Sports season changes

[Poiponen13]

As said in this thread, July is many people's least favorite because only MLB of Big Four leagues play (and MLS). But that could change. What would you do to change sports seasons' dates? At least NBA finals could end in July, and minor football leagues would play their seasons from February to July, as well as minor baseball and soccer leagues too. What are your thoughts?

[DTComposer]

I'd stagger the big four playoffs so that there's one every three months. Adding in MLS, the major college sports and periodic worldwide events would give each year a playoff or major sporting event in nine of the twelve months:

January: NFL playoffs
February: (Winter Olympics)
March: College basketball tournaments
April: NHL playoffs
May:
June: College World Series
July: NBA playoffs
August: (Summer Olympics, Men's World Cup, Women's World Cup)
September:
October: MLB playoffs
November: MLS playoffs
December: College football bowl games

[hotdogPi]

The WNBA should become more popular.

[Poiponen13]

The WNBA should become more popular.

Some basketball leagues should play in summer at outdoors. I once thought that all official basketball games are played at outdoors.

[Big John]

^^ What is this outdoors place that basketball games should be played at?

[Poiponen13]

^^ What is this outdoors place that basketball games should be played at?

A local outdoors basketball court, like in a park.

[thspfc]

I maintain that the NFL should go back to a 16-game season, start Labor Day weekend, and make every team's bye the first week of November.

[Poiponen13]

I maintain that the NFL should go back to a 16-game season, start Labor Day weekend, and make every team's bye the first week of November.

NFL should go to both fall and spring sport, to avoid competing with college football. The regular season would start on the weekend of the first Sunday in November, end 17 weeks after it (on the weekend of Sunday between February 28 and March 6, next year March 3, can be leap day). Playoffs would start on the following weekand and Super Bowl would be played on Sunday between April 4 and April 10 (or April 3 in leap years when the start has been on November 1, such as 2016 and 2044).

[Bruce]

August: (Summer Olympics, Men's World Cup, Women's World Cup)

Not ideal for a number of reasons, namely the European season starting around that time and the risk of weather disruptions is higher than in July.

[NWI_Irish96]

It's fun to hypothesize, but the NFL is never going to change their season.

Labor Day weekend pulled weak ratings, thus the move to the week after for the start of the season.

Starting earlier runs the risk of heat problems in the south.

Starting later gets you mid-January to mid-February games in the north.

[Poiponen13]

It's fun to hypothesize, but the NFL is never going to change their season.

Labor Day weekend pulled weak ratings, thus the move to the week after for the start of the season.

Starting earlier runs the risk of heat problems in the south.

Starting later gets you mid-January to mid-February games in the north.

Maybe NFL should play entirely in the spring.

[DTComposer]

August: (Summer Olympics, Men's World Cup, Women's World Cup)

Not ideal for a number of reasons, namely the European season starting around that time and the risk of weather disruptions is higher than in July.

Acknowledging that my list was American-centric, but looking back at recent Olympics and World Cup it appeared they start the last week of July and go into mid-August, so it was just a shift of one week.

The WNBA should become more popular.

Absolutely agree, their playoffs could go in the May slot.

[NWI_Irish96]

It's fun to hypothesize, but the NFL is never going to change their season.

Labor Day weekend pulled weak ratings, thus the move to the week after for the start of the season.

Starting earlier runs the risk of heat problems in the south.

Starting later gets you mid-January to mid-February games in the north.

Maybe NFL should play entirely in the spring.

They dominate the Fall. Spring brings competition with March Madness, Masters, Kentucky Derby, Indy 500, etc.

The NFL isn't moving their season. Period.

[rlb2024]

Minor league baseball won't change because of player movement between the teams (especially AAA) and the parent teams during the Major League season.  I did like it better when the minor league seasons ended at Labor Day and the MLB rosters expanded to 40 players in September so that some of the more promising minor-leaguers got a taste of the big leagues at the end of the season.

[Bruce]

August: (Summer Olympics, Men's World Cup, Women's World Cup)

Not ideal for a number of reasons, namely the European season starting around that time and the risk of weather disruptions is higher than in July.

Acknowledging that my list was American-centric, but looking back at recent Olympics and World Cup it appeared they start the last week of July and go into mid-August, so it was just a shift of one week.

The last few have been different than normal, due to a variety of factors (hosting in the Southern Hemisphere + pandemic). Normally, the World Cup begins in June and ends in July; this is the general timeframe for the 2026 event in North America.

[Poiponen13]

August: (Summer Olympics, Men's World Cup, Women's World Cup)

Not ideal for a number of reasons, namely the European season starting around that time and the risk of weather disruptions is higher than in July.

Acknowledging that my list was American-centric, but looking back at recent Olympics and World Cup it appeared they start the last week of July and go into mid-August, so it was just a shift of one week.

The last few have been different than normal, due to a variety of factors (hosting in the Southern Hemisphere + pandemic). Normally, the World Cup begins in June and ends in July; this is the general timeframe for the 2026 event in North America.

This year has Women's World Cup. It used to start in June and end in July like men's, but this year changed the schedule. If men's event is held in Southern Hemisphere, it is held in June-July (local winter), as happened in 1930, 1950, 1962, 1978, 2010 and 2014.

[mgk920]

August: (Summer Olympics, Men's World Cup, Women's World Cup)

Not ideal for a number of reasons, namely the European season starting around that time and the risk of weather disruptions is higher than in July.

Acknowledging that my list was American-centric, but looking back at recent Olympics and World Cup it appeared they start the last week of July and go into mid-August, so it was just a shift of one week.

The last few have been different than normal, due to a variety of factors (hosting in the Southern Hemisphere + pandemic). Normally, the World Cup begins in June and ends in July; this is the general timeframe for the 2026 event in North America.

This year has Women's World Cup. It used to start in June and end in July like men's, but this year changed the schedule. If men's event is held in Southern Hemisphere, it is held in June-July (local winter), as happened in 1930, 1950, 1962, 1978, 2010 and 2014.

But in the area where it was played, the Pacific Ocean definitely has a moderating effect  on temperatures and 'local winters' are quite pleasant.

Mike

[Henry]

I'd stagger the big four playoffs so that there's one every three months. Adding in MLS, the major college sports and periodic worldwide events would give each year a playoff or major sporting event in nine of the twelve months:

January: NFL playoffs
February: (Winter Olympics)
March: College basketball tournaments
April: NHL playoffs
May:
June: College World Series
July: NBA playoffs
August: (Summer Olympics, Men's World Cup, Women's World Cup)
September:
October: MLB playoffs
November: MLS playoffs
December: College football bowl games

Here's what I'd do, including All-Star Games and championship contests:

January: NFL playoffs/NHL All-Star Game
February: (Winter Olympics)/NFL Pro Bowl and Super Bowl/NBA All-Star Game
March: College basketball tournaments
April: NHL playoffs
May: NBA Playoffs/Stanley Cup Finals
June: College World Series/NBA Finals
July: MLB and WNBA All-Star Games
August: (Summer Olympics, Men's World Cup, Women's World Cup)
September: WNBA Playoffs and Finals
October: MLB playoffs and World Series
November: MLS playoffs and MLS Cup
December: College football bowl games

[Poiponen13]

Minor professional football would be big deal. The regular season in most leagues would start in early May, run until mid-August, after which playoffs would start, and the championship games would be played in late September. There would also be promotion and relegation in these leagues.


CFL should start earlier, in early May rather than mid-June.

[Ted$8roadFan]

I've believed that the four major sports should begin their regular seasons in or around major holidays:

MLB: Memorial Day (or sometime from mid-May forward)
NFL: Labor Day
NHL: Halloween
NBA: Christmas

All four begin their seasons well before then, of course. But it makes no sense to begin baseball in late March or the NBA when baseball is in the midst of its playoffs and everyone is watching the NFL. Many fans (myself included) don't really pay attention to the Big 4 until the respective holidays.

[hotdogPi]

Moving everything later by two months wouldn't fix anything; it would just shift the months around.

"15 seconds" notice again, and as before, someone made a post in a completely different part of the forum under 15 seconds ago from when I tried.

[DTComposer]

Minor professional football would be big deal. The regular season in most leagues would start in early May, run until mid-August, after which playoffs would start, and the championship games would be played in late September. There would also be promotion and relegation in these leagues.

CFL should start earlier, in early May rather than mid-June.

As long as college football exists in its current form, there will never be a minor league for the NFL. Why bother, when you have a fully-formed minor league infrastructure in place that the NFL has no financial or legal responsibility for?

[Poiponen13]

Minor professional football would be big deal. The regular season in most leagues would start in early May, run until mid-August, after which playoffs would start, and the championship games would be played in late September. There would also be promotion and relegation in these leagues.

CFL should start earlier, in early May rather than mid-June.

As long as college football exists in its current form, there will never be a minor league for the NFL. Why bother, when you have a fully-formed minor league infrastructure in place that the NFL has no financial or legal responsibility for?

The "minor professional" leagues would be independent from NFL, like independent baseball leagues. No promotion and relegation would exist between them and NFL, but promotion and relegation would exist within minor leagues. Like in soccer, where some MLS expansion teams have been brought to MLS from USL, new NFL expansion teams would be brought from top level minor leagues, but it would not be automatic.

[Big John]

The NFL had a couple minor leagues - WLAF and NFL Europe.  They did not catch on and very few players in those leagues actually made an NFL roster later on.

[Poiponen13]

The NFL had a couple minor leagues - WLAF and NFL Europe.  They did not catch on and very few players in those leagues actually made an NFL roster later on.

But many players from top-level independent minor leagues would make to NFL.