NASL Changes to Split Season Format in 2013, Traditional Playoff System Eliminated
In what could be interpreted as a cost saving measure for team owners, the NASL will announce on Tuesday morning that in 2013 they will go to a two part season similar to some Latin American countries. Playoffs, which Canadian and US sports fans have become accustomed to, are virtually eliminated except for a single match championship in November between the outright winner of the first and second season with the victor claiming the NASL Soccer Bowl Trophy. In the event the same team wins both competitions, the team with the second-best record for the full year’s games will appear in the championship match.
The news of the major format overhaul was to have been released at 10:00 a.m. ET on Wednesday morning according to a tweet by the NASL on Tuesday afternoon. However, the Puerto Rico Islanders featured the press release on their website Tuesday evening. It wasn’t up long but savvy NASL fans screen captured the page and pulled the text before it was taken offline.
The statement explains that the opening season will start in late March or early April and will culminate on Thursday, July 4. Teams will then have a month off to either take a break, tour or host international friendlies. The break will occur during the international transfer window that is open throughout much of Europe, Latin America and North America.
The second season will start in late July or early August and will culminate on November 2.
Each individual champions will feature a balanced schedule with one home and one away match against competing team.
“Our Scheduling Sub-Committee arrived at this recommendation after an exhaustive review of a number of alternatives,” said NASL Commissioner David Downs, “and the new format takes into consideration a variety of factors including fan and player comfort in our many warm-weather cities.” “But the bottom line,” Downs added, “is that we believe this new competitive format will bring more excitement and meaning to each of our regular season matches for all of our teams throughout the year.”
This past summer a number of Southeastern NASL team had issues with the weather in July. But the two season schedule falls short for northern teams like Minnesota and Edmonton who struggle with early and late season games and attendance. July in both Minnesota and Alberta are the best, most consistent and driest weather months of the year. Both early April and late October can provide nearly impossible weather conditions in both the Twin Cities and Edmonton. However, according to the press statement that will be released this morning, the new schedule was adopted by a unanimous vote of the NASL’s Board of Governors on August 24, 2012 which has been discussing the issue since the inception of the league.
It was not made clear if a team would have to pay their players during the one month break if it should chose to go on hiatus. Contracts in second division have traditionally guaranteed players a salary from the beginning to the end of the season.
Last year, after the league-owned Minnesota Stars made a run through the playoffs and won the NASL Championship, rumors persisted that team owners were not happy about having to pay the extra month of salary to players and last minute airfares and hotel bills. While most North American sports fans are not only familiar with but enjoy the playoff season in sports, they are expensive and even with a home and away match, most teams still lose money for having to book the extra dates for their venues and as already mentioned, pay players for a longer duration and have additional last minute travel expenses. The new NASL format would eliminate most of those expenses.
The NASL currently features a playoff system of a bye in the first round for the first and second place teams while a single match playoff happens in the first round for teams 3-6. The following two rounds, the semifinal and the final, featured a very fair but very expensive home and away total goals series.
Division 3 USL PRO has used several formats in the past and their board of governors has gone with a 6-team single match playoff. Like the NASL, the top two teams get a bye the first week of playoffs. But the semifinal and final are both single match events and the team with the best record hosts.
Here is the press statement in its entirety as posted on the Puerto Rico Islanders website:
NASL Announces Split-Season Format for 2013
Posted on Wed, Sep 5, 2012
MIAMI, Fla. (September 5, 2012) – The North American Soccer League (NASL) has announced a change in its regular season competitive format for the 2013 season. Beginning in 2013, the NASL’s regular season will feature two separate and distinct round-robin competitions with the winners of the each competition meeting in a single game on the weekend following the conclusion of the second competition. The winner of that match will claim the Soccer Bowl trophy as the NASL’s 2013 champions.
The first, or spring, championship will kick off in late March or early April and will culminate on Thursday, July 4. NASL member teams will then have roughly one month before the start of the second championship and each team is free during that period to prepare for that competition as they see fit, including touring or scheduling exhibition matches. The break will occur during the international transfer window that is open throughout much of Europe, Latin America and North America.
The second, or fall, championship will commence late July or early August and run through November 2. Following the conclusion of the fall championship the winner of the spring championship will host the winner of the fall championship (or, in the event the same team wins both competitions, the team with the second-best record for the full year’s games) to determine which team will be inscribed on the Soccer Bowl as the NASL’s annual champion.
Each individual championship will consist of a full round-robin schedule in which each NASL team plays every other NASL team once at home and once on the road. Other than the tie-breaking procedure to determine the opponent for the spring championship winner in the Soccer Bowl, there will be no carryover of points from the spring to the fall competition.
The new competitive format for the 2013 season was adopted by a unanimous vote of the NASL’s Board of Governors on August 24, 2012. It had been under discussion since the inception of the league.
“Our Scheduling Sub-Committee arrived at this recommendation after an exhaustive review of a number of alternatives,” said NASL Commissioner David Downs, “and the new format takes into consideration a variety of factors including fan and player comfort in our many warm-weather cities.” “But the bottom line,” Downs added, “is that we believe this new competitive format will bring more excitement and meaning to each of our regular season matches for all of our teams throughout the year.”
The 2012 NASL Regular Season will end on September 23with the 2012 NASL Playoffs set to start the following weekend, September 29-30.
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I like it.
And I hate to admit, some of the 100 degree evenings kept me away from matches in Blaine. I didn’t mind bundling up for the home leg of the championship last fall though.
I imagine for Minnesota they’ll schedule similarly, keep home matches sparse in March (at the start of the spring flight), and then keep home matches sparse in October (the end of the Fall flight).
The only downside I see is that teams are going to be pretty much done for about half way through each season with only one team advancing from each half of the season, how that affects sales remains to be seen. May not even be so bad after all.
As someone else suggested on the discussion boards, you will now have to sell two sets of season tickets which will be odd.
Very good point in that teams will know they are eliminated from winning much sooner.
So what is there to play for?
What will the motivation be?
Just to do a really good job?
In the US and Canada it’s been about making the playoffs. In most countries where there is no playoffs, there is promotion and relegation. We don’t have that either. I’m very concerned that this could turn into a even worse situation than some of the NBA games at the end of the season.
I’ve long wondered why minor league soccer (and other sports) in the U.S. not only have playoffs (beyond a championship game – that I understand), but often have extensive playoffs.
Minor league sports teams usually are break even at best, and playoffs are incredibly expensive with virtually no income.
At least MLS has turned the corner where the local media provides free advertising.
However, according to the press statement that will be released this morning, the new schedule was adopted by a unanimous vote of the NASL’s Board of Governors on August 24, 2012 which has been discussing the issue since the inception of the league.
Translated, Traffic and Hartman agreed to the schedule.
Why will they have to sell two sets of season tixs? Couldn’t it be bundled as one? And if they do sell two sets I bet the price point is gonna be incredibly attractive to people. Does the St. Paul Saints league still play split season? I should look. I am gonna go look… Oh before I go look I agree with Justin rather bundle up then deal with 100 degree temps.
Interesting idea, I haven’t decided my opinion on it yet. My initial reaction is that I don’t like it because it takes the playoffs. But can understand the view of the owners.
concepts great, at first it sounded good, but I don’t see how this work with an 8 team league. This league needs 12-14 team playing home & away for a total of 24-28 game w/ 1game playoff at the end , but not necessary.
The split season is okay but why market it as two seasons in 1, call it a month hiatus & be done with it. Are these teams gonna have marketing$$$ to keep at the fore front of people’s minds?
U risk in July people hearing NASL season is over, disconnect)then a month later NASL is back? hard to reconnect.
One season 2 champions, 1 game playoff. Logic is the second champion will most likely be in form, how interesting will that 1game playoff be?
My ideal.
1 season,
1 table
home & way w/8 teams =16 games w/ schedule filled out w/ regional game again MLS reserve.
even @ 12-14 teams home & away 24-28game fill another6-8 games vs. regional MLS reserves.
2 seasons in 1
2 champions in 1 game playoff ( too foreign for foreigners.)
ps yeah work your 1 month hiatus in where a team don’t play for 2wks
The question everyone needs to be asking is, what “problem” is this “solution” fixing? Is it hot, rainy July? Is it the “expense” of playoffs? Sorry, but I don’t buy either one. The rain issue seems to be pointed at Florida, Atlanta, and Carolina. Last I checked rainy season in FL runs from April – August. July isn’t even the worst month of it. And again, pretty much end of May through mid-Sept. isn’t going to see a big variation in temps down here. I don’t see anything “fixed” in those arenas.
Expense of playoffs. Ok, I can certainly understand that there is some additional expense, especially if your only playoff game is a 1st round away loss. But what is it we are admitting here by calling this a problem in need of a solution? That most of the teams in the league aren’t anywhere close to drawing enough fans that having to fly for an away playoff game, while trying to win the league championship mind you, is THAT damaging to you financially? What?!? If things are that bad, we’ve got way bigger problems than some insanely stupid schedule idea.
If this is about cost, then they’re making a big mistake in not realizing the effect this system will almost certainly have on the bottom lines of more of the teams in the current set up where they are out of it even earlier…twice!!!! Advance ticket sales are critical to teams. When fans see just how many potential meaningless games most of the teams will have in both halfs of the season, how many are going to rethink their season ticket renewals and instead opt to wait and see how their team is doing? If you cut costs by eliminating one or two playoff games per team on average, but you then lose a good chunk of ticket sales for multiple regular season games in both “halfs” of your season, what are you really accomplishing? I mean, besides pissing off fans?
And all of that is just logistics and money. Every week during the season we all still need to be ambassadors for our teams and leagues. We are all out there trying to convince family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, anyone we can to give our game and our teams a chance. How do you try to explain this system to them? It’s as un-American as you can get. We need to find ways to pull in more casual sports fans to keep growing our game, not confuse and alienate them by coming up with a ridiculous schedule that mimics Guatemala!
And props to smatthew and Justin on their willingness to “bundle up” for Stars games. But the reality is that you’re the minority. We play pro soccer in the US and Canada during the summer for two main reasons – trying to overlap as little as possible with the NFL, and weather. The game doesn’t have anywhere near the popularity to compete with anymore weeks than it does now with the NFL for fan attention, especially at the lower levels. And the sport also still does not have a rabid enough following to fill stadiums with fans when it is 10 degrees and snowing.
This is horrible. I don’t remember the interview, but awhile back, somewhere, I recall Downs casually tossing out the idea of split season scheduling, and it turned my stomach. I thought, my God, please don’t let them be that stupid. When someone from within the league office told me last night this was indeed today’s “announcement” I wanted to scream. After two successful seasons, with some very positive things to build on, why on God’s green earth would you CHOOSE to do something so negative?!? I just pray that fans will not be shy in voicing their disapproval of this monumental mistake, and that the league will actually listen and trash the experiment very quickly.
I don’t like it. Among other issues, there’s a clear signal that the spring season is more important. If you win the spring, you’ve not only booked a spot in the playoff, you’ve also guaranteed that it’s at home. Why even try in the fall? What more is there to play for?
Worst idea ever. Why not have a season set up like it is now. Crown a victor by point total at the end of the season. The idea of the point system is counter intuative of having a playoff system. It lessens the importance of the regular season. The team that avoids injuries, rotates players to keep players rested and healthy, stays consistent throughout 28 games deserves to be crowned victors of the league. If a playoff is absolutly neccesary than have a one game championship between 1st and 2nd place with the 1st place team getting the home advantage.
@Nick, I’m guessing/assuming that this was talked about ad nauseam with the board of governors and the spring season champion hosting was done so it could be planned in advance. Another cost saving measure. However, to do it fairly it would be the team with the best overall record would host.
Another point brought up by one of my favorite US soccer writers Brian Strauss, it is possible that a team with the best overall record of both seasons would not be in the championship match and not receive any hardware.
I wonder if this has anything to do with next year’s USOC schedule.
Of course, if we use last year’s USOC schedule as a guide, this could actually make match congestion worse.
It also looks pretty bad for Minnesota. Starting too early, ending too late, and missing entirely the attendance bump we usually get during the Schwan’s USA Cup.
I really don’t like the look of this.
I have mixed feelings about it but I’m going to wait for next year and see how it plays out.
Wow! It’s exciting to see passion on both sides of this coin. Here are some things I’d like to share.
1) I read a number of comments above complaining about this being 2 seasons. Please re-read the NASL press release; which does NOT say 2 seasons rather it says 1 season with 2 championships/competitions. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. In fact, it might just turn out to be a great opportunity for teams to battle it out on the field for 2 different awards in the same season.
2) Imagine how exciting that month off will be in terms of player movements. The transfer window in European leagues is hugely important and extremely exciting for the fans.
3) The weather is a factor for both players and especially fans. As Justin and others pointed out above; bundling up is more fun and baking in the sun, which was the case even in MN.
4) The transfer window is extremely exciting for reporters of the beautiful game. They have tons of work to do investigating leads/rumors/press releases on player movements. I know that some readers will feel this is a silly reason, but I would simply state that reporters are also valuable to the ‘game’ because they inform and educate us on the life of our favorite activity – being fans of the beautiful game.
5) This system of 2 championships per season might just serve the NASL well in its attempts for popularity in the international arena. How cool would it be to watch the San Antonio Scorpions go on a 4 or 5 game tour in Mexico during the month off!!! Or for the NY Cosmos to go to England for a similar thing!!!
6) I’m really happy that the press release pointed out that this system gives great value to EACH AND EVERY home game. Every game won, every goal scored will count for where you finish on the table. Finally we have a league where the point of the team is to play games throughout the entire season. When you have a play-off series the whole point is to get into the play-offs. As I write this, I do realize that the North American sports fan is very much accustomed to typical play-offs. I’m happy there are no more play-offs.
7) Lastly, I’m really happy that this new system is going to help out the financial bottom line for the owners. The owners are an indispensable part of the game, and they more we help them plan for their expenses the more likely they are to be supportive. This change truly helps front offices in their financial and logistical planning. This component is a truly wise and valuable aspect of this decision made by the NASL.
In conclusion, I truly want to congratulate the NASL, and wish them luck with this new change. I’m not 100% sure it’ll make the league better, but I’m definitely enouraged by the boldness of the NASL Front Office and Team Owners. In my opinion, they have just raised their stock with this change. As for us fans, the ‘ambassadorship’ job we have does not change at all. We have to get out there and make every game known to our friends/communities and go support our local team. Go MN Stars FC!
I like it.
Not like there is a shortage of soccer in Minnesota in July.
Bring on the friendlies!
Lots of comments that I will probably read through later. The one comment that I saw that I have an instant response to is this:
“What problem does it solve?”
Playoffs. Which are expensive, hard to sell, and historically have been a big money loser at the lower division levels. If they can rationalize minimizing them, then it can save a lot of money.
My opinion?
WTF?
Then again, it’s lower division soccer. I wonder how much the fans really care.
And by ‘fans’ I mean the thousands going to games, not us few internet die-hards.
I’ve read hundreds and hundreds of responses to this change already, but that last one is the only positive review of what has happened.
And it reads like something an NASL staffer would have written.
I am a fan of splitting the season in two halves with a month long break in the summer. I am aware of the negative repercussions in some northern cities at the beginning and end of the season, but as the the NASL expands the season was likely to begin play earlier and end later at some point anyway. The month break gives teams an opportunity to get healed or play international friendlies and it gives front offices a window to really push ticket sales for the first couple of games of the restart.
Plus starting earlier might mean more chances to play MLS friendlies, higher competition, in the preseason.
But someone is going to have to work harder at selling me on the playoff format here. As has been pointed out above and elsewhere, we do not have relegation. No relegation means there is no force pushing those teams who are struggling to keep going. Not only will the team who wins the spring tournament possibly struggle to sell tickets and motivate fans and players, but so will those teams that early on in the fall tournament know that they are very unlikely going to win a spot in the final.
I would have rather seen a single table set up, although you still have the same problem of having the majority of your teams basically out of the running and again ticket sales would become a possible issue.
But why not just cut playoffs to four teams for now? StrikersReturn hit it dead on. If owners are unhappy with the cost of the playoffs, then perhaps they should focus more on putting more butts in seats during the regular season so the financial hit is mitigated?
This doesn’t seem to be much of a solution to that problem.
Will this change increase interest in the NASL and will it put more fans in the stadiums? Could the opposite be true? Fearin that the NASL has made a big boo boo.
It also would have been nice if the league would have reached out to fans and gotten some feedback before making such a monumental decision. We only pay their bills, no big deal.
People are asking what problem this format solves. I asked the same question on another site. I got an answer: television.
A one-game final where the host is determined halfway through the season is a much easier sell to a TV network than a lengthy playoff format. It also makes regular season games feel a lot more important. This format is designed not only to help clubs reduce costs, but to make the league more attractive to potential TV partners.
You know what else makes the NASL more attractive to potential TV partners? A team in New York City with a familiar name.
@speedcake, We only pay a portion of their bill. They foot the $1 million loss most teams take each year. Nice write off if you’ve got millions and millions to spend. But I’m guessing your owners don’t.
I could be wrong but I still don’t see a network wanting to pick up a US D2 soccer team’s playoff. As has been the case in the past, there is usually money paid by the league to make this happen. And that is a whole lot of changes just to get one match on TV. Not sure that would be worth it either unless you got yourself some mega sponsors.
Also, you know what will motivate a team that wins the spring season to do well in the fall? A group of players that are all trying desperately to get noticed by scouts from MLS or other countries so that they can secure a better-paying contract for next season. Only the rich rest up for the playoffs, and there’s nothing rich about the NASL.
I just had to respond to this from Fotbalist.
“2) Imagine how exciting that month off will be in terms of player movements. The transfer window in European leagues is hugely important and extremely exciting for the fans.”
Um, this is minor league D2 soccer. We don’t have excitement over player movement. Unless you are excited over Jamie Waston coming up for a loan from the USL. This isn’t Europe or MLS.
“3) The weather is a factor for both players and especially fans. As Justin and others pointed out above; bundling up is more fun and baking in the sun, which was the case even in MN.”
Freezing is more fun than being warm? Now that refutes all human nature. As SR points out, this has nothing to do with the weather. It even make the situation worse in the NASL. You are going to have some games killed playing in March and late fall.
“4) The transfer window is extremely exciting for reporters of the beautiful game. They have tons of work to do investigating leads/rumors/press releases on player movements. I know that some readers will feel this is a silly reason, but I would simply state that reporters are also valuable to the ‘game’ because they inform and educate us on the life of our favorite activity – being fans of the beautiful game.”
The NASL doesn’t even have media that follows it. That is why blogs like this are so important And as I pointed out before, the transfer window is meaningless to the NASL. You seem to be confused about North American soccer.
“5) This system of 2 championships per season might just serve the NASL well in its attempts for popularity in the international arena. How cool would it be to watch the San Antonio Scorpions go on a 4 or 5 game tour in Mexico during the month off!!! Or for the NY Cosmos to go to England for a similar thing!!!”
What!? First off, there is only one champion. The Soccer Bowl winner. This is not going to make the NASL more popular internationally. A D2 league is going to be more popular because they changed their schedule to cut costs? You have to be kidding.
And no D2 is going to tour Mexico or England. How many MLS teams have? Get your head out of the clouds.
“6) I’m really happy that the press release pointed out that this system gives great value to EACH AND EVERY home game. Every game won, every goal scored will count for where you finish on the table. Finally we have a league where the point of the team is to play games throughout the entire season. When you have a play-off series the whole point is to get into the play-offs. As I write this, I do realize that the North American sports fan is very much accustomed to typical play-offs. I’m happy there are no more play-offs.”
Actually there is a playoff. The Soccer Bowl. This isn’t a single table point winner to crown a champ. And in the U.S. and Canada, we have play-offs. The NASL only cut down on them because they couldn’t afford it. And will the games matter and count fpr the Spring winner in the Fall? Or the teams that have no playoffs to play for? Why go to the games?
“7) Lastly, I’m really happy that this new system is going to help out the financial bottom line for the owners. The owners are an indispensable part of the game, and they more we help them plan for their expenses the more likely they are to be supportive. This change truly helps front offices in their financial and logistical planning. This component is a truly wise and valuable aspect of this decision made by the NASL.”
Really? Just seems like cost cutting to me. And it takes a lot of the luster off the progress the NASL has made that they have to do this drastic a step to save money. I wonder about their future now if this blow up in their face. Something tells me Traffic is behind this.
This format I dont like
two years tops before it is reverted back
It’s going to take a season or two before we know what affect this may or may not have on ticket sales.
The least they could have done would be to not decide the location of the playoff final based on the winner of the spring tournament. Although, that somewhat offsets the fact that the winner of the fall tournament (wtf are we supposed to call these things?) would be the “hot” team I suppose.
And while yes, casual fans of this sport might be less knowledgeable overall of all the games nuances around the world as some of the more hardcore fans here and elsewhere online, I believe we should be careful in assuming things like “casual fans won’t even notice” or “casual fans just want to watch some soccer”.
The league and its teams are going to have to explain this to people, especially with the elimination of the playoff process. Good luck to them.
@BQ, and without us it’d be a total loss
I was obviously being a bit facetious, but I DO think it might have been prudent for the league to at least speak with some fans about the possible changes.
Also, and again, if you as an owner are taking a million dollar loss each season then by all means, do a better job putting butts in seats. Hire people in your front office that understand the sport (Are you listening, Tampa Bay Rowdies?). Spend some money rather than insisting everything be done on a shoestring budget.
@Dave – I can almost guarantee you this makes the NASL toxic to television. Not that any lower division soccer league was going to get on television anyway. There is NO national interest in the NASL. None.
Once the USL stopped paying FSC, they stopped airing games. Last year the NASL paid GolTV to air the final game. Unless the NASL wants to pay a network to air some games, they have no shot on tv. And this move is to cut costs. So they are not going to add any.
As for the new schedule. No network wants a break for an entire month in the middle of the year. It just confuses people. And playoffs in this part of the world are the life blood of a league. It is what a network craves. Not having any dooms you.
Also no one is going to be attracted to the NASL based on the Cosmos. Everyone knows there is going to be a MLS team in NYC within three years. Either that is the Cosmos or the Cosmos go away. The Cosmos are just using the NASL.
But again, it is pointless to worry about this. The low level of play compared to MLS and foreign soccer on tv, and lack of national interest means no network, even an obscure one, would ever pay the NASL to air games.
@Kel – No, TV networks aren’t lining up to give the NASL money. If the league manages to find a few sponsors willing to pay for a production crew and a couple of hours of airtime per week, though, it can certainly get on TV, and it might even turn a profit from it. How expensive can airtime be on FSC and Gol TV on Friday and Saturday nights?
Also, “playoffs in this part of the world are the life blood of a league?” That’s nonsense. The lifeblood of any league is money and fan interest, period. Playoffs are irrelevant in this equation — especially in a sport where most leagues around the world don’t even bother with playoffs.
Note to NASL. Do some marketing research with your customers (the fans) before making anymore drastic changes. Points based champion systems only work w pro/rel in place or at least a playoff or knock out competition built in as well. (Kinda like what we have this year: Soccer Bowl winner and Regular Season Champion.)
Without pro/rel or playoff/knockout alongside this points based championship, I predict LOTS of boredom outside of NY and San Antonio next year.
Money will be saved by not having playoffs. But ticket sales will suffer in the north on both ends of the seasons. Are people going to come out to Nessie or Clarke in March? Nope. Playoffs have always been touted in the US as something the American fan expects (never liked that argument) and it’s a substitute for promotion/relegation. Now we have neither.
Dave, the national contract is really a non-starter. Even commissioner Downs said so on this webiste and he used to work for large television sports networks, ABC and Univision. He has said there is no demand and the league must look to regional contracts first which many teams still don’t have. We have to walk before we run here. And yes, to get a TV crews into shoot a game and produce it is very expensive.
Because NASL is a second league, the first thing they should have done with each team fans was go at with a European approach.
Tribalism.
Soccer in Europe is tribalism. You can tell by the amount of teams in one city like London, Bueno Aires and Madrid have multiple teams in one city. Thats like all of NYC boroughs having a team in the NFL.
While some teams have to compete with other professional teams do not. Teams like Railhawks should be selling out. FTL should be selling out.
NASL should have told each GM that you have a task- have stadium capacity be 65% or higher.
Also what really hurts NASL is the USSF requirement. While the postive it added structure. The negative it assumed that NASL will grow fast and potential MLS expansion teams will take the Portland and Seattle route. Starting at a lower division.
Now the cosmos, orlando, and san antonio might have financial power but they show an effective way of getting the community involved. They are marketing to the community. Orlando is getting the mayor involved, cosmos are doing merchandising, san antonio is connecting it to a group project.
I say teams should do a merchandising effect first. I say pick a large area in your metro population and drape that area with teams uniforms and hats. For example the rowdies play in st pete. Market in St Pete heavily. You represent the tampa bay area not just tampa alone.
Look at the Brooklyn Nets- I guarantee you its main fan goal is to make Brooklyn a nets fan. Shoot even marginalize the knicks fan out the area. Look at this how did the nets market themselves before the first game through the season. By merchandizing. I got people rocking the Brooklyn nets hats around NYC.
Thats my opinion when it comes to fan and getting them to the game-sports tribalism.
Teams that will have problems with due to stadium distance is Minnesota Stars.
Brian how far is the Stars stadium to the city.
Oh Yeah I hate the new NASL format.
About the weather issue, particularly the northern cities during both ends of the season.. Can this not be easily remedied during schedule planning? If it is home and away, the league can simply allocate away games during the coldest part of the year and home games during warmer part.
I remain skeptical, and think the only good thing is that when someone plays FC Edmonton (in Edmonton) in early March or late October and they say the temperature is -40 (Celsius) it will be really easy for me to convert that to Fahrenheit.
Assuming MN is still around, they could play in the Dome, but I am not sure this is a cost the club wants.
I love IMS. We have got to have some of the smartest participants around. There are a lot of great points, “pro” and “con”.
I’m looking forward to discussing this on the next IMS NASL podcast (which can be found here. On IMS.)
Yanki
Overall I like it, but once we go down this road I must ask: what sense does it make to possibly give a team that lost BOTH halves of the season a crack at the overall championship? Just give it outright to Spring, Fall champion! Logistically the Spring team doesn’t need to travel, so no loss there with travel expenses.
@ Kel –
I will grant you that my points are always in the ‘optimist’ grouping; and it is true that optimists (like myself) have been known to be wrong. It is very possible that in 2 or 3 years all my optimistic points will be long forgotten. I like most of your responses to my points; but optimists have also been known to succeed. So….we’ll see.
#2 – I still feel that fans get excited about the possibility of an incoming player who could be a great addition to the team, irrespective of this being D2 soccer. As others have pointed out, most of the general fan-dom will not pay attention to this but people like us who are on this site (and others) reading almost every comment will enjoy that and it will make them more passionate fans.
#3 – The weather….I guess that’s quite arbitrary so if one prefers to perspire as opposed to bundle in layers of clothing…like I said, it’s personal choice. I live in MN, and have been to Edmonton many times even in the dead of winter. Millions of people live in these two (and other) northern cities through many a cold March and October.
#4 – Soccer reporters – Well, I wasn’t referring to mainstream media, rather I was precisely speaking of soccer news providers like IMS (& the great NASL Podcast), Bundesliga Fanatic, Scoring Third, Prost Amerika, Soccer by Ives, all the people at Canadian Soccer News, etc, and the many others that give us a venue to be directly involved in the conversation.
Yes, my point about a tour to Mexico or England is a bit over-reaching even for the ultimate optimist, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility in the mid and long-term future. As for cost-cutting measures….I take that as a positive…you know, when I can’t earn as much money as I’m spending I cut some of my expenses and try a different option for my family or else I go broke. Once, my finances are stable, and I’ve been able to increase my income, I try different things. I kind of like the idea of the NASL owners doing the same.
@ John –
You are absolutely correct about the concept of “Tribalism” which you so aptly described. I believe (no one get mad at me, please) that the new format will be able to more easily concentrate on local fan following and truly developing a local identity as you described the Brooklyn Nets. Someone might want to look at Bellingham United FC which plays in a cross-border D4 league PCSL. They also took a community identity approach and it helped them tremendously. Anyhow, this is a long-winded way of saying that I really liked your approach.
Lastly, if the comments here don’t prove that soccer news sites like IMS (and the like) have a true impact on the following of the game in the US, I don’t know what does….Thanks for the opportunity BQ.
Commisionner Downs, is that you? Lol…
most of this change is about having ‘friendlies’ in the month off of July. so, maybe a man u or chelsea makes it to San Antonio.
the friendlies could work out well for division 2, but, they will begin to fade in popularity after a few years, just as they have for MLS teams.
friendlies are fake soccer, but it takes the public a while to figure that out.
I like the format…the schedule is exactly the same as all D2 leagues in Europe.
We don’t have pro/rel. So the fall season is still in play for all teams, not just for top 4.
a team could suck in spring, regroup during break and fight in fall season.
Now it’s like 2 teams are out nothing to play for except maybe give points to other teams.
Uh-oh!
I could careless about friendlies. Looking at this year’s USOC, July is when the semifinals were held so assuming the federation sticks with a similar timeline, the break will give NASL teams, in the event they make it that far, an opportunity to focus their time and effort in capturing a spot in the final. Earning something more meaningful.
they could have friendlies with the regular schedule
but it would be during the week
if they wanted to save money they should have played 21 games because 28 is a bit much for 8 teams
everybody play three times
postseason will be single game knockout
final will be one game
Personally I thought if it was going to be like this make it at least so that the two best overall spring/fall teams play in the final.
yeah
I like many aspects of it. Each game is more crucial because only the top team is the winner. However that brings up a question that is nagging me. Does the champion of a season get treated like a champion? Is there a cup and celebration for winning one of the seasons? Or do they have to win the Soccer Bowl for any acknowledgement?
As far as July weather goes, in the Canadian prairies, when it hits 28C + I want to curl up and die. In fact the heat gets so bad here I lose my appetite and have certain unpleasant problems from dealing with the heat. 34C is so god awful that I could puke thinking about it. I need an ice cold Strongbow.
The champion thing is weird because what incentive does a double season champion get?
There is no pro/rel
I think it would be cool if the double champion automatically qualified to semifinal of USOC.
any ideas?
what NASL really need was sponsorship money
like old spice sponsoring the soccerbowl
or teams like atlanta or carolina getting their stadiums a sponsor
Brian I was wondering = will minnesota be able to play next year
david downs needs to talk to don garber so he can get help on ownership
John,
First of all, I love your passion for soccer. It’s great. I’m a pretty busy guy and don’t usually take the time to write this long of a response but I am doing it because you are such a good soccer fan. So please read carefully what I am writing here.
WakeMed Soccer Park is where Carolina play. Please Google “WakeMed” and then Google “WakeMed Soccer Park” and read ALL of the Wiki information. Then come back and discuss soccer stadium sponsorships.
Also, before the conversation please do some research and find out who owns their own stadium in the NASL and who doesn’t because if you don’t own your own stadium, how will a sponsorship help? Sponsorship money usually goes to whomever owns the stadium, correct? When you have gone out and done your research and have a good grip on what you are actually making comments about, then come back and we will have that discussion.
Secondly, I ask you to do some critical thinking here. For instance: Old Spice sponsoring the Soccer Bowl? So ask yourself, what do league get in terms of money for a sponsorship like that? I don’t know either but I’m guessing with enough research you can find it on the internet. Look it up and find out. Then ask yourself: What would the sponsor get from this and what would be their motivation for sponsoring? Sponsors have a product, correct? And they want that product out in front of as many people as possible, correct? That’s how they make money is by selling their product. That’s what advertising is. How many people come to a NASL Soccer Bowl? How many people see the NASL Soccer Bowl on national TV? How many sports writers will write about it and how many papers and magazines will pick up the story and how many readers will read about the Old Spice NASL Soccerbowl? If you answer those questions honestly you will see why Old Spice is not sponsoring the Soccer Bowl. By the way, that thought process we just went though is critical thinking and it saves one from making generalized statements without much thought behind the statement.
As to Minnesota next year, who knows?
NASL is going to a split season like most of the rest of the Western Hemisphere
@Traffic
I for one, would like to thank Traffic and all their lost monies for taking the time this year to come up with a scheduling idea that allowed this one post to have over 50 responses. This makes this site exciting and interesting, where folks express their pleasure or dismay over Traffic’s next move, so again, THANK YOU TRAFFIC!!!
Is Traffic’s strategy much like the 1980s distribution of Coke Classic, with a brand new recipe, only to have such fan backlash, that Coca Cola Company went back to the old recipe. Will Traffic do the same?
For once I can’t help but hope Bart is right. My fear is that the attitude by the league will be, “Ok, yes, early feedback indicates a strong dislike of this idea with the fans. But, eh, they’ll get over it in time.” I’m afraid that the only thing that will make them reconsider this decision will be seeing so many low attendance numbers in so many cities who not long into each “half season” have no legitimate chance at the “title.” And then we have to wonder if too much damage will have been done to a fragile economic system to be repaired.
Not to mention the first half champs who really have zero incentive to treat the entire second “half season” as nothing more than a conference champ in the NFL with their post season position wrapped up treats week 17 – ie. all backups playing, with complete indifference as the the outcome of the game. Teams that want to win championships, which in this case is the Soccer Bowl, do not take risks when their spot to play in that match is locked up. This is the nature of sports. It WILL happen. How anyone can say it makes regular season games moer meaningful is completely beyond me. It will in fact make more regular season games for more teams than ever before utterly meaningless.
If you haven’t before now, go and check out The Tailgate Show on blogtalk radio tonight. It’s run by members of the Strikers supporters group, Flight 19. They are going to have the NASL’s Kartik K. on to talk about this change. I’d recommend everyone let him know in no uncertain terms how you feel about this. But hey, be nice about it because Kartik is a nice guy. LOL
@ Stiv -
No, I’m not Commissioner Downs…LOL…just a crazy fan who believes this change might be a positive.
@ Strikers Return -
Thanks for the tip on the Tailgate Show. Should be a good show!
This was almost a really good idea. I love Apertura/Clausura style seasons, but why on Earth did they have to attempt to link the two seasons at all? They should just crown a champion at the end of each half-season and be done with it. If you REALLY want a playoff game, then have the #2 team travel to the #1 team after a bye week to play for the trophy. But linking the two seasons is meaningless. I will recant what others have concerned, what purpose does the Clausura serve if you win Apertura and secure home field advantage in the championship game? How do you sell tickets to the Clausura if you win Apertura?
I stand by worst idea ever.. Sucks to come in second in both halves, prob score the most points in the league if you total both halves and not get a sniff at the final. total BS. I don’t know what Hartman was thinking agreeing to this.. At the same time he has to be on the same page with the rest of the owners which the way i understand is this Traffic org. If he isn’t he risks losing the league that he is actually making money on (it seems). I am seriously reconsidering buying season tix for next year. Id rather pay for the more important 3-4 games in the beginning where the starters are actually playing. BOOO NASL, Owners, and whoever decided to go this route… LOST REVENUE FROM THIS FAN…
I am sort of curios how one markets this to the public for season tickets? It’s going to be interesting, thats for sure.
After reading the comments here it sounds like the league/owners in an attempt to institute a cost savings measure failed to fully explore or understand the impact it could have on the way this could affect their revenue stream. Did the cost savings expected exceed what was viewed as possible loss revenue for formatting the play-offs like this?
@kevthegerman – Although I do agree with you about the team the finishes second getting possibly screwed (and maybe this format needs a bit of refinement) but I am a fan that believes the number of teams making the play-offs in almost all sports is plain silly. I like the fact that you reward the teams that perform during the regular season and EARN a spot.
@tomASS – I’d counter your last statement simply by saying NCAA Men’s basketball tournament. It is arguably the single most popular sporting tournament in the US, and it routinely has teams in it that do not meet your standards of “earning” their way into it by their regular season record. I for one scoff at this argument because, in the end, the better teams should be eliminating those teams that you think didn’t “earn” their way in if they truly are the better team. Anything can happen in sports, though, and to me, that’s a positive, not a negative. Dominant teams are reviled because most Americans love an underdog.
With an 8 team league there are scant few options to choose from in coming up with a playoff format. They really only had the current set up, or simply a four team set up possible. And here’s the real kicker that ties back into all this….the league went with six teams making the playoffs right? Presumably to help assure fan interest in as many markets as possible, as late into the season as possible, right? So why on earth would you scrap that plan completely, and opt for something that will do the opposite?
Next year we’ll have nine teams. (I am presuming the continuation of the Stars because I’d like to think it will happen, plus the fine gentlemen at Ultras Alive reported this week they, unofficially of course, have been given a pretty good indication the Stars will indeed be back next year.) That means a 16 game first “half season.” (My God it kills me to keep having to type that….) It is certainly conceivable that halfway through the 1st half season…omg…you could have as many as three or four teams already eliminated from the race. At the 12 game mark, is it entirely plausible that the race could be down to three or four teams? Ok, so after 12 games, if you’re a fan of one of the five teams already with no shot at the first half season title, what do you do? Do you plunk down your money to watch four more meaningless games? Or do you say, I’m saving my hard earned wages for half season two when hopefully my team has a shot again?
This whole thing stinks. I know how executive types think as I’ve spent a lot of years in corporate America. They think that just because the facts say something won’t work, and just because the masses say they don’t like it, it doesn’t deter them in many cases. They think they’re smarter than everyone else, that they know better, and they’ll just make the rest of us see it. This whole thing has that feel. I feel like the fans’ voices will be ignored, the facts will be ignored, and they won’t realize their mistake until it might be too late to salvage the situation.
You can sell lots of people on ideas if you package them up nice, and make a good speech about them. You can tell people something will actually be better for them, even if they don’t see it right now. But when it comes to people spending their money to support something it takes commitment to stick with like the touch and go reality of lower level soccer, you really need to reach out to your fans, to communicate with them, ask them what you can do to make things better. Instituting change simply for the sake of change, or to be different from others, is nonsense, especially if things are already going pretty well.
If you’d like to actually hear commissioner Downs give his take on this you can listen to this interview from last night.
http://nasn.tv/2012/grant-wahl-shawn-francis-and-david-downs/
@tomASS, i find the current playoff system in which the top 6 of and 8 team league make the playoffs as a major joke. That being said, in a previous comment i stated that i would like a single table season with the winner of the league decided by total points, if a final “playoff” matchup is such a MUST for Americans than let’s have 1st v 2nd in a final, with homefield going to 1st place. that still means that the last 4-5 games are still important.
important for the top 4-5 teams that is.
I think the goal should have been
Make playoffs a 4 team keep it fixed until you reach 20 teams then expand playoffs to 8
Keep it constant then expand the league to 24 teams
Only 8 out of 24 make playoffs
33%
Truly freakin pathetic some call yourselves soccer fans but are even assuming that fans will not come and season tickets will dwindle.
The reason MLS is shunned in the world is because the season is meaningless, it awards mediocrity David vs David matchups. single elimination coin toss tournaments at the end of the year.
Yes I want to see #1 and #2 play in final not #6 or #7.
So this season if your the best it doesn’t matter.
Guess what if you are soccer fan you go and support your team even if they lose.
From some of the comments it’s scary to think that a league moves forward but some are adimant about “Americanization”.
BQ: I am sort of curios how one markets this to the public for season tickets? It’s going to be interesting, thats for sure.
I’m not sure how profitable it would be for the teams, but as a fan, I think a Spring, Fall, or Both season ticket packages would be pretty cool. Committing yourself/family to 16 weekends of soccer can be a little tough. A nice short 4 month season might be a little easier to swallow.
Plus, I have [marketable placeholder name] season tickets sounds cooler than I have a 8-game ticket pack.
@Strikers
If you’re upset, that can’t be good.
It’s kind of a shame though, the split season has potential, especially for the lower divisions. But I think the league dropped the ball by not following the Mexican example more closely.
Two completely independent seasons, each with a brief playoff (say 3 teams) could have been awesome.
Most folks here in the good ole US of A like their seasons…their fall, winter, spring and summer seasons that is. Each of these seasons has their own peculiar aspects:
Winter is hockey and basketball
Spring is March madness and spring training (oh yeah and soccer)
Summer is soccer and baseball and swimming
Fall is football and baseball play offs.
If any one sport tries to commit it’s season against the natural tide of events, karma is affected and Mother Earth unleashes earthquakes tsunamis, tornadoes and hurricanes. Governments start to crumble. Democrats become Republicans and Communists resort to nudist camps for frolicking activities.
The order of the universe is disrupted. The moon may not be in the second house any more.
A lot of Chicken Littles on this. I’m not saying it’s the best thing ever by any stretch, nor am I denying the possibility for this to go negatively. I just don’t think you doom-and-gloomers have really thought things through any more than the sunshine-and-lollipops crowd.
“SPRING CHAMP WON’T TAKE THE FALL SEASON SERIOUSLY!!!”
Except what’s the incentive for this? Sure, you’ve booked your ticket to the Soccer Bowl. But you’re hosting, you’re having to sell tickets for this thing, and how the Sam Hill are you expected to convince fans to plunk down money for this Soccer Bowl if you’re half-assing it through the second half? Your opponent, the Fall half winner, is coming off winning a title, so you’ve got to figure they’re playing their best soccer. Tank the Fall half and you’ve basically handing over the Soccer Bowl trophy to the visiting Fall Champs. Having fun selling that ticket. Heck, have fun selling tickets to your Fall half matches once fans catch on that you’re tanking it. Turning off fans on the D2 level? Sounds like a sound business plan to me!
BOTTOM LINE: The Spring winner ain’t tanking the entire Fall session. Tanking games on the D2 level doesn’t make competitive or economic sense.
“BAD TEAMS WILL HAVE MORE MEANINGLESS MATCHES SOONER!”
Split Season means fewer games each half versus a whole season. Fewer matches means less seperation between first and last place. A 3-4 match hot streak has more of an impact on a 18 match Half than it would on the over the course of a full 36 match season. Sure, you have to be eliminated eventually if you don’t win the title, but a shorter season means you’ll be back into contention sooner. Assuming that the top team will average typically no better than 2 points per game and the bottom team will typically average better than 0.5 points per game, you’ll most likely get to about the three-quarters mark before the bottom team is eliminated.
BOTTOM LINE:Yes, “Eliminated from 1st place” will come sooner than “eliminated from 6th place” but with fewer games each “season”, the difference is only a couple of rounds or two. Also, a team with a poor Spring Half gets a second chance and can chase the Fall Half title. Atlanta’s only four points off first place so far in the second half of this season, for example.
@ Striker Returns
1) Basketball? Basketball?? Really? ISSH !
2) Why do they do it with this event and other professional sports – it makes money in a big way. It is not the case within this scenario.
3) We have a difference of philosophies – living in MN I get tired of everyone winning a medal and having praise heaped upon them or rewards being handed out for sub par or ordinary performances. Better, superior teams can have off or unlucky days and their superior performance day in and day out during the regular season should not be minimized by an all inclusive playoff format. I do not understand rewarding performance that is average .
I find it quite funny with some the concern about teams being out of contention and nothing to play for. Right now, 6 of the 8 (75%) teams make the playoffs. Talk about meaningless games! Most of the teams will make the plays so what’s the motivation for fans to show up during the regular season when most of the teams will make it into the playoffs? What’s exciting about that?
I love the aperatura/Clausura format and completely agree with Edwards’ comments about teams not having anything to play for. My big concern is purely practical: how will anyone play soccer in November in Edmonton or Ottawa if it’s well below Freezing point and there’s snowdrifts on the pitch?
How do they deal w this in Russia or Scandanavia?
I ‘M still miss something what do they get out of this break that a water break in the middle of the game could fix they are still playing US Open Cup in July and August. This move has it strong points and its weak point for example when they come back in early July and play to late November they will still be in competing for fans attention with football which will be in full stride. The MLS is still going on and even when it is over in most fan start watching NFL so they are not really winning any new fans. If NASL wanted to make game more manful they could they just cut the number of playoff spots. The more I think about it the more this sounds like a gimmick. The only thing I found that is good about this move is they will be missing the summer heat somewhat. I’m not going to say this is a good nor bad ideal it just depends on how it plays out this could be the best thing ever or it could blow up in their face
@WSW – Dude, I usually take it easy on you because I feel bad about the constant pummeling you take around the web….but not this time. Last year I had 5 reserved section season seats for the Strikers. This year I have my same five season seats. You know what I told the Tailgate Show guys last night during their show? Next year, despite this change that I am STILL waiting for someone, anyone, to give me a good, solid, business need for, I’ll have my same five seats right on the midfield stripe. Don’t tell me I’m some pathetic fan because I don’t agree with this change. That’s imbecilic.
I love my Strikers. The Strikers 1.0 at Lockhart Stadium hooked me for life on this game. I’ll be there every week. Most of the regular posters on this forum are at their team’s games, every week. WE aren’t the people this change will ultimately have the greatest affect on, because we’re the ones that the league is counting on keeping with their attitude of, yeah they might hate it, but they’ll deal with it and keep coming. In case you haven’t noticed over there in St. Pete, no one but SA is drawing enough fans at this point to be completely secure in their economic position long term. And don’t feed me any crap about 3,000 being enough there. Unless Nestor has a secret benefactor making deposits into the team’s accounts no one knows about, 3,000 fans per game is NOT enough for anyone to break even given the operating expense of our league.
We need to market our teams and league to attract NEW fans. As much as a lot of hard core supporters hate the mom and pop fans, or the casuals, we NEED them. We need to give them reasons to be compelled to come to more games, not less. We don’t have enough hardcore fans who will come every game, rain or shine, sleet or snow, 1st place or last, to enable our teams to survive in the long term. We’re not there yet. We might never be. That’s why, whether you like it or not, there will ALWAYS be some “Americanization” invovled in soccer in this country. ALWAYS. It’s necessary to attract enough fans in a country where there is LOTS of competition for consumer dollars for pro sports. You’er entitled to your opinion of not liking that, but it’s fact. It’s not changing. This isn’t England. Or Germany. Or Italy. Or Brazil. Or Argentina. It’s America. We do things our way. If you don’t like it, dummy up, or go elsewhere, because that’s how we roll.
“Truly freakin pathetic some call yourselves soccer fans but are even assuming that fans will not come and season tickets will dwindle.”
-WSW
Why “yes!” I am “freaking pathetic” because I happen to be one of the people on the planet who doesn’t see eye to eye with you.
Please, Bro–Enough already with the “I’m a better fan than you stuff”.
You’re a better fan than me. I got that.
What I don’t get is that unless someone is impersonation you and has stolen your identity–aren’t you the same Dude who was crushing the USL because USLPRO’s playoffs–two of the reasons being that they aren’t fan friendly because the model they use doesn’t include a “home and a way” and that would leave the fans wanting more action?!?!?!
Maybe I got that twizted. May I got that wrong. Wouldn’t bee the first time.
It’s ok to question a move by the NASL. It’s ok to consider it to be “brilliant” or “boneheaded”. Maybe it’s the best thing they have ever done or maybe it is the worst but c’mon, Guy–everybody isn’t going to share your take.
[Brian Quarstad needs to check the IP address of the guy who posted the comments that I am referring to because I could have swarn that it was White Star Warrior who was dogging the best, most experienced league in North America below MLS just last week after that league had two great semifinal matches...]
@tomASS – Believe me, I’m with you 100% on the whole “wall of Gaylord Focker” thing where everyone gets a ribbon or trophy. But that’s more about the individual then teams in my opinion. I’m not totally in love with the current setup. But I understand the advantages of it, as well as the disadvantages. For the life of me I can come up with no advantage to this new system at all. I can’t find a good reason for changing to it. Questioning both Kartik from the league, and Ken from the Strikers FO last night, Striker fans couldn’t really get a definitive answer on these questions.
Ultimately I’m left with the following explanation, and I think it’s what I will believe until someone can convince me otherwise. #1 I think Traffic is the driving force behind this change. When you look around at a BoG meeting, it’s obvious who is carrying the most weight into that room. (And no I don’t mean actual pounds.) I believe that Traffic thinks that eliminating the playoffs and opening up this break mid-season to try and schedule friendlies will result in a net gain in $$$ on the bottom line for their teams (ie. losing less). I think the prospects for new owners for two of the three teams they operate, plus the Stars, have been slimmer than they hoped, and I think they’re now resorting to extreme ideas to try and stem the bleeding. but I see a whole lot of difficult and intricate things that would have to fall completely in the right places at the right times for this to get them that net gain they’re looking for.
Look, the league is growing. Even losing Montreal’s mammoth attendance figures, plus the stadium situations in PR and EDM haven’t caused the league average attendance to fall. It’s actually up overall for the league! Growth is there. The NY Cosmos are joining next year. It sounds like they actually have some other legit expansion in the pipeline as well. But I think the overlords at Traffic are growing too impatient. Budget cuts across the board for Traffic teams this year. I strongly believe the only reason we’ve seen advertising at last here in SoFla the last couple of weeks is because everyone had their eyes opened wide by Michael Hitchcock and PMI and what they’ve managed to do in SA. They’re testing the waters in other markets to see if the same success can be had. It’s been working here, and you’re going to see another great crowd on par with last week’s here tomorrow. But again, I truly believe Traffic is coming closer to the end of their patience. This is an extreme change. You don’t make extreme changes in the business world unless you’re forced to (still see no evidence to support this) or because you’re getting desperate. They’re not responding to the outcry of fans overwhelmingly calling for a league schedule that mirrors Guatemala and Honduras. They’re doign something THEY THINK puts them in a better position finanically. Only they know the reasons for that. I can’t figure it out for the life of me…..
@Yanki – No, you’re not mistaken. He is taking a real beating on BS threads for that exact thing……
@Jay, You are correct, brother. It was indeed WSW who said this: http://www.insidemnsoccer.com/2012/08/31/charleston-battery-and-wilmington-hammerheads-will-face-off-in-2012-usl-pro-championship/#comment-30949
“another reason why NASL playoff format is way better:
the Semifinal and Final Rounds will each be a 2-game series with each team playing at home once and the team with the greater number of aggregate goals in both games winning each series.
Semifinals and Finals to be one game is idiotic.”
And yes, it is the same IP address so it is truly WSW who said it was “idiotic” but now says it’s great.
I said that and I admit it but it starts with quartefinals being single elimination coin toss game and it goes from there.
2. a home/away final is better than single final game.
Guess what we don’t have playoffs now.
3. You want to attract casuals good luck we’ve been trying for 2 years, they don’t care about soccer PERIOD
4. In that month break you can get a MEX team, then a BRA team and end with a EPL team, that way you might convert more fans
and you can whisper to them you know what we don’t have playoffs we don’t award mediocrity and every game in the season counts.
BQ, you’re going to have to shut us up at one point, because we seem to really want to continue to chat about this change. LOL LOL
We haven’t had this much fun since that handful of team owners broke off ties with the USL1 to start the NASL. I’m loving this….drama still creates interest.
@WSW, you always make everything seem like it’s so easy and you just go do it. MN hasn’t had a friendly here for years? Why, because it’s expensive to host friendlies and often you don’t make your money back. Heck, the National Sports Center stopped having US WNT matches here because they were losing money on the deal. Even on the really, really big name matches they still have a hard time making money. So your comments about a Mexican, Brazilian and EPL team is basically you with your head in the clouds dreaming. Nothing wrong with dreams and wishes and maybe they will come true some day, but remember what Burgess Meredith said in Rocky about wishing…
@Fotbalist, the site shuts automatically shuts down the comments on an article after, I think it’s 15 days. So you still have plenty of time to debate this. The IMS NASL Podcast next Monday should be an interesting one as we will be bringing in some guest to discuss this.
As for this half-season schedule, I wonder how many in the NASL have studied why the K-League abandoned this schedule format in 2007? I heard it was “fan confusion,” but I don’t know the specifics. Could be a fascinating case study. You should check out what they did for a playoff!
The two half-seasons were called Stage 1 and Stage 2. The winner of Stage 1 and the winner of the Stage 2 qualified for playoffs. Then, you would combine the two tables into one and find the next two highest point total teams, and they would qualify for the playoffs. So you had 4 teams in the playoffs. It’s bulky for sure, but definately something to show that what NASL have suggested isn’t completely out of the blue.
Playoffs?
http://www.hark.com/clips/ghywvxfbrt-playoffs-dont-talk-about-playoffs
Drastic changes in business strategy are inherently risky, and this schedule change looks like a total crap shoot. If there is team parity in both halves, it’ll be a good thing. If one or two teams start to run away from the rest, not so good. Me, I would have condensed the playoff format first before throwing out the baby with the bath water (do people still use that expression?).
The decision certainly has the fingerprints of Traffic all over it. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if there was a “we’re taking our ball and going home if this isn’t approved” type ultimatum in play there. It’s all about that transfer window to try and market some beef. Will this be strike three for Traffic in the league if they don’t get the results they want? Time will tell.
I don’t have a dog in this fight since the team I support plays in that 98 lb. weakling pussy league, so I guess my opinion only counts for half anyway. I wonder if the Cosmos knew about this before they signed up. That window they need to climb through to get to next season just got a little tighter. That “coming in 2014″ sign might be getting pulled out of the closet.