The MLS Playoff Proposal Is A Solution For A Problem That Can't Be Solved
MLS knows the problem. But it can't do anything about it.
Sorry about taking a couple weeks to get to this. Got lost in everything else, and my organization skills, as you probably know, are a bit lacking.
In case you missed it, MLS at least was floating a new playoff system for when they flip the calendar next July. It's a bit dizzying, especially if you have no familiarity with Aussie Rules Football. And if you do, you're probably a wayward freak like me whose sleeping habits are warping your reality. Here's a pretty solid breakdown of it all:
Pablo Iglesias Maurer
The league does this from time to time, where they don't actually announce a change or shift, but heavily leak it out as a trial balloon to see how it goes over. It's like when you said you were thinking about having a party but didn't officially say so just to gauge who might come over and throw up on your plants (usually me).
Basically, MLS is trying to create multiple tiers, with different meaning/urgency in each, so that teams will want to move up to the next tier from the one they're currently in. From top to bottom, the appeal is home playoff game with double elimination (seeds #1-4)-double elimination (seeds #5-8)-home game in the playoffs (seeds #9-12)-in the playoffs at all (seeds #13-20). So if there's three games left in the season, teams sitting 9th-11th are going to go hellbent for leather to get into the double elimination seeds, while teams that are sitting 13th-15th will be scratching and clawing to get out of the play-in round, etc.
What MLS is trying to do is create more meaning, more stakes in the regular season. As of now, with 18 teams making the playoffs, and no real byes or advantages other than home-field on offer, the season basically digs itself into a rut in about June and it doesn't really ever get out of it. Nothing feels all that important.
The problem for MLS is that it's trying to thread too many needles at once, and not all that well. On one side, it wants its game to look like the game in most of the rest of the world, the ones that draw more eyeballs and attention than it does. That's why they're going to the European calendar. It also realizes that fans know that every Premier League, or La Liga, or Serie A game they watch means something. MLS wants to get to that.
But MLS also wants to still be relatable to the American/casual fan, that has grown up with playoffs and sudden death games in all of the sports. And it doesn't want team simply playing out the string for a couple months, because that affects attendance and viewership.
Now this is the point where some would relitigate the relegation/promotion debate, but I'm just so tired of that one. I might as well try to eat the Hancock building. All I'll say is that should MLS get to 32 or 36 teams one day, it may have no choice. But you and I will probably be dead when that day comes around.
That said, what MLS doesn't have with not just a lack of relegation places, it also doesn't have "European" places, as it were. Most may not get their dander up about the Europa League, but if you're a Brighton or Levante or Bologna supporter, it does mean something to get into those slots. Finishing 5th or 6th means something, giving the middle of the table stakes. MLS can't match that, no matter how many teams it chucks into the CONCACAF Champions Cup. Not until it does a better job of making it seem really important, and not dulling it with the Leagues Cup in can't quite figure out.
So this playoff model is an attempt to ape that structure, by attaching some meaning/difference to finishing 5th or 9th, which there really isn't now. The problem is it has to get there in such a convoluted fashion, it might fail to attract fans who don't watch that much because everyone's eyes roll when anything takes more than 12 seconds of explanation.
It's also worth debating if there is such a thing as the "casual fan." We wrestling fans have this debate all the time, and most of us have come to the conclusion that there just isn't. There are people who love it, and it really shouldn't be a concern if a company can woo people who may watch one show a year. Everything is a niche now.
MLS doesn't even really have a tight grip, or any grip at all, on the passionate soccer fan. There are passionate MLS fans, to be sure, but there's plenty who watch the better products on offer, because they can so easily see the difference. Does this playoff change address that enough?
This proposed system attaches more meaning to the regular season for more teams, in a bid to catch the attention of dedicated fans. But it also may be too confusing for people who don't watch all that much, and keep them at a distance. But an easier to understand playoff system turns big fans off, because the regular season gets dulled.
This is a conundrum that can never be truly solved, and MLS would be better off picking one side and just swinging all the way to that side. If it wants to lock in the dedicated fan who knows the game, it would have multiple tiers/a pyramid and no playoffs, or at least greatly reduced playoffs. And vice versa if it wants to change the moonlighters.
But given the league's history and modus operandi, it'll almost certainly remain firmly entrenched in the middle, trying everything but not really accomplishing anything.