In 5 years MLS will dwarf England. Their crowds are already bigger.
Once they buy the top players they will be world leaders.

The unbalanced schedule is by design because MLS follows the US sports model of having regional divisions (cuts down on travel time/cost) who you compete with directly for a playoff spot. It's deemed more fair that you play more against those teams who are in the same division for this reason.

A good example of how the American model works is reaching its denouement as I type. We have Game #7 of the World Series tonight, which is the decider for all the marbles. The Houston Astros won the Western division of the American League to get into the playoffs. They then beat the Boston Red Sox in the divisional series (best of 5 games) to get to the American League Conference Final where they played and beat the Yankees (best of 7). On the other side of the bracket, the National League, the LA Dodgers went through the same process, beating Arizona and the Cubs. The "World Series" is the final proper, where the two conference champions meet, and it's tied a 3-3.

So, after 162 regular season games - mostly against your own division and scant few against the other conference - 5 games in the divisional series, 7 games in the conference final and 6 games up to now in the World Series, it's come down to one game, winner takes all, Houston vs. LA.

That's pretty f***ing exciting!

Edited by Ray in Houston (01 Nov 2017 8.58pm)

I'm not worried so long as this nonsense is going on... [Link]