round and final round.

It does mean something - it's just not up there with MLS Cup and the Open Cup.

NYM31 summarized it pretty well: