Interesting graphic from Ben Wright on Threads.
General MLS Discussion
- Thread starter Shwafta
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This covers some of what you’re discussing in a graph.
ZYanksRule
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It's not quite fully accurate because it doesn't account for international breaks, a light schedule every month in June, etc, but it definitely supports their argument that we won't see massive upheaval in northern markets. I do think early-season games in November & December in New York will be a tough sell for a lot of people, but hopefully they minimize those games and play us more in warmer markets as we get closer to the winter break.
I was reliably informed that ambitious MLS head coaches who leave to take jobs in Europe need to do so in the middle of the MLS season.
Wilfried Nancy on brink of Celtic manager job
The Columbus Crew boss is inching closer to replacing Brendan Rodgers in the Parkhead dugoutwww.dailyrecord.co.uk
OTOH if Nancy did this 2 years from now this would be midseason and I'm just being petty, lol.
Since we are being petty, what will David Lee's excuse be for starting every season with a half-finished roster now that he can't blame it on needing to wait for summer because of the misalignment of schedules?
It's a graph so nice it's worth posting twice!
Or, KevinJRogers posted the graph while I was typing.
Or, KevinJRogers posted the graph while I was typing.
The graph also doesn't really display the 3 week gap due to Leagues Cup. Will that go away? Stay put in August? Move to January? Hoping it moves to January.
That would make sense. Play it in the south and in Mexico.
ZYanksRule
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I liked the way they did it this year, folding it into the regular season schedule instead of carving out time for it.
If our offseason is as short as 6 weeks, which is what it sounds like, I imagine the MLSPA will make sure there are no games in the winter break so the two breaks combine for the amount of offseason currently available to them. Right now the offseason between games is around two-and-a-half months between the end of MLS Cup and the start of the regular season. Sounds like the winter break will be about two months and the offseason break will be 6 weeks, so that doesn't really leave much time for a winter tournament. Add to that the players will probably have a second "preseason" training camp after the winter break and I can't imagine the MLSPA will allow them to play a winter tournament.
Revfugee
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Everyone talks about how we compete with the NFL, college football the NBA, the NHL, and baseball but it amazes me how everybody misses the other thing MLS competes with: the EPL, the champions league, and to a lesser extent, La Liga, Serie A, and the Bundesliga.
Maybe attendance will not fall off, though I’m assuming the resale value for my my December and early February match tickets will be even more worthless than they already are and personally I hate going to cold weather matches. There’s a reason hockey, a cold weather sport, is played inside in northern markets.
For me, one of the major benefits of MLS has been that it fills the summer football (and for me hockey) gap.
Up to now MLS has had a clear lane to reach US Soccer junkies for a couple of months each year.
MLS is going to have to up its signing and marketing game disproportionately when it is competing head to head Saturday by Saturday with those other leagues.
So we can argue all day over whether it’s better to have our playoffs compete with college football or the NHL and NBA. Now we are forcing US based fans of elite football (y’know, actual soccer fans) to choose between competitions. And we have given up two months of almost guaranteed excellent game day experiences, with zero TV soccer competition, in that growth battle.
So while I am very much wait and see on this, I think at least at first this is going to be a setback for the league. I hope I’m wrong.
Maybe attendance will not fall off, though I’m assuming the resale value for my my December and early February match tickets will be even more worthless than they already are and personally I hate going to cold weather matches. There’s a reason hockey, a cold weather sport, is played inside in northern markets.
For me, one of the major benefits of MLS has been that it fills the summer football (and for me hockey) gap.
Up to now MLS has had a clear lane to reach US Soccer junkies for a couple of months each year.
MLS is going to have to up its signing and marketing game disproportionately when it is competing head to head Saturday by Saturday with those other leagues.
So we can argue all day over whether it’s better to have our playoffs compete with college football or the NHL and NBA. Now we are forcing US based fans of elite football (y’know, actual soccer fans) to choose between competitions. And we have given up two months of almost guaranteed excellent game day experiences, with zero TV soccer competition, in that growth battle.
So while I am very much wait and see on this, I think at least at first this is going to be a setback for the league. I hope I’m wrong.
Champions League is during the week which doesn't really overlap with the majority of MLS games.
Epl and most other euro leagues play early morning to early afternoon.. which also doesn't really overlap.
There isn't really competition for viewing time. Except for a tiny bit during the end of the champions League competition. But otherwise, it's few and far between. if someone isn't watching MLS it's because they don't want to, not because there's another soccer game on.
ZYanksRule
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If MLS were smart they would play games at 3pm ET on Saturdays so when the 12:30 EPL game ends, you flip right over to MLS. They should do what the Prem does and have broadcast windows all Saturday afternoon and evening. Do a 3pm, 5:30pm, 7:30pm window. And obviously you'll need whatever west coast windows too, but at least make it so fans can just sit and watch soccer all day if they want to.
They went away from day games in MLS due to the summer heat. For the majority of the season that won't be a problem anymore, so they should return to playing day game windows.
I was thinking the same thing. It would be pretty cool to watch VfB on Saturday morning, then Arsenal at 12:30 p.m., then our match later in the day. And if the USL stays on their current schedule (and they should), then there's still professional soccer all through the summer.
Does that make the United States unique in the world? I don't think any other country has year-round first or second division professional soccer, do they? Plus, we have the college game (I'm watching my alma mater, Siena, in the MAAC Championship against Sacred Heart right now).
This could be the time for the sport to finally break through.
Revfugee
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Viewing time is not infinite. I already struggle to keep up with MLS, NHL and La Liga, and I’ve all but stopped following the Prem since NBC took so much of it behind the paywall. And I am a total junkie. The only time I will watch a college match is when all other options are exhausted and even then it’s usually a step down too far.
I don’t see how this strengthen MLS’s hand with The EPL fans, while it totally cashes in the casuals who probably don’t want to freeze their asses off for an early season match in December. And it doesn’t help the regular seasonTV ratings either to have our weakest product up against NFL and CFB playoffs.
As for the champions league, and timing of game days regardless of whether competition is earlier in the day, midweek or not, it’s a time commitment during the week(in my case I time shift everything except NYCFC and I still can’t keep up).
Sticking to my main point. We have gone from competing for with sports whose fans don’t care already, that many soccer fans don’t and won’t watch (for many of us, the NFL and CFB are just as anathema as soccer is for many gridiron fans), to competing on the same day in the same seasons as better leagues in our own sport.
And now our summer soccer drought will be complete. And my December and early February tickets tickets will be worthless. I hope I’m wrong but everyone seems to think the only thing holding NFL or even EPL fans back from watching MLS is our quality of play and our schedule. It’s deeper than that (cultural disconnect, poor marketing by teams like ours, etc) and I don’t think this shift is going to make that much of a difference, even if it makes nutters like us feel less inferior.
I do look forward to less fraught transfer issues and maybe even to the day that Highbury puts NYCFC on right after Arsenal and the drunken Gooners support get hooked and converted, but I’m not holding my breath for the latter.
ZYanksRule
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On this point, it sounds like they will have us finish the pre-winter break on the road and begin the post-winter break on the road, so we probably won't ever host games in December or February. Or at least it'll be very early December and very late February. But I would hope there isn't more than 1 or 2 home games in December and February.
I can't agree with this. For one thing, the USL is sticking to the summer schedule, at least so far. (Personally, I think they would be very wise to stay the course.)
But I think the main point isn't MLS competing with European leagues. It's MLS complementing them. Because of the time difference, most of Europe is done by the time MLS gets started.
And you can bet the schedule makers are more than cognizant of any conflicts. They'll keep overlap to a minimum.
Anyway, I don't know that peeling fans away from other sports is at all part of the gameplan. Catching prospective fans young and giving them a product aligned with the rest of the world very much is. We're much more likely to get star players now.
(Side note: this very much changes our business model, or at least it should. But that's for another thread.)
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