Possible schedule format change for 2019.

Honestly, so many countries play through the winter- will it really be impossible here to play through the winter? Or, worst case, through the winter months, put most of the northern places playing away at more southern places.

It gets a lot colder here than it does in England and Germany. For one, I don't enjoy going to cold-weather outdoor games. A summer schedule is better because part of the enjoyment of going to games is enjoying nice weather. (Even if it rains, as long as its 80 degrees, it's nice enough to still have fun. If I were going to games in 25 degree weather with snow, it would be a miserable experience and I wouldn't want to go as often.
 
It will never work here to play through the winter. We have teams in Canada, Minnesota, Colorado, etc.

Best we could do is take a winter break like Germany and play in warm weather locations for a couple of weeks on either side.
 
It will never work here to play through the winter. We have teams in Canada, Minnesota, Colorado, etc.

Best we could do is take a winter break like Germany and play in warm weather locations for a couple of weeks on either side.
The other big obstacle is the playoffs. They take up a month in the schedule. Other leagues use that month to play regular league games, which is how they fit in a midwinter break. Eliminate the playoffs and a fall to spring season becomes workable. It still has issues, because we are colder and wetter than most of Europe, but the playoffs just make it impossible. The other alternative is to shorten the season to 28-30 games, but in a league as big as MLS, that means not having home games against key conference (or division) rivals every other year.
 
The other big obstacle is the playoffs. They take up a month in the schedule. Other leagues use that month to play regular league games, which is how they fit in a midwinter break. Eliminate the playoffs and a fall to spring season becomes workable. It still has issues, because we are colder and wetter than most of Europe, but the playoffs just make it impossible. The other alternative is to shorten the season to 28-30 games, but in a league as big as MLS, that means not having home games against key conference (or division) rivals every other year.
I’m holding out hope for a bigger league and a tighter schedule - home and away within the conference/division, more limited matchups against other teams. But MLS gonna MLS, so we’ll just have to see what happens.
 
The other big obstacle is the playoffs. They take up a month in the schedule. Other leagues use that month to play regular league games, which is how they fit in a midwinter break. Eliminate the playoffs and a fall to spring season becomes workable. It still has issues, because we are colder and wetter than most of Europe, but the playoffs just make it impossible. The other alternative is to shorten the season to 28-30 games, but in a league as big as MLS, that means not having home games against key conference (or division) rivals every other year.
I’d be all for eliminating the playoffs, while making the Supporters Shield winner the League champ. Throw the MLS Cup in to the middle of the season as a true Cup, one that allows the entire roster to play, as opposed to the USOpen Cup that has domestic roster rules. That gives every team three pieces of hardware to shoot for. To make the SS more relevant to fight for to the end, have the first 12-14 teams earn “MLS extras” based on finishing position. That way the same teams that would make the playoffs are the ones that earn final standings benefits/awards.
 
They don’t compete with Football, Hockey and Basketball on the same level MLS would have to.
This is probably a debate that's been had many times before in many channels, but I would guess that competing with the European leagues for attention might be hard for MLS too?
 
This is probably a debate that's been had many times before in many channels, but I would guess that competing with the European leagues for attention might be hard for MLS too?
I don't think quite as much. The times that games are held are completely different. Sure there may be some people who watch the European leagues in the mornings and get their soccer fix, so don't watch MLS, but I imagine that lost audience would be much smaller than the audience lost to football, hockey, and basketball that have games at competing times with MLS matches,
 
This is probably a debate that's been had many times before in many channels, but I would guess that competing with the European leagues for attention might be hard for MLS too?
Probably not, unless people’s spouses give them a limited amount of TV time each day for sports. The euro leagues play earlier in the day so they wouldn’t overlap with MLS. That’s where the other US sports leagues interfere, since their start times coincide with MLS matches - all about the TV slots.
 
Probably not, unless people’s spouses give them a limited amount of TV time each day for sports. The euro leagues play earlier in the day so they wouldn’t overlap with MLS. That’s where the other US sports leagues interfere, since their start times coincide with MLS matches - all about the TV slots.
I don't think quite as much. The times that games are held are completely different. Sure there may be some people who watch the European leagues in the mornings and get their soccer fix, so don't watch MLS, but I imagine that lost audience would be much smaller than the audience lost to football, hockey, and basketball that have games at competing times with MLS matches,
Word, as someone who doesn't care about those sports and watches a lot of soccer, I definitely end up watching less European soccer when NYCFC is still playing, and watch more when they stop. Figured it might be the other way around for some.
 
Word, as someone who doesn't care about those sports and watches a lot of soccer, I definitely end up watching less European soccer when NYCFC is still playing, and watch more when they stop. Figured it might be the other way around for some.
That’s just priorities.
 
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I’d be all for eliminating the playoffs, while making the Supporters Shield winner the League champ. Throw the MLS Cup in to the middle of the season as a true Cup, one that allows the entire roster to play, as opposed to the USOpen Cup that has domestic roster rules. That gives every team three pieces of hardware to shoot for. To make the SS more relevant to fight for to the end, have the first 12-14 teams earn “MLS extras” based on finishing position. That way the same teams that would make the playoffs are the ones that earn final standings benefits/awards.
This is almost exactly what the Premier League does: FA Cup (=Open Cup), League Cup (=MLS Cup), league title (=Supporters Shield). Approximately.

I would be totally fine with an MLS-only during-season tournament for a Cup. I realize most folks like a year-end tournament but I’m fine being the minority opinion on this.
 
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The other big obstacle is the playoffs. They take up a month in the schedule. Other leagues use that month to play regular league games, which is how they fit in a midwinter break. Eliminate the playoffs and a fall to spring season becomes workable. It still has issues, because we are colder and wetter than most of Europe, but the playoffs just make it impossible. The other alternative is to shorten the season to 28-30 games, but in a league as big as MLS, that means not having home games against key conference (or division) rivals every other year.
All true and important.

How about this solution? If the league shortens the playoffs from 6 weeks to 4 weeks, what if those came after the November break instead of after the October break? That would leave more time for the regular season, and the playoffs would start Thanksgiving weekend and run to just before Christmas. The semifinals and finals would be in fairly open territory when college football's regular season is over and before the good bowl games. Best of all, the regular season now has 2 more weeks than what we now have and 4 more weeks than the proposal described in the Athletic article.
 
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All true and important.

How about this solution? If the league shortens the playoffs from 6 weeks to 4 weeks, what if those came after the November break instead of after the October break? That would leave more time for the regular season, and the playoffs would start Thanksgiving weekend and run to just before Christmas. The semifinals and finals would be in fairly open territory when college football's regular season is over and before the good bowl games. Best of all, the regular season now has 2 more weeks than what we now have and 4 more weeks than the proposal described in the Athletic article.

An organized, NFL-style preseason in February wouldn't be a bad schedule filler. Have the warm weather teams host. Let MLS clubs get some competitive games in before the start of the continental competitions (CCL, maybe even Copa Lib).

Have the first games right after Super Bowl Sunday and hype it up.
 
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