MLS Conference Based Schedule Will Hurt Whitecaps And Other Western Conference Sides

Major League Soccer finally announced their new conference-based schedule format for 2012 this morning.

Like the latest Adam Sandler movie, we all knew it was coming, could do nothing to stop it, then once we actually saw it, it was worse than we imagined.

The MLS Board of Governors approved the new plan on Saturday, and the announcement of what 2012 and 2013 will look like in MLS was made this morning before the Supporters’ Summit in LA.

We knew were were going to get an unbalanced schedule and that’s just what we got. How unbalanced it was actually going to be was a bit unexpected.

The MLS’ 19 teams will be split into a nine team Western Conference and a ten team Eastern Conference.

Each team will still play 34 games, 17 at home and 17 away, but games will be more Conference focussed, with more regionalisation of matches and more emphasis being placed on local rivalries.

Western Conference clubs will play each other three times (24 games). They will play four of their conference opponents twice at home and once away, and the other four conference opponents twice away and once at home. These fixtures will then be reversed in 2013.

What this will mean to Whitecaps supporters is likely two trips to say Seattle in 2012, and just one to Portland, with the reverse happening in 2013.

This means that each Cascadian team will play six Cascadia Cup matches from next season. Great for TV, not so great for the pockets of those wanting to travel to all of the three away games to roar on their boys.

Western clubs will complete their schedule by playing each of the ten Eastern Conference clubs once. Five at home and five away, with a reversal of these fixtures again happening in 2013.

Things are a bit different in the Eastern Conference, where each club will play a total of 25 conference matches. Each East club will play seven of their conference opponents three times each (21 games) and the remaining two conference opponents twice (4 games). Yeah, I know.

Their remaining nine fixtures will come from playing Western teams, with five at home and four away for some teams and four at home and five away for others.

It all seems a little bit more complicated than it really needed to be.

During the Supporters Summit, Don Garber again reiterated that a balanced schedule was near impossible logistically. To that, we again say bollocks and direct him to Vancouver Southsider Vice President Brett Graham’s paper on this very subject that proves it very possible indeed.

Garber stated that he wanted to give football a North American flair and that this wasn’t Europe or South America. I fully accept this but you have to also then ask, if things do actually work in these places, then why not here? And why still so focussed on playoffs?

Talking of the playoffs, these will also undergo an overhaul for 2012 and it’s not all bad.

We fully accept and understand that MLS will always have playoffs. It’s the North American way, I’m not in Scotland any more, I just need to get used to it, blah, blah, blah.

As much as I don’t want playoffs, I’m very hypocritical as I actually love the playoffs once they get here and find them a hell of a lot more exciting than the regular season, but that’s only because MLS have devalued the regular season so much for me in the first place.

So if we’re having them, we need to have at least the best playoff system we can. This year’s way was not that system.

Next season, the top five teams from each Conference will qualify for the playoffs, no matter what their actual regular season record is.

The teams finishing fourth and fifth will then playoff to play the number one placed team. Why even bother with this? Why have ten teams? Just make it a straight shoot-out with eight teams.

All of this will guarantee an Eastern and a Western team meeting in the Final, a final which will now be held at the home of the competing team with the best regular season record.

I think this makes sense and is fair. At least it will guarantee a full house and put some more onus on the regular season. You can’t relax once you’ve clinched your playoff spot as every point could count and that can only be a good thing for the League.

So what does all of this mean for Vancouver Whitecaps and Caps fans?

To look at the positives…

Less travel certainly, and less of the costs associated with it for the Club, if not the fans.

It will mean that twelve of the Caps away games will be very manageable for fans to go to. As someone who is used to watching his team, every week, home and away, this is great news at least. Maybe not to my wife or my bank account.

Personally, I was planning on giving up my BC Lions season ticket next season to go to more than the four away games I went to this year. This will now make going to more of these games very possible, if expensive, if we’re not able to take in two or three games on the one trip, like our epic Chivas, Salt Lake and Seattle road trip in June.

What this more regionalisation does mean though is the danger that familiarity will breed disinterest.

Travel to a lot of these away games will not be so special. Will Caps fans really want to make two trips to Portland and four to LA?

Will we start to say “oh, another Cascadian derby match”? Especially if the Cascadia Cup is all wrapped up by that stage and the playoffs are sorted out?

MLS and the TV people are clearly banking on these local rivalries drawing in more viewers at home and electric atmospheres at the stadiums. Let’s hope it’s a gamble that pays off for them and these derby games don’t get diluted.

One thing that worries me is how all of this will affect the Whitecaps playoff chances.

We’re still going to struggle next season, as Martin Rennie basically tries to build a winning team from near scratch. His job is now made all that harder by playing more games against clearly the best teams in MLS.

The Western Conference has been strong for years and is just seemingly getting stronger each season. We were the weakest link this season and with four Western teams missing out on the playoffs next year, we are going to have a mountain to climb.

We could reach this peak, have a great record and still miss out in sixth spot, because some Eastern team with a worse record finishes fifth in their Conference.

This is something which I’m sure is also being mulled over by fans of Portland, San Jose and Chivas.

It’s nonsense and situations like that, along with having an unbalanced schedule in the first place, just devalues the League and lowers opinion of it on a global level.

Then again, MLS might not really care about this. They should though. Especially with their goals of being one of the top Leagues in football by 2022 and if they actually want to attract quality younger players from elsewhere in the world that aren’t just coming here for the money.

We now have this schedule for at least the next two years.

We don’t like it. We don’t want it. But we’re stuck with it.

Now what we all need to do, fans, players and officials, is to make sure we can make it work.

The continued growth of MLS depends on it.

Cascadia Summit Fans’ Forum Covers Range Of Important Issues

Day two of the Cascadia Summit got underway at the Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila, Washington this afternoon.

The three day event kicked off last night when Portland Timbers defeated Seattle Sounders 2-0 in a lively encounter both on and off the field.

Two forums were held at lunchtime today, before a sparse crowd at the stadium, in the build up to the Vancouver-Portland game at 4pm.

Supporters’ group representatives kicked off the proceedings in a forum conducted by Seattle broadcaster Arlo White.

A three hour border delay meant that John Knox and Brett Graham were unable to make the event for the Vancouver Southsiders and it was left to two members of the Timbers Army and two from the ECS to share their thoughts on a number of issues.

A number of important topics were covered and although there was no real groundbreaking news for anyone with a close involvement in any of the three groups, it was a worthy endeavour.

Travel was one of the issues discussed, with the large influx of fans now expected to be making the journey up and down the I5 on a regular basis. Buses are expected to be the main option for a number of fans, especially for those who will be taking the TA’s allocation of 500 tickets to the games.

In the open floor session later on, AFTN Canada raised the important issue of the border and whether fans will be better travelling up the day before the games.

In light of today’s events for the Southsiders bus, this could be a very big issue and potential problem for those of us making the cross country trips.

The TA representatives indicated that their ideal plan would be to not travel up on the day of the game. With most of the major delays coming in the southwards journey, this may be the best option for Vancouver fans planning on making the trips as well. I travelled down to Tukwila late last night and even then I had a 40 minute crossing.

The TA also indicated that they are actively looking into being able to use some kind of express crossing which truckers may use. The ECS guys explained that Amtrak is definitely not an option, so our dream of UK-style “football specials” is sadly a non starter.

Fan behaviour and self policing at matches were also discussed. With some still fearing crowd trouble, there is little doubt that all the eyes of the media will be on the Cascadia matches waiting for something to happen.

We don’t expect this to be a problem with Vancouver supporters. Right now as I type this, both sets of fans are enjoying pre-match pints. Seattle and Portland may be a whole different ball game. There’s real hate there. I love that. It’s what the game needs. It just needs to be kept under control.

Smoke bombs were set off after the goals last night and that will no doubt be discussed at length. Supporters logistics were being discussed in a closed door meeting before the game this afternoon.

Other topics covered were the history of the teams, going back to NASL times, and what the Cascadia rivalry will bring to MLS.

The importance of the Cascadia Cup was also discussed, looking at how it has been presented in the past and going forward. The Timbers fans hope they won’t have to hand it over but as Arlo White pointed out, winning it with just two teams and winning it with three are two different prospects.

The state of the Cup right now is a little battered, with the TA breaking off one of the handles. Should we get it fixed or go with the battered look and the stories it can tell? I go with the latter.

How fans plan their lives around the schedule was mentioned. It’s still an alien concept to many here, but I’ve spent nearly 30 years living my around football and it’s not going to change any time soon! It’s always good to hear you’re not alone!

Inter-group rivalry was an interesting topic. The ECS have Gorilla FC as rivals in the stadium. We don’t know what Vancouver will bring apart from the Southsiders. The Timbers Army only have themselves but important sub groups such as the excellent 107ist.

The Independent Supporters Trust is another alien concept in North America. It’s huge in the UK and I helped to set up the one at East Fife. We now have a trust member as a full Director on the Board. Trusts are taken more seriously than supporters groups and can definitely be the main pressure group for fans wanting change. Part Club ownership though is sadly never going to happen here. We can dream though.

Every group is now glad that we have the other two to direct our hate at though. During the game and on message boards only of course!

The inevitable subject of ticket allocation was brought up. Portland Timbers majority owner, Merritt Paulson, was in the watching audience and stated that he could “unequivocally state” that there is a feeling with all three clubs that away supporters are “absolutely vital”. He confirmed that it ”wasn’t an easy process” to settle on the numbers of away fans at the Cascadia games and that this first year is a trial with ”nothing written in stone”.

Will this Summit be an annual event? No one is sure yet. If it is it needs to be held on a rotational basis. It was originally planned as a big thing to welcome all three teams into the MLS.

Going forward, it would be great. If you want Vancouver fans to be a part of it then it is vitally important to take into account border travel times. Noon starts don’t do this and it was a shame that Vancouver’s voices had to miss out.

We’ll report on the Coaches forum and the Caps-Timbers game later.

Let’s just hope that this enjoyable Summit now reaches some new highs with two Caps wins.

Mon the Caps.

Cascadia Summit Ticketing Shambles, But Whitecaps Allocation NOT Sold Out

“You don’t know what you’re doing. You don’t know what you’re doing”.

That pretty much sums up how many Vancouver Whitecaps and Seattle Sounders fans felt about their team’s front offices after the ticketing shambles that developed this morning for the pre-season Cascadia Summit tournament in March.

There was much fanfare and all three Clubs championed the tournament when it was announced last month.

A few weeks later and trying to get tickets for the games has been a real pain in the ass for Seattle and Vancouver fans, with no-one owning up to responsibility as to where it all went wrong.

Vancouver fans were told that we were getting 1300 tickets for the Portland game on Saturday March 5th and 500 for the Seattle game the following day. Since then, the Whitecaps front office has been very quiet on the matter, despite tickets going on sale this morning.

Portland fans, who were promised the same ticketing allocations for their games, have had an altogether different experience with their front office. In fact, the Timbers helped the 107ist Supporters Trust secure their allocation, so that they didn’t have to go through the hassle of trying to get tickets this morning.

The Vancouver Southsiders supporters group were not able to secure group tickets before this general sale through the aid of the Whitecaps and today faced an arduous slog where they were passed from Ticketmaster to the Sounders to Starfire and then back to Ticketmaster before eventually being able to snap up just 50 tickets for the Seattle game. Portland tickets were then secured with the help of Portland’s Timbers Army. A huge thanks though to the Portland fans for making this happen.

Seattle fans had even more problems and since they’re technically hosting the tournament (since their US Open Cup games are played at Starfire), that’s even more unbelievable.

Two-game packages, seemed so few in number that they appeared not to exist. The Sounders say otherwise but that demand was so much for the Timbers game that they sold out making two game packages unavailable.

Many Sounders fans found themselves disappointed and unable to get tickets. You can bet though that a number of tickets were snapped up by clever Timbers fans, who not only secured their allocation but added to it in the free-for-all that was the general sale. It will be a real embarrassment for the Sounders if they are outnumbered by Timbers fans in their own stadium.

The way the sale was handled though throws up more pressing questions as far as I’m concerned.

Tickets are “general admission” and Ticketmaster did not specifiy whether you were buying tickets as a Sounders, Timbers or Whitecaps fan. What was the point in limiting allocations if fans could buy any amount that they wanted this way?

Since the front offices have previously expressed concerns regarding crowd trouble at the Cascadia derbies, why would the Seattle and Vancouver front offices not want to make sure that the tickets got into reputable hands. Worse case scenario, and hopefully unlikely, but these tickets could find their way into the hands of people hell bent on causing trouble and it will be the supporters groups that will be blamed for it. This could have huge implications on future ticket allocations.

Tickets have already made their way on to ebay, with one seller selling the $10 tickets for the Caps-Timbers game for $60 and $80 for the Sounders game. Incredible.

Whitecaps fans would never have taken the full 500 and 1300 allocations in the first place, so why did the Caps front office not get involved to help facilitate things early like the Timbers FO did?

Well we made some enquiries and AFTN can exclusively reveal that although the two Whitecaps games have sold out on Ticketmaster, this does NOT include the Caps ticketing allocations.

The Whitecaps are still finalising the details and should have more info available by Friday. If you’re looking at going, then I would try and get your tickets through the Southsiders first of all, but if they sell out then ask your Caps ticket rep.

We reiterate. These games are not sold out for Caps fans at present.

Why the Whitecaps have not made an official statement before now is a mystery. Now’s the time for them to do that. The Sounders front office have made TWO official statements on the fiasco now.

If only they’d kept the fans in the loop, it would have prevented a LOT of hassle this morning.

The Cascadia Cup: A Possible New Direction?

Yesterday’s announcement that the Vancouver Whitecaps, Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders would be taking part in a pre-season friendly tournament in March turned our thoughts onto the Cascadia Cup.

We mentioned yesterday that whilst we’re looking forward to the three game series at Starfire Sports Complex in Washington, we would prefer it if it doesn’t become a regular pre-season fixture for the Whitecaps. I’d much rather that we played games against Victoria, Edmonton, SFU, UBC and the likes and keep the games against our fierce Cascadia rivals special and for the regular season and playoffs.

Less is more.

I’m going to throw an idea out there though and it’s one that could possibly change my mind about such pre-season fixtures becoming a regular occurance.

In many places, Cup competitions are gathering less importance. In both Scotland and England, the bigger sides couldn’t seem to care less about the League Cup. As an East Fife fan, whose Club are three time League Cup winners, this saddens me. Even the once magical FA Cup has seen a lot of sides field understrength teams in this year’s competition.

With the League being deemed more important, the Cups have suffered and this has led to the fans being jaded about Cup competitions. There’s still nothing like a midweek Cup tie to get my juices going though.

We’re lucky in Canada because the Voyaguers Cup/Canadian Championship games have been well received by the fans here and treated with importance and respect by Vancouver and Toronto players, management and supporters. Montreal were, are and always will be just scum to me. In our USL/NASL days these games meant more to me than a monotonous League campaign.

The US has their US Open Cup. I really don’t know how well it’s received down there but a lot of teams field weakened sides in the early stages. I love it as a competition though. It’s the closest thing we’re likely to have to the FA Cup in North America and a set up I’d love to see in Canada some day.

In the Republic of Cascadia though, we have our own important Cup – The Cascadia Cup.

For the uninitiated, and that’s going to include most of the new MLS Caps, Timbers and Sounders fans, the Cascadia Cup was established in 2004 by the supporters groups of the three Cascadia Clubs (the Vancouver Southsiders, Timbers Army and ECS).

The trophy is awarded each season to the team in the Pacific Northwest with the best regular season record against their bitter rivals. Vancouver Whitecaps have won it three times and the Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders both twice.

With the competition the last two years being reduced to just the two sides, it’s going to be nice to have it back to the full quota once again. We should also remind everyone that the last time the three teams competed for it, 2008, the Caps kicked everyone’s butts.

The supporters groups and the fans in general have enjoyed the Cascadia Cup games over the years. It shouldn’t be hard to get the new MLS support on board with the rivalries and excitement that the games bring but it’s not just up to the fans to promote the Cascadia Cup. All three Clubs need to do their part.

What AFTN would like to see is a big focus from all three on the six matches this season. Build it up in the media and matchday programmes and have “Cascadia Cup” printed on the tickets for those particular games. Promote the hell out of it and the rewards will be immense.

There was a lot of talk on the Southsiders forum last year about what we as Whitecaps fans should do about the Heritage Cup. It was pretty unanimous.

The Heritage Cup was established by fans in 2009 for teams that carry on the name of their city’s NASL predecessors. That’s meant Seattle and San Jose have been competing, with Vancouver and Portland now eligible to take part. Except we don’t want to and I believe that the Southsiders board have told the organiser to get tae fuck. Hopefully the ECS and Timbers Army will/have done the same.

It’s pointless when it just adds one more team into the mix of the Cascadia Cup. The San Jose guys would be much better turning it into a California Cup for the three teams there. We have our heritage in the Pacific Northwest and it doesn’t include San Jose v.3.

With regular season matches, Voyageurs Cup, US Open Cup games, Concacaf Champions League, the All Star game and international matches all competing for time and attention in a busy MLS season, it could be easy for something like the Cascadia Cup to get second billing.

I don’t think the fans would let it but as I mentioned long time ago in this blog post, the pre-season friendly tournament announcement got me thinking about the Cup.

In Fife we have the Fife Cup. It’s competed for each season by the four League sides from the Kingdom and a non-league side. It’s pretty much a non event now and more a nuisance trying to fit the extra games in for some clubs. In the 1980’s the Fife FA came up with an excellent pre-season tournament for the Fife Cup. Played over a weekend, with the hosts rotating, there were two semis and a final. The fans loved it, the players loved it, it attracted big crowds (more than regular friendlies got) and it gave the tournament some importance again.

For reasons fully unknown to most, this successful idea was scrapped after three seasons.

Could such a pre-season tournament be used for the Cascadia Cup? There are advantages and disadvantages of making such a move.

Would it make it seem less important if it wasn’t League games that counted towards it?

Playing it pre-season would see the teams playing a whole variety of players and quality. Some could potentially use the matches solely as trial games, but we could limit the number of substitutions used. None of the teams would be warmed up but you could argue that if the MLS gave us early fixtures against our PNW rivals, that would be the same.

On the other hand, would it have added glamour because it was a standalone tournament? A proper international Cup tournament and we could rotate the hosting at the three Clubs.

It’s probably not an idea that wouldn’t go down too well with a lot of the fans but it’s certainly better than Don Garber’s horrendous “rivalry week” idea (more about our thoughts on that in a future blog).

It probably should stay with regular season games, but who knows what lies ahead in the MLS. If nothing else, it would add a bit of competitive and meaningful spark to pre-season. I’d certainly enjoy it and look forward to the pre-season more.

Whatever it’s future, the Cascadia Cup is important and here to stay and I think this year we could see the most fiercely competitive matches for it yet.

Cascadia Hostilities Set For Early Battles

Fans of the three Cascadian rivals are going to get an early taster for the much anticpated forthcoming MLS action.

The rumours have been doing the rounds for the past few days but now it’s official. Vancouver Whitecaps, Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers will play a three team series of pre-season friendlies in March at the Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila, Washington.

The games are scheduled to take place between March 4th and 6th, with a supporters summit, coaches forum and a residency game being thrown in for good measure. Seattle and Portland will kick off proceedings on the Friday night, before the Whitecaps get into action with a game against the Timbers at 5pm on the Saturday.

An under 18 residency game between Vancouver and Seattle starts the ball rolling at noon on the Sunday before the weekend’s activities are wrapped up with a game between the senior teams at 3pm.

Tickets for each match will cost US$10 and will go on sale from February 1st.

In a sign of things to come, Vancouver and Portland fans are already facing ticketing restrictions. Both Whitecaps and Timbers fans will receive an allocation of 500 for the games against Seattle, with both sets of supporters receiving 1300 seats for their match up on the Saturday, whilst Seattle fans are bizarrely being allocated 500 tickets for that game (obviously keen to see what kind of game real football teams and supporters can put on).

If we’re being totally honest, these allocations will be more than enough from a Vancouver point of view. I’ll be surprised if we bring more than 100 fans down for the weekend. Maybe we’ll take our whole allocation in future seasons, once all the MLS crowd are fully on board, but not now.

For Caps fans, the games will most probably will give us our first chance to see our new guys in action and how they’re gelling as a team. We may even have a striker to watch if we’re really lucky. It also gives us the chance to hone some new chants and introduce the newbies to the already established ones.

It’s great to have the games. We were never likely to have games in Vancouver as the Caps will be wanting to keep the hype building for the MLS opener at Empire Field against Toronto FC on March 19th.

I’m looking forward to the weekend, but at the same time, I hope it doesn’t take a little shine of the anticipation and trips during the regular season. We don’t want to have too many meaningless games against who are really our two biggest rivals. Keep these encounters ultra special.

From the Clubs point of view, it will be a great opportunity for the head honchos and front office staff of all three to get together and sort out logistics for the season, especially around travelling support, so we don’t have a bunch of clueless muppets directing proceedings on gameday and possibly creating trouble when there was none in the first place.

For the supporters, it will be a great chance to renew rivalries and friendships, but most importantly this is a huge opportunity for all three sets of fans to show that we can co-exist in a stadium together without there being widespread violence and problems galore.

To show that we can have hostilities and venomous verbal battles in the stadium for the 90 minutes of the game but then share a few incident-free beers and chew the fat after it. No love-fests from now on though please.

We know we can, we just have to prove it to the ever so jumpy front offices. Apparently shared barbecues and pub nights don’t get taken into the equation.

The slightest hint of trouble and our aims to get better ticketing allocations and everything that goes with it will be severely set back.

For the Southsiders and other long time Vancouver Whitecaps fans, the games at Starfire will be a blast from the past as we revisit the home of the old USL Seattle Sounders. I wonder how many of the current Sounders fans went to see them play there and how many of them will be making their first visit like myself.

I was never lucky enough to make it down to a Sounders-Whitecaps USL match there, but the stories from the guys are stuff of legend and it’s going to be a fantastic weekend and one not to be missed, plus another ground chalked up on my worldwide travels.

Starfire will be my 6th stadium I’ve seen games at now in the States, following the Pontiac Silverdome (1994 World Cup), Pasadena Rosebowl (for early MLS LA Galaxy), Seattle’s Qwest Field and Merlo Field and Piggy Park in Portland. Quite looking forward to it and a good taster for AFTN’s away travels in the months ahead.

Regular readers of my blogs will know that the thing I miss most from not watching my beloved East Fife in Scotland, is the fact that I can’t follow the Whitecaps week in, week out, home and away. Awaydays make football.

If you’re thinking of heading down to the games, then the Southsiders are planning on running a bus or two, based on demand. If you want to know more details then check it out and register your interest HERE.

You’d be mad not to head down if you can!

Mon the Caps.