Steven Goff of <I>The Washington Post</i> <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider/2011/01/mls_commissioner_don_garber_di.html">reports</a> that MLS commissioner Don Garber is looking at creating a "Rivalry Week" for the Pacific Northwest teams of Vancouver, Seattle and Portland. Here's what Goff reported from a conversation with Garber after the draft:[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
<blockquote>The commissioner also said that the conference alignment and playoff format is close to being finalized. And to further intensify the Pacific Northwest rivalry between Seattle, Portland and Vancouver, Garber said MLS is strongly considering a week-long round robin between the clubs -- three regular season matches in a span of a week or so (Van vs. Sea, Sea vs. Port, Port vs. Van).</blockquote>
As Marc Weber <a href="http://communities.canada.com/theprovince/blogs/backofthenet/archive/2011/01/15/pacific-northwest-rivalry-week.aspx">points out</a>, it isn't stated whether this is for this year or future ones. It obviously would seem like a plan to try and boost the MLS TV ratings, and from that standpoint, it makes a lot of sense; the first broadcast would give them plenty of opportunities to plug the latter two, and fans of each of the Pacific Northwest clubs have enough interest in their rivals that they'd likely watch a rivalry game not involving their team.
However, the plan hasn't met with uniformly positive reviews. <a href="http://twitter.com/dfeuerstein">Daniel Feuerstein</a> has <a href="http://www.majorleaguesoccertalk.com/does-the-northwest-mls-rivalry-really-need-a-week-of-their-own/11405">a good piece</a> on the subject over at <i>MLS Talk</i>. Here's his key argument:
<blockquote>The only true way to showcase them to the rest of the country on how big and bad these matches are is to just show them on ESPN, FSC & Telefutura with no fanfare and to see what’s going to happen. To be honest MLS Commissioner Don Garber is trying to force something on us that doesn’t need to be forced at all.</blockquote>
I get where Daniel's coming from on this one, and there's also the hype standpoint to consider. As I wrote about <a href="http://www.canadiansoccernews.com/content.php?811-Whitecaps-%96-TFC-opener-is-an-odd-choice">the selection of Toronto FC as the Whitecaps' first opponent</a>, games against rivals like TFC, Seattle or Portland are going to draw much more attention in Vancouver (from both media and fans) than games against the likes of Kansas City or Colorado. Cramming three of those into a week will certainly make the Whitecaps a hot topic for that week, but spreading them out might produce more benefits; I'd imagine it's probably better for the club to be frequently talked about for three separate weeks rather than be talked about slightly more over just one week. That might play the same on a league-wide basis (three separate weeks of Northwest rivalry hype versus one), or it might not. From this standpoint, though, spreading out the rivalry dates would seem to make more sense.
[<b>Update:</b> Jeremiah Oshan of <i>Sounder at Heart</i> <a href="http://www.sounderatheart.com/2011/1/14/1935423/seattle-sounders-likely-to-host-three-day-preseason-cascadia-cup">reports</a> that the three Pacific Northwest teams are expected to play each other in a preseason, round-robin tournament at the <a href="http://www.starfiresports.com/">Starfire Sports Complex</a> in Tukwila, Washington. Unclear if that's connected to the "Rivalry Week" news or not.]
[<b>Update 2:</b> Weber <a href="http://communities.canada.com/theprovince/blogs/backofthenet/archive/2011/01/15/pacific-northwest-rivalry-week.aspx">reports</a> that Bob Lenarduzzi is saying the preseason/regular-season divide may have led to an erroneous report. Lenarduzzi said there have been no discussions about doing this during the regular season, and he doesn't appear to be a fan of the idea.]