Sports season changes

[MikeTheActuary]

I like to look historical soccer schedules from live score sites and I nearly always think when I look at soccer league: I wish US did same. I have made many fantasy soccer schedules on Google Sheets and thought if this were real (both past and future years). So I think that it is good to have recurring Friday or Monday game, or whole round at public holiday falling on weekday.

Neither Good Friday nor Easter Monday are federal or bank holidays in the US.   (Good Friday is a state holiday in a few states, but that doesn't mean much unless you work for the state government in those states.)

In the US, employers are generally not obliged to follow "official" holiday schedules.  While I wouldn't be surprised that some US employers give Good Friday off, I never had it as a work holiday until my present job...and that's only because I'm working on a Québec calendar (where I have my choice of either Good Friday or Easter Monday off; elsewhere in Canada I believe just Good Friday is a "statutory holiday").

Growing up I did, however, usually get a break from school that coincided with Easter weekend.

FWIW, both New England Revolution (MSL) and Hartford Athletic (USL Championship) played matches the Saturday of Easter Weekend.  Both teams normally play games on Saturday.

Easter isn't really a big enough holiday in the US to justify special treatment for sports schedules.

[Poiponen13]

I like to look historical soccer schedules from live score sites and I nearly always think when I look at soccer league: I wish US did same. I have made many fantasy soccer schedules on Google Sheets and thought if this were real (both past and future years). So I think that it is good to have recurring Friday or Monday game, or whole round at public holiday falling on weekday.

Neither Good Friday nor Easter Monday are federal or bank holidays in the US.   (Good Friday is a state holiday in a few states, but that doesn't mean much unless you work for the state government in those states.)

In the US, employers are generally not obliged to follow "official" holiday schedules.  While I wouldn't be surprised that some US employers give Good Friday off, I never had it as a work holiday until my present job...and that's only because I'm working on a Québec calendar (where I have my choice of either Good Friday or Easter Monday off; elsewhere in Canada I believe just Good Friday is a "statutory holiday").

Growing up I did, however, usually get a break from school that coincided with Easter weekend.

FWIW, both New England Revolution (MSL) and Hartford Athletic (USL Championship) played matches the Saturday of Easter Weekend.  Both teams normally play games on Saturday.

Easter isn't really a big enough holiday in the US to justify special treatment for sports schedules.

Good Friday and Easter Monday should be federal holidays in Canada. And maybe a new holiday called Gemerton's Day (I came up with this a couple of years ago). This day would be 157 days after Easter Sunday and next occurrence would be tomorrow. If Gemerton's Day became at least local holiday, it would have sporting events, as I think that every holiday should have sporting events.

[kphoger]

Good Friday and Easter Monday should be federal holidays in Canada. And maybe a new holiday called Gemerton's Day (I came up with this a couple of years ago). This day would be 157 days after Easter Sunday and next occurrence would be tomorrow. If Gemerton's Day became at least local holiday, it would have sporting events, as I think that every holiday should have sporting events.

Good grief, are you really down to saying that there should be sporting events on holidays that you're making up??

[Poiponen13]

Good Friday and Easter Monday should be federal holidays in Canada. And maybe a new holiday called Gemerton's Day (I came up with this a couple of years ago). This day would be 157 days after Easter Sunday and next occurrence would be tomorrow. If Gemerton's Day became at least local holiday, it would have sporting events, as I think that every holiday should have sporting events.

Good grief, are you really down to saying that there should be sporting events on holidays that you're making up??

Yes. I think that there should be moveable feast with date determined by date of Easter also in fall, like Pentecost, Ascension and Corpus Christi are in spring. Only every Sunday until mid-November have a designation "Xth Sunday after Pentecost", like previous Sunday was 15th (I have nicknamed this Ambition Sunday). The Gemerton's Day would be August 26 at the earliest and September 29 at the latest. Other similar fall feasts and holidays would also be good.

[1995hoo]

Well, there are two moveable observances in fall that I can think of, but they're about as purely religious as I can imagine. One of them is this coming weekend. But one issue with trying to use those as holidays in the USA would be that there would be major blowback against trying to use Jewish holy days as the basis for civic holidays. Otherwise, though, what would be the basis for establishing a moveable fall holiday based on the date of Easter? There is no religious observance that does that.

We already have moveable holidays in both September and October (Labor Day and Columbus Day, respectively; they fall on the first Monday of September and the second Monday of October) that are not religious in nature. Columbus Day is widely ignored by the private sector, though.

[MikeTheActuary]

Good Friday and Easter Monday should be federal holidays in Canada.

In Canada federal holidays have little relevance outside the federal government, those that contract directly with the federal government, and those in certain federally-regulated industries.

For most workers in Canada, provincial statutory holidays ("stat holidays") are the ones that are relevant.

[hotdogPi]

Good Friday and Easter Monday should be federal holidays in Canada. And maybe a new holiday called Gemerton's Day (I came up with this a couple of years ago). This day would be 157 days after Easter Sunday and next occurrence would be tomorrow. If Gemerton's Day became at least local holiday, it would have sporting events, as I think that every holiday should have sporting events.

Exactly 157 days?

This thread became a 157 mph Category 5 Shitshow.

While we're on the topic of hurricanes, the category division wind speed thresholds are laughable. You go from 75 to 95 mph winds, the same category, but going from 110 to 130 mph winds is a two category difference. And where the hell did they get 157 from?

MMM. Very disappointed in you. I literally lobbed this one to you and you completely whiffed at what I, and the NWS, did there.

[Poiponen13]

Good Friday and Easter Monday should be federal holidays in Canada. And maybe a new holiday called Gemerton's Day (I came up with this a couple of years ago). This day would be 157 days after Easter Sunday and next occurrence would be tomorrow. If Gemerton's Day became at least local holiday, it would have sporting events, as I think that every holiday should have sporting events.

Exactly 157 days?

This thread became a 157 mph Category 5 Shitshow.

While we're on the topic of hurricanes, the category division wind speed thresholds are laughable. You go from 75 to 95 mph winds, the same category, but going from 110 to 130 mph winds is a two category difference. And where the hell did they get 157 from?

MMM. Very disappointed in you. I literally lobbed this one to you and you completely whiffed at what I, and the NWS, did there.

I counted this in my calculator.

[Bruce]

MLS specifically schedules some games on the Fourth of July; Colorado traditionally hosts one and does a fireworks show afterwards. The league could also try and claim Thanksgiving/Black Friday for a playoff round if they so desired. Their first-ever Thanksgiving game in 2021 drew 1.9 million viewers, which was more than any MLS match since 2004.

[1995hoo]

There is also some level of traditional scheduling in the other leagues. Aside from what you've mentioned, and the already-mentioned NFL Thanksgiving games in Dallas and Detroit, the Nationals host a home game on July 4 at 11:05 AM so that (barring extra innings) it's over well in advance of the downtown events that night. The Red Sox host a home game the morning of the Boston Marathon (which is a state holiday there) so that the game will let out roughly around the time the runners pass Fenway Park. The Capitals traditionally play home games the night before and the day after Thanksgiving and early in the afternoon on Super Bowl Sunday.

But one point that has been made in this thread that Poiponen probably doesn't understand is that no state is required to follow the federal holiday calendar, and no private business is required to follow either one. About 20 years ago, the Capitals scheduled afternoon home games on Columbus Day and Veterans Day. They more or less assumed everyone had the day off because DC is dominated by federal government workers. They quickly learned otherwise due to massive negative pushback from the large part of the fan base that didn't work for the government. They've never repeated that mistake. That sort of thing is one reason why a glib "every holiday should have sports" is an absurd oversimplification. It doesn't do the league or the teams much good to schedule a game if people can't attend or watch. (To be sure, Thanksgiving and Christmas are pretty universal, and July 4 is close to universal except for retail.)

[Poiponen13]

Columbus Day should be celebrated as "Native Americans Day" and games on that day (e.g. NFL) could feature some Native American themed.

[Big John]

Columbus Day should be celebrated as "Native Americans Day" and games on that day (e.g. NFL) could feature some Native American themed.

Several states now use the term Indigenous Peoples' Day.

[kphoger]

... could feature some Native American themed.

This could end up being worse that expected...

[1995hoo]

NFL games on Columbus Day featuring Washington wearing Redskins-themed throwbacks!!!!!!!

(The name of the federal holiday is Columbus Day.)

[Scott5114]

So I think that it is good to have recurring Friday or Monday game, or whole round at public holiday falling on weekday.

It's not. It's bad. Real real bad.

[Scott5114]

Columbus Day should be celebrated as "Native Americans Day" and games on that day (e.g. NFL) could feature some Native American themed.

Several states now use the term Indigenous Peoples' Day.

And some tribes have their own holiday that supersedes Columbus Day. In the Chickasaw Nation, for instance, it's Piomingo Day.

[NWI_Irish96]

Talking about making changes to sports schedules is fun, but realize that every sports league has people who study attendance and TV patterns for a living, and leagues make their schedules accordingly. If a particular sport doesn't play on a particular day when you think they should, they have a good reason why they don't. Nothing is arbitrary.

Golf rearranged their entire calendar based on getting their top events away from football weekends.

[1995hoo]

Talking about making changes to sports schedules is fun, but realize that every sports league has people who study attendance and TV patterns for a living, and leagues make their schedules accordingly. If a particular sport doesn't play on a particular day when you think they should, they have a good reason why they don't. Nothing is arbitrary.

Golf rearranged their entire calendar based on getting their top events away from football weekends.

Indeed. For many, many years the NFL avoided playing on Christmas Day after the problem that occurred in 1971 with the Dolphins—Chiefs playoff game on Christmas. It's still the longest game in NFL history–it ended 7:40 into the second overtime. That year was the first time the NFL had scheduled games on Christmas, and they got so much criticism for it, especially as a result of the length of the Dolphin game, that they didn't schedule any other games on Christmas until 1989, and the significant change that had occurred by then was that playoff games could no longer fall on Christmas due to the regular season being longer than it was in 1971.

NASCAR avoided racing on Mother's Day for a long time because they found attendance and viewership both suffered.

[kphoger]

Talking about making changes to sports schedules is fun, but realize that every sports league has people who study attendance and TV patterns for a living, and leagues make their schedules accordingly. If a particular sport doesn't play on a particular day when you think they should, they have a good reason why they don't. Nothing is arbitrary.

It's OK.  In my estimation, Poiponen13-du-Ha!-Ha! has already reached troll status.

[Bruce]

... could feature some Native American themed.

This could end up being worse that expected...

If it's done with consultation with the tribes, it can be good.

The Mariners recently hosted a Native American Night with the Muckleshoot Tribe that included a custom jersey that incorporated traditional art and an on-field blessing ceremony. Also a bunch of Mariners baseball camps for the tribe's youth.

The Spokane Indians partnered with the Spokane Tribe instead of changing their name, and now feature a lot of tribal artwork in the stadium and on jerseys, which are even written in the Salish language.

[kphoger]

... could feature some Native American themed.

This could end up being worse that expected...

If it's done with consultation with the tribes, it can be good.

Yes.  I was imagining that not being the case.

The Mariners recently hosted a Native American Night with the Muckleshoot Tribe that included a custom jersey that incorporated traditional art and an on-field blessing ceremony. Also a bunch of Mariners baseball camps for the tribe's youth.

The Spokane Indians partnered with the Spokane Tribe instead of changing their name, and now feature a lot of tribal artwork in the stadium and on jerseys, which are even written in the Salish language.

Both of those cases sound awesome.

[GaryV]

Talking about making changes to sports schedules is fun, but realize that every sports league has people who study attendance and TV patterns for a living, and leagues make their schedules accordingly. If a particular sport doesn't play on a particular day when you think they should, they have a good reason why they don't. Nothing is arbitrary.

It's OK.  In my estimation, Poiponen13-du-Ha!-Ha! has already reached troll status.

But when you're bored, it's fun to pick apart his posts.

[kphoger]

But when you're bored, it's fun to pick apart his posts.

i know right 

[kphoger]

Replays should be abolished–at least for proper rounds.  However, FA Trophy replays should be brought back.

Falkland Islands and Pitcairn should enter the FA Cup.  France lets overseas clubs to enter, yet England doesn't. England should also let them do so.

And, lastly, FA Cup quarter-finals could have a Friday game.

[Poiponen13]

Replays should be abolished–at least for proper rounds.  However, FA Trophy replays should be brought back.

Falkland Islands and Pitcairn should enter the FA Cup.  France lets overseas clubs to enter, yet England doesn't. England should also let them do so.

And, lastly, FA Cup quarter-finals could have a Friday game.

Have you collected this from nonleaguematters.co.uk forum, where I am in same username as here?