Major League Soccer announced a new playoff format on Tuesday, which will see 18 total teams in the postseason, an increase of two teams per conference. That’s only half the difference. After a single game between the eighth and ninth seed in each conference, the opening round of the playoffs will be a best-of-three series.
Athletics has reported that the changes were made in part to create more high-stakes playoff games for Apple as part of MLSThe 10-year, $2.5 billion media rights deal with the tech giant. But on the other hand, there are concerns that the expanded playoff field could dampen MLS’ regular seasons.
Here, in alphabetical order, our panel of MLS writers offer their thoughts on the new format.
Alexander Abnos: Personally, team growth doesn’t bother me too much. Without serious consequences to teams that don’t make the playoffs, the best we have is shame, and we can make that shame more powerful and targeted if it spreads to fewer teams. The three-game series, however, is a different story. Looking at it now, it’s just a tough setup that isn’t true to the sport in any other knockout competition in the world. It does a lot to protect against turnovers when the threat of turnovers is exactly what makes the playoffs exciting in the first place.
All that said, I can easily imagine a situation where we get some really exciting games in one of the three, especially in Games 2 and 3 of those series. Maybe I’ll be wrong once the playoffs come around. For MLS’ sake, I hope I am.
,
Felipe Cardenas: I still don’t like an 18-team playoff format. You’re not going to convince me that letting a bad ninth-place team into the postseason is going to help the league. However, I really like the return of single-elimination games for the conference semifinals, conference finals, and obviously, the MLS Cup.
The league made a smart decision here to build on the high-stakes format that players, coaches and fans enjoyed all last season. MLS can’t afford to lose that kind of environment. When the regular season becomes more and more meaningless, the playoffs must have significant bite.
GO DEEPER
After another blood clot procedure, Keaton Parks looks set to make an impact in the NYCFC dressing room
Pablo Maurer: I can’t say I’m terribly concerned about the best-of-three format, or the slight expansion of the postseason field. MLS has always wanted to meddle — with competition formats, with club names and identities, with roster rules and regulations. Over the life of the league, they have used a half-dozen or so postseason formats (often dictated by the addition of teams or conference realignment.)
The other day I had an interesting conversation with Philadelphia Union coach Jim Curtin. I brought the best of the three and he told me he liked it. Curtin of course played with the Chicago Fire and went through a bunch of playoff changes. His argument was that when every two teams play each other three times in a week, hatred is created. I buy it. I’m kind of excited about the new format.
But at the end of the day, I’d rather MLS go with an eight-team playoff per conference. It seemed to me (and many others) that they had finally found the right formula.
GO DEEPER
Phil Neville Q&A: Inter Miami manager talks Josef Martínez, Lionel Messi and more
Jeff Rueter: It’s been said before, but it’s hard to see how blowing a single postseason round justifies further weakening the regular season. There were already some games between Game Weeks 10-25 that felt like dead rubber games, warm-weather sweats between some teams keeping players healthy between bigger games. If those teams have even less urgency to climb the table, the number of those weak contests could increase. That’s to say nothing of the extra strain on the players’ bodies.
I did some math on the back of the napkin. Let’s say LAFC, Austin, Philly or Orlando make a push for glory.
– 34 matches in #MLS
– up to 6 playoffs without WC
– 5th in US Open Cup (enter 4th)
– up to 7 League Cup matches
– up to 8 CCL…the roster isn’t deep enough for 50-60 games. https://t.co/k9hfXVlPry
— Jeff Rueter (@jeffrueter) February 21, 2023
Also: if we HAVE to turn a playoff round into a three game series…why not wait until the conference finals? The goal of having more qualifiers host a playoff game is (financially) noble, but these aren’t the best games. Did the No. 1 seed really win? 8 in a conference right to host a playoff game? If I were on the panel, I would have put this focus on the conference semifinals. At that point, four of the weakest contestants are eliminated. To look at last year’s group, that would mean two or three games between them Austin AND Dallas, Philadelphia AND Cincinnati, New York City and Montreal, and… Los Angeles FC AND LA Galaxy. This seems like an improvement to ensure that the eighth best team every year hosts the conference champion.
Paul Tenorio: If you talk to people who helped restructure the playoffs, they strongly believe that the new format encourages people to fight even harder for seeding. Teams seven to nine will battle it out to avoid the play-off places. Teams at the bottom of the standings will never be out of the hunt and will be working to get to that ninth and final spot. And best-of-3 increases the value of home games, so there will be constant movement to try to get into the top four seeds.
All of that makes sense, but I think it still cheapens the impact of being a playoff team. of NFL it’s the closest comparison to MLS, in my opinion, in terms of the value of parity and competition between teams. There are only 17 games in an NFL regular season, but that’s closer to MLS’s 34 than NBA’82, MLB‘s 162 or NHL‘s 82. The NFL has 14 of its 32 teams make the playoffs – 43.75 percent. MLS is now at 18 of 29 teams – 62 percent. It’s a crazy number of teams in the postseason.
With 12 (or even staying at 14) teams making the playoffs, there would be more tension and real danger for teams trying to get into that top half of the league.
GO DEEPER
MLS hopes to announce the 30th team by the end of 2023
And it’s not like teams were out of the playoff picture at the end of last year’s season with 14 of the 28 teams making it. In September last year, with most teams relegated in their last four or five games, in 13th place Chicago was seven points outside the play-offs, still very much in the hunt. Punishing teams for missing the playoffs is an important element in creating accountability, forcing change, and ultimately (and hopefully) making those teams better. Rewarding more than 60 percent of the league with a playoff berth lowers the stakes throughout the regular season.
When it comes to best-of-three series, I understand that MLS needs to increase the number of games. His postseason was very short compared to the regular season. I spoke to one sporting director who worried that the best of three and especially the penalties in those first two games would drive away the international audience that MLS is now chasing with this Apple deal. But I also agree with Curtin: MLS’s old best-of-three series created real rivalries between teams. Check out the old Chicago Fire-The New England Revolution playoff games.
Ultimately, I think MLS may eventually find that it needs to do more to make the regular season relevant. They are now asking people to pay $100 a year to watch those games. They can’t let the pace and excitement around them drop too much.
(Photo: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
