MLS: 3 questions regarding Orlando City resumption plan
2. How does it tie in with the regular season?
The biggest footballing issue regarding the idea is the style of the tournament itself. At present, there are no details regarding how it will be structured, though a World Cup-like approach seems to work well given the timeframe. More concerningly, however, is how the tournament ties into the regular season.
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It seems as though MLS plans to use the tournament to buy time so that they can resume the regular season later in the Autumn. By this point, they would hope to have teams return to their home stadiums and play out matches as normal, though it would be likely that these remain without fans present.
If that is the case, with the MLS Playoffs pushed back into the winter and hosted in a warmer-climate destination, does this tournament actually mean anything? What will the teams be playing for? If you cannot make it worthwhile, players will not want to play due to the risk of injury and safety. Teams will not take it seriously and the quality of play will be dire.
At this stage, it seems as though MLS is doing anything they can to get games — literally, any games possible — on TV to recoup some of the broadcast fees they have lost already. But they have to make it worthwhile to make the product worth watching. And thus far, the ideas — tieing it into the regular season standings, a cash prize, or handing the winner the U.S. Open Cup’s CONCACAF Champions League berth — do not stack up.