November 24, 2009
MY TWO CENTS
Switching to winter-spring schedule has some advantages
By Kevin Meyer
Special to BigAppleSoccer.com
After reading seeing the title of this column, it sparked some interest to read what had to be said regarding the MLS match calendar. I agree with Lincoln Richman that a new schedule needs to be constructed so it coincides with not only Europe and many other confederation leagues, but the FIFA transfer windows and FIFA international dates. This could spark better not only a bit more respect from FIFA, but also a relationship with Europe that has been desired by Don Garber for so long.
What MLS does regarding new talent and discovering new signings is the MLS SuperDraft. This draft sometimes is a major turn off with players right out of college due to the fact that they would have to give up their scholarship they most likely are on and drop out five months before graduating. If MLS went to a European style calendar, this would eliminate all conflicts.
Secondly, the MLS combine. The combine is constructed with what NCAA college coaches consider to be the top players in America. This combine usually happens before the draft and several weeks after the end of the college season.
A major problem with this, and another reason most rookies struggle their first year, is the amount of soccer these kids play. If you think about it, college has a fairly intense spring season that consists of mostly running and weights with five game days allowed by the NCAA. Once the spring season concludes, they are off playing with their summer team. In the case of Premier Development League, that season may not end until early August, depending on whether they make the final or not. From there, the college pre-season starts in mid-August and the season ends in either October or November.
The top players need to stay fit and keep kicking the ball around for the combine which takes place in January and from there they are put right into an MLS pre-season, which is physically and mentally more demanding than anything they have experienced in their playing career. If they survive the pre-season, and if you are on a playoff bound team, the season does not end until October or November again. That is a year and a half of non-stop, every day, in and out soccer. It is hard to say that is the reason some rookies don’t survive but a major influence as to why they fade off towards the end of the season.
In regards to the Lamar Hunt/U.S. Open Cup schedule, I think that Richman’s schedule would not work. The major reason is the PDL teams. These PDL teams are constructed of mostly college players who play during the summer to gear up for the upcoming season. If you were to have PDL enter into this competition, teams would not be able to field a team for a month during the college spring season. Not to mention educational commitments, but college team commitments.
Another solution must be made in terms of the US Open Cup if the MLS was to change its regular season around. Also, most of the USL-1 and USL-2 teams would be just in pre-season and not many coaches would want to compete in such a prestigious and historic competition right out of pre-season when the technique of some players is not where it would be as if it were the middle of the season. For example, look at Montreal when it competed in the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal. The Impact began preseason in January. The club played the first leg in Montreal vs. Santos Laguna in February. Two weeks later, after still not playing league matches because the USL season doesn’t start until April while Santos Laguna was just starting its Clausura, Montreal shows up in Mexico to lose, 5-4, and gets knocked out of the competition because it could not hold onto a 2-0 lead into halftime (if this was the middle of their season, would their fitness be up enough that they could hold onto the lead?).
However, I do like the fact that the winter break happens when the NFL has its playoffs. Realistically, it is extremely hard to compete with NFL in terms of TV ratings as well as popularity. If a town, for example Houston, had the choice of going to a Houston Texan playoff game or a Houston Dynamo playoff game, you can certainly choose both. However, in this economic time and a town like Houston feeling the pinch, it is hard to attend both games with ticket prices for NFL playoff games being so steep and family packages to MLS games continuing to rise. Most likely, a fan would choose NFL. With this revised schedule, MLS would have to compete with the likes of baseball playoffs in October as well as NHL and NBA playoffs in May. I would be more willing to take the risk of competing with the NHL and NBA playoffs rather than the NFL.
I would like to point out a couple of solutions if the games in December had to be played anywhere. Lambeau Field in Green Bay has heaters underneath the grass. For the colder climates like the New England Revolution, Soon to be Vancouver and Portland, Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle and Toronto, heaters around the field as well as underneath the field should need to be installed. Another option is to play the games in a nearby dome. Toronto could be so brutally cold, and with their stadium changing to grass from the God awful, let’s see how high the ball can bounce, turf, that a game indoors at the Rogers Centre would be realistic. Obviously not all cities have a dome, but if the Danish Superliga (and we know how cold it gets there) can fit to the FIFA preferred league schedule, then why can’t we?
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