Extending Sports Seasons

For about 10 years, every league has talked about adding length to their schedules. The NHL talked it over a bit, then a big strike in 2005 wiped out the season and the talk has been pretty low ever since.
The NBA has talked about changing their structure to reduce back to back games and put the sport into summer.
The MLB doesn't really have room to move their schedule in either direction. Spring training starts at the same time March Madness kicks off and the World Series is tightly scheduled against some of the best NFL games of the year. Not to mention their mid season is already in direct competition with the NBA and Stanley Cup Finals.

The NFL has talked about restructuring their schedule to allow more meaningful games, but not actually adding anything more to the schedule as a whole.


Here is why this is bad:
For the NBA and the NHL we can kill two birds with one stone: Both leagues run off of an 82 game schedule. 41 home, 41 away. I'm guessing this game schedule has something to do with making a profit off of arena's that can host a maximum of 22,000 patrons.
While many will say that more merchandise can be sold and a better profit stream will be made, I believe the schedule will make the games unbearable especially in the middle of the season. As it stands, the NHL comes out of the season opener with teams fired up to play their first 20 games. During that time it's pure nostalgia. Fans clamor to the arena to see a fast pace game with many of the stars billed on the roster. Injuries are not really a problem and no one is saving themselves for the end of the season.
Mid way through is a different story. Just about every team begins to back off and the best teams are no where near as good as they were at the start. The worst teams are just that much worse because they are playing awful. During the final 20 games, the pace picks up and the best teams get closer to where they started. The bottom teams completely drop off, and the mid tier teams make games interesting as they are fighting for a playoff spot. Then the playoffs start and it's the best 2 months in all of hockey.
The same is said for the NBA. I mean who want's to see slouching grade A teams playing in December knowing that the schedule puts them into a July finish? The other problem facing the NBA is the biggest college basketball playoff happens only 2 months before their final title game. People are already burned out a bit on basketball. Now throw in even more games.

The NFL on the other hand has what appears to be the shortest season of all the major sports. Unlike MLB which seams to last an eternity, the NFL schedule is so short yet the profit margin is so much larger. The biggest question besides player safety is with an extra two meaningful games, would their be a point in October or November when teams start to slouch? Would their be a point when sponsors would pull their money for a certain time because the NFL isn't feasible for profit purposes?


I don't know those answers but I can tell you this: Expanding either the NBA schedule or the NHL schedule would be a big mistake. College sports are making huge strides towards closing the revenue gap between professional and amateur. It's pretty amazing that the college football championship game can fill a stadium normally reserved for the likes of a Super Bowl. That's pretty big. Not to mention more people tune into March Madness than any other time in NBA finals.

So my point: Don't expand. Contract. Make things shorter.