Yet another MLS final weekend is about come and go and, again, we can pick up an infuriated pen and mark this one down under “Opportunity Lost.”
The league misses so, so much by not having simultaneous kickoffs on the final weekend of play.
In fact, since Major League Soccer is divided into conferences, the league would stand to register a double-word score on this one. Eastern Conference on Saturday, all games kicking off at the same time. And then Western Conference on Sunday, same deal, all games kicking off at once.
The drama is potentially brilliant. Potentially even game-changing for the league, if managed properly, with exposure maximized.
Soccer fans in this country were just treated to tense and dramatic theater that can unfold thanks to simultaneous kickoffs. The final night of CONCACAF qualifying, with something on all three matches, was sensationally memorable stuff. And that’s with the United States only being peripherally involved!
Look at the games this weekend:
Five games in Round 35 are clashing of Eastern Conference clubs, and every single one will tell something about the playoffs. Foremost, between Montreal, Chicago, New England and Houston, one member of that nervous foursome is not going to make it. Plus, there’s New York and Sporting Kansas City still angling for Supporters Shield and the Eastern regular season championship (not to mention the best shot at hosting MLS Cup.)
That’s drama – and that’s potential exposure Major League Soccer cannot buy!
Things are decided in the West as for who is going to the 2013 playoffs – but potential positioning is all over the place.
And yet, like every year, game times are all over the place, spread over several hours. Sigh.
Why? It mostly comes down to this: small thinking. It’s small thinking for a league whose “Think Big!” time has arrived.
It’s about built-in TV slots. And about concerns of individual clubs that might prefer this start time over that one. There are some other minor concerns, but … yeah, thinking small.
(By the way, flexible TV scheduling would also help, rather than locking in the games 10 months earlier. One of the nationally televised games this weekend is San Jose-Dallas, which is the only match of 10 in Round 35 that will not help decide playoff spots or post-season seeding. Sigh.)
Thinking big would be imagining something like the Premier League finish of two years back, when Manchester City claimed the crown on Sergio Aguero’s historic strike. I mean, watch this thing!
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJtULo4-XF0&w=560&h=315]
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What about the big drama that we sometimes get with final group play days at a World Cup? Anyone remember 2002 in Asia, when the Americans fell behind to Poland and became so dependent on a result from match playing out simultaneously – there’s that word again – 115 miles away between South Korea and Portugal? (Thanks again, Park Ji-Sung!) That’s the dramatic, unforgettable stuff!
There’s something else quite important to consider here: fairness.
Teams that kick off later than others may benefit from an unfair advantage. With playoffs beginning so quickly after the final kick – the last MLS regular season games ends late Sunday, the first 4th vs. 5th eliminator match is Wednesday, about 68 hours in between – unfair advantages is quite possible.
Specifically, one team may get an extra day of rest (by playing Saturday rather than Sunday). Or, a club may benefit by resting players on that final day because they know something about their playoff fate or positioning based on an earlier Round 35 result. How is that fair?
At some point, marketing concerns need to be put aside and matter of simple fairness need to be paramount.
It was OK for MLS to be deficient in these ways in early years; scheduling was brutally tough as so few clubs had control of their facilities. We are way past the tipping point on that one. And we’re also past the point where teams were losing so much money, things like “simultaneous kickoffs” was just a pricey luxury.
I have been writing about this for almost five years now; it’s time MLS catches up – and time they stopped blowing this wonderful opportunity.
