The move by MLS’s Board of Governors to “delay a decision on switching the league calendar to the so-called international soccer calendar isn’t a surprise,” according to Paul Kennedy of SOCCER AMERICA. Any form of MLS calendar (winter-to-fall or summer-to-spring) will “have pluses and minuses.” The “pluses of switching: Syncing the primary (offseason) transfer window with the summer market and creating an uninterrupted runway to end the season.” The “fundamental issue” the league “faces vis-à-vis the rest of the world: the constraints on the number of available playing dates.” North America’s weather is the “obvious issue, but so is continental travel.” League owners are not just “wrestling with a decision on the timing of the calendar.” In the long term, how many weeks can they “afford to set aside for the playoffs” at the “expense of playing more of the regular season in better weather?” Kennedy: “How much longer can owners afford to have their teams routinely play through FIFA windows and championships like the Gold Cup (and World Cup?) and have an increasing number of increasingly more expensive players away on national team duty for upwards of a quarter of the regular season?” (SOCCER AMERICA, 4/10).
TOO CROWDED? MLS Commissioner Don Garber said, “The schedule does get more crowded. The summers, in particular June now, that has been taken up by most of the international tournaments.” ESPN.com’s Cesar Hernandez wrote alignment with the international soccer calendar “could also help elevate MLS’ role in the global transfer market, which is dominated by major moves in the summer, around the midpoint of the MLS season.” One “prominent argument” against the change is “weather concerns for cold-climate cities in North America” (ESPN.com, 4/10).
MISSED OPPORTUNITY? THE ATHLETIC’s Paul Tenorio writes MLS electing to not forego any calendar changes until the 2027 season at the earliest “could be a missed opportunity for the league.” The World Cup will “undoubtedly bring more eyes to the sport and create a platform MLS could have utilized to advertise its changes -- both in traditional advertising and in earned media around the tournament.” Execs emphasized that the World Cup “was never a hard deadline for the changes.” The league will now “go back to corporate partners, the MLS Players Association and other constituents” to “discuss the potential changes, while also exploring some of the financial implications of the calendar switch” (THE ATHLETIC, 4/10).
