USA Today Article about schedule length spurs further thought on my part:

I don't understand the obsession with 162 , or 154, or any other number.

Reducing ANY amount of home games reduces revenue for everyone. Unless of course they can charge more at the gate, concessions and parking. But what about the TV contracts ? Is there language in those contracts that makes it possible for the cable companies to replace the lost revenue for lost games ?

One possible solution:

Use this as an opportunity to play a more balanced schedule, thereby leveling the playing field further.

Example
8 games x 14 teams in own league = 112 Games
3 games x 15 teams in other lge. = 45 Games *

Total 157 game season.

*Alternate each year who is the home team for the interleague games. So one year you have 7 home, 8 away, and the next year 8 home, 7 away for those 3 game sets. So in alternate years you have 3 fewer home dates and 3 more home dates. It all evens out, and competitively, the 3 extra home or away in a season will have far less negative impact on competitive balance than the positive impact of a balanced schedule.

The extra 5 games will allow for one extra day off per month, which might be just enough for the players to recover better. At the same time, 5 less games is a little more manageable from a revenue perspective than 8.


No divisions:

Top 3 teams in each league are "in", and have home field based on seeding.

Still keep the 2 WC playing the play in game between teams with 4th and 5th best record.

In addition to the home team advantage, the team earning the best record in each league gets a wrinkle of an advantage for the playoffs, (but not world series): THEY GET ONE EXTRA ROSTER SPOT FOR THE ENTIRETY OF THE PLAYOFFS.


That , plus home field advantage is a REAL advantage that makes it worth gunning for the top overall seed. Teams won't want to give that up.

OK, fire away......what are major drawbacks to this idea ?

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Good depth often has to come from within, in the form of younger talent. Depth is hard to build overnight, but it’s easy to deplete. Jeff Sullivan

No drawbacks but a couple of notes.

I think you are going to see expansion add 2 more teams sooner rather than later. Also the amount the owners are going to get from the expansion fees this time are going to be so far thru the roof the owners losses on less games will be a drop in the bucket of cash.

Also for the local TV deals they can just add the games they don't telecast (example the first game of the last Mets series) to make up for the games they miss in the schedule. Game totals broadcast remains the same no need to change the $$.

They lose some gate and concession monies but not as important to the owners as TV money.

End hell the owners are making a bundle now from spring training they can add some of those games to the broadcast schedule too.

I like it. Sometimes less is more.

Your proposal, shoe, is like the "flat tax" proposition: it makes too much sense, and, therefore, has no chance of coming into being.

Shadow, while most of us, I'm sure, will agree that sometimes less is more, does anyone really think that the owners have anything other than a "more is more" mentality?

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Meet the new FO... Same as the old FO. The bag may be permanent.

Why not just cut a little off spring training and start the season earlier? After that, normalize the routine; giving everyone a set schedule. I think everyone involved could really benefit from having a set day off every week.

Opening day is the last Friday in March
Play two 3-game series (Fri-Wed) and take Thursday off.
The ASB is the first weekend in July that occurs after the 4th of July.
After the ASB, games go Tuesday-Sunday and everyone gets Monday off.

This is how the 2015 season would set up:
Opening day: 3/27 vs. actual opening day of 4/5
ASB 7/9-7/13 (actual was 7/13-7/16)
Closing day: 10/4 (same as actual)

Currently they play 162 games in 183 days (21 days off). This gives them 192 days to play 162 games (30 days off)

Weather in Northern cities a problem there. (As it is with World Series ending so late in October too.)

_________________
Good depth often has to come from within, in the form of younger talent. Depth is hard to build overnight, but it’s easy to deplete. Jeff Sullivan

Great points, however a 32 Team configuration shuts down my balanced schedule idea.

16 x 3 = 48
15 x 8 = 120
168 games, wrong direction

16 x x = 32
15 x 8 = 120
152 Games....probably TOO big a cut in games

You could go

(16 X 3) + (15 x 7) and come up with 153 Games.

So none of that is going to work, most likley.

If they do go to 32 team league, I hope they re configure into 4 division of 8 teams each. Of course they won't have balanced schedule though.

My guess is they would go the opposite direction and you see a more heavily unbalanced schedule that looks something like this

7 x 12 = 96 ( within own division)
8 x 6 = 48 (Other division within league)
8 x 2 = 16 ( you play one division in the other league each year, alternate to other division the next year)

Total 160 Games

_________________
Good depth often has to come from within, in the form of younger talent. Depth is hard to build overnight, but it’s easy to deplete. Jeff Sullivan

Why not just eliminate the inter division, all it does is create uneven competition within each year.
They could use a weekend for subway series type exhibition games between close rivals where it made sense, leave it up to the teams to decide if they want to do it.

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There's no success like failure
And failure's no success at all

From Todays Boston Globe

Don’t expect a reduction in the schedule from 162 games to 154. Commissioner Rob Manfred said a shortened schedule would create “a major, major economic issue. We sell out in a lot of markets at the gates and the gates are really valuable to us. We have television commitments. The local contract varies but there are game guarantees, which could be affected. If you were going to try to do something in that area, usually when you have a huge economic issue where you are giving up revenue you’ve got to figure out something that is offsetting in the other direction, and the one obvious possibility is you make a change in playoff format. If you shortened the season there’d be pressure to look at the postseason, as well.”

One problem would be a howl about reduction in divisional rivalry games. Dodgers-Giants, Yankees-Red Sox, Cubs-Cardinals most notably. Historically, they played 22 games each year, and now it's back up to 18. And I have greatly enjoyed watching the Dbacks on local TV here, and having Scully call the games when we play the Dodgers.
* * * * *
The Midwest League uses a schedule much like what Shoe proposes. The Cougars play the teams in the other division (South Bend, Fort Wayne, W.Michigan etc.) one series each year alternating home and home.
The majority of games are played intra-division. So the Cougars will play three games with South Bend THERE Aug 4-5-6. They will play Peoria 6 times at home, and 7 on the road.
* * * * *
In the old Pacific Coast League, Seattle and Portland would always begin the season in California where the other 6 teams were and had better weather. In MLB, there is a higher percentage of northern cities and I think they would be P.O.ed if they had to open on the road EVERY YEAR in California and Florida.
* * * * * *
Seattle, Toronto, Milwaukee have enclosed stadiums. Minnesota, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Cleveland, Boston, New York, Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati do not. Fenway and Wrigley, with a roof, is inconceivable, but when new parks were built in these other cities, a roof was not included. If enough of them had the retractable roof, you could start the season in early March.

Good point on rivalries DS

_________________
Good depth often has to come from within, in the form of younger talent. Depth is hard to build overnight, but it’s easy to deplete. Jeff Sullivan

What about re-seeding?

If the playoffs started today Pittsburgh with the 2nd best record in the NL and the 3rd best record in baseball is in a one game playoff.

I could care less about it this year because anything that makes things easier for the $METS$ is ok with me.

But it really does not seem right.

I'm ok with that, it's all about the divisions.