Future MLS schedule.

[maxpower]

According to the Walll Street Journal, the 20th MLS spot will be a second New York team, with the stadium located in Flushing.

Which (hopefully) means that we will move to a 38 game schedule, playing each team twice. But, with the schedule congestion being as ridiculous as it is already,especially for teams playing in the champions league, does this mean we will be switching from a Spring/Autumn to a Autumn/spring schedule like most other leagues in the world?

I mean, if Russia can make the switch, why can't we?

[Pookie]

Who will own it? Beckham? FC Barcelona?

[TOBOR !]

.. because then we'd be competing directly with NFL, NHL and NBA for entertainment dollars and media attention. It would be the death of the league.

[maxpower]

Who will own it? Beckham? FC Barcelona?

Well with Barca being almost half a billion in debt, I doubt they would be able to afford the 100 million the MLS want as a "franchise fee". Beckham on the other hand.....

[jrober38]

.. because then we'd be competing directly with NFL, NHL and NBA for entertainment dollars and media attention. It would be the death of the league.

Or it could be the prospect of playing games on snow covered fields...

[TOBOR !]

Or it could be the prospect of playing games on snow covered fields...

Maybe, but as the OP states, Russia plays through the winter - albeit with a break during the most severe weather.

This could be done here as well... but we'd still lose out to the more established leagues.

[Phil]

Or just continue with an unbalanced schedule. That way we cut down on the travel and seasonal issues.

I would rather the league be balanced but unbalanced isn't the worst thing right now.

[ryan]

The league badly needs a "matchday", I think this is one of the key reasons behind why the NFL (Sundays), EPL (Saturday's), HNIC (Saturday night) are such successes. It becomes automatic, you can schedule yourself around it. You don't have to guess here and there. You tune in at that same bat time, same bat channel and there it is.

Saturday should be the date IMO. 3, 7 and 10 PM EST. Everyone plays, every saturday. You have 30 Saturday's from April through October, 30! Save for the international breaks where you lose 4 Sat's, so 26. You use 4 from March like they currently use, but still, 26 Saturdays. IMO November is very useable as well with the way the weather has gone of late, no city would be in any peril in November.
Play on 12 Wednesday's leaving 14 Wednesday's for USOC/VC/CCL.

Why does it have to be so bloody hard?

[Pookie]

Well with Barca being almost half a billion in debt, I doubt they would be able to afford the 100 million the MLS want as a "franchise fee". Beckham on the other hand.....

There was speculation a few years ago that because FC Barcelona was doing favors for MLS (ie. $0 transfer fee to NY for Henry and Marquez) that there was a handshake agreement on an eventual franchise.

Both are part of SUM which could make a connection viable.

No idea though. Just thinking out loud.

[jrober38]

Maybe, but as the OP states, Russia plays through the winter - albeit with a break during the most sever weather.

This could be done here as well... but we'd still lose out to the more established leagues.

The Russian league starts in July, so I'd assume the Winter Break will be at least two months long. Considering that Germany has a 5 week break, the Russian one must be at least 8 weeks.

I'd prefer the current set up instead of a two month lay off in the middle of the season.

[Code Red]

The league badly needs a "matchday", I think this is one of the key reasons behind why the NFL (Sundays), EPL (Saturday's), HNIC (Saturday night) are such successes. It becomes automatic, you can schedule yourself around it. You don't have to guess here and there. You tune in at that same bat time, same bat channel and there it is.

Saturday should be the date IMO. 3, 7 and 10 PM EST. Everyone plays, every saturday. You have 30 Saturday's from April through October, 30! Save for the international breaks where you lose 4 Sat's, so 26. You use 4 from March like they currently use, but still, 26 Saturdays. IMO November is very useable as well with the way the weather has gone of late, no city would be in any peril in November.
Play on 12 Wednesday's leaving 14 Wednesday's for USOC/VC/CCL.

Why does it have to be so bloody hard?

+1 for this concept.

[TOBOR !]

The Russian league starts in July, so I'd assume the Winter Break will be at least two months long. Considering that Germany has a 5 week break, the Russian one must be at least 8 weeks.

I'd prefer the current set up instead of a two month lay off in the middle of the season.

Which screams Apertura / Clausura... if there ever was a poster league for it.

[brad]

There was speculation a few years ago that because FC Barcelona was doing favors for MLS (ie. $0 transfer fee to NY for Henry and Marquez) that there was a handshake agreement on an eventual franchise.

Both are part of SUM which could make a connection viable.

No idea though. Just thinking out loud.

And then we see a NY team playing Tiki Taka with a bunch of Barca academy players on loan... :)

Seriously though, the NY market is the biggest in the North America, and MLS wants/needs to do better there. A link with Barca could be massive, especially if Barca funnel talent into the club.

[Just One Man]

The league badly needs a "matchday", I think this is one of the key reasons behind why the NFL (Sundays), EPL (Saturday's), HNIC (Saturday night) are such successes. It becomes automatic, you can schedule yourself around it. You don't have to guess here and there. You tune in at that same bat time, same bat channel and there it is.

Saturday should be the date IMO. 3, 7 and 10 PM EST. Everyone plays, every saturday. You have 30 Saturday's from April through October, 30! Save for the international breaks where you lose 4 Sat's, so 26. You use 4 from March like they currently use, but still, 26 Saturdays. IMO November is very useable as well with the way the weather has gone of late, no city would be in any peril in November.
Play on 12 Wednesday's leaving 14 Wednesday's for USOC/VC/CCL.

Why does it have to be so bloody hard?

:thumbsup:


And then we see a NY team playing Tiki Taka with a bunch of Barca academy players on loan... :)

Seriously though, the NY market is the biggest in the North America, and MLS wants/needs to do better there. A link with Barca could be massive, especially if Barca funnel talent into the club.

Yeah, but you just know they're going to call them something terrible, like "Barcelona New York".

[kodiakTFC]

MLS has no intention of going to 38 games. They are content with 34 and have shown this. They can't fit a 38 game schedule + playoffs into this calender, the EPL can do it because of a much longer seasonal period. I can't help but think down the road MLS is looking for 2 leagues, East and West, 12 teams a side, home and away in league, half home half away outside the league.

[Initial B]

^ I agree - 24 teams east-west would be a pretty healthy league, especially one the geographical size of Europe. I don't know of too many leagues where you actually have to cross several timezones to play against each other. Once they get to that size, perhaps they can work with NASL to develop the next tier and look towards a promotion-relegation system.

[maxpower]

^ I agree - 24 teams east-west would be a pretty healthy league, especially one the geographical size of Europe. I don't know of too many leagues where you actually have to cross several timezones to play against each other. Once they get to that size, perhaps they can work with NASL to develop the next tier and look towards a promotion-relegation system.

Sadly there will never ever be promotion-relegation. American owners are just too scared of losing money.

[habstfc]

Sadly there will never ever be promotion-relegation. American owners are just too scared of losing money.
You can't ask a new owner (or previous one for that matter) to fork over millions of dollars with the possibility that their new team could be "relegated" That will never happen. The idea of a split season is ridiculous to north americans, it's too confusing no other league over here does that.

[joeyjones]

Sadly there will never ever be promotion-relegation. American owners are just too scared of losing money.

pro-rel is something that happens in all sports leagues outside of US/Canada, save for maybe baseball in Asia, Mexico...

but in Europe, there is pro-rel for Basketball, Hockey etc. it is not Football/Soccer specific. would you want pro-rel in all US/Canada leagues or just Soccer? this argument for pro-rel for Soccer only in US/Canada confuses me. it's as if people think it ONLY applies to Football around the world, which is not correct. pro-rel is for club systems, not franchise type leagues where owners buy into the league..

will never happen for any sport in US/Canada, ever..