NASL to have unbalanced split season in 2014 to accommodate World Cup

The NASL has unveiled a tweaked split-season format which it will implement for the 2014 season.

In order to not play any league games during the World Cup, which runs June 12-July 13, the NASL will have a spring season that will see each team play just 10 times. A spring season winner will be declared, and then the NASL will reconvene after the World Cup, and each team will play a minimum 20-game schedule to determine the fall champion.

Next season, assuming that the financially troubled Puerto Rico Islanders will not return to NASL, the 20-game fall sked makes sense. Each team would play the other 10 franchises twice. But commissioner Bill Peterson told The 11 that the more games could be added to the fall season if Puerto Rico returns. The league is still waiting to see if the financially troubled team’s reorganization can be realized — and has not officially written off the franchise for 2014.

But, in a 10-game spring season, there’s simply not enough games to cram every NASL opponent onto each team’s home schedule. So, likely, five unique opponents at home, then five unique oppponents on the road.

The NASL launched the split-season format in 2013, opting to take most of July off. But, in this format, each team in the league played every other side home and away — in both the spring and fall.

The 11 understands that there was debate about starting the season earlier in year, which would have allowed for a balanced spring-fall schedule. But, that would have been unfair to northern members in Minnesota, Edmonton and Ottawa. A schedule which would start in early March would have meant the Fury and FC Edmonton could have been playing game at home in heavy snow, or been forced to start the campaigns with ridiculously long road trips.

In Edmonton, the weather doesn’t allow for home games till late April. So, an early March start to the season would have put the Eddies on a two-month road trip. Even with the current late March-early April start to the season, the Eddies will usually start the campaign on a three-week trip.

And we have already seen how inclement weather impacted gates in MLS, which started in early March this season. MLS matches averaged less than 18,700 fans per game through the first four weeks of the 2013 season, despite the hoopla that surround home openers. According to Soccer America, (CLICK HERE) the average attendance through the first four weeks of the 2012 season, which kicked off in late March, was 20,334.

“We have northern cities in our league,” said Peterson. “So, for us, the sweet spot comes between April 1st and November 15th. We have cold-weather cities in Minneapolis, Edmonton, Ottawa and you can even add New York to that. And, even with that sweet spot, you know that in early April or in the first couple of weeks of November, it can snow. We can get cold wind and rain.”

The 11 also understands that playing the NASL season through any portion of the World Cup was a non-starter.

When marquee World Cup matches are on, second-division soccer matches — heck, any league soccer matches anywhere in the world — become an extremely tough sell. For a season that already has instituted a summer break, moving it to accommodate the World Cup is likely a smart move. It’s the scheduling around that break that will be controversial.

Could NASL have had each team play 10 games, gone on break, then come back and play five more each — and then declare a spring champion before going onto a fall schedule of 15 games each?

It’s a moot point now.