Wynalda wants MLS to change it's season to match rest of world...

Can we start with the title and make it accurate to what you're actually talking about? Change "rest of world" to "England, Germany, Spain, and Italy's" season.

 

The "part of Europe" calendar that is...

 

I really don’t understand the thought process of changing the schedule. You’re going to start the year in August, right when the nfl starts. Then you’re going to be head to head with football, hockey, and basketball for most of the season, and your playoffs compete with the NBA, NHL playoffs and the mlb regular season. I think going on that schedule is an absolutely terrible idea.

On any given Sunday in November in Los Angeles, there can be 2 nfl games, 2 nhl games, and an nba game. Soccer just isn’t popular enough yet that it would be able to stand up to those other sports. It might be fine in places like Kansas City, Portland, and places that don’t have nfl or nba teams, but how many people are going to stay home instead of going to a soccer game when is 20 degrees and a blizzard outside?

Personally, one of the things that’s always draw me to soccer has been that nothing was going on in the summer. I’m a big mlb fan but I can follow soccer one or two days a week while keeping up with baseball. If I’m being honest, I pay way less attention to mls once the nfl starts.

I tend to agree that the schedule change would make it way easier for MLS to become a top league, but I think people like Wynalda are wayyy overestimating soccer’s current place in the American sports landscape and I don’t believe the change would work right now.

 

For over ten years the ASL had a September to May schedule. How did that work out for them?

 

He's referring to a fall-spring calendar so MLS can align with the international transfer windows, which would greatly benefit the league's ability to participate in the global market. MLS is almost non existent on the transfer market, both in selling for profit and buying to improve as MLS teams want to buy when most leagues are mid season and other teams want to buy from MLS when it's in mid season.

I think in your OP you implied playing games games Dec-Feb. Wynalda has suggested a winter break, not unlike the Bund. I've always thought playing the most important games in good April/May weather makes more sense than having them in late Nov/early Dec.

Anyhow, MLS doesn't have to listen to Wynalda if he wins.

 

I disagree with your reasoning here. I think MLS hasn't aggressively participated in the transfer market because it hasn't been interested in doing so. Pre-TAM, there wasn't really room to do it anyway, as teams wanted continuity from their limited DP spots.

 

A month. Hoffenheim (the team I follow) will play on Dec. 16th then not again until Jan 13th.

 

I like the schedule as is in terms of fitting in the domestic sports landscape. Playoffs in November and MLS Cup in December has become one of my favorite sport stretches of the year.

 

I won't buy a season ticket for DC United if that means I need to stand outside in 30 degree weather in December, January and February. I've been buying season tickets since 2013 and intend to keep doing so but don't see multiple regular season games in freezing cold temperatures as a good value for my money. I have no problem walking around or playing soccer in 30 degree weather but it's miserable being outside for 4 hours to tailgate and watch a game for anything other than an MLS Cup.

Keep in mind that 30 degrees in January is warm in places like Montreal, Toronto, Chicago, Salt Lake City, and St. Paul. 30 degrees is pretty normal in DC, Philadelphia, New York, Columbus, Kansas City, and Denver. Seattle and Portland are usually in the 40's and rainy, which is awful. That leaves Orlando, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, and San Jose as MLS cities that don't have truly crummy weather in December, January, and February. Atlanta and Vancouver play indoors.

Wynalda is clueless and unfit for the job. He has said nothing about better developing the talent we already have. Just gimmicks from a some crummy eurosnob thread on any back-bench website.

 

Brazil plays a "summer" schedule which for them is the winter.

 

Given the temperatures in even the furthest south point of Brazil, this makes sense.

Again, the best schedule for any particular league is based on local factors, particularly the weather in its hottest and coldest locations.

 

Which is why having the US go to a European winter schedule (which doesn't apply to Norway, Sweden and Finland who all still play in the summer) is stupid. Even with the MLS summer schedule, there have been some very cold games (MLS Cup 2013 rings a bell), so imagine that type of weather in January/February or snow games like what we had in April during those times. Once or twice a year is interesting, but for most of the schedule is just plain stupid.

 

I've actually heard that some European countries, like Germany, would prefer playing more games in the Summer. There's much better attendance.

 

Heresy! Shun the unbeliever!

 

Blessed are the cheesemakers....

 

In 2017 the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Final was 48 days before the last day of the Premier League season, and MLS Cup will be 48 days after the end of the regular season. Therefore if MLS Cup was played when the Premier League season ended, the MLS regular season could end on the Sunday in between the NCAA Semifinals and Final. The Masters, Kentucky Derby, and Indianapolis 500 are all one day events. Playoffs in April and May would be competing with the NBA and NHL. I'd rather MLS compete with MLB that ends during the MLS playoffs and football that is mostly on the weekend than compete with the NBA, NHL, and NCAA sports (which are off during the summer and less popular in spring so they don't provide major competition with MLS from April through late August). Maybe if at least 10 of the best 100 players who change leagues were coming to MLS then I would care about lining up the transfer window, but now I don't

 

#edmontonnot4mls

 

The same discussion could be made about many of the Scandinavian leagues and much of the former USSR.

The Gulf Stream has an enormous influence on moderating much of Western and Central Europe's weather. And example Rome is actually NORTH of a city like Columbus, where I live. The climate is significantly different.

 

Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia play March/April to November. The Russian Premier League has a 3 month winter break.

I know about the Gulf Stream, I'm English, without it we'd have winters like Norway.

 

As I recall, Russia used to play a spring summer fall season.

 

They used to but switched to the "FIFA calendar" 7 or 8 years ago.