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MLS Expansion: The increasingly unbalanaced schedule problem

By Andrew Dowdeswell

CHICAGO, IL - AUGUST 02: Don Garber Commissioner of MLS at the press conference to announce ongoing relationship with adidas prior to the MLS All-Star match between the MLS All-Stars and Real Madrid at the Soldier Field on August 02, 2017 in Chicago, IL. The match ended in a tie of 1 to 1. Real Madrid won the match on a 4 to 2 in penalty kicks. (Photo by Ira L. Black/Corbis via Getty Images)
CHICAGO, IL - AUGUST 02: Don Garber Commissioner of MLS at the press conference to announce ongoing relationship with adidas prior to the MLS All-Star match between the MLS All-Stars and Real Madrid at the Soldier Field on August 02, 2017 in Chicago, IL. The match ended in a tie of 1 to 1. Real Madrid won the match on a 4 to 2 in penalty kicks. (Photo by Ira L. Black/Corbis via Getty Images) /
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This week, MLS commissioner Don Garber revealed that the 30th team would be unveiled in the coming months. While expansion of the league shows the growth of the sport, a tipping point is being reached, especially when it comes to the unbalanced schedule.

There are few sports growing as fast in a specific location as football in North America. Rapidly catching up the big three — Baseball, basketball and football — it is estimated that soccer will rival the most followed sports in America and Canada.

While many soccer fans graduate to the Premier League and Bundesliga, higher-achieving European leagues that are the pinnacle of the club game, Major League Soccer still has played a major part in the explosive growth of the game. And it will continue to do.

A crucial aspect of the growth of MLS  has been the expansion into new markets. Some of the league’s largest and most successful teams have been founded in the past decade or so, including Los Angeles FC, Atlanta United and Seattle Sounders. The expansion has, predominantly, been prosperous for the league.

And so, naturally, when a certain process is deemed to be successful, the league are not going to stop now. This season, FC Cincinnati were welcomed into the league as the 24th team. In 2020, both Nashville SC and Inter Miami will start play as the 25th and 26th teams. In 2021, Austin FC will commence play, before St. Louis and Sacramento will host teams in 2022, taking the league to 29 teams.

MLS Commissioner Don Garber has already said that there will be a 30th team, and in his State of the League address this week, he revealed that Charlotte are at the front of the queue:

"“There are three markets we’re looking at, that our expansion committee is engaged with: Charlotte, Las Vegas and Phoenix. It’s fair to say Charlotte has done a lot of work to move their bid to the front of the line. It starts with David Tepper, passionate about our sport and very passionate about Charlotte. There are a lot of things happening in Charlotte that are similar to things that are happening in Atlanta. I think the Carolinas are great states for soccer, you know that from a women’s soccer perspective and a youth soccer perspective. Should we be able to move forward and end up with a team in Charlotte, I’m confident they would be successful.”"

Moving the league to 26 and more teams may seem like a smart decision. And financially, it probably is. The market for these teams exists, as proven by MLS Cup selling out the entire of CenturyLink Field in 30 minutes. But can the schedule contain them?

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While in other American sports, an unbalanced schedule based on conferences and divisions is normal, in global soccer, one of the great aspects of the sport is that, in a league competition, every team must play every team an equal number of times, usually twice, one game at home and another away.

But because of the size of the league and the travel that is involved in an American league, there has not been an even, balanced scheduled in MLS since 2011. This was as a consequence of expansion to 19 teams. With the league growing from that point on, there has not been the opportunity to even out the fixtures, not without introducing promotion and relegation.

This is a problem. Put plainly, MLS is not fair. The playoffs, while tremendously exciting, are an inherently luck-induced way of determining a champion, while the Supporters’ Shield prize has only been lessened in calibre with every year that the schedule remains uneven.

Some may argue that it is okay to sacrifice fairness for drama. And if you see sports as a vehicle for entertainment, there is a valid argument to be made here. However, I believe – and the majority of the general soccer community believes — that professional sport should be a fair competition to see who is the best competitor, team or individual. And that involves structuring the competition in a balanced, fair manner.

Next. Seattle Sounders: 3 reasons why they won MLS Cup. dark

MLS expansion is a good thing, in theory. But in practice, there are problems, one of the main ones being an unbalanced schedule. And without promotion and relegation, which seems like a non-starter of a solution, it is very difficult to align the two. And that is something that Garber and MLS must consider in the future.

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