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General MLS Talk 2023


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13 minutes ago, narduch said:

The 3 game series thing is easily one of the dumbest ideas ever.

I see a lot of people defending it saying it guarantees teams 1 playoff home game. But you can also achieve that with a 2-leg series.

Totally unnecessary.

As a casual fan, why would I watch any of those games unless my team is involved? It's not exactly the World Cup.

Abd the 8/9 playoff... Good god. It will be tough to contain the collective excitement around that one.

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Only Round One is best of 3

The four other rounds are single elimination: Wild Card, Conference Semis, Conference Final, MLS Cup

Not bad...basically after a long season if you got yourself into the top 8...you would still be alive and have a chance...downside is as we saw when there were two legs: first game could be less exciting or one team having the feeling of oh well we're still in it so not such a big deal

MLS announces new playoff format for 2023 season

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4 hours ago, narduch said:

The new playoff format is set to be confirmed this week.

Top 9 in each conference make it.

Play in game for 8 v 9.

Best if 3 in 1st round.

 

 

Not a fan.

Going past eight is letting too many teams into the playoffs.

The three game thing is just stupid.

If you have time for extra games, skip the wild card round and go back to home and away matches for the quarters and semis.

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5 hours ago, SpursFlu said:

What a gift to the CPL. Are Canadians going to sit at home and watch a Philadelphia Miami 3 game series on Apple TV or drive 20 minutes and watch a game in person? I don't care how many famous old guys are playing 

Do neither , the only time tv ratings are good for soccer are for World Cups , World Cup qualifying, Euros , some key Gold Cup games , and late round MLS playoff rounds or MLS Cups involving Canadian teams . In terms of watching a CPL game in person unless it’s the final doesn’t look like Canadians are breaking the CPL stadium gates down in most CPL cities  trying to get in . But the league is still young so let’s see what the future holds . Thank God for it being 2023 and this age that we live in where I mainly ignore mainstream media and just rely on Podcast and soccer apps for my soccer fix and basically have given a big middle finger to mainstream media where we are bombarded with mainly hockey, baseball, egg ball and basketball ball 24 hours a day !

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On 2/21/2023 at 4:26 PM, Kingston said:

Not a fan.

Going past eight is letting too many teams into the playoffs.

The three game thing is just stupid.

If you have time for extra games, skip the wild card round and go back to home and away matches for the quarters and semis.

Yes but sometimes the two game total goals or away goals rule can be dumb too where a team clobbers another team in the first game and the second is basically an exhibition game where the team that got clobbered in the first game needs a miracle to come back . In a best out of three a team can get clobbered the first game but all they need to do is win the second game even by one goal and force a third game . Imagine buying tickets to your teams playoff game in the second leg before the two game home and away  series starts . Your team loses 4- 0 or by an even greater margin in the first game the away game , the chances of your team coming back are very slim , however in a best of three , just win that second home game and force the deciding third game . It keeps fans interested no matter the outcome of that first game . 

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Athletic surveyed 20 MLS execs with full anonymity - mostly Chief Soccer Officers - for a super long article. Here are the juicest or Cdn related quotes/info:

Most picked Union to win this year but: The thing is, they’re not even that f—ing good. It kind of hurts me to pick them. All they do is kick the s— out of you. 

TFC tied with Orlando for best off season: They are a much more balanced team. Under-the-radar moves, but I liked them.

TFC tied for 5th for best owners: They have an unlimited pile of money, they don’t insert themselves into things and there’s no accountability. 

Micheal Bradley picked as player to become best executive. Akindele tied for 4th. Last year, MB topped list as best future coach. Renard tied for 2nd for most underrated exec. 

Leagues Cup: The tournament is set up to benefit MLS. Hosting all the games, being in the middle of the season, them being at the start of theirs.

The biggest decision clubs will have to make is what they do with Leagues Cup. Is it a platform to play younger players or a tournament to try to win? 

Playoff format: I don’t mind it. They need more playoff inventory for the TV deal...I think it’s better than the group stage thing that was proposed...Would I choose this over home and home? Probably not. But I do at least sort of get it.

I hated it at first and then when they sort of talked it out, I get it...I think it’s a good fix for an imperfect situation.

It’s a money making tool. That’s it...But to extend the format at the end of the season when everybody is f—— tired anyway, that just doesn’t make sense. 

I understand we are trying to bring things to American culture and American audience, but it’s going to be seen as a joke everywhere else in the world...Pure, simple home and away would be better. I worry about the regular season. 

Apple TV Deal: I think it’s really cool. MLS will do its best to f— it up, but there’s a big win that’s out there with some work.

You already get the feeling on their test games that there are more cameras, the quality is going to be good, the content coming out all the club profiles are cool and well done.

Will Apple TV Push to Spend: For players, there has been no trickle down effect. Teams who were getting local tv money are worse off. Most teams have needed to hire people on the content side of the club to support new content demands.

Multiple GMs pointed out that MLS may have to change how they think about storytelling. It can’t be about giving every team shine. We have to stop telling every story, which is very American. 

Roster Rules: There’s this fear of history repeating itself like with what happened with the NASL. They need to trust the infrastructure and trust that they’ve hired the right people to make good decisions. We should be permitted to take a budget and apply what we want to do it.

With the CBA locked in through the 2027 season, several executives said there would be no meaningful change to the roster rules without regime change atop MLS. One other said the only way change would happen is if “viewership is flat-to-abysmal in the Apple deal.”

We do have a narrative around parity that’s formed over years — it’s been marketed. That narrative shouldn’t cloud the storytelling of the elite teams...We need to do a better job of talking about our best products, not all of our products. Fans and their perception drive the reality of our product. If more fans were focused on their club becoming an elite competitor as opposed to an equal contributor, then I think things might change. I think sometimes we set the bar too low. Is it good enough to just make the playoffs?

MLSNP: The quality of play is not as high as it was in USL. The stakes are lower. There are no crowds. There is less pressure. That limits a level of development that is important for young players. The main positive of MLS Next Pro: it allows far more control and far more freedom of movement between the first and second teams. Administratively, it’s far simpler and easier to get the minutes you need for young players.

https://theathletic.com/4245864/2023/02/23/mls-cup-leagues-cup-playoff-format-survey-predictions/

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On 2/21/2023 at 4:26 PM, Kingston said:

Not a fan.

Going past eight is letting too many teams into the playoffs.

The three game thing is just stupid.

If you have time for extra games, skip the wild card round and go back to home and away matches for the quarters 

 

I agree with the home and away. The new playoff rules are just too many teams. North American Sports is all about revenue. 

Edited by ATM
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55 minutes ago, cornerkick said:

is anyone subscribing to mls season pass?

watching the free preview this weekend, and so far, the production value is really good.   apple threw a bunch of money at this obviously, far more than fubo, dazn and onesoccer

I would be more impressed if they had an android app and I didn't have to run it ina browser.

But yeah the Quality has been good

Edited by narduch
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1 hour ago, cornerkick said:

is anyone subscribing to mls season pass?

watching the free preview this weekend, and so far, the production value is really good.   apple threw a bunch of money at this obviously, far more than fubo, dazn and onesoccer

I've subscribed.  Figured I needed it to follow Montreal more closely this year as I don't have TVA Sports as well as get around TSN's 24 hour lag of putting games up On Demand.

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7 hours ago, cornerkick said:

is anyone subscribing to mls season pass?

watching the free preview this weekend, and so far, the production value is really good.   apple threw a bunch of money at this obviously, far more than fubo, dazn and onesoccer

I don't normally come to the MLS forum, although I follow TFC very closely. I came on to see if there were any thoughts on MLS Season Pass. I don't plan on subscribing, despite watching nearly every TFC game for the past dozen or so years. I don't really care about non-TFC games, so $20 per month is very steep. Especially since at this point at least I hate the whole idea of the Leagues Cup (I assume that will be on Apple) so that's like a month of dead air time too. I might get it the last month or so of the season plus playoffs if TFC end up not being a tire fire this year.

But I was watching it a bit today. My impressions in no particular order.

1. They didn't seem to have the crowd noise volume set well for the TFC game. It was a bit too quiet. It's a tough thing, OneSoccer often has it too loud. This is a minor complaint.

2. I think it's cool that they have some "classic" games available (I haven't watched any, but my assumption is that it's a full game?). The star player highlight videos are neat too.

3. You can pause the game, take that OneSoccer! But unfortunately at least on my Firestick if you leave it paused for 5 minutes or so it exits and you have to start the game over again. It asks if you want to watch live or start from the beginning, but you can't resume where you were. So you have to choose to watch from the beginning and then fast-forward to where you were.

4. Big negative that they should easily be able to fix. The thumbnail for an in progress game HAS THE LIVE SCORE ON IT!!! Such a spoiler! You click on a thumbnail that says "1-0" in big text on it and then it asks if you want to watch from the beginning or join it live. Luckily I noticed this with the early game today, and I was able to squint through my fingers to try to find the TFC game when I had to restart after pausing for too long, so the score wasn't spoiled for me in the game I cared about. There may be a way to turn this off, but it might only be for Apple devices. https://worldsoccertalk.com/tv/how-to-turn-off-scores-in-mls-season-pass-to-avoid-spoilers-20230223-WST-420749.html

5. I couldn't find a way to turn off the subtitles. There was nothing I could find while watching the game. I exited out and found something in the settings that was about not showing automatic closed captioning or something like that. I turned it off and went back to the game, but I still saw the subtitles. There has to be something I am missing, but if there is it's less obvious than every other streaming app I have used. Sidenote, there exists a chance of spoilers with the subtitles, as sometimes the text appears before the commentator says it. They must have the video on a delay for censoring certain words and maybe to give the speech to text software a chance to catch up.

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35 minutes ago, Kent said:

I don't normally come to the MLS forum, although I follow TFC very closely. I came on to see if there were any thoughts on MLS Season Pass. I don't plan on subscribing, despite watching nearly every TFC game for the past dozen or so years. I don't really care about non-TFC games, so $20 per month is very steep. Especially since at this point at least I hate the whole idea of the Leagues Cup (I assume that will be on Apple) so that's like a month of dead air time too. I might get it the last month or so of the season plus playoffs if TFC end up not being a tire fire this year.

But I was watching it a bit today. My impressions in no particular order.

1. They didn't seem to have the crowd noise volume set well for the TFC game. It was a bit too quiet. It's a tough thing, OneSoccer often has it too loud. This is a minor complaint.

2. I think it's cool that they have some "classic" games available (I haven't watched any, but my assumption is that it's a full game?). The star player highlight videos are neat too.

3. You can pause the game, take that OneSoccer! But unfortunately at least on my Firestick if you leave it paused for 5 minutes or so it exits and you have to start the game over again. It asks if you want to watch live or start from the beginning, but you can't resume where you were. So you have to choose to watch from the beginning and then fast-forward to where you were.

4. Big negative that they should easily be able to fix. The thumbnail for an in progress game HAS THE LIVE SCORE ON IT!!! Such a spoiler! You click on a thumbnail that says "1-0" in big text on it and then it asks if you want to watch from the beginning or join it live. Luckily I noticed this with the early game today, and I was able to squint through my fingers to try to find the TFC game when I had to restart after pausing for too long, so the score wasn't spoiled for me in the game I cared about. There may be a way to turn this off, but it might only be for Apple devices. https://worldsoccertalk.com/tv/how-to-turn-off-scores-in-mls-season-pass-to-avoid-spoilers-20230223-WST-420749.html

5. I couldn't find a way to turn off the subtitles. There was nothing I could find while watching the game. I exited out and found something in the settings that was about not showing automatic closed captioning or something like that. I turned it off and went back to the game, but I still saw the subtitles. There has to be something I am missing, but if there is it's less obvious than every other streaming app I have used. Sidenote, there exists a chance of spoilers with the subtitles, as sometimes the text appears before the commentator says it. They must have the video on a delay for censoring certain words and maybe to give the speech to text software a chance to catch up.

yeah, apple definitely needs to have an option to turn off live scores, it should be a simple thing to do...

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16 hours ago, ATM said:

 

I agree with the home and away. The new playoff rules are just too many teams. North American Sports is all about revenue. 

The Champions League is expanding to 36 teams while moving to a format where each team plays 8 group stage games.

The Euro recently expanded to 24 teams.

The next World Cup is 48 teams.

CONMEBOL held their 100th anniversary Copa in the United States.

Every sport, every where, is about revenue. 

(but best of 3 is still dumb)

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2 hours ago, Kent said:

I don't normally come to the MLS forum, although I follow TFC very closely. I came on to see if there were any thoughts on MLS Season Pass. I don't plan on subscribing, despite watching nearly every TFC game for the past dozen or so years. I don't really care about non-TFC games, so $20 per month is very steep. Especially since at this point at least I hate the whole idea of the Leagues Cup (I assume that will be on Apple) so that's like a month of dead air time too. I might get it the last month or so of the season plus playoffs if TFC end up not being a tire fire this year.

I'm not at all going to tell you how to spend your money, but $130 for the season of not having to listen to Steven Caldwell is worth the price.

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35 minutes ago, narduch said:

Wonder if MLS has any regrets starting the season this early, having to postpone 2 matches.

I bet the cancellation of the LA Derby wasn't even thought possible, that one hurts for rescheduling I imagine because instead of being a showcase match on opening weekend I suspect it will be moved to a rescheduled midweek clash!

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Just now, gator said:

I bet the cancellation of the LA Derby wasn't even thought possible, that one hurts for rescheduling I imagine because instead of being a showcase match on opening weekend I suspect it will be moved to a rescheduled midweek clash!

I think its been moved to July 4th!

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