RSL owner Dave Checketts favors change in MLS Cup format

Count Real Salt Lake owner Dave Checketts as one who favors a major format change in MLS Cup – as mentioned in the previous post – where the higher seeded side will host the final.

“I've told [MLS Commissioner Don] Garber all along that the championship game should be at the highest seeded team in the game,” Checketts told me said Saturday morning as RSL was finishing its training.

“There are very strong arguments for and against,” he said. “The most obvious is that if you have six days to get ready for a championship match, hotels and set-up becomes very, very difficult.”

That said, he still wants to do it this way. In his mind it’s mostly about presentation and creating buzz, and he believes that’s more easily accomplished within the newly suggested format.

“I just think it’s tough to move this game and expect to sell it out. … If this were at Rio Tinto, you’d be trying to find seats on line, Ebay, Stub Hub, and I’d hope they’d be very expensive.”

My best guess based on the momentum this seems to be generating this weekend: it’s gonna happen.