Note: I'm not affiliated with Beyond the Pitch nor am I promoting their podcast. Just sharing the link to the interview. http://www.beyondthepitch.net/podcasts/edition/index.cfm/beyond-the-pitch/2011/10/31/eric-wynalda/ Season starts in early September to early December then 2 months off. After the Super Bowl continue and then finish around June. Says the problem is the important months (the playoffs) are up against NFL, World Series, NCAA Football. Wait until football: NFL, College etc goes away. Playoffs should not be played in horrible weather with an orange ball. Says 2nd component is that the players are not included in the Transfer Market. It is not fair that players can't leave when given the opportunity because MLS is in the middle of the season and that player is too valuable to be replaced. Twellman, Kljestan, Dempsey. MLS players who have interest in January by Euro sides are low buys. Meaning because the Euro Season is midway the offers are too low for MLS and thus rejected by the league. Friendlies vs big time Euro sides can continue and will make up in the revenue department. Says scouts come in June and see low quality games because of the intense heat. A lot ex-MLSers are/were very angry about the way they were treated by the league with their transfer. Possibility of MLS getting young players on loan from big clubs like AC Milan if MLS were on schedule. Look at bringing in young Mexican talent who are not playing at their club because of the enormous pressure to win now in Mexico. No one wants to play in MLS because they're "stuck" here due to the calender. MLS has locked themselves out of the business of soccer. Not sure on some of his ideas but at least he talked about how he would do it. And gave reasons why etc. Also I was not sure where to post this. Here or MLS News & Analysis. Technically it isn't my proposal, so feel free to move mods.
Good interview. He definitely has interesting ideas and outlines some problems that MLS is going to have to confront sooner or later.
Make it late July to early December, late February to late May and I'm on board. The playoffs up against the behemoth that is American football, in poor weather, is just frustrating.
I would rather have the important part of our season up against the unimportant part of the NFL/NHL season than have the important part of our season up against the NBA and Stanley Cup playoffs. The transfer market argument doesn't exist, there are two transfer windows everywhere, and ours line up pretty decently with the rest of the world. The loan possibility, in my opinion, is higher because we play when Milan is off You're going to have to show your work that players are 'stuck' here. Players move all the time, through both transfer windows
I would rather have what Wynalda was suggesting than the current format. He had a good point about the LA- NYRB first leg having a bad pitch, it wouildn't matter if it were regular season, but for a playoff game it was pretty bad. I'll take a 6 week break like the Germans, too.
How does the transfer market argument not exist? In the Euro preseason, they want to sign guys who can go through at least part of the preseason/training camp, and adapt to their surrounding. MLS clubs would naturally be hesitant to let a player go in the middle of their season. If FCD sold John, how would they have replaced him heading towards the end of the season and playoffs, as an example? The winter transfer window gives Euro clubs(most) an opportunity to fill out their roster before the 2nd half of the season. If you bid for an MLS player, chances are he's not in form, and hasn't played in a game for 2+ months. That's different from a Euro standpoint, then going after players who are playing right through the end of Dec. As for player being locked in, or feeling that way, it does/has happened. There's a reason Dempsey has said he'll never come back to MLS. Yes Fulham bought him, but other offers had been denied prior by MLS. Dempsey Mathis Twellman DeRo Donovan Klejstan S Joseph Ream(non too happy NY rejected 2 bids. Has rejected extension offers because he doesn't want to be locked in any longer) You may not agree, but yes some players do feel that way. No it's not all, or even close to the majority(the majority will never sniff Europe). But we have two recent examples in John and Ream, of players rejecting extensions because they fear they won't be able to leave later. I understand the business aspect from both sides, but the worst business strategy in my mind, would be to end up losing guys like John or Ream for nothing at all, especially when NY has rejected a rumored 4M bid for Ream. Losing him for nothing would be idiotic.
How did the timing of the transfer window affect their decisions? Seems like they would have done the same thing even if the transfer windows were flipped.
That was more to the point of players being afraid of being held hostage, if a good deal came by in the future. Every guy I named had offers rejected. Again though, this doesn't apply to the majority of MLS. If you're commanding attention from clubs abroad, in this country you're probably a NT prospect, if not already on the team. Euro clubs tend to make larger bids in the summer, because they have time before the season to work them in, get familiar, and then have the whole season to build chemistry. This is tough for MLS because even though the offers are generally larger in the summer, it's the middle of the season, so teams are more hesitant to sell. Tougher for an MLS club to replace a star mid season. Then looking at the Jan window, the offers are generally less, because Euro clubs are in the middle of their season. they're usually trying to just add one or two players to help, not rebuild a roster. Yet Jan is obviously the prefered time period for an MLS club to sell, given it's the off season. Yet by the nature of the clubs making the offer being in the middle of their season, combined with the MLS player not being in form(middle of off season), the bids will be less. Where this goes? I don't know. I understand both sides. But as I said, losing players for nothing is shooting yourself in the foot as a feeder league(or somewhat of one). We might end up having more young teenage prospects skipping MLS all together, as they can generally move more freely once in Europe, or you'll have what we are seeing now with Ream and John, where they reject extension offers, and MLS/their club risks getting nothing when they walk. It will be interesting to see what happens with guys like Agudelo/Gil/Kitchen, who are on rookie contracts, and haven't signed extensions, yet have had Euro clubs interested for years. Gil bypassed Arsenal to go to MLS. Kitchen bypassed Ajax to go to MLS. Do they sign a 4 year extension, where transferring is usually decided only by MLS/club, and they risk being locked in as offers come, or do they reject the extension all together, like Ream/John, to leave their options open? As for the timing of transfers, MLS will make the most by accepting bids in the summer. Yet, that makes it much tougher on the MLS club losing that player. We'll see.... Ream has one year left. It was rumored NY turned down a 4M offer this summer. Will they get an offer that big in Jan? They'll get a lower one next summer, if any at all, because Reams contracts is up a few months later. IMO, if NY does not sell Ream this winter, they won't get a dime for him. If reports are to be believed, the summer was the time to sell. If they don't get close to 4M, or worse, end up getting nothing by not selling this winter, how is that good business if you lose both you;'re starting CB and 4M? That's the catch-22. MLS as a business wants to hold onto its top talent. Yet if it doesn't work with that talent, if their intent is to play in Europe or elsewhere, MLS risks losing the talent, and getting nothing in return. That's why, and it's my gut feeling from everything I've read, but looking at a guy like Brek, I think he sat down with FCD before signing the extension, and explained his motives. I will play for you and want to play for you, until a better opportunity comes. Then, by signing that extension, with intensions already discussed, FCD will be open to selling if a good offer comes, and because of the extension FCD will end up getting much more in return. If Brek thought FCD would not sell him, I doubt he would have signed the extension, and he'd be doing what Ream/John are doing, where FCD might not have gotten a dime for Brek, which would be a huge mistake.
In most cases--most notably Dempsey--that was because the league didn't feel like getting bent over and drilled with no lubrication. Dempsey just chose to be a punk about it, when it turned out that the league knew what it was doing all along. For Kljestan also, the league set a very reasonable transfer fee, announced it transparently from the outset, and Celtic, being relatively poor, just couldn't/wouldn't pay. They pretty much wasted everyone's time pretending to be the deep-pocketed club they no longer are. For Twellman and Joseph, they got new contracts out of it, which is what one suspects they wanted all along, etc etc.
If MLS was a girl: Group #1- MLS is somewhat attractive as is and she lets me sing to her. Group #2- MLS is not bad and is starting to grow some boobies. Group #3- MLS is hideous, would not touch her with a 10 foot pole. Group #4- MLS is a goth chick, I like her but others think she is too different. Group #5- MLS is a goth chick, I don't like her because she is too different. Group #6- MLS is a cyber chick and so I can't really interact with her. Group #7- MLS is not southern so I am going to stay away from her. Group #8- MLS is poor and needs to buy some new foreign designer outfits. Group #9- MLS doesn't really get along with the other girls at school. Group #10- MLS is a winter to fall fling. Group #11- MLS is a fall to summer fling. I think in the whole scheme of things, MLS has a lot of other things to worry about besides whether she is a winter-fall fling or a fall-summer fling. I bet MLS's parents feel the same. Yes, MLS might get more dates with some guys if she is a fall-summer fling but she can do some things in other areas that can get her more dates too.
Eric isn't exactly coming up with anything new or ground breaking. Brian Straus wrote about this last year, complete Don Garber lip service quotes. He also came up with pretty much the exact same schedule. http://www.aolnews.com/2010/11/26/switch-to-international-calendar-could-shift-mls-cup-final-to-ea BTW, Straus isn't exactly on board with Eric. I also find it funny that Wynalda, in one of his tweets, says the climate in Illinois is the same as Germany's. That should tell you right there how different our weather is. One major European country has similar weather to one of our regions. Now imagine making a schedule that takes into account the weather for all our states and Canadian provinces with MLS teams. Even a break isn't going to save you from many games played in terrible weather. We don't have enough Southern teams to schedule around the cold in October, November, December, and February. I think back to that CCL game between RSL and the Crew in Columbus in February. 25 degrees and a wind chill of 15. Terrible game with maybe 4,000 there. Will Eric address that? How will this effect the U.S. Open Cup? Or is it all about the transfer market with him.
He did address that. He said we're going to have bad weather either way, but at least the most important games(playoffs) won't be played in shitty conditions, as they have.
No. He didn't address it. We're talking about a current season that runs mid-March to mid-November. He's talking about February to June, and September to early December. Basically, you'd trade away July and August for a little bit more of November, December, February, and March. Playing in those conditions is one thing, but it's all a moot point if the fans don't show. Wynalda's proposal to start up the week after the Super Bowl means starting on or about Valentine's Day. That kind of schedule would almost necessitate starting the season (calendar year) in the south.
The Denver metro area has had between a foot and two feet of snow in the last 10 days. That should be enough to convince people playing any later/earlier into the cold months is a bad idea.
I don't necessarily think that a fall-to-spring schedule is practical or the right idea for MLS, but I think Wynalda actually presents an argument for considering that goes beyond "that's how everyone else does it". Yes, "that's how everyone else does it" is part of the argument, but he actually presents a business side to why that might make sense instead of the fanboy use. I'm not sure that I agree...but it's plausible. At the very least, it's an actual rational argument that (hypothetically) can be proven or disproven rather than vague mentions of respect.
Wynalda, thanks for all the rep. You calling me out on Twitter made me a star. Child. The transfer windows don't line up perfectly? Ok, fine. But they don't line up perfectly anywhere! Your argument that MLS teams don't want to lose their best players to Europe isn't because it's the middle of the season, it's because don't want to lose their best players to Europe. The transfer argument was invented by Eurosnobs who lost all their other arguments.
True, but the transfer market issues aren't really related to MLS's calendar, but rather MLS's attitude toward transfers. Simply aligning schedules won't magically solve the issues he's talking about.
I think his point is that if our off-seasons were aligned, MLS would get much better offers for their players. MLS has probably felt they are being low balled by many European teams. But if we had the same off-season, MLS would get far more lucrative offers. This would show many MLS owners the value of player development. Also, MLS would be more willingly to sell players since they would have an easier time acquiring players, particularly yanks abroad, to replace those that left. While that is all well and good, it still doesn't really tackle the pink elephant in the room. The weather. Even a January break and scheduling games in the South isn't going to save us from having to play in ridiculously cold weather and snow in many areas. Our league is more Northern based. We can't avoid it. You are trading July and August for far worse months to play in.
Is MLS putting a gun to their heads when they sign the contracts or something? I can't stand listening to professional soccer players whine about being forced to honor contracts they voluntarily signed. So Dempsey will never sign with MLS again? What a joke. He wouldn't be where he is today without MLS.