The Professional Sports Calendar Needs a Change
The NFL Draft is usually the unofficial start of the upcoming NFL season, but the real games will take place in September-February. Football is the top sport in the United States, and the league just continues to be more and more popular.
The NFL Draft now takes place in April every year, and that’s also a time of year when there is plenty of action going on. The NBA and NHL are usually in the playoffs at that time, and the MLB season is just getting going.
Things really die off in June though and Major League Baseball will be the only sport that is played for months. This is a real problem, and it’s one that wouldn’t take much work or effort to fix.
Sports fans need more action during the summer months, and the league should work together to create a schedule that accommodates this. There are also some leagues that need to look at the number of regular season games, because they drag out too long.
Here are some ideas that each league should look at to improve the overall sports calendar.
NFL Is In Good Shape
The National Football League is one sport that does things pretty well in terms of the schedule, although adding a 17th game is a bit much. This league has “worried” about player safety, but then they go out and add an additional week.
One change that the NFL could eventually make is to start the season at the end of August and bring the Super Bowl back into January. Dragging the season out into the middle of February is not ideal, and it then forces the combine and the NFL Draft to be rushed.
The one thing that the NFL never needs to consider doing is adding an additional regular season game. 17 games is more than enough, and 16 games was actually a better option.
MLB Season is Long
The Major League Baseball season is 162 games long, and that’s simply too much. MLB recognizes that it has a pace of play issue, but it also loses fans because the season is simply too long.
It’s hard to say what a perfect number of games would be, but somewhere around 120 seems about right. The MLB season should start in May and run through the end of September. Playing games in April is simply ridiculous because the weather is not right for baseball.
On that same note, the league needs to figure out how to play the early season games in warmer climates. Send teams from cold weather cities down South or out West to begin the year, and it will be more enjoyable for everyone.
NBA Must Start Later
The biggest change that needs to be made comes from the NBA as that league is not playing games in the correct window at all. The COVID-19 pandemic actually worked in the favor of the NBA and the league should have kept that schedule moving forward.
Currently, NBA games start in October, and the regular season wraps up in April. The NBA Finals are set for June every year, but the league needs to push that back to either July or August.
The NBA could actually solve the issue that we currently have with MLB being the only sport being played in the Summer. Basketball games should begin on Christmas Day and that would push everything back at least two months.
NHL Needs Less Breaks
It’s hard to really argue with the current NHL schedule, except for the fact that the regular season and playoffs are simply too drawn out. No other league provides as many breaks for their teams, and you will see some NHL teams with a random 4-5 day window without any games at times.
If the NHL wants to continue playing 82 regular season games, they could easily shorten the regular season by about a month. It does feel a bit weird that the Stanley Cup Finals end in June as that is not a month that screams ice hockey.