Yesterday the North American Soccer League released their Fall Season Schedule for 2015. The season will extend from July 4th-November 1st 2015, covering roughly two-thirds of the entire 2015 NASL season.

NASL Schedule Set Up

Following the same format as last year, the NASL has opted for a Spring and Fall season split, with the Spring Season giving each team 10 games, and the Fall Season 20 respectively. The winner of the each season, along with the next two highest ranking teams in the combined table will play in the Championship Semi-Final.

One big difference for this year’s NASL scheduling is the fact that there are 11 NASL teams, compared with 10 last year. There was some uncertainty as to how many teams would feature during the 2015 season, as Atlanta Silverbacks nearly went under, while Los Angeles were struggling to put together a franchise in time, opting for a 2016 start. Oklahoma City FC were also a team in discussion for expansion during the 2015 season, however the future of that club remains to be seen. This means that the NASL 2015 season will begin with the same 10 teams from 2014, and new expansion club Jacksonville Armada.

The NASL Spring Season saw teams receiving a by-week each, fitting 10 games for each team in 11 weeks, in order to compensate for the uneven number of teams. For the Fall Season the NASL needs to squeeze 20 matches into 17 weeks, meaning each club will need to play a number of midweek features, including 3 games in 7 days for most teams. Most clubs, including Fury FC, Cosmos and Indy Eleven have 4 scheduled mid-week matches, most falling on a Wednesday while some fall on a Tuesday. However two clubs, FC Edmonton and San Antonio have only 3 midweek matches, and Tampa Bay Rowdies appear to only have 2 midweek fixtures.

A Few Issues

The midweek fixtures bring along quite a few issues for a league of the NASL’s size. First of all, it means teams are often meant to play 3 games in a 7-8 day span, often while travelling far distances. Atlanta for example plays four consecutive away games, July 18, 22, 26th and August 1st, in a 15 day span. This means that in a two-week time period, Atlanta must travel to Fort Lauderdale, Florida then to Ottawa, Ontario, followed by a long westbound trip to Edmonton, Alberta and finishing off in Indianapolis. This will be a very tough road trip for any professional team, let alone NASL teams who must deal with long delays and connecting flights.

Midweek matches can also prove difficult for home clubs to draw attendances. New York Cosmos saw their attendances fall by nearly 700 during their midweek fixtures in 2014, while Ottawa Fury had about 2400 people less at their midweek home fixture than their fall season average. Almost every midweek fixture from 2014 had a significantly lower attendances than the home clubs Fall Season average. Without the NASL having any sort of TV contract, the clubs rely mainly on home attendances for fans to watch games, and midweek fixtures can drastically affect the numbers. Simply put, midweek fixtures means fewer people are watching the NASL.

Other issues that have come up with the release of the Fall Schedule is the fact that both FC Edmonton and Ottawa Fury FC are to host games in the opening weekend, despite the fact that their home stadiums are being used to host the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. This means both clubs will likely have to play their opening games of the Fall Season away from their home stadiums. Ottawa would likely play at Keith Harris Stadium, where they played during the Spring Season of 2014, however the turf there is known to be very poor and was blamed for several Fury injuries. FC Edmonton however may have to play their “home” games in Fort McMurray, some 430 km (260 miles) away from Edmonton. NASL reportedly said if this game were not scheduled for Edmonton at home, they faced four straight road games to start the Fall Season. However it would be a stretch to call a game in Fort McMurray “home” for some Eddies fans.

The schedule seems to be somewhat lopsided, with Ottawa Fury and FC Edmonton hosting American teams on the fourth of July weekend, while some American teams go without a home game, a weekend known for high attendances. Minnesota has only one home game in a stretch of six games in the height of the summer, and have four home games in October, when temperatures in Minnesota can get chilly, effecting attendances. There was obviously no consideration given to growing the away support in the NASL this year. Ottawa Fury face New York Cosmos mid-week, a match that last year saw Cosmos fans travel north of the border and had Fury supporters keen to go down south in 2015. Minnesota also face Indy Eleven mid-week, a match that could have drawn a decent amount of travelling fans had it been on the weekend.

Remedies

I believe the best way for the NASL to go forward in the 2016 season would be to scrap the summer break and fit 30 matches (33 with a 12 team league) into the roughly 30 weeks of the combined seasons. This would mean that club may have to deal with one, possibly two midweek matches each season and get rid of the by-weeks we currently see in the Spring Season. The break in the summer serves no purpose unless it is to coincide with continental competitions, such as the Gold Cup. I believe it is silly to offer a playoff position to the one team who finishes top in the first third of the season, and then decide the following playoff positions at the end of the combined seasons. Having a proper league structure that included one final table with one full schedule (even with a two-week break in the summer) is the best way forward for the NASL, as the split schedule in my opinion complicates things more than anything.

With the NASL expanding to Los Angeles, the league will have to take away-matches and travelling into much more consideration for the schedules, as trips from New York to Los Angeles, or Los Angeles to Edmonton will be tough to do mid-week, or among three games in a weeks span. There are obvious complications with making the schedule, as some teams like Ottawa Fury share their stadium with other professional sports teams that get first choice of the field or have other competitions taking place at home stadiums, however the NASL needs to do a better job of taking these factors into consideration, as it can drastically effect attendances and stunt the growth of clubs fan-bases and supporters culture.

In Conclusion

At the end of the day I can understand many of the reasons why the NASL has opted for this scheduling system this year. I am not suggesting that they didn’t take the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup into consideration at all in their schedule making, but I do believe they could have done more to accommodate the Canadian teams in the NASL. The schedule could be a lot better constructed and I believe the NASL will need to be a better job of accommodating teams needs and travel time, particularly as the league continues to grow with teams across North America. I believe the NASL is moving in the right direction, however if they want to get the most out of the league potential, and the clubs potentials, I believe they need to revamp their scheduling system and adopt a more universal, singular schedule and league table. Build the league where it matters, with attendances, and take into account travelling support, and I believe the NASL can quietly grow into a very strong league. Enough of this Spring/Fall split and combined table nonsense.