The 2013 Major League Soccer season has seen the return of Clint Dempsey, an increase in the number of homegrown players and more Designated Players – giving every MLS team a DP for the first time in league history – and the announcement of the 20th MLS team, New York City FC, who will benefit from the richness of Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour and the political influence of the New York Yankees.

David Beckham and Marcelo Claure were checking out Miami, though news on that front has cooled, and Orlando looks all but certain to secure a spot in the league. Despite all of the improvements on and off the field in MLS, the league still has a glaring and substantial problem: national broadcast ratings.

MLS finished the last two seasons with David Beckham with averages of over 300,000 viewers per match on ESPN broadcasts. NBC Sports Network's first year of league broadcasts finished with a decent average of 125,000 in 2012. Viewership on ESPN has dropped by 27% in 2013 and 20% on NBCSN. It doesn't take long to figure out why.

ESPN has focused its broadcasts on Sundays this year, but their first 16 Sunday broadcasts started at nine different times. There is no one hour where an sports fan can say: "I'll sit down and watch the MLS game now." Plus, those 16 Sunday games were spaced out over 28 weeks. It would be difficult to be any more inconsistent.

The most popular international tournaments – the World Cup, European Championship and the Olympics – are in even-numbered years, leaving MLS without helpful lead-ins this season. All ESPN had was a Confederations Cup that didn't feature the US and barely featured Mexico. I doubt Fox's coverage of the Gold Cup "B" tournament helped ESPN or NBC at all, since they mainly scheduled around it.

The drop on NBCSN has been more disappointing because of the network's stellar production, frequent advertisements and additional attention to the league, such as the TV show MLS 36. Unfortunately, start times have been just as inconsistent, ranging from 1pm to 11pm.

What is with the late start times? This isn't Spain. I love that NBCSN is testing the waters on Friday nights and I know sports viewers are more likely to be up later on Fridays and Saturdays, but 10 of their broadcasts have been at 8pm ET or later. Five of ESPN's Sunday broadcasts have been at 10pm or 11pm ET. What did we get, about 19 people east of the Mississippi to watch those games?

If Fox Sports 1 decides to broadcast a game between Washington State and USC at 10pm ET, you know they're not aiming for viewers in New York. Soccer isn't college football and MLS isn't the Pac 12. As stellar as attendances and excitement has been for teams on the west coast, the league needs New York viewers and it needs the east coast.

Then there is congestion. MLS already has to fight against the NFL, college football, NBA, college basketball, MLB, NHL and NASCAR viewing times. It also has to fight against interest for the Champions League, Premier League, Liga MX and other leagues and super clubs around the world.

So why is MLS competing against itself and the rest of American soccer? League broadcasts are scheduled at the start of each season with seemingly zero regard for the rest of MLS schedule, let alone the likes of the US national team, the USWNT, NWSL, NASL and USL Pro.

Take the exciting Saturday match between Seattle and Chicago at CenturyLink Field last month. The game itself had a great atmosphere and an announced attendance of 38,503. It began at the same time as two other MLS matches. Two other MLS matches began an hour and a half earlier. That's roughly 75,000 potential viewers that are at least more likely to watch than the general population. Another 20,000 were in Florida watching Orlando City win a thrilling USL Pro championship. There's no telling how many other interested parties from Charlotte and the rest of the country were following that match instead of the lone national broadcast that evening.

It is not possible to schedule broadcasts that will always avoid overlapping with other matches in the US and Canada, but it could definitely be scheduled smarter than it was that night. Those types of situations are also going to be completely unavoidable when all broadcasts are scheduled 10 months ahead of time.

If MLS and its broadcast partners would finally maximise their viewing potential in the current settings, they would be able to bring in more revenue. That revenue can then be spent in ways to grow the viewership in new ways. The current formula is stagnant at best.

Current ratings would suggest that MLS has little hope to increase the value of its broadcast partnerships when the current contracts expire after the 2014 season, but it has a surprising amount of leverage going into the new round of negotiations.

The league's power play is the introduction of New York City FC. A club that will play its matches in the city is a boon for the league, although the amount of time it stays at Yankee Stadium could become detrimental. The league is also guaranteed to be telling network executives that Miami is on its way into the league. Potential teams in Miami and Orlando would get MLS back into Florida and into the south-east (kind of), adding a region of televisions MLS has been largely without for most of its history.

There are four clear-cut methods the league should use to improve its broadcast ratings. The networks are in charge of the broadcasts, but its up to the league to maximise the value of its product.

1) Build consistent scheduling

MLS needs to carve out its own time slots and stick to them. What sense does it make to have such random start times? The first step is to stake a claim on certain days for national broadcasts. Local stations can broadcast games on other days. By currently catering to everybody by scheduling broadcasts for all on different days at different times, it is catering to no one.

Sports viewers know with absolutely certainty that from September through November, college football starts at noon (all times eastern), 3.30pm and somewhere around 7-8.30pm every Saturday. They know that the NFL starts at 1pm, 4pm and 7.30pm on Sunday. Then there is Monday Night Football and Sunday Night Football. The list goes on: MLB on Sunday night; NBA on Sunday and Wednesday; college basketball on Tuesday, NASCAR on Sunday afternoons... Notice how none of these times are leaving games trudging on after 11pm., save for some long-running NFL and MLB games.

MLS should go after Friday nights. Friday is where network television shows go to die, but your average MLS viewer isn't your average network TV viewer. Stake a claim on Friday and schedule games at the same time every week. They can broadcast a double header at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. or just go with a single game at 7, but start it and stick to it. MLS viewers can watch a match Friday night and still have time to go out, that is unless MLS insists on continuing to have broadcasts that start at 10 p.m. or later.

The best time to capitalize on Saturday viewers is to schedule it immediately after that morning's EPL matches, whether it is on the same channel or not. You'll have the same viewers looking to find the game and fans of other games won't be leaving the house yet for their club's match. Games should start at 2:30 p.m., no later than 3, every single Saturday.

Consistency also means a larger commitment. Scheduling needs to be every week, not 16 games in 28 weeks. It may mean less money per match for the league, but it would be more beneficial to grow the numbers. Same time, each week, same network. It worked for Batman. It will work for MLS.

2) Institute flexible scheduling

MLS is not the NFL and it's not MLB. It can't just show random matchups and expect the same ratings. Better games and more interesting clubs garner higher ratings. The full quality of those matchups cannot be known 10 months ahead of time. Hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of college football fans wait every week to find out if one of their team's upcoming games will be picked up by a network and start at a different time than previously listed. MLS clubs are fully capable of working with their fans.

MLS and its owners and investors want to get all of their teams on TV, but it does no one any good to show two bad teams playing bad in October. Remember that DC v Chivas match? Ugh.

Obviously every team should get their broadcasts, but flexible scheduling can still highlight which games are more likely to be of higher quality. Networks can see which players are going to be out for international play or due to injuries. Still, you know its not fair or efficient to have Real Salt Lake on national television three times the entire season. That's ridiculous enough on its own right as good of an advertisement for MLS as RSL and its fans are.

3) Claim a holiday

The NFL claimed Thanksgiving and the NBA claimed Christmas day. Christmas was so important that the NBA and the players sped up negotiations and (unfortunately) preparations for the start of the 2011-12 season. College football was traditionally centered around the New Year's Day bowls, but money has warped that landscape.

The biggest holidays available to MLS teams are Independence Day and Easter. Trying to have a ton of games on Easter might not work out great, while marketing for other holidays like Memorial Day, Father's Day, Mother's Day, Halloween, etc. likely wouldn't be very fruitful. My nomination is for Independence Day, where each home team can have their own fireworks show every year.

4) Fill in the gaps

There are a lot of gaps in sports throughout the year, especially for a few months in between the NBA and NFL seasons. MLS could do a better job of finding ways to be more relevant during that time period.

And for the love of all that is holy, can MLS please own the day after the MLB All-Star game, the most barren sports day of the entire calendar year. Even "pundits" (couldn't make myself type "experts") on Pardon the Interruption and Around the Horn would be willing to talk about soccer for a few minutes on that day every year.

We have ample evidence that MLS broadcast methods are not working. The league faces competition from leagues around the world in a challenge that other American sports leagues simply don't face, but that is always going to be part of the deal.

Changes must be made now or the league and its partners are going to risk the ratings floundering to the point to where the broadcasts are not even financially worth the costs.

• This is an article from our Guardian Sport Network

• This article first appeared on The Shin Guardian

• Follow The Shin Guardian on Twitter