NEW YORK – Major League Soccer’s 25th season kickoff event last week was a ceremonial end to an off-season that had multiple league executives, including MLS Commissioner Don Garber, acknowledging issues with its length.
“I think the off-season is too long, and there’s no doubt about it,” Garber said. “We’ve got to figure out a way to try to manage the fact that we continue to evolve our schedule and have not really been able to – even after all these years – settle on something that’s perfect.”
When the 2020 season kicked off last weekend, teams who did not qualify for the 2019 postseason had gone 146 to 147 days without a competitive match. It’s an issue that, as Garber admitted, the league has wrestled with for 25 years.
After settling for most of the previous decade on a regular season that ended in late-October, with an MLS Cup final the first weekend of December, MLS made the decision in 2018 to move up the end of its regular season to early-October in order for the postseason to fit neatly between the October and November FIFA windows.
While the shift – it could be argued – enhanced the postseason, it extended an already significant off-season by three full weeks.
MLS’ Competition Committee convened in Mexico last month to brainstorm solutions. One idea gaining momentum is a winter tournament along the same lines as the Leagues Cup, which will begin this summer. FC Dallas CEO and Chairman, Clark Hunt said MLS is in search of a “meaningful competition that can help fill the void” in winter.
“We’re looking at a number of initiatives,” said Hunt, who is also Chairman of MLS’s Competition Committee. “You’re aware of some things we’re doing with Liga MX, in terms of the Leagues Cup. I think there’s a chance for those kinds of competitions to grow, and perhaps eat up some of this time that has been created in the schedule.”
MLS is facing two familiar hurdles when it accesses its off-season, but the longer winter has only made them larger.
The first is finding a way – coming out of preseason – to ensure teams are fit and sharp enough to compete against Mexican and Central American opposition when Concacaf Champions League start in February.
When five MLS teams played meaningful first legs in the Champions League last month, it was each team’s first competitive match in over three months. Record-breaking Supporters’ Shield winners LAFC lost to Liga MX’s Club Leon, 2-0, but were able to overturn the result at Banc of California Stadium and advance to the quarterfinals.
“We’ve tracked some of the performance of our clubs in Champions Leagues games,” Garber said. “By the 80th minute, we were dominating. And between 80 and 90, we weren’t, and didn’t have the results that we had hoped to have. So, part of that is just, the schedule continues to be a massive challenge for us. There are no easy answers.”
The second hurdle is finding extra matches for teams who miss the postseason, so that almost half the league is not sitting idly while others train and play meaningful matches for up to four more weeks.
Whether a winter tournament and further collaboration with Liga MX – a theme of this 25th season – is the outcome remains to be seen. But, Garber’s tone on the matter was determined, and Hunt was optimistic when asked further about the potential.
“I think you’re likely to see some schedule realignment over the next two or three years to afford a broader competition with the Mexican teams,” Hunt said.