End the Playoff Scourge

Did you read the playoff news today about your local MLS or USL team? Again? How many weeks has this been a "Must win," or "Important for home field positioning."

One the things repeated around these parts is the circle of hell that is playoff talk. Over at the Columbus Dispatch, they are aware of the ridiculousness but do nothing in response to it. Here are some recent headlines from just last week:

"Ola Kamara's two goals keep playoff hopes alive"

"Heard this before? Every game is a must-win"

"Playoff fate now out of Crew's hands"

This is not to pick on the Dispatch. All news outlets in most markets devolve into mindless commentary about making the playoffs this time of year. Massive Report is a better place to get info on the team but much of the discussion still revolves around playoff situations.

The problem with all of this is that it detracts from what we are watching on the field. As in; the events happening within the game are completely cast aside for the End Result.

Important questions around play, style, player quality, improvement, future plans, etc are lost in the black hole that is the MLS playoffs.

What's interesting is that this playoff crack is much like a real drug. It's a quick fix and leaves you empty. Over in the corner of the Dispatch site you will find a podcast summary "Our reporters take a look at the disappointing end to the Columbus Crew Season." Like, they just want it to end already.

The reason for that is clear. They are sick and tired talking about a Cup that they know won't happen is because that's all they know how to talk about. They don't know the game. It doesn't excite them and they would rather be covering something else.

The key here is this: Not every sport is the same. You can't make it the same. Soccer, like the gridiron, like rugby, like hockey, is different.

For soccer, which has evolved in concert with common league structures all over the world for 150 years, it's having a tiered system where teams move up and down and a balanced schedule. This ensures competitive matches all season and championships for more than just one team (among many other things, but let's keep it on the competitive side).

These reporters who just want to see the end should be talking about next season in the lower tier. What players are worth keeping, what the budget will be, who will be managing the team. If this were the case we would be seeing the absolute best out of the teams out of the bottom right now. We'd see players and coaches trying anything and everything. Fightin', scratching, clawing. We'd see what they are made of. Really made of. Not the cliche you hear all the time.

But, we will not. We'll see two bad teams playing like it's April.

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This post is in addition to "A Competitive Myth"

A Competitive Myth

Change to the MLS competitive format is way past due.

Updating my cable sports television rating spreadsheet this morning I discovered a few things. 1st: I took my Google doc over to Excel. She was getting a bit unwieldy at 18,571 rows of viewership data. 2nd: ESPN year over year MLS ratings are speaking to us in a loud voice saying that there are no more people watching than five and ten years ago.

Let's use ESPN / ESPN2 average viewership by season has our jumping off point today.

YEAR : AVG Viewers* in 000
2007 : 289
2008 : 253
2009 : 299
2010 : 253
2011 : 292
2012 : 311

2015 : 256
2016 : 281

*trusting Wiki on the old data. Last two years are my own pulled from sportstvratings.com

There are outside factors that drive these numbers slightly up and slightly down year to year, but you can clearly see that they've basically been about the same. I don't have game by game for the years before 2015 but I can say that the jump from last year to this is due to the fact that almost all games have been on ESPN proper.

Regardless. The story is the same. 260-300 viewers a game for the last decade. There's no traction here and the only silver lining that I can see is that ratings haven't completely died.

At least on ESPN, they haven't.

Over on Fox Sports 1, I'm tracking a year over year loss of about 30k viewers on average (198k in 2015, 165k in 2016). This might explain why we saw Fox put a couple games on their over the air channels last weekend as they need to get that 30k back and start getting the ship pointed back in the right direction.

THE PLAYOFF MYTH

Anyone that has paid attention to the league over time knows that MLS tinkers with their playoff format often. From three-game series to having a Western Conference team winning the Eastern Conference side of the playoff bracket, they have tried just about every cockamamy idea that has popped into their head.

The reason for this is that nothing seems to goose the ratings during a busy part of the US sports calendar. Games, whether they are April regular season games or November playoffs, get about the same number of viewers. Nothing seems to work.

One of the arguments for a robust playoff system is that it keeps people's interest in the late part of the season and will increase attention on the league as it finishes up. It works for every other league in the USA, but there are no numbers that I can see that tell us this is true for MLS.

More specifically, ratings for the playoffs last year were actually about 40% (!) lower than those in the middle of the season. How is this league, working within the universe of centralized control of teams, ever going to get new people to watch if they can't corral viewers when their better teams are playing?

Even the MLS Cup final has been trending downward since the late '90s. Last year is was in the 600's on ESPN. That's a number that MLS can get by placing games right after an English Premier League matchup.

The argument one could make is that it is entirely possible that just adding extra regular season games and having the East play the West winner in a Final (or, heaven forbid, playing a balanced schedule and awarding the team with the most points the winner) keeps ratings from bottoming out during the NFL and October MLB. If this is the case then why not flip the calendar, throw in a winter break (filled with neutral sites in warm cities hosting US Open Cup games!) and have the playoffs in late spring / summer in great weather? That makes perfect sense, right? RIGHT?

POWERING THROUGH

Whenever I write a post like this I inevitably wind up getting frustrated with the whole process, clicking Save and closing it out. I'm to that point right now, as a matter of fact. What is it that ultimately gets me? It's that MLS doesn't have to do anything to continue on going the way it is. They are set with a parent company called Soccer United Marketing that owns the rights to just about every tournament in the United States as well as the rights to the Mexican team that now plays the majority of their games in the US.

Another mechanism powering the current crummy, uninteresting and un-watched competitive model MLS has (that lives somewhere between regular season college softball games and bass fishing) is that they have plenty of room for more teams and lucrative expansion fees. At last check, most domestic professional leagues have 30-32 teams. MLS can live off of future fees for the next 30 years if they play their cards right (and FIFA doesn't check in on page 66, article 9). All they have to do is to keep on... existing.

Or, at least, that's what I've always sort of figured. I always run into this wall in a post like this. But what if these ratings aren't enough? What if the larger sports business world notices by watching games that their attendance reports aren't quite within industry standards ? What if sponsorships flatline? What if investors don't see the return after 24 teams enter? What if low quality of play kills off any remaining viewers in the next five years?

I think those types of questions is what keeps MLS chugging along, doing what it's been doing. The risk that comes with real change is too great. Plenty of open slots for expansion and Soccer United Marketing is as strong as ever. Who needs to rely on a strong competition format?

Wednesday, Cup Countdown...

Tony Tchani and Justin Meram are the last guys remaining from the 2011 Columbus Crew playoff season. That year they crashed out of the playoffs in the first round to the Colorado Rapids on a Thursday(?) in front of 8,000.

Meram didn't play that night, but Tchani did much to the surprise of just about everyone in Columbus. If you remember back, he was traded to Columbus in July and came into town unable to play due to injury. His start was a head scratcher. Looking back now we see that Robert Warzycha's faith in him as a player wasn't completely misguided. Tchani is one of the cornerstones of Gregg Berhalter's starting lineup.

2011 was a three team year for him. Starting in NY with the Red Bulls, then to Toronto and finally with Columbus. He's a good example of the league knowing he was a good player, just not able to unlock what he had inside of him.

Tchani has developed a large on-pitch personality. He's always involved in one scuffle or another. Pushing, shoving, talking, smiling, mean-mugging, or what have you. It's the type of player you see on a lot of good teams. Not quite the enforcer, per say. But, something close.

One thing is for certain - Tony Tchani is one huge reason Columbus Crew SC are in the MLS Cup Final.

MLS Cup Would be 1st for Crew SC

Crew SC badge with '08 Star

It may seem like a "game the game" type of scenario, but a goal is all that remains between the Columbus Crew SC and the MLS Cup final. Score one during the Sunday, November 29th match in Harrison, NJ and the Red Bulls will need four to win. The away side could lose 1-0, 2-1, or even 3-1 and still make it to the 20th iteration of the MLS Cup Final.

MLS is an ever changing animal. Fundamental things like rules, number of teams, competition formats (both regular season and playoffs) and the money involved are drastically altered from year to year. So, while there are moments of glory of which to draw, there is no long history or memorable 2nd leg moments on here for either side.

Back when the Hunt family ran the Columbus Crew that won the 2008 MLS Cup, 14 teams in the league were directly operated, or recently so, by a handful of groups. Eight made the playoffs. San Jose had a team of some sort again and KC was still the Wizards. Conference Semifinals were two-legged series, but the Conference Finals were single elimination and the Final was at a neutral field in warm weather.

Seven years and versions of the league later, things couldn't be more different. Especially for the MLS team in Columbus.

In just two years after Anthony Precourt purchased the team from the Hunt Sports Group, he has taken them from a floundering franchise playing under a burning scoreboard and in a half full stadium, to within a single goal of hosting MLS Cup. It's a remarkable achievement. One that is a first for him and his team.

As for the fans, supporters, writers and even those lowly bloggers - where does this fall in their trophy cases? Well, while you would be closer in saying The Ohio State Buckeyes College Football National Championship is more similar to winning an MLS Cup in 2008 compared to MLS 2015, don't be surprised when you see the aforementioned group tying the victories (or losses) of every team in the state of Ohio in some form or another to what Crew SC are doing here in town.

This isn't about them. What's happening here in Columbus for Crew SC is a unique achievement full of firsts and truly special for the organization and the city.

MLS Final - Want vs Need

MLS does not hide their desire to have good teams playing in big markets. Los Angeles is the biggest beneficiary of top talent with Toronto and NY (Red Bulls normally or City FC) not far behind. Ever since Seattle joined, they too have landed huge stars. For the most part, it has worked the way MLS wanted as the LA Galaxy have been in almost half (9/19) the finals across league history, which includes appearances in three of the last four (winning each).

Is that the right recipe, though? TV ratings for the MLS Cup final (the league's highest-rated match of the year) have generally declined since 1996. Part of that is due to the move from ABC to ESPN, but those games have been steadily shrinking since the switch over in 2009.

To help turn this around the league gave in and allowed two channels to carry the final last year. It worked as far as eyes on the game. At first glance you would think that it was the star-heavy team in LA and the large market in New England that drove the uptick in ratings - ESPN pulled 1.0 million, it's best since 2009, and Unimas pulled another 0.7 - but in reality it was likely just one of those stars that helped it out... a retiring USMNT star in Landon Donovan.



MLS is trying out the same approach this year, only the final will be missing Donovan. Both ESPN and Unimas will televise the match. It means more viewers for sure but the potential matchups this year are far from what they had last year (not to mention what the weather might be in a couple of those cities).

Two years ago Sporting KC hosted Real Salt Lake. The game was broadcast on ESPN and it pulled a miserable rating of 500k viewers. Two lesser known teams in mid-sized markets with no crossover national team stars (sorry Zusi and Besler) played in bad soccer weather conditions.

There is a real possibility that this year the league could see a similar matchup. Even if the NY Red Bulls beat out Crew SC and host the final, they don't have the star power of 2014 LA (or 2012, or 2011 LA). The big market, yes. That checks off one box, but they miss on big names and good weather. None of this is to mention that the game starts at 4 pm in the middle of a NFL afternoon (in a previous post I noted what the NFL does to MLS ratings, see links at bottom).

This adds up to bad news for MLS on the TV ratings front. No matter the matchup in the final, fewer people will be watching this year.

How many fewer? Here is a look at where the teams remaining fell during the regular season across all networks on ESPN and FS1 (pulled out UniMás, as good as ratings were, their cable reach measurably less - different market as well, will get a separate post in the future).

MLS likely wants a Portland at NY Red Bulls Final

The bright side of this situation for MLS is they type of soccer that can be played by the four remaining teams. Each one of the remaining teams try to play the sport. It might not always be pretty, but they aren't out there hoofing it (Houston) around or fouling the hell out of the opponent (KC).

You can't overstate the power that Landon Donovan had last year for both the English and Spanish-speaking audience. There are many issues MLS brings on themselves in terms of scheduling, competition format, rules, etc... but one thing they'll get right this year is having the "right" teams in the final.

The league might not be happy with the ratings and the regulars out in the media world will go deep on what didn't work in the shadow of bad ratings, but there is good that will happen in that final.

It might not be what they want, but it will be a little taste of what they need.

Now... about this competition format.

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This post is part of my continued look at MLS TV ratings this year. For a couple recent thoughts on the subject, check out:

MLS TV Ratings Flat in Playoffs
Over There is a League
NFL Decimates MLS TV Ratings

Shutout Needed, Wild One Expected

uh oh

Throughout the season, Columbus Crew SC have been one of the more entertaining and satisfying MLS teams to watch. Playing an attacking type of possession game has pushed this year's team towards the top in the goal scoring category. Second overall, actually. That comes from being fifth in shots per game and first in those on target.

With all that attacking comes a rather leaky defense. Looking past the two late season shutouts the Crew posted against Toronto and DC in the last two games of the regular season, the team was only able to blank one team in the previous 26 matches (Chicago on August 15th). 

Anyone paying attention should know that discounting late regular season games is important. A lot of bad decisions are made over the course of late-season runs of form. Think of the Columbus Blue Jackets late last year when they had nothing to lose or the Colorado Rapids this year in MLS. Last minute efforts when other teams are winding down and / or prepping for the postseason leads many a team GM or President astray. It's fool's gold.

The addition of Gaston Sauro to the Crew defense might be more about timing than anything. Sauro is a good player, but one person is not able to turn a poor defensive team into a good one. Montreal had no trouble getting quality opportunities last weekend with a full strength Crew backline.

Montreal has outright beaten Columbus three times this year already, outscoring them by 5 goals even though they've dominated by the Crew in terms of possession and shots. Interesting note: the Impact have taken 12 fewer shots (29-41) but gotten 6 more on target (18-12). 

The first two games between these two were similar. Lots of opportunities for Columbus but poor finishing. Last match things changed a bit. Crew controlled the ball but were shut down offensively. Were it not for a somewhat right-place, right-time Higuain, the Crew could be looking at a much different game today.

A Crew shutout win would be incredibly impressive, considering. I don't think it will matter who scores first this evening. Goals will happen in this match. When the first one goes in, hold on.

Crew Trying to Right the Playoff Ship

It only took ten or so games this year for anyone tuned into MLS to realize that Columbus was a playoff team. After the 2014 New England playoff disaster a year ago I'm not sure what I expected from the local team a year ago.

Here we are, though. Halfway through the 2015 two-legged eastern conference semifinals. Crew SC down a goal after an away matchup with a strong, Drogba infused Montreal Impact.

Columbus wasn't just facing a good opponent last Sunday. With most of the players from last year back, they were also trying to wash away the sharp sting of last year's failure.

Both teams played their game, for the most part. Crew controlled the ball well enough while the Impact defended well and were able to get off quick breaks and counters. No surprises. The difference maker was that Montreal did what they do well much better than Columbus. They also proved, once again, that bottling up Ethan Finlay first leads to an ineffective Kei Kamara.

Earlier this year I dug into Opta data and discovered that the Crew average more crosses into the box than any other team in the 14 tracked leagues by WhoScored. Most (if not all) of that, comes from the overlapping wing backs and Finlay. All of them crosses to essentially one person - Kamara.

Laurent Ciman (photo credit: ©BELGA)

This isn't to say that Columbus can't play a different style. They can. They absolutely can (see the 5-0 demolition of DC United in round 34). If they want to be a team that can win the MLS Cup they will have to learn to play with Kamara the way they do without (if that makes sense). Pumping the ball in on crosses might put you atop a number of simple offensive categories against normal MLS talent all year, but it will get you nowhere against experienced defenders like Marco Donadel, Víctor Cabrera and Laurent Ciman.

Even still, Columbus Crew SC were able this year to hang with a team like Montreal in the playoffs - at their place. Reminder that this is a team that worked their way to the CONCACAF Champions League Final. Crew SC are not out of the woods yet, of course. This story could take a turn for the worst yet still. There is a real fear there, considering the Impact's roster make-up of intelligent and experienced players.

It'll be interesting to see how Gregg Berhalter approaches this weekend's game. Based on what we've seen the past two years it's safe to say it'll be the same as all year. Is that enough to go +1 on Montreal this Sunday?

The story of the 2015 season has been waiting this moment for Crew SC. Berhalter has proven he can create a winner (and winners) during the regular season. MLS Cup is a wacky place, but it's still the time on the domestic league calendar where games are games.

This weekend is the place he can prove he can do it when it matters.

Effort, Some of the Time

"Most people only try as hard as they have to most of the time." - Bob Knight... I think. It could have been Dick Vitale, Mike Krzyzewski, Dean Smith, Jim Valvano or one of the other coaching greats that I was fortunate to hear during my summers spent playing basketball as a youth. Thinking back, all of them likely said similar, just used different words in an attempt to communicate what makes a player special from the rest.

I've been thinking about that quote a lot as the MLS Cup playoffs get underway. A lot of good players last night that had been in "regular season" mode were having to play at a higher effort level. I'm not talking about players like Taylor Kemp for DC United or New England's Keyln Rowe. It's more about guys like Jermaine Jones, Gio dos Santos, Steven Gerrard and even Chris Rolfe.

The opening night of the playoffs were as much chaotic as they were exciting. Some of the midrange guys were out there toiling away on wary late season legs, while the stars were trying to crank up cold engines.

Cynically put, it's the real start of the MLS season. Games that have meaning and consequence are finally here.

The DC vs. New England match had more of a messy midweek MLS match feel for most of it, but there were moments late in the match where the players finally locked in and said, "Okay, let's play the kind of game that we know will get us a win." Then realize they didn't know what the hell that was because they were talented enough to not have to play at full speed for most of the previous eight months.

"Regular Seasons," as we know them in the United States, are breeding grounds of mediocrity where less talented players are pouring their guts out while the top players on big contracts offer varying degrees of effort that is required to get the team into the playoffs. Not ALL of the top guys are doing that, of course. Nor does it mean that regular seasons aren't fun.

It takes special player to give their everything all the time, but if you've watched MLS the past few seasons (outside of your own local team) you know who the guys that do and don't. One could even float the theory that the Supporters' Sheild winning teams often aren't the teams with massive wage bills and star players precisely because they are filled with players still working their way up. The mid-range to upper mid range guys. Dax McCarty, Felipe Martins, Conner Lade types that can't afford to take a night off, because if they do, they get benched.

The low wattage regular season efforts contributed to the chaotic first 20 minutes of the Seattle, LA match last night. It looked like the first game of the season for these two star-heavy teams. Defensive mistakes, communication errors, players making runs they hadn't all season. The hard surface at CenturyLink only highlighted these things.

Soccer doesn't have the flashing lights, timeouts, commercial breaks, loud music and other shiny things that keep fans mesmerized during bad NFL, NBA or NHL games. No place to hide in soccer. No subbing out to cool your head or rest. From the owners of the organization to the players, you stand there naked, 45 minutes at a time. It's a giant playing surface out there. The sport needs consequence and pressure to bring out effort, and therefore, greatness. Effort not just from players, but from the top of the organization. MLS team investors like Andrew Hauptman in Chicago or Robert Kraft in New England need real consequence to perform.

We've got two more knockout MLS games to go tonight. Win or go home. The Montreal / Toronto match might be the chaotic match tonight while the KC / Portland will be the more measured of the two. We'll, see. Regardless the quality, it will be refreshing to see most of the players putting forth max effort, most of the time.

Playoff Positioning, Supporters' Shield on the Line

After a season of teams being as far apart as five matches played, every team in MLS is finally on an even number of games for round 33 of 34 for the season. The league has scheduled the kickoff times for all games tomorrow (Sunday, Oct 25th) to occur at 5 PM and 7 PM (eastern) to increase the energy around the games.

This semi-planned and heavily promoted event is being called "decision day" by the league this year. It's an attempt to mimic the intensity of the final days of leagues across the world where teams are promoted, relegated, win European league spots, meet or miss board expectations and / or secure extra millions of dollars for finishing a spot or two higher on the final day of the season. It's an overwhelmingly awesome event that impacts hundreds of teams and dozens of leagues at all levels across an entire continent.

In MLS, it's more just to figure out who's playing who in an intraleague cup tournament. Nevertheless, there are implications for failure on #DecisionDay.

In the West, there is still some question as to who will be sitting out this year's MLS Cup. Most of it hinges on whether or not San Jose gets a result in their matchup against FC Dallas. A win means Seattle and Kansas City need 3 pts from their matches and Portland needs at least a draw.

Team	GD	Pts	Note
FC Dallas	12	57	Bye, playing for SS
L.A. Galaxy	11	51	Playing for Position
Vancouver Whitecaps	6	50	Playing for Position
Portland Timbers	-1	50	Playing to stay in, position
Seattle Sounders FC	6	48	Playing to stay in, position
Sporting Kansas City	2	48	Playing to stay in, position
San Jose Earthquakes	3	47	Playing to get in
Houston Dynamo	-4	42	Out
Real Salt Lake	-8	41	Out
Colorado Rapids	-7	37	Out

The East has been settled since midseason but there is some drama to be had as far as positioning. Most teams want to skip the crappy midweek game and walk directly into the two-legged conference semifinals next weekend.

Team	GD	Pts	Note
New York Red Bulls	18	57	Bye
DC United	3	51	Playing for Position
Columbus Crew	0	50	Playing for Position
Toronto FC	1	49	Playing for Position
Montreal Impact	3	48	Playing for Position
New England Rev.	-1	47	Playing for Position
Orlando City	-9	44	Out
New York City FC	-7	37	Out
Philadelphia Union	-14	34	Out
Chicago Fire	-14	30	Out

The Columbus Crew SC put themselves in a good spot. A win earns them a Get Out of Midweek MLS Cup Scheduling Hell Card (quite the card, I must say). A draw or a loss drops them in the mixer.

It's going to be a tough game for the Crew. Outside of the intensity around the game (national TV will be in the house) the Crew will be missing both Kei Kamara and Federico Higuain due to card accumulation. 

One thing helping Columbus is that under Ben Olsen, DC United only play as hard as they have to. In this match they likely only need to earn a point. In that scenario, Toronto can catch them with a win and a +2 goal difference, but I think Montreal will give them a stiff enough test to prevent that.

I've said for most of the year that 3rd place is not a bad sport for a team to be because you get a bonus home match, midweek, against an inferior opponent. From a business perspective, this should be a win, and should you move on, even a bigger win (unless you are a member of the ticket sales or stadium staff, I guess). Bonus home game!

The only way it would be a loss for an MLS organization is if the team loses money holding an event. Boy, would that jack up the books if that is the case. Given the embarrassingly low attendance for last year's game, it's entirely possible that this is the case for Columbus.

SUPPORTERS' SHIELD

Two teams left fighting for the most difficult to obtain trophy in the league are FC Dallas and the NY Red Bulls. Both teams are on 57 points and play at 7 PM tomorrow. 

Red Bulls have the easiest pathway here, as they face last-place Chicago. On the other side of things, FC Dallas face a needing-a-win San Jose.

I would like to see Oscar Pareja and his Dallas team win this one. Pareja is the best coach in Major League Soccer. He proved what he could do in the hinter MLS lands of Colorado and has taken it to the next level on the fertile youth player grounds in the Dallas, Texas area.

In hindsight, it does make some sense FC Dallas is doing better this year. With the Hunt family moving the burdensome Columbus Crew franchise from their books they have been able to sharpen their focus. 

Dallas has always had inconsistent results. Some of that, one could argue, was because Hunt Sports Group folks were pulled in a few too many directions. They are even taking some of that Crew money and attempting to build a soccer hall of fame.

Eitherway, NY or Dallas lifting the shield will be a huge accomplishment. Navigating a MLS season is tricky, at best. As the league expands it won't necessarily be the best team that earns this but the one that is best prepared for the wackiness of the calendar.

Solutions to a Soccer Problem in North America

The beginning of Autumn marks the end of another year in the top three divisions of soccer in North America and ushers in the playoffs. But instead of being the best time of year, the postseason is more of a meandering epilogue to a novel that has an unsure grasp of an underdeveloped regular season.

Fall is also a reminder of soccer's place in the pecking order of domestic sports because it tries to be other sports. It's a fundamental issue of league competition. In particular - meaningful games.

How to fix that right now without blowing it up? I'll get to the long answer here in a minute, but the short answer is to create a competition that involves the top three levels of pro soccer immediately and without impacting investments or league rules. The idea also lays the foundation for linking the pyramid down the road (sooner, rather than later).

It's simple and builds upon events already happening. Take the top teams from each division (MLS, NASL and USL) and have them fight it out in a tournament. Not only will this expand upon the growing interest in the US Open Cup, but it will also help grow the sport across the country.

The great thing about this is that there are a number of ways to do it:

3. Hold it in January and February (warm cities)  

Among the many positives of having a huge, rich country is the varying climates. Preseason Cup tournaments are getting pretty big in recent years and outside of getting teams ready for the season they grow interest in the sport. I saw first hand how Orlando's Disney Cup helped grow interest in the sport in the city before they jumped to MLS. 

2. Hold it after the season ends

All three divisions of pro soccer in North America end in Autumn. Hold this competition in place of the current league playoffs. It would still include your best teams and would draw loads of interest from each league. I'd venture to say that USL and NASL interest would skyrocket in the first year. MLS would benefit because most of the teams their franchises would be playing would be in non-MLS cities. Everybody wins here. 

1. Spread it out over season   

Have it set up similarly to how Champions League is currently done. Qualification happens the previous season and games are played out over the course of the season. Each league could breathe a little and extend seasons without playoffs. It works even if they still want them because there isn't a whole lot going on for most teams during the year in MLS anyway. With rosters still at 28, you've also got reserve teams and affiliations of which to draw, not to mention academy sides. Playing the competition out over the season is my favorite because it gives fans something interesting to watch. It adds sweetener to the season, so to speak.

How many teams, single elimination, home and away legs, and so on. Lots of options. After messing around with things, I found that dropping teams into groups is the most exciting for me. It's also flexible in terms of holding it over a short time period in one city or having it play out over many months.

Here's what it would look like if you six from MLS and USL and 4 from the NASL based on current standings, separated by region.

Group	League	Region	Team	League Rank
A - EAST	USL	EAST	Rochester Rhinos	1
A - EAST	MLS	EAST	New York Red Bulls	1
A - EAST	NASL	EAST	Fort Lauderdale Strikers	2
A - EAST	USL	EAST	Charleston Battery	3

Group	League	Region	Team	League Rank
B - EAST	NASL	EAST	New York Cosmos	1
B - EAST	USL	EAST	Louisville City FC	2
B - EAST	MLS	EAST	D.C. United	2
B - EAST	MLS	EAST	Columbus Crew	3

Group	League	Region	Team	League Rank
A - WEST	USL	WEST	Orange County Blues	1
A - WEST	MLS	WEST	FC Dallas	1
A - WEST	NASL	WEST	Minnesota United	2
A - WEST	USL	WEST	Colorado Springs Switchbacks	3

Group	League	Region	Team	League Rank
B - WEST	NASL	WEST	Ottawa Fury	1
B - WEST	USL	WEST	Oklahoma City Energy	2
B - WEST	MLS	WEST	LA Galaxy	2
B - WEST	MLS	WEST	Vancouver Whitecaps FC	3

If you held this over the course of a season you could really let it breathe. Home / Away and take winners from each group into a playoff (along with awarding CONCACAF Champions League qualification in there).

A short and intense option would be great fun as well. End of season would be a blast. Each team playing the other once  - 3 games in 8 days, for example (Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday) and then take the group winners into a playoff.

For me, this competition would do wonders for the overall sport in the US in both interest and dollars. It would also separate it from the rest of the sports market in the US in a cool and creative way that soccer fans and casual fans alike would understand. New cities, small teams, increased intensity around matches. It all works for me.

PROMOTION AND RELEGATION CHALLENGE

A question of how to link the soccer pyramid in the United States has been bouncing around in my head for years. The answer I come to is usually the implementation of promotion and relegation across all levels starting at the bottom (leagues like the USASA, USL-PDL, NPSL and even college) and working your way up the divisions (regionally set up).

It would take a good bit of time to get it organized and stable, which would be good because it would allow new investors in MLS, USL and NASL time to make back their money - we are talking 5-10 years (this is 'Merica, we can do it it five). Those not making it back in that time frame, probably won't ever do so.

Many challenges await a US Soccer Federation that tries to better organize the pyramid. Topping the list is Major League Soccer's stance on promotion and relegation. They do not want it under any circumstances. Beyond that, the hurdle is the fact that each league is its own entity with their own set of revenue sharing, distribution and league entry qualifications.

Best way to think of it is that there are really only three fully pro clubs in North America... MLS FC, NASL SC and USL City (or what have you). Looking at it that way opens doors to solutions that might be able to solve a number of competition problems in the US.

MEANINGLESS REGULAR SEASON, POPULAR PLAYOFF?

Regular Season as a long qualification for playoffs is shared among the other two pro soccer divisions in the US as well. Details might be different but the competition winner across MLS, NASL and USL is the playoff winner.

The reasoning behind holding a playoff to determine a champion centers around other US sports, who all have some sort of playoffs. If you are reading this, then you likely are familiar with how each league works and you also likely know that the playoffs (even in college you have "March Madness" type tournaments to determine winners) draw increased interest from the country over their regular seasons.

Generally, it works like this...

1. Final (Super Bowl, Final, World Series)
2. Playoffs
3. Regular Season
4. Preseason

For MLS it works differently. No need for a list because there are so many different things going on during a soccer calendar year that the rhythm can't be compared to other domestic sports. And that's a good thing! It's why people enjoy the sport.

MLS treats it like a disease, however. Something they need to remedy.

They WANT the order listed one to four above instead of embracing the uniqueness of the sport. With summer friendlies, international friendlies and qualification, summer tournaments, the US Open Cup and more. It's great! yet MLS can't get it straight and want to shoehorn a wonky MLS team only playoff on during mostly bad weather and a time of year where their target audience is tuning out - and, again, it's comprised of teams that have already faced each other two OR three times. It is redundant.

For MLS, playoffs across the country generally see decreased interest by any metric (attendance, TV, social media activation, etc). In the past, you could point to the MLS Cup final as an event where more people tuned in but even there, interest spikes only slightly over a hyped up regular season game on ESPN or Fox Sports.

Playoffs were born out of challenges with geography when travel was more difficult. Teams, to this day, still play regionally most of the time to help negate cost and keep the interest of team performing badly - in that it's easier to swallow being only few spots out of 1st place in a division vs. being 15th (or whatever) out of 30 teams. Intellectually, this reasoning seems silly but there isn't a whole of critical thinking going on these days (why - a topic for another day).

All that leads to why we still see up to six divisions in a league. Things may be changing however, NBA and MLB have recently talked about whittling it down to just 2 conferences. Whether or not that happens is still to be determined but, it does feel as if it will happen sooner rather than later.

Heck, the NBA is already talking about having a cup competition.

GOTTA LINK IT

The United States Soccer federation has to figure out a meaningful way to get the pyramid working together. Not having it linked together alienates 99% of the people that participate in the most played sport in the United States. It's the people's game. It reaches all levels of society and should not be locked up by a handful of investors.

No single system is perfect, but I believe that doing everything you can in order to get each team talking is critically important for this country. Even small steps are important.

Having an inclusionary tournament builds on what the US Open Cup does so wonderfully. It will increase interest in the sport as well as investment, which, in turn, increases revenue that can be put back into the game.