Something to think about on a cold, cold winter day

How would you like to be at a game in Chicago tonight? Or, let me put it like this: How do you feel about temperatures in the low 20s? With snow? And probably a stiff wind.

Brrrr.

It’s about the same in Boston. Heck even down in Dallas it’s cold as a Preki stare-down, plummeting into the teens (and with wind chill factors in single digits).

What’s the point? Plenty of people still believe Major League Soccer – and the lower tier leagues, too, I suppose – should adopt the FIFA calendar. That means starting league play in August or September and finishing in May, emulating many of the leagues around the world. That also means playing a significant portion of league matches in cold and occasionally nasty weather.

This is one of FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s favorite U.S. soccer-related topics, for those times when he runs out of other topics on which he can sound presidential. He has even said he believe MLS must adopt the FIFA calendar in order to survive. Really?

Blatter is an expert on MLS survival the way I’m an expert on lost languages of the Mayan culture. On the list of elements MLS needs for long-term growth and survival, migration to a fall-winter-spring calendar is waaaaay down the list. (In fact, it’s really not on that list at all.)

There are all kinds of reasons it may not ever be a good idea. But that’s a longer debate.

For today, just focus on this one itty-bitty problem: it’s dangerously cold today in many MLS markets. Getting to the matches would be problematic, even if fans made the decision to sit idle in the bitter cold for two hours.

I mean, we’re talking about temperatures that will freeze that unnaturally orange nacho cheese substance right to the stale chip!

I know the argument here: that fans go sit in the bitter cold to watch NFL contests. True dat.

But NFL isn’t MLS – and we’re reminded of that daily. Fans will take the hit in pro football because the games in NFL are generally important, equaling 1 / 16^th of the regular season. Or, as is the case now, they are critical playoff games.

That’s a lot different than a mid-season MLS match, nowhere near playoff crunch time, one that equals 1 / 30^th of the regular season.

Bad weather keeps fans and followers away from events every day in this country – believe it. People simply choose to stay home with the comfort factor dips disproportionately to the perceived event significance.

Also, because of the cultural significance of NFL, fans plan entire weekends around big games. If they have to bundle up to participate, so be it. The decision processes here are a world apart from MLS matches, which are still too often marketed as informal, Saturday night entertainment.

Yes, a few soccer fans are sufficiently emotionally invested to bundle up and go see their MLS club, regardless of the weenie-shrink factor. But the number remains relatively small.

When that number reaches a certain, critical mass, moving to a winter calendar may be more feasible. Only then will the dynamics of the debate shift. MLS commissioner Don Garber says it will happen – someday. Just don’t look for that day to be anytime soon.

And if you’re in the 60 percent of the country today where temperatures are in the “dangerously low” zone, be especially thankful that day isn’t today.