Figured since it’s in the winter, regional play is moot and have all teams locate to IMG (east) Chula Vista (West) - or similar spots. And the MLS Cup teams wouldn’t be impacted if youth were a major component of the group stage.
Possible schedule format change for 2019.
- Thread starter 413Blue
- Start date
I'm not opposed to them as well. I don't live in NY anymore so I guess that also plays a part now. When I was a STH, I didn't mind traveling from LI to the Bronx for games during the week, but I can definitely see why people are apposed to it.
I live on LI, but work in the city. Having a match after work saves me half the commute. Also, weekends are more family time. Even for watching away games on TV, I can find time on a Wednesday night much easier than 2 hours in the middle of my Sunday.
Does this open the way to combining MLS/Liga MX for an interim competion? It should, I think. And that would actually be interesting.
If that's not the goal, then go ahead and squash any hopes of Copa Libertadores participation, imo. It's not beneficial to participate in competitions where MLS teams are disadvantaged due to being in their off-season.
If that's not the goal, then go ahead and squash any hopes of Copa Libertadores participation, imo. It's not beneficial to participate in competitions where MLS teams are disadvantaged due to being in their off-season.
The real problem the league is solving for is the complete loss of momentum that currently occurs in the playoffs due to the November international break. The proposed solution would be to finish the season before the October break and then finish the playoffs before the November break. Basically a fun, 4-week spring to crown a Champion. That's a laudable goal, but it has several downsides.
- Less time for the playoffs, which means no 2-game series, which means more upsets and a championship influenced more by luck and randomness than is currently the case.
- A long layoff between the end of the season and the following season. Right now there are between 12-18 weeks off depending on when a team's season ends. In the future, this could be between 16-21 weeks. Compare this to the EPL, which was off for 13 weeks this past summer.
- Less time for the regular season. The proposed schedule would have 31 weeks, and that's before subtracting for international dates. This would lead to exacerbating current schedule problems, like travel issues and midweek games with lower attendance.
I actually disagree and believe the current format gives the lower seed a greater chance of upsetting the higher seed.
I'm not quite certain that moving to a single-elimination knockout would result in more upsets. I would actually think it would result in less. Yes, the higher quality team has 90 more minutes to be better and influence the score in their favor, but the H/A splits we see in the league now make me think giving a second leg to be a home match for the lower seeded team as a much bigger advantage. Throw in away goals tiebreakers, and I think there would be more upsets in a H/A leg format than there would be in a single elimination match with the higher seed being home.
Luck cannot play a smaller factor in a one game series than a two game series. The effect of randomness rises as the number of events declines. That's fundamental.
That does not mean it is more significant than home field advantage. Home teams won 211 games this year in MLS. Away teams won 97. There's no way that the extra randomness imposed by 1 game instead of 2 weighs more than this. In fact, you can look at those figures as a set of 1-game tests, and HFA prevailed 68.5% of the time. If randomness were more important, then the figure would be well, close to 50%.
That could be fixed in two ways:
1) Match Fixing so NYCFC can never get a home playoff ever
2) We get our own... *sigh* no point in even finishing this hopeless sentence
Maybe 2019 is the introduction of the combined Citi/YS ticket package.
So not many people actually give a shit that this prima facie shits on MLS as a viable option for players in national teams that actually stand to win things?
Wtf is wrong with y’all?
Wtf is wrong with y’all?
In Qatar? These changes are modestly better than the current system, which has MLS Cup occurring in the middle of the tournament. If we don't make these changes, MLS will have to do a one-time playoff change to something like this in 2022 anyway.
You're right, it's a conflict, but is there a better option short of an entire overhaul to the MLS schedule?
One of the loose ends from the Qatar WC was the idea of compensation to leagues for financial losses due to moving the timing of the WC. I haven't heard a word about that for years and in the corrupt world of FIFA that may have been a false promise, but if league compensation happens this MLS schedule change would put the league in line for a substantial Qatar handout.
The league would end before the World Cup would start so not sure if we would get anything if that's the case. Qatar WC is scheduled from Nov 21-Dec 18 2022. If these changes go into effect, MLS playoffs would end by the second week of November, latest. I could also see the league pushing the schedule up a week to ensure players going to the WC can make intl teams camps, etc. to ensure they don't lose some potential players.
WC 2022 is essentially the opposite of the rest of the world in normal WC's. We normally have to take a break while other leagues just finished. 2022 is the rare case where we will be finished and the rest of the leagues will take a break.
Players have to be released before the start of the WC (2 weeks? 10 days? I don't remember). I still think there will be an overlap or some sort of accommodation necessary.
The entire overhaul is the better option, imo.
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.
They don’t compete with Football, Hockey and Basketball on the same level MLS would have to.
