MLS 2016 Season Thread

[Savant]

It's a name, get over it. Red Bulls isn't exactly a wonderful name either.

Red Bulls has a sponsor. Don't know what everyone else's excuse is.

 

[Ugmo]

It's a name, get over it. Red Bulls isn't exactly a wonderful name either.

Did the full edit here to remove some antagonism.

I doubt I'll get over it. It will always be an embarrassing name, just like Real Salt Lake is embarrassing. And frankly Rowdies is even worse than Real Salt Lake. Just because it's been around since the 70s doesn't make it any less silly...

 

[Ugmo]

Going to drop into the single digits with the windchill on Saturday.

Perhaps this will be the match where MLS decides to not have the season end in friggin December

You'd think they could have come up with a better schedule there toward the end rather than taking weeks and weeks to complete the last couple of games.

 

[IU Hawks fan]

Rowdies is awesome. Heck of a lot better than any of the FC/SC names.

 

[Ugmo]

Rowdies is awesome. Heck of a lot better than any of the FC/SC names.

Those are just boring, but they're not silly and goofy sounding. With a name like Rowdies, they should call their stadium "The Romper Room."

 

[Dr Pepper]

Buddy of mine got our tickets all set for Saturday, near the same bleachers section as last week's game.

Gonna be cold.

Gonna be LOUD.

Cannot wait.

Those are just boring, but they're not silly and goofy sounding. With a name like Rowdies, they should call their stadium "The Romper Room."

Hey.

Don't knock Romper Room, that show kicked ass.

 

[Savant]

You'd think they could have come up with a better schedule there toward the end rather than taking weeks and weeks to complete the last couple of games.

Get rid of two legged playof series. Problem solved.

 

[Fro]

Crew looking into a new Defender

 

[Big McLargehuge]

I like the Rowdies name...not something I'd usually get behind, but it's the right level of weird 70s name to me, and it means something to the local market...plus when compared to Mutiny it's the best damn name ever.

I still wouldn't put Tampa in the league unless we're intent on pushing it to 40 and either splitting the East/West leagues until the playoffs or doing a limited promotion/relegation system, but I think we're heading that way one way or another.

 

[Fro]

i hope the process leads to 40 teams...20 top, 20 bottom and introduce relegation...

 

[Burner Account]

40 teams? Holy crap.

 

[Fro]

40 teams? Holy crap.

in a couple years they'll be almost at 30...so it's not really that far away...

 

[hatterson]

40 teams could work if you had relegation/promotion.

40 teams in a single league would be stupid.

 

[Brock Anton]

Twellman reporting that Brad Guzan is going to Atlanta. With the increase in TAM that was recently announced, I imagine this will fall under that.

 

[Fro]

40 teams could work if you had relegation/promotion.

40 teams in a single league would be stupid.

correct...which is what I am promoting doing...if they can't get the USL/NASL to fall under, then do it yourselves and create the process

 

[KingLB]

Crew looking into a new Defender

Bleh, not a fan of Castillo at all.

I like the Rowdies name...not something I'd usually get behind, but it's the right level of weird 70s name to me, and it means something to the local market...plus when compared to Mutiny it's the best damn name ever.

I still wouldn't put Tampa in the league unless we're intent on pushing it to 40 and either splitting the East/West leagues until the playoffs or doing a limited promotion/relegation system, but I think we're heading that way one way or another.

I like Rowdies to! Think Ug might be the only one that doesn't. But I can understand how people don't like it. It is very unconventional.

40 teams could work if you had relegation/promotion.

40 teams in a single league would be stupid.

Pro/Rel is not happening. And 40 wouldn't be that big an issue imo. 20/20 and do an old school MLB way where they don't cross over. Or just one game vs every team. Lets be honest, the US is different than the rest of the world in that there are 40 markets that could realistically be first division markets and the league would be ok.

 

[Finnish your Czech]

40 teams could work if you had relegation/promotion.

40 teams in a single league would be stupid.

A pro/rel system will never work in the US because you'd have to have current and future owners agree to it. 2 semi-separate 20 team leagues makes more sense.

 

[Ugmo]

Get rid of two legged playof series. Problem solved.

The two-legged series are awesome though. Toronto-Monteal was epic. I'd have to look at the schedule again, but I don't see why they had to wait so long between the legs. Why not do them within three days? (If there was an international date in between there, then okay.)

 

[East Coast Bias]

We are not getting pro/rel in the US in the near future. From a business standpoint, it makes no sense for owners. You're not getting an owner to invest $100m plus in a franchise that could be playing in front of 3,000 people the next season.

It really isn't a soccer argument. Which is why I don't get the obsession. People aren't opposed to it bc we are soccer stupid in the US/Canada. It's a model European countries have used for decades - doubtful they'd go with it now if they formed a brand new league. It's not economically beneficial to anyone.

 

[Savant]

The two-legged series are awesome though. Toronto-Monteal was epic. I'd have to look at the schedule again, but I don't see why they had to wait so long between the legs. Why not do them within three days? (If there was an international date in between there, then okay.)

They are awesome rarely. Toronto/Montreal was nice, but that is the exception, not the rule.

The regular season seeds the teams and the higher seeded teams should have home field advantage. There is no need for two legs because the teams aren't randomly drawn together. The matchups are dictated by regular season importance.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

There's so many issues that the MLS has that are just simply unique in the soccer world - this is a league that stretches from Los Angeles to Montreal (~2,500 miles) and Seattle to Orlando (~2,500+ miles). Russia could match that, but presently doesn't (and even when it does it's usually one team on an island, not half of the league being on disparate coasts). These types of distances don't just make travel rough, they make weather an issue in many of the markets for much of the year...ideally I'd prefer the Fall-Spring schedule, but have fun playing in Colorado in February. There are 68 cities between the US & Canada that top 1 million in metropolitan population, compared to 13 in England.

You could put 40 teams in the MLS tomorrow and argue that each new market deserves a team just as much as the ones that exist, so long as you keep Miami out...but a 40 team soccer league sucks. That's 39 teams who don't win each year and half of the league that goes into any season, even with a salary cap in place, knowing that they're not going to win...I don't think that's how you grow the sport here. Unfortunately promotion/relegation is a better thought experiment than feasible possibility because you're going to be asking people who bought MLS franchises and cities/owners who built them stadiums to agree to drop down to another league to let more new teams in...that's asking a lot out of them to give them nothing that will directly help them. Realistically the only way to accommodate those markets that rightfully want a team without watering things down too much is to effectively separate the conferences until a championship game without it...but then you still have the 1 true winner out of 40 because you're not going to be able to pitch a conference championship as being worth as much as an actual championship to an American or Canadian fan. Either way I think this is what we're heading to regardless.

You either do promotion/relegation from infancy or you don't do it...and promotion/relegation simply wasn't a feasible option when the MLS was created and 20+ years out that sucks...but the MLS wouldn't have survived infancy if it started out with franchises in New England and New York/New Jersey being relegated early on. I want promotion/relegation, I just don't see how it's remotely feasible to do at this point. You're simply not going to be able to convince billionaire owners to potentially devalue their investment.

 

[Ugmo]

I don't get the obsession with pro/rel anyway, and I live in Europe and regularly watch leagues live that have it. Most of the time you're sending the same handful of teams up and down anyway while only a couple of teams at the top ever have a shot at winning the title. I think more than a few leagues in Europe would probably benefit and be a lot stronger if they had a closed structure like MLS. One of them being Austria where I live.

 

[Ugmo]

They are awesome rarely. Toronto/Montreal was nice, but that is the exception, not the rule.

Can't say I agree. Off the top of my head, RBNY/NER and SEA/DAL last year were awesome too. DAL/POR as well. Not to mention seeing more teams get to play in front of a packed and amped crowd at home.

 

[Ivan94]

There's so many issues that the MLS has that are just simply unique in the soccer world - this is a league that stretches from Los Angeles to Montreal (~2,500 miles) and Seattle to Orlando (~2,500+ miles). Russia could match that, but presently doesn't (and even when it does it's usually one team on an island, not half of the league being on disparate coasts). These types of distances don't just make travel rough, they make weather an issue in many of the markets for much of the year...ideally I'd prefer the Fall-Spring schedule, but have fun playing in Colorado in February. There are 68 cities between the US & Canada that top 1 million in metropolitan population, compared to 13 in England.

You could put 40 teams in the MLS tomorrow and argue that each new market deserves a team just as much as the ones that exist, so long as you keep Miami out...but a 40 team soccer league sucks. That's 39 teams who don't win each year and half of the league that goes into any season, even with a salary cap in place, knowing that they're not going to win...I don't think that's how you grow the sport here. Unfortunately promotion/relegation is a better thought experiment than feasible possibility because you're going to be asking people who bought MLS franchises and cities/owners who built them stadiums to agree to drop down to another league to let more new teams in...that's asking a lot out of them to give them nothing that will directly help them. Realistically the only way to accommodate those markets that rightfully want a team without watering things down too much is to effectively separate the conferences until a championship game without it...but then you still have the 1 true winner out of 40 because you're not going to be able to pitch a conference championship as being worth as much as an actual championship to an American or Canadian fan. Either way I think this is what we're heading to regardless.

You either do promotion/relegation from infancy or you don't do it...and promotion/relegation simply wasn't a feasible option when the MLS was created and 20+ years out that sucks...but the MLS wouldn't have survived infancy if it started out with franchises in New England and New York/New Jersey being relegated early on. I want promotion/relegation, I just don't see how it's remotely feasible to do at this point. You're simply not going to be able to convince billionaire owners to potentially devalue their investment.

It depends on how you organize pro / rel. It doesn't have to be connected from tier 1 to tier 12/13 like in Germnay. Just inside a closed system of 40-48 teams.

The most important point is to have many pro / rel spots, so that many teams have a realistic chance to reach one. You could also give the conference winners of the 'second division' a play-off spot. So it wouldn't be a real 2nd division - both groups would be part of the division one MLS.

something like the handball champions league



a 40 team MLS could look like this:

group A:

24 teams splitted into eastern and western conference. 34 regular season games(double round-robin inside the conference + 12 inter-conference games)

- conference winners get a bye in the first PO-round
- one leg K.O. games: 2nd, 3rd & 4th placed teams with home advantage against the 5th & 6th and the group B conference winners
- 7th-9th placed teams are staying in group A
- 10th-12th placed teams will be relegated into group B


group B:

16 teams splitted into eastern and western conference.

- conference winners get promotion and a PO spot
- Second placed teams get promotion
- 3rd - 6th play a promotion-play-off (english Football League Championship/One/Two style)


There is also a lot of flexibility:

- you can decrease the pro/rel-spots from 6 to 4 or increase to 8
- expand the league by adding more teams into group B
- or change the play-off format:
-- reduce the number of PO-spots from 14 to 12
-- or increase to 16/18/20
-- and/or give group B 4 instead of 2 PO-spots

 

[kingsboy11]

Predictions time!

I have Toronto over Seattle 2-1. Goals by Giovinco and Altidore and for Seattle Jordan Morris.

Make me proud Toronto