Horrible idea, cold weather and directly competing with the NFL NBA NCAAF NCAAB NHL and the European leagues. Mostly all the leagues in the western hemisphere play a similar schedule as MLS already.

Here's the thing...they could've had 2 cups and the Supporters shield, remember that Messi was injured last year during the US Open Cup final. They could've knocked that one off, the Supporters shield and if they hadn't been smelling their own farts, they could've won the MLS cup this year. They should be collecting trophies like infinity stones but nope.

As a skc fan this should be fun

Yes finally

Most of us philly fans are scratching our heads. It's really ridiculous the position Ernst and Jay have put the league in. The problem is Ernst right now, and he is the reason we are not spending because he wants to invest ENTIRELY in youth! Its ridiculous and the fans are furious.

#TataOut..Questionable tactics & in game management. At 61 years old, he is not going to adapt.

Atlanta should keep Valentino. He took over a team that sold all its best players, didn't replace all the DP's, and had a toxic locker room (as per the Team President Lagerway). Tata himself wouldn't do better. This points total argument falls flat. Atlanta fans are going to walk right past their Dabo in this case and he's gonna go take another team to massive success.

Happy I found you mls podcast! New subscriber!

great

"And Atlanta had the power of friendship" lol funniest episode ever!!😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

"Wooden spoon territory"😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 that made me pee a little lol

Why are the loons the enemy of the pod?

Good analysis,thank you.

We have a 10, Hernan Lopez is the man

Wow you guys are bad at this lmao. Neither of you ever watch a game with Messi in your life before this?

As an Atlanta fan I'm jealous. We missed him when the Revs hired him and now we miss him again. This is a great coach. Happy for San Jose tho! Hopefully this works for them. The fans deserve it!

If MLS follows through on the schedule change, won't the majority of its games be impacted on getting TV time slots?

Arena is one of the MLS best coach. Remember 2002, he lead the USA to quarter final round world cup. No F* coach can ever lead USA team to that round in history.

San Jose has plenty of homegrown talent.. RSL just signs them away. The biggest thing Bruce can do there is show they how a professional MLS organization can be run

MLS job is to grow the sport in the US. You'll kill momentum switching it's schedule. Maybe when the MLS eclipses MLB and NHL in popularity the you can put this up for discussion.

Currently, the MLS season starts in mid-February. That's the same as the restart after the winter break in the new schedule. Currently, playoffs last until December, which lines up to right before the winter break in the new schedule. If northern teams make it to the later stages of playoffs currently, they'll be playing in December. The winter break of the new schedule lines up with the current off season. The only thing that would change is no summer games. NFL schedules are released in May, so MLS can easily schedule their games around the NFL. The same should hold for college football. The schedule is gonna change because there is no way they can compete with the World Cup. They'll see the reality of that next summer during the Gold Cup and Club World Cup. They got a hint of it from this year's Euro and Copa America

terrible idea. bad for north east, mid west and Colorado. it also competes with football audience

The best thing the MLS has going for it is only competing with the MLB for attendance and attention in the summer

Rob Valentino has done the impossible, he has made a broken locker room and terrible headspace team, speaking of Atlanta, into a dogged and gritty team. They probably won't beat Miami, but they are a different locker room after losing the coach, technical director, star striker (GG) and star midfielder (Almada).

I’m so glad I found this video. Very old and dear memory of mine. I was probably about 10-11 years old and the Dynamo held some fundraiser contest where youth teams from the Southeast Texas area could sell stuff for the opportunity to play on the field before this game. Somehow, our team won our local fundraiser and we headed to Houston for the opportunity and we also got bottom row tickets for the actual game. They didn’t actually let us play the whole field, but if i remember correctly, they divided the field into about 8 smaller fields, with the teams having a small tournament. Had never done anything like it as my local club was very rural. We got our asses absolutely handed to us by some Houston travel club and we were out in the first round, but we still had so much fun and felt like celebrities being in front of that many people (not actually that many people lol). Recently, I just randomly thought about this moment after all these years and wanted to see if I could find any recollection of it and all I could remember was Brian Ching scoring a very late bicycle kick. Turns out, it wasn’t that hard to find! Not really a big thing, but figured I’d share and glad I could listen to you guys recount the moment. Funnily enough, watching this also made me remember how absurd I thought it was that we were playing on the U of H field and not a proper stadium… and my dad absolute livid that a water was like $11 at this game all the way back in 2006. Here’s a sub!

It sucks because before the season started I had very high hopes for this season but I am very disappointed of how the team played. The attitude was the stand out for me and hopefully next season we get better and unload the dead wood. Hopefully we get a striker

The fires biggest transfer is a striker Greg doesn’t play with a striker this is such a Joe mansueto move and it will fail

뜨랑낄로 닮았네

Why god this got worse as it went on 😂

hes the right man trust hes probably gonna get rid of our dead worth players like Barlow Mueller Gaston and Soquet and rebuild from scratch and works well with younger players so he can be a perfect fit for Chicago it will just take patience

In stead of going to the number one feeder league to the premier league, go to the bundesliga or serie a 😂. If he’s performs in the championship he’s going to the premier league either with Boro or someone else. If he doesn’t perform then he was never good enough anyway. But he’s really shining for Boro and has built a fantastic partnership with Hackney.

Teemu Pukki🇫🇮🇫🇮

When will he play?

I am wondering if Pulisic will transfer to Chicago Fire after the World Cup? Hmmmmm

The salary cap should never be scrapped, but it does need to be gradually increased. It seems that it will happen primarily through more lucrative TV deals. I know they received a great deal from Apple TV, but MLS made the mistake of putting nearly all of their eggs in one basket. They also should have made more deals on linear TV. The fact that MLS is almost entirely on Apple TV means that alot of soccer fans who may have given MLS a chance now won't be able to see it if they don't have enough money to subscribe to Apple TV. Less access to MLS will naturally mean fewer MLS fans. Considering the fact that the media companies created so many cable channels that catered to niche audiences, the companies are now looking to fill their time slots with as much new & original content as possible. There are only a few types of programming that are guaranteed to generate decent ratings, one of which is sports. The others are news, "reality TV", & pro wrestling. Scripted programming had a head start in moving more toward the streaming services. I know that MLS will never get the same level of viewership as the Premier League or Liga MX. However, MLS could have still benefitted and used the networks need for original content to try to get more money from them. MLS should have, if possible, made new deals with: Disney (ABC, all ESPN channels, TSN, & RDS); FOX (FOX & FS1); NBC Universal (NBC & USA Network); Warner Brothers Discovery (TBS & TNT); Paramount Global (CBS); Nexstar Media (CW); Univision; SportsNet Canada You get the idea. Another criticism I had with the Apple TV was the length of the deal, lasting 2023 to 2032. The length of the deal would have been better if it was only until 2026. I say this because experiences an increase in popularity in the United States (and possibly Canada) after every World Cup. MLS should have taken advantage of that fact. This would have allowed the league to negotiate for more money on the next broadcasting contracts, which should always end during the same year as the World Cup. I saw the grant-of-rights TV deal that the Atlantic Coast Conference signed in the 2010s to last through 2036, and seemed like a great deal at the time. However, the conference's big-name brands are looking for the exit. The Pac-12 signed a similar deal in the early 2010s to last through 2024, and seemed like they were stable. I can't help laughing when I think of it now that 10 of its 12 members left for other conferences. In fact, one member left the Pac-12 to re-join the Big 12 after the latter conference got better TV contracts. They still pale in comparison to the mega-deals made by the Big Ten & the SouthEastern Conference. Another thing that MLS should have done, was to encourage each MLS franchise to negotiate broadcast deals with local TV stations (for certain) & regional TV networks (if there are any remaining). The viewership of MLS was nothing special at the national level in the United States, but its viewership was solid on local television. Furthermore, all MLS games should be on Friday nights, Saturdays, & Sundays. What confuses me is how good, or bad, is the viewership of MLS games outside of the United States & Canada. I haven't found a source that could show the numbers. Are there any good sources that could show them? Tell me if I am missing some critical piece of information.

I guarantee that if MLS did everything that its critics suggested, those critics would still not give MLS the time of day, even if it didn't interfere with matches of their favorite foreign clubs. Furthermore, if MLS followed those suggestions and went under, then most of those critics would respond with apathy. Others would celebrate.

I totally agree, hey it might be slow process of slowly rasing the salary cap but remember the league almost die but garber actually brought it from the brink and now we actually thriving, with own stadium, training groung, academy. Its amazingly right now i think we moving in the right directions just trust the process

The result would be that it would be a lopsided league (like many others around the world) with only a few teams having a realistic chance at winning the championship. Meanwhile, other teams would lose fans, who would direct their attention to the world's top five soccer leagues or the United States' top four pro sports leagues, or the top sports at the college level in the United States. These MLS teams would start hemorrhaging cash, & go under. In other words, it would be a repeat of the original North American Soccer League.

he’s very good with using what he’s got he didn’t get backed at all at spurs and also at chelsea and psg they were just buying anyone expensive because they have the money

I don't think MLS should even try to be a destination league for the following two reasons: First, we don't have access to top club competitions such as the UEFA Champions League or Copa Libertadores. Second, signing the world's top players in their prime would put each MLS franchise deeply in debt. I remember seeing a video where an elite club (Chelsea) had a debt of one billion (not sure if it was in U.S. dollars or British pounds). After the first six seasons of MLS, the league (all 12 teams at the time) had a combined debt of $250 million, and was already preparing the paperwork to file for bankruptcy. Philip Anschutz & Lamar Hunt found out what was happening, and effectively "rallied the troops" and said that this was not the time to quit. The rest is history. MLS would be better off by placing greater emphasis on developing more homegrown players and signing young non-homegrown players. When I mean young, I mean players in their age-23 season or younger. In fact, I think the salaries of the groups of players I mentioned, along with two Designated Players, should exempt their teams from all salary budget charges. Furthermore, each homegrown player (regardless of age) & each U-23 player (regardless of homegrown status) should entitle his team to general allocation money. The vast majority of that money should be distributed to any youth clubs, youth academies, & pro teams to which that player was a previous member. The distribution of that money should be based on how many years that player spent there & what his ages were during the years he was a member of that youth club, a professional team's youth academy, & the main roster of a professional team. Hopefully, all of our U-23 players (whether they are homegrown or not) gain the interest of clubs from the top 5 leagues, and those clubs pay decent-sized transfer fees to MLS franchises. I'm not sure who pays the training compensation & solidarity payments. I tried looking it up, but my understanding is not that strong. If possible, please explain it to me. In any case, those payments should be made to all professional teams, professional team youth academies, & youth clubs to which that player was a past member. The salaries of players who are not homegrown, and not listed as Designated Players, and are in their age-24 season or older should subject their teams to varying degrees of salary budget charges. For example, the salary of a non-homegrown & non-designated player in his age-24 through age-26 seasons should subject his team to a salary budget charge that is equal to 20% of his salary. The salary of a non-homegrown & non-designated player in his age-27 through age-29 seasons should subject his team to a salary budget charge that is equal to 40% of his salary. The salary of a non-homegrown & non-designated player in his age-30 through age-31 seasons should subject his team to a salary budget charge that is equal to 60% of his salary. The salary of a non-homegrown & non-designated player in his age-32 through age-33 seasons should subject his team to a salary budget charge that is equal to 80% of his salary. The salary of a non-homegrown & non-Designated player in his age-34 season or older should subject his team to a full salary budget charge. Let the Chinese & the Middle Eastern leagues spend themselves into extreme debt by signing more past-their-prime players. Let those leagues become the new retirement homes of professional soccer.

Al Nassr is spending millions of money but winning nothing.

As a spurs fan. He’s a great coach.

tough to say players would automatically prefer USA over Middle East. Pro golfers have shown us that isnt necessarily true... fun thought exercise!

Bad pundit 😂

Having East Leagues Cup games at 10:00 is likely not going to happen because if they did the East games would be very late since most team that would be in the East are Eastern or Central time teams making the games in there time at 9 or 10

A lot of talent is still coming through the draft. We are not ready to abandon the draft yet.

I wish we humans lived on the same day-night schedule. So that way MLS could play in both Libertadores and UCL. But that's sci-fi. Honestly at this point, scrap Leagues Cup. It's unnecessary addage to the schedule. And yeah, unpopular opinion but scrap the Open Cup. People need to understand that people don't really care about the Open Cup. The only non-MLS tournament worth participating is CCC and that doesn't get attention either.

In order to get over the problem of teams not playing for weeks due to being knocked out of the competition...... I'd have first/second/third round of US Open cup happening at the same time as the knockouts of League Cup..... If you progress in Leagues Cup you receive a bye for that round of the US Open Cup...... If you are knocked out of Leagues Cup then you play that round of US Open Cup... No weeks where your own team isn't playing a match..... As you progress in Leagues Cup you continually receive a bye in US Open Cup

Neither MLS nor Liga MX execs want to have the tournament in Mexico. Ain’t going to happen. At best, I could see them having a couple of pods in Mexico with a top Liga MX team hosting a nearby Liga MX team and an MLS team.

Bro never yap agin this was a great move