In Which League Will Nycfc Play, And Against Who?
- Thread starter BlueWolf
- Start date
I believe he means conferences.
http://pressbox.mlssoccer.com/content/competition-rules-and-regulations
http://pressbox.mlssoccer.com/content/competition-rules-and-regulations
MikeDatTiger
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Ok, this is the general thing.
In the US, every league has conferences. In MLS that means that you play the teams in your conference a lot more often than teams outside your conference. So NYCFC will play Philadelphia Union more frequently than they play the Seattle Sounders for instance. Just how more often isn't yet clear.
The other way conferences matter are in the playoffs. MLS sends currently 5 teams from each conference. The bottom two teams of that 5 (so 3rd and 4th seeds) play against each other in a single match. Winner of that match moves on to a home and home tie with the top points getter, with 2 and 3 playing each other as well. Winners of those matches advance to another home and home tie, winner of that faces the winner of the other conference in a single winner take all match.
Does that make sense?
In the US, every league has conferences. In MLS that means that you play the teams in your conference a lot more often than teams outside your conference. So NYCFC will play Philadelphia Union more frequently than they play the Seattle Sounders for instance. Just how more often isn't yet clear.
The other way conferences matter are in the playoffs. MLS sends currently 5 teams from each conference. The bottom two teams of that 5 (so 3rd and 4th seeds) play against each other in a single match. Winner of that match moves on to a home and home tie with the top points getter, with 2 and 3 playing each other as well. Winners of those matches advance to another home and home tie, winner of that faces the winner of the other conference in a single winner take all match.
Does that make sense?
The whole reason is because of the size of the country and the travel involved. If you only have to make a cross country trip a few times a year, it helps the teams. You play the people that is closer to you more often. It is just easier for all parties involved. It is also the reason for the playoffs also.
MikeDatTiger
Registered
I'll give a how and a why. The how is that each club plays the other conference's teams once. So NYCFC would play at Seattle in Year 1 and then host Seattle in Year 2. For the East teams, NYCFC would at least host each once, and the 3rd game would alternate hosts every year. So year one, NYCFC would host Philadelphia 2 and play at Philly once, in year 2 NYCFC would travel twice host once.
The why is that MLS wants to reduce travel costs and therefore reduce the cross-country trips since most of the teams are on the coasts and therefore fills up matches with closer opponents to reduce the wear and tear.
As far as splitting the country up, that may be an option in the future. The only problem with that is that a lot of the stars of the league are in the West, people like Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, etc. If you completely divide the country, you can't do things like take them to New York and let them talk to the media (since a lot of the media is based in New York, specifically late night talk shows, morning shows, etc. as well as the TV execs who make decisions on how much to offer MLS for the TV rights.)
The why is that MLS wants to reduce travel costs and therefore reduce the cross-country trips since most of the teams are on the coasts and therefore fills up matches with closer opponents to reduce the wear and tear.
As far as splitting the country up, that may be an option in the future. The only problem with that is that a lot of the stars of the league are in the West, people like Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, etc. If you completely divide the country, you can't do things like take them to New York and let them talk to the media (since a lot of the media is based in New York, specifically late night talk shows, morning shows, etc. as well as the TV execs who make decisions on how much to offer MLS for the TV rights.)
MikeDatTiger
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Also, US fans are used to being able to see the big teams at least every once in a while. NBA and NHL now guarantee a visit from each team each year. NFL guarantees once every 8 years. MLB is the only league that maintains a strict no-interplay between its "conferences" for a while, but has started to break that down to allow for interaction between all of the clubs.
BlueWolf
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50 States divided by 4. That won't work (yes, I know America Junior is in it), so how about 50 divided by 5?
5 groups of 10. That would be lovely.
Trouble is, does Alaska, Hawaii, et al even have clubs? No. But there has to be a better way to do it - you could even have a American Champions Cup. LA Galaxy v NYCFC in the final? Yes please. Not quite UEFA but certainly doable.
5 groups of 10. That would be lovely.
Trouble is, does Alaska, Hawaii, et al even have clubs? No. But there has to be a better way to do it - you could even have a American Champions Cup. LA Galaxy v NYCFC in the final? Yes please. Not quite UEFA but certainly doable.
MikeDatTiger
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There is a Champions Cup for North America already. MLS teams fare very poorly in it since when the playoff rounds start the Mexican clubs are in end of season form while the MLS teams have just started (held in mid-March).
bottom line, there aren't enough clubs worth their salt to justify that kind of division. Your best case scenario I think is a 40 team MLS with two or four divisions and then a playoff between those divisions for the MLS Cup.
MLS needs a 24th team ASAP. An unbalanced schedule is dumb when you have a schedule that isn't 162 games.
Once they have 24 teams, they can have four divisions of six, play your own division three times, everyone else once. Still a 34 game schedule and the divisions will actually mean something.
Right now, you have conference teams playing other conference teams more than others and it's not fair.
Once they have 24 teams, they can have four divisions of six, play your own division three times, everyone else once. Still a 34 game schedule and the divisions will actually mean something.
Right now, you have conference teams playing other conference teams more than others and it's not fair.
NYCFCFan10
Registered
That's what the conferences are for.
Mostly the reason the conferences play each other is the $$$ you get by having NY play LA.
You can guarantee that team 24 is either Indianapolis or Minneapolis with Chivas' license being bought by the Sacramento group and then moving them that way.
BlueWolf, this system isn't that unthinkable. It's how it works in the U-18 Premier League here in England, for a start, and it's no different in principle to the way that the SPL works, just for different reasons.
The bit I disagree with is that you play some teams twice away and once at home and others the opposite, which would seem to confer home advantage on select teams, but that's just the way it goes.
The bit I disagree with is that you play some teams twice away and once at home and others the opposite, which would seem to confer home advantage on select teams, but that's just the way it goes.
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