So Where Do Actual MLS Games Fit Into The Galaxy’s Plans?

For those of you who are looking for some serious, Galaxy-related meat and veggies to get the cotton candy taste of Brand Beckham out of your mouth…. Behold, I bring you an interesting, serious, and totally soccer-related article. Bill Urban at USSoccerPlayers.com offers up some very valid questions about whether the Galaxy can take the challenge of MLS play seriously when they’ve built the schedule around so much other stuff.

Heading up the problems is the fact that Beckham is not scheduled to arrive till late July. Since every team in the league wants a piece of those Beckham-related revenues, the Galaxy’s schedule is seriously skewed. They play just twelve league matches in the first half of the season, and then follow that with a month away from league play — July 7 until August 5. But after that, because of Beckham’s arrival, they’ll play “a grueling stretch of 18 matches in 10 weeks, 11 of which will be played on the road, with the possibility of one or two extra SuperLiga matches thrown into an already crammed August schedule should the Galaxy perform well in that competition.”

What else?

The Galaxy’s participation in the SuperLiga and World Series of Football raise questions about the Anschutz Entertainment Group’s ultimate priorities. Of the four clubs participating in the initial SuperLiga, the Galaxy’s “invitation” to compete is hardest to explain, given their poor 2006 season. Instead of playing three SuperLiga matches during seven days in July, perhaps playing a league match or two during the same period might have resulted in a less demanding September, when L.A. is scheduled to play eight league games in 30 days.

Can’t argue a lot with that. Why ARE the Galaxy in SuperLiga, anyway? But moving along, he then wonders why we’re getting involved in the “World Cup of Football” in the middle of everything else. I’m tempted to throw in quote after quote after quote here because all of his arguments are so interesting, but I’ll let you read it for yourself. But I will throw out one more of his thoughts about what all of these distractions may do to the Galaxy, and to MLS:

At bottom, league competitions, regardless of format, are meant to produce a champion. Whether a single table format or a playoff system is used, the demands placed on the teams in a competition must be similar, or the end result is meaningless.

I have to say that I can see this from both sides. On the one hand, the Galaxy are an MLS team, and that’s where their main energies should go. On the other, though, MLS is a money-losing entity with an extremely low profile in both the US and the world. Raising that profile is the best shot our teams have at being around long-term, and the best shot our players have at making even a semi-decent wage at some point down the road. And Europe has survived having all of the domestic stuff and adding in things like UEFA international competitions. I think MLS can survive something similar. But perhaps this is too much, too soon and too skewed toward one team.

One possibility? A split-season schedule:

league, Open Cup, and CONCACAF Cup matches in April-June, July off, then league matches from August until November. Thirteen teams, 12 matches per season, home and away, less fixture congestion, MLS Cup at the end of November between the two champions of each split-season, or playoffs, if you must, between the top four sides.

I think there are going to be some major growing pains in the next few years as MLS tries to work its way towards being seen as a strong and credible entity. And perhaps some ideas (like maybe that World Series of Football?) need to fall by the wayside.

But in the long run, there has to be a better plan than playing a bunch of league games that nobody watches.

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Category: MLS Money Matters, MLS News, Player News, Team News