A way to make the MLS playoffs mean even more

Where I live, everyone has World Series fever. This is an elevated form of the Pennant Fever afflicting the region recently. And that was an exaggerated form of Playoff Baseball Fever that swept through here a month ago.

The excitement has built up, literally, over weeks. (Actually, it’s all quieting down right now, as Texas Rangers fans sneaked out in pre-dawn hours to quietly pull down those flags and scrub the shoe-polished windows in the wake of a 3-1 World Series deficit … but that’s another matter.)

Here’s the point: in professional baseball, basketball and hockey, the playoff excitement has an opportunity to build.  It starts on simmer builds into a roiling boil. The playoffs stay topical over days and weeks as everyone chews on the daily news.

It’s a phenomenon that doesn’t really happen in Major League Soccer – and that’s too bad.

MLS commissioner Don Garber said over the weekend that playoff format change is on the way. One thing I truly hope they change is the clunky shift in formats between the first and second rounds. As it is, the first round is a two-game aggregate series; the “conference” finals are decided in one game.

Forget for a second that it’s just goofy to change in mid-flight. That’s another issue.

The other problem is that the abbreviated format for the conference finals stifles some of the opportunity to generate momentum and further awareness. I know we’re only talking about adding another week, but it’s another little edge for four clubs that could keep the MLS growth curve moving in the right direction.

Look at the way these series go in NBA or NHL. You get a game and then a day or two for everyone to chew on it. If your team loses, you get a day or two of angry rehash and recrimination on talk radio, in local news and all along the interwebs. “The sky is falling!” Maybe it’s not what you’d like to be saying about your team, but everyone is talking about the team and the sport.

If your team wins … well! Coffee shop talk fills up over “our boys” claiming the day! “I think we can take it all!” Then they play again and you repeat the cycle.

Either way, in the big picture it all adds to collective awareness. Everyone who sells tickets for a living will tell you these playoff runs are pure gold in generating sales for the next season. News organizations suddenly know how to find your practice facility, which helps for the next year. People who couldn’t name a player on the roster suddenly know three or four of the big names.

You add fans. The fans that you already have love the whole thing that much more, stacking up the fond memories. That’s what happens in other sports.

But in MLS, these runs are all too brief.  Look at two examples – and both are good ones.

Colorado and Dallas have reasonable chances to win their playoff series. Both teams take a one-goal lead into the road leg of their first-round series. And I think we can all agree that either of these markets need whatever help they can get to help built attendance and local market awareness.

Let’s assume for argument’s sake that they win. They problem is this: they have probably played their last home game. That’s it for Colorado, for sure, as the Rapids can’t possibly host another playoff contest. Dallas would host only if Seattle gets it together and upset Los Angeles.

So, while there would be some opportunity to build a little bit of excitement before a one-game conference final on the road, it’s not the same as a two-game, home-and-away set that includes a home game.

I understand the reasons for a one-game conference final. First, league leaders are loathe to extend the season even one more week. I get that – but the solution is simply adding one week night game into the regular season and starting the playoffs a week earlier.

And I realize that the opportunity to host a final is a way to reward regular season performance. I certainly can appreciate that. But by next year the league will have 18 teams, so it’s getting quickly to the point where just making the playoffs is ample reward for regular season performance.

I think a lot of the momentum to change the playoffs is about the cockamamie pairing methodology, this business of a potential Colorado-San Jose meeting in the “Eastern Conference final.”  Garber said over the weekend that concocting this convoluted structure clearly wasn’t one of the league’s best moments.

I hope they do more. Here’s to one more week to build a little playoff momentum.

If you’re going to have playoffs – and MLS will have playoffs, despite this single table structure idea that just won’t die – then MLS should take full advantage and let the excitement truly build.