“Horray we’re half season champs”

Sounds lame when you say it that way, but that’s why I think the league should have followed the Mexican league’s example and kept the Spring and Fall seasons completely separate. The league simply crowns a new champion twice a year. The match between the Apertura and Clausura winner is just Community Shield’ish game to kick off the next season.

It’s foreign for sure, but I still think the idea has promise.

Totally agree with you about the money thing though. A cost cutting plan this is not.

I can still not find anyone who has come up with even one very specific reason for why this change needed to happen, one that actually holds up to scrutiny. We can all chuck the “cost savings” idea. Besides the fact that you can logically reason out why it wouldn’t be a cost-saver, Kartik flat out said they expect this set up to cost a little more. I think they know that more people than not won’t like it, but they’re counting on us to fall into the attitude of, yeah, I don’t like it, but they’re not going to change it no matter what I say or do, so I’ll just have to learn to live with it.

I like the idea of two compact competitions.

But to try and tie both competitions together at the end of the season with a one-off final just seems lame to me. Just keep’em separate.

Great analysis!

Overall, I have to agree with the sentiment that this was a solution in search of a problem. I guess it doesn’t bother me that much in general, since it’s likely not signigicantly better or worse for me or the team I follow. But I don’t really see where it’s a big improvement. If the playoff costs are the issue, why not just keep the schedule the same as it is now, but reduce the nuber of teams in the playoffs.

Also, I fail to see how this improves alignment with the “world calendar” or “fifa schedule” or whatever misleading thing you want to call it. Can people just get over the idea that everyone else in the world outside the US follows the same schedule and we don’t just because we’re goofy. But that’s not remotely accurate, and there is nothing even approaching one standard calendar. Plus, if the NASL keeps this in place for a second year in 2014 and plays their spring season up through July 4th, they’ll end up playing right through (and competing for the attention of fans with) most of some kind of tournament thing I hear they’re playing down in Brazil that year from mid-June through Mid-July. If you’re concerned about international calendar alignments, wouldn’t that be the biggest event on the international calendar?

break give teams time to retool

imagine if the last place team goes on an unbeaten run. What excitement. NASL will tweak it. But I give em points for courage. Out of site out of mind

I think your voting analysis is similar to this year’s Presidential elections. The polls state that it is close (much like the 3,200 views that may show interest to the site), but only 125 folks voted, much like this will be in the November ballot session, largely due to non-interest at the college youth level.

This site is quickly becoming the politial forefront for forecasts on all topics!