2012 MLS Schedule: Sounders, Toronto FC Get First Week Byes

Quake, Rattle and Goal points out that the June 30 will also coincide with what appears to be a rather important stretch of games that starts in May:

With the extra attention that rivalries and the Cascadia Cup has gotten, it is one series of match-ups that eyes immediately scanned for when the 2012 MLS schedule was released. Of course, the guys at SBN Nation’s Sounders blog Sounder at Heart immediately looked for those Cascadia Cup match-ups and Jeremiah Oshan noticed that it wasn’t exactly fair scheduling.

So why would MLS schedule two home games and four road games for the Sounders instead of making it three home games and three road games for all three teams? That’s an outstanding question and it’s tough to envision MLS having an exceptionally good reason for this. The league likes to tell fans that rivalries are the priority, but this doesn’t exactly scream that, does it?

Impact fans can start now to convince their partners to let them spent 13 Saturday afternoons and nights to watch their home team. Like we say in Quebec, it’s time to start accumulating “Air Loose” points now to redeem them later in the year.

Dyanamo Theory pointed out one other nice nugget in the schedule:

FC Dallas will also get plenty of national TV attention. Including the five Spanish-language broadcasts they’ll participate in, they will be on national TV 12 times. They will get five matches on NBC Sports, one on ESPN and one on ESPN2.

For more on the schedule, be sure to check out FC Dallas blog Big D Soccer.

For more on the 2012 MLS schedule, be sure to follow this StoryStream.

The most notable thing about the schedule is that Toronto FC will apparently have a bye during First Kick. At least one team was destined to have that bye, as there are 19 teams, but that it’s Toronto FC suggests that maybe MLS is having second thoughts about forcing teams playing in CONCACAF Champions League to partake in the opening weekend.

For the latest updates on the 2012 MLS schedule, be sure to follow this StoryStream.

The 2011 Major League Soccer season may just be a week removed from finishing but the 2012 season is quickly approaching for fans across the league.

The Montreal’s first home game in MLS will be played at Olympic Stadium on March 17. The newly-renovated Stade Saputo is scheduled to open in June.

As much hand-wringing as there has been over the announced changes for the 2012 Major League Soccer season, it’s easy to start believing that there is near universal approval. The displeasure was expected to be particularly palpable for Canadian soccer fans, who will no longer be guaranteed to see each of their Great White North rivals at home every year.

But Whitecaps blog 86 Forever is rarely predictable. They view the changes, essentially, as much ado about very little. Perhaps most relevantly, they point out that the whole idea of playing each team just once at home and away is a relatively rare occurrence:

MLS owners approved several competition changes that will have dramatic effects on the 2012 season, the league announced on Sunday. Among the changes are a hyper-unbalanced schedule that will feature teams playing as many as three games against in-conference opponents, an additional game being added to the conference finals and the MLS Cup being hosted by the team with the highest regular-season point total.

“We have established a fair and compelling format for the 2012 season,” MLS Executive Vice President Nelson Rodriguez said in the league release.“This regular season will include more games between regional rivals and less total travel than we have seen in recent years. Because of the wide geographic distribution of MLS clubs, this structure should improve the quality of play, while continuing to give every club an equal chance of qualifying for the MLS Cup Playoffs.”

MLS Commissioner Don Garber confirmed on Thursday that the league would, in fact, go to an unbalanced, 34-game schedule in 2012. SB Nation Soccer had first reported this likelihood back in September when teams first started to release season-ticket packages and multiple league officials anonymously confirmed that an unbalanced schedule was the plan.

For the last two years, MLS teams have played two games against every other league opponent. Next year will mark the first time in the league’s history that each team will not both host and visit every other team at least once. With the Montreal Impact giving MLS 19 teams, Garber said further expanding the schedule would have been extremely difficult.

If the opening weekend is indeed scheduled for March 10, the league’s First Kick would almost certainly be on the previous Thursday. That would make for the earliest ever start to a MLS season.

Such an early start could have ramifications on CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals, which are scheduled for March 6-8 and 13-15. This would almost certainly mean the season will open someplace other than Seattle’s CenturyLink Field, which has hosted First Kick in each of the last three years as the Sounders have already qualified for the quarterfinals.

Anyone paying attention to the current crop of season-ticket renewal requests that have been sent out in recent weeks has probably noticed that teams are moving forward with the assumption that they will play 17 home league games. That would obviously equate to a 34-game regular-season schedule. With 19 teams in MLS in 2012, it all points directly to an unbalanced schedule.

Now, two independent league sources have confirmed that MLS is, in fact, planning the 2012 season under the assumption that the 34-game schedule will be maintained, meaning at least a temporary abandonment of balance. The league reportedly considered extending the schedule to 36 games as a way of maintaining balance, but the eventual inclusion of a 20th team made that less desirable.