The one good reason MLS will (perhaps) one day establish a summer off-season (and run a season similar to what Germany uses, but perhaps/likely with a longer winter break) is if those who collectively run the single-entity business of MLS think such a move will be beneficial for their overall business. That's all the "reasoning" they'll need. (The "catalyst" to this process might be a single thing or a combination of a lot of things, but in Russia the idea of "getting out of the way" of the World Cup they'll be hosting in 2018 might have played some factor -- in addition to aligning their domestic league schedule with their confederation's club competitions -- in their decision to establish a summer off-season. Who knows what the future holds for US/Canada and MLS, but I'm going to suppose that those who run MLS will likely remain open to attempting league operational/scheduling practices and new decisions that they may feel or believe would benefit their overall business if or as conditions may warrant.)
Good point. Hadn't thought about that one. Of course, now I have to say that I cannot think of any reasons why soccer would be more popular and make more money being played against football (and basketball and hockey) in the cold than playing against only baseball in the summer.
There's a few ways to look at this question. (And some, or a lot, of it has been discussed earlier in this thread and elsewhere. There is the point, and I don't know how heavily this does or might weight on the thinking of those on the MLS BoG, that the MLS post-season is already going up directly against the dominating NFL.) And I'd suggest that there is more on the "sports/soccer calendar" than "only baseball in the summer." Specifically for MLS, does it make sense to schedule league games "in the summer" when their are FIFA competitions (and extended dates/windows when players can/will be pulled away from their clubs) regularly in June/July. MLS isn't just "competing with" (and operating alongside of) domestic sports leagues in the US/Canada, MLS also needs to try to best operate within the global (and soccer specifically) calendar of events.
Why is summer in quotation marks? And why do people keep bringing up this "global game" nonsense. Unless or until MLS is swimming in cash (or has teams that can pay salaries without limitation), soccer players will either come here or they won't. Are there really any players who refuse to come to MLS because of its season? Competing for playing talent is the only reason that MLS needs to concern itself with any other league in the world. As for playing dates, I (and I see the league agreeing with me) don't really give much credence to any FIFA dates but the world cup. Playing around the world cup is a problem both from a fan and a talent standpoint. I could see them not wanting to lose fans when other major tournaments are being played, but how many of them really bother MLS that much? MLS needs to worry about two things: attracting the soccer fans as its base and attracting television exposure to grow the game. I'm willing to bet that the die hard soccer fans will come out in February if that is when games are on offer. I'm willing to bet however that many people that think of themselves as die hards might suddenly be happy watching games from their nice warm living rooms during the dead of winter. Television though has a lot of empty sports programming opportunities in the summer, soccer fits since it already comes with a large fan base. And again, what will lead MLS to making more money in the winter?
because the idea and reality of "summer" is a variable season of undetermined or non-standard length, especially across the locations off all the different MLS markets. Hard to know, but there are players that have given indications that they don't like having to choose between club and country (if their are actually scheduling conflicts), and players certainly don't like being away from their club (and missing league matches that are scheduled in conflict with and) during FIFA international match dates. The league's agreeing with you and then some. To include WCQ dates, and even friendly match dates on the FIFA International match calendar. But yes, the league still plays through things like the Gold Cup (or has in the recent past). Might be interesting to see what they do in the summer of 2013. And you're probably right about that, and that's why it is a complex business reality to analyze (and adapt to, or not) in the future. For all the challenges that would come with playing league games in early Dec and late Feb (even allowing for a long 7-8 week or so "winter/mid-season break" hypothetically in a fall-spring MLS), there would be potential benefits to the scheduling of the league (and its business) to not playing league games in the dead of summer. Does it make more sense (or will it ever for the business of MLS) to have their "off-season" and pre-season align with the months/weeks that FIFA regularly sets aside in large parts of June/July for International matches and competitions? I don't know that answer to that, but I would suspect that at some point for the business of MLS, the answer to that question may change -- relative to how they have always done things across the roughly first two decades of their existence. imo, you're asking the wrong question(s). No one (that I know of) wants MLS to play in the dead of winter. Anyone who's supporting the idea of a fall-spring schedule for MLS would realistically include a rather-long winter break, so there will be no league games played in the dead of winter (i.e. the time when the NFL season is winding down and when the NFL is playing their post-season). To me, the business questions confronting MLS are potentially more along the lines of: does it makes sense to completely be off and not use some of the early weeks in Decembers for league play, would a pre-season that ran from late June-July be more beneficial for the business overall than is the current pre-season that runs from late Jan-February, are their benefits to having some set summer down-time to allow for FIFA international competitions to dominate the soccer world/country, and while domestic clubs are specifically or possibly playing domestic cup matches or just pre-season friends for which they don't necessarily need all of their (NT-level especially) players?
There's a few reason MLS might one day change it's schedule. One, as MLS improves and there's more internationals on MLS rosters, which will happen, MLS rosters will be gutted of their talent for almost month long tournaments every summer for the foreseeable future. I've already posted all the summer tournaments in another thread, but MLS either will have to stop playing 2-4 weeks every summer, or it will go on, going up against these tournaments which will effect ratings, and without many of it's better players. We have the GC, then WC, the the meaningful GC, then Copa Am/Olympics, then GC, then WC, and so on every summer. As a fan would you be happy watching your team losing it's advantage for a month because your best players are playing in these tournaments and MLS decided to play through it? Better MLS gets, more players are in these tournaments. Then as development improves, like it or not, there's the question about participating in the summer transfer window. A Rapids FO member(not sure his position) just stated recently MLS will have to become a selling league. It's the next step. The better MLS gets at developing top players/prospects, the more Europe will come knocking. As time goes on MLS will be able to hang on to more and more of the top prospects, but that comes after they start developing a number of them, not before. So if at some point you consider taking 2-4 weeks off every summer due to tournaments and losing more and more players to these tournaments as MLS improves, do some owners consider putting more of a priority on the summer transfer window? I can't answer that, but it's possible, and if you're taking off during the summer more frequently at some point, it's not much of a step and not too hard to do. Then there's the do you want to play the most important games of the season in good weather or poor weather? Personally, I'd rather have poor weather effect mid season game rather than the playoffs, but not everyone agrees. And all this isn't to say it would be easy and there wouldn't be difficulties. Some owners might be for it and others against it. The biggest question is are there more positives than negatives to it at some point. That's the deciding factor. MLS might not be good enough quality wise at this point to worry about roster depletion for summer tournaments and not good enough development wise to worry about the business aspect of the summer transfer window. But what happens when it is? It's a problem you want to have. If MLS rosters aren't getting stripped of 3-5 players for these summer tournaments, it's a sign of not having great quality. If Euro clubs don't come knocking with interest in top players, it's a sign that development isn't improving. That's the issue, these problems are a byproduct of success in multiple areas. Improve quality, sign more international caliber players (or develop them like a Najar), then more teams lose their top players every summer. Improve development, foreign clubs become interested and the business aspect of selling comes into play. It comes down to money. If at some point the owners feel they have opportunities to make more by altering the schedule, they will. Now it doesn't make sense, but if MLS gets to where everyone wants it too, then it might make sense to change.
MLS can have a version of the EPL's proposed (and rejected) 39th game by playing neutral venues during the colder time frames. It can be done in domes - New Orleans, Atlanta, Detroit, Minnesota, St. Louis - or outdoors in Florida, South Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and California. It might have more future as the season openers rather than the culminating season enders. The gain might be in the extra couple of weeks in early March. Top Russian clubs have blamed the schedule for sucking in the February/March dates in the various UEFA Cups. In 2012, they proved they don't need the weather to suck.
Or, why not, hypothetically, as games played in the middle of some future MLS season, adjacent to some extended winter break? 2012 didn't "prove" anything. Their switch in season alignment just happened. The sample size of data for analysis of Russian clubs playing (better-)aligned domestic and international league competions is too small (at this point) to conclusively prove anything. Have some patience before you rush to try to support your pre-determined opinions.
Middle season matches are unlikely to be great attractions. Not predetermined. Six teams participated, thousand of minutes played, pathetic results obtained. Oh, and I watched a bunch of those minutes.