452 Games and then Toronto and Seattle play a final: the 2020 MLS thread.

[jefe]

The TBD DP, I'm pretty sure.

Victor Wanyama to Montreal Impact.

[jefe]

Ray Hudson returns to his American broadcast roots, doing color on local Miami telecasts; Arlo White is doing Fire games after the EPL ends.

There's also a 4 team women's tournament in France right now; them, Canada, Brazil, and the Dutch.

Reggie Cannon signs a 4 year deal with Dallas; hello, increased transfer fee required.

For DCU, both Russell Canouse and Steve Birnbaum got extensions and sizable raises.

George Weah's nephew is training with Minnesota United's first team; he's in their academy.

Colorado re-signed one of their promising kids, and imported William Yarborough from Liga MX

The new official Mexican restaurant of the USSF is...Chipotle.

The next 2 CPL expansion cities are likely to be Saskatoon and Quebec City.

David Accam's home in Nashville got trashed by the tornado.

Tim Howard is un-retiring to play for the team he part-owns in Memphis.

[Anton Gramscescu]

Ifunanyachi Achara had a hell of a debut tonight. For all the bitching about our aging squad, we have some really good young 'uns too.

[jefe]

You really have to read the USSF's latest response to the women's lawsuit. They've doubled down on stupid.

USA 3-1 JPN to win the SheBelieves Cup; the NWSL CBS deal was announced officially today. 2 games on CBS itself, 14 on CBSSN, the rest on CBS all access, or Twitch.

NYCFC loses in Red Bull Arena to Tigres; Atlanta's getting killed in the Azteca.

Hartford Athletic of the USL called off the home opener on the 21st v Charleston Battery.

Benny Feilhaber retired.

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/mollyhc/status/1237922039916347392

[jefe]

Grant Wahl just wrote an article calling for his head.

[Hot Pepsi]

Seems fair.

The only real issue, as far as I can see, is that US soccer is subsidizing the women’s pro league in a way it is not with MLS. So that has to be factored in. Otherwise, they should get the same percent of revenue from their games as the men do from theirs and insofar as there is revenue that can’t be assigned to one side or the other, split it 50/50.

[jefe]

And Cordeiro resigns, replaced by Cindy Parlow Cone.

Indoor regular season off as of Harrisburg's home win over Utica last night; playoffs TBD.

[Anton Gramscescu]

So is MLS paying its players through all this? How many teams risk folding if this lasts a whole season?

What's the latest start date we could have that would allow a season to proceed?

[ursus arctos]

1. As yet unclear

2. At least a few, one would think, though it helps them that they get to hold on to season ticket revenue as long as matches are postponed rather than cancelled. Television revenue will also be key, and I don't know how that is going to work.

3. My guess is that if they lose more than six or so matchdays, we are looking at a truncated season given weather-related limits and facility issues (though the latter are better than the were a few years ago, given the vogue towards SSS).

[Anton Gramscescu]

Hmm.

I have been thinking that they might try salvage the season by playing behind closed doors for awhile, but it seems really hard to imagine how they'd do that. I mean, effectively the leagues would still all be under the kinds of rules sumo is currently under (one player sick and you call the tournament - or at least sit out another 15 days). Plus travel restrictions. Plus the fact that - I think - MLS derives more of its revenue from attendance and match-day sales than do other leagues.

I am bummed. We were going to win everything this year. And we're probably going to have to endure Montreal being reigning Canadian champions for another year.

[ursus arctos]

Yeah, playing behind closed doors really isn't going to work under the current set of restrictions in many places and one has to think that players would be wary of extensive travel even if there was some way to get beyond that.

As I mentioned earlier, it looks as if leagues are falling into two large buckets. Those that are cancelling their seasons outright, with no champion, promotion or relegation (e.g., European ice hockey, much of North American university sport) and those that are taking a wait and see approach (pro leagues in North America).

That can be influenced by where leagues are in their season, but it is also very much influenced by revenue streams and my guess is that we are going to see all kinds of abbreviated calendars if play can be resumed before the following season is scheduled to start.

[Hot Pepsi]

MLS is much more dependant on ticket sales than TV so I can't see them doing the closed door thing. They could maybe do that that for some US Cup games and CONCACAF tournaments - if those still happen. It's been a long time since I've been going regularly to MLS matches, but my recollection is those midweek cup matches drew very poorly anyway. So the point of playing them would be just to play them and hope that the semis and the final might be still worthwhile.

[jefe]

USL has already said they want out of the Open Cup this year to allow for makeup games.

One thing I've seen today is possibly making the rest of the season in-conference play only, in order to reduce the amount of match days needed-24 or 26 game season, depending if you keep the two already played or not.

Nashville's started demolition at their future stadium site.

[Anton Gramscescu]

Season now postponed to May 10 (as if).

[Hot Pepsi]

Could happen

[Anton Gramscescu]

Nah, season's over. Crowds aren't going to be OK'd until fall.

On the plus side this may be our big chance to move to an August-to-May schedule.

[Hot Pepsi]

Might as well now.

[jefe]

The Athletic today is mandatory, on the 25 behind the scenes stories gathered over the years.

[jefe]

Long ex-Revs defender Marshall Leonard is now an ER doctor in New York City.

[jefe]

Very tentative MLS restart date is May 10. Which I really doubt.

[jefe]

No more promotion & relegation in Mexico for 5 years, and the entire Acenso clausura is canceled.

The USSF completely shut down its development academy and fired a bunch of the people overseeing it. MLS seems to be more or less stepping in with a new youth competition including their youth teams and the big youth clubs. USSF also shut down several of the youth national teams for the moment.

USL Championship, whenever it starts, is likely to go to divisions within conferences this year to minimize travel costs. They're also setting up their own youth team system, and David Villa's team in Queens might have to start a year later because of the rona.

There was an interesting article on Yahoo Sports today pitching the sports complex at Disney World used by every youth sport known to man as how to restart the NBA-everything there is already wired for broadcast, and Disney has currently unused hotel space out the wazoo. All of the fields outside of it's couple fieldhouses could work for MLS as well.

[jefe]

NWSL training camps, per Steven Goff, rumored to open up May 16th.

[jefe]

NWSL training camps, per Steven Goff, rumored to open up May 16th.

And it seems to be true, he says today. Camps open May 16 for small groups, like the Bundesliga is now doing, larger groups June 1, possible start of league play June 27/28. One current possible scenario is basing the entire league out of DC to begin with.

USL cancelled the entire League 2 season.

[jefe]

Victor Montagliani was interviewed yesterday. The Hex is going to need to be expanded due to the virus destroying the end of nations league and likely the beginning of qualifying, WC2026 host cities named next year, CONCACAF wants more MLS/Liga MX teams in the CCL, and he's talked to people in Europe about changing their schedules to mimic MLS-calendar year.

USL is starting an academy league next year, up to 5 new 3rd division teams to be announced for next year and talking to 15 cities about teams; they're talking to 3 potential 2nd division teams and the former Fresno Foxes are indeed going to move to Monterey. Small group training for USL teams can start Monday.