MLS & USSF Establishing Long-Term Calendar?

With our report on TheCup.us Wednesday regarding the structural changes most likely upcoming for the 2012 US Open Cup and beyond, I was paying particular attention to Thursday's 'Best XI / State of the League' conference call with MLS Commissioner Don Garber. Although the topic itself was largely brushed over as he focused on league-specific scheduling and calendar issues, a few things did stand out in regards to long-term strategic planning for MLS and the US Open Cup.

Garber mentioned that the league is working on establishing a broad list of schedule dates over a multi-year period. To me it sounds like the league's competition committee is looking beyond the next season and trying to establish a mostly-fixed calendar for the league's season along with the competitions of the two federations and CONCACAF.

That is something long overdue, but until the recent growth and success in the US Open Cup (and Canadian Championship) and Champions League, it has been very difficult to accomplish. Now that the league, those competitions and the non-MLS clubs seem to be settling in, a master calendar seems to be emerging. The new schedule adaptations to the US Open Cup are a modification that appears to be making that the case the process is underway.

With clubs like the Seattle Sounders, FC Dallas and Real Salt Lake openly and actually taking all competitions seriously, the overlapping calendar of non-league competitions has made things difficult on the clubs and players (see the schedule flow chart pdf). With the CCL Group Phase lingering toward the end of the MLS regular season, it was important for the league to open the midweek windows occupied by the Open Cup semifinals and final that have fallen within the range of the CCL group games. By moving the Open Cup up, the league's elite teams will be able to provide more rest for its top players.

This is particularly important considering situations like Seattle and Los Angeles Galaxy, who are repeat CCL participants and could be virtually playing multiple competitions all campaign long. The knockout championship stage rounds of the CCL are in the spring followed by the bulk of US Open Cup in early summer. The CCL Preliminary Round for the next tournament pops up in the heat of the summer with the group phase coming shortly thereafter.

The other item that came up was the discussion of the league's competition committee itself. From a US Open Cup perspective it may be interesting to note the tournament-friendly composition of the group.

Clark Hunt (Dallas/Columbus) - The son of the tournament's namesake... Sunil Gulati (New England) - President of US Soccer... Adrian Hanauer (Seattle) - Sounders are one of the leading proponents of USOC... Andrew Hauptman (Chicago) - Fire are one of the leading proponents of USOC... Greg Kerfoot (Vancouver) - Whitecaps are an advocate for counterpart Canadian Championship... Todd Durbin - MLS. Nelson Rodriguez - MLS

While the group obviously has to take its lead from the whole of the ownership around the league, it is a good sign for the US Open Cup, and the league, that the men at the table for the discussion of the external competitions are among those who treat the events with gravitas. It is particularly great that two - Hanauer and Kerfoot - have experienced the tournaments from the lower division viewpoint as well.
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