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.
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 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,
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.
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.
Lol isn't it all?
Some are out of fear (see comment about spousal TV allotment)
Haha still priorities
This is almost exactly what the Premier League does: FA Cup (=Open Cup), League Cup (=MLS Cup), league title (=Supporters Shield). Approximately.
All true and important.
