The state of our democracy – The Official EFL Web Site

That poll I sent out the other day asking your opinions on stuff relating to the 2023 season schedule? Here are the results … and next to them, the decisions Dave and I came to during our Tower consultation:

1. On the first day of the week you need to have allocation changes in before the first MLB game starts. Which day works best for you to be the first day of the competition week? (8 responses)

50% said they didn’t care — or maybe they all improbably agreed Wednesday was the best day to start a week. 37.5% said Monday (pretty sure, since I said Monday), and 12.5% said Sunday.

The Tower Powers said: Monday. Of our 27 weeks, 16 will begin on Monday, 7 on Thursday, 2 on Wednesday, and 2 on Tuesday. The first six weeks will begin on Thursday, then we’ll slide gradually (1 day at a time) back to Monday, go for 7 weeks on Monday until the All – Star Game. That will make us start again on Thursday, then immediately slide a day per week until we’re back to Monday, and then we’ll have the final 9 weeks beginning on Monday. Three of us will be happy, 4 of us won’t care, 3 of us didn’t tell us their feelings, and one of you will never get a week starting on Sunday.

2. How important is it for our competition weeks to consistently end on the same day of the week, as much as possible? 8 responses

Well, it will help a lot to one of us — about 16 weeks of the season. I hope he didn’t need it to be every week. I also hope this isn’t the same guy who wanted the weeks to start on Sunday. The rest of us? Meh.

3. Last season we ended a week just before the All-Star break and started the next week right afterward. We could do that again, or we could have the All-Star break come in the middle of one our weeks. Which best expresses your feelings about these options? 8 responses

Our dissenter has some friends for sure on this question. And three of you will be happy: the All-Star break will come between weeks. You ambivalent souls didn’t get to dictate this one. But, I guess you didn’t want to anyway.

4. We have a choice between two approaches to our schedule:

A. A 27 “week” schedule wedged into MLB’s 26 weeks, like last year, with each “week” comprising 6 games, with some weeks spread over 6 days and others over 7, the start day migrating through the week at two different times of the season, and the All-Star game between weeks. Five of those weeks we’d all face MLB competition at the same time. Each team would also have 2 weeks of being the only EFL team facing MLB competition.

B. A schedule of 26 weeks, comprising 6 games the 20 weeks we face EFL teams but 7 games when we face MLB generic competition, all the weeks at least 7 days long (two would be 8 days long) with almost all the weeks prior to the All Star break ending on Thursday, and all the weeks after the AS break ending on Sunday. Four of the times we face MLB competition (counting for 7 games) we would all be doing it together, including both of the 8 day weeks. But each EFL team would twice be the only one facing MLB competition (for 7 games) in a week while everyone else would face other EFL teams for 6 games.

8 responses

No room for ambivalence on this one! You had to choose on or the other. So of course the majority vote loses. Now the blues have won two and the reds have won two. The reds have been consistently in the majority, but they’re only 2 – 2. It’s the Kangaroos facing the Pirates with a pennant on the line. Like Groundhog Day: over and over for all eternity. Or until you learn whatever lessons you need to learn.

So that concludes this week’s assessment of the state of EFL Democracy! The moral of the story: beware giving too much power to the Tower.